Eden shooters were among the eager field of 28 for the Bega Gun Club’s march shoot.
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Organisers said shooters were relishing the “clearish” skies after the rain.
However, some members said the clay targets proved tricky against the dull backdrop.
“Old eyes may have found the grey clouds disturbing when the clays suddenly disappeared,” a club spokesperson said.
“But it wasn’t raining!”
The program consisted of three events, a 25 target single barrel, 25 continental and, the highlight, a 50 target ball trap.
In the single barrel, three possibles were collected with Phil Green and Ray Welch in AA grade and John Walker in B grade being lucky.
Welch and Green held a brief shootoff to decide the winner with Phil scoring 31/31 to win, while Welch settled for runner-up on 30/31.
In A Grade, John Siede shot 24/25 to collect the winner’s prize from James Body on 20/25 in second. John Walker confused himself and everyone else with a 25/25 for first in B Grade, with Robert Taylor winning second place from Mario Magrin with a score of 25/26
The 25 target Continental saw Phil Green and Phil Body shoot of for first after both shot possibles in the main event. After a further 25 targets, they decided to share first to sort out AA Grade. Once again in A Grade, the vet kept the junior under control with John Siede shooting 23/25 to James Body’s 21/25. B Grade went to the consistent Dick McInnes with a score of 24/25, closely followed by Mario Magrin on 23/25. Promising junior, Grace Gschwend shot 22/25 to win C Grade, with Mick Diss collecting 20/25 for second place.
The fifty target Ball trap definitely sped up the post daylight saving bodies, with “behind it “ being a common reaction to a missed target. Speed didn’t seem to affect the A Graders too much with Phil Green nailing 43/50 to win from Ray Welch on 42/50. B Grade went to a shoot off between John Siede, Shane Platts and Brian Smith. Brian dropped out after four extra targets, with Shane and John taking another two to sort it all out. John Siede collected his third win for the day, 41/56, to Shane’s 40/56. In C Grade, Dick McInnes was successful with a score of 37/50, from John Walker on 36/50.
High gun for the day went to Phil Green with a score of 93/100.
Phil Craig graciously settled for the meat tray in the raffle, despite all the great advice he was getting from the spectators as he attempted to shoot all five targets off 25metres.
The club’s next meet sees the second round of the Fimac Engineering Handicap Shield.
There will be a 25 target double barrel and 50 target pointscore.
With three shooters scoring possible in the first round, the pressure will certainly be on.