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News Pages - Year 2009 |
Millmerran 2009 – Our Camp, Community
and Shooting.
(nb: abbreviation of club names index
- at the end of this article)
Once again the muzzle loading shooters
of Qld hosted the 9th Open Rendezvous at the SSAA range near
Captains Mountain outside Millmerran.
The event held every two years is the
high point of rendezvous style muzzle loading in Australia. This year’s event
attracted about 120 shooters with around 300 in camp.
I set out from Melbourne with my two
mates Barry Macfarlane and John Giotopoulous (the three amigos) with
considerable excitement. My wife Debra and Barry’s wife Maree were flying up to
join us on the Saturday, we were to set the camp ready for them. Debra had been
once before about 10 years ago, however this was the first time for Maree and
John.
Our excitement was almost crushed when
I hit a kangaroo just outside of Coonabarabran and the three amigos were left
waiting in the freezing night for several hours for a tow to pick them and the
van up. Fortunately John being a motor mechanic we were able to get on our way
quickly the next afternoon after a 400km round trip to pick up a new radiator,
but then only just arriving at camp moments before our wives.
Many shooters arrived early in the
week and set up their camps ready for the main events. The primitive style
campers need a bit of time to arrange their camps to the style they have chosen
to represent.
Our camp was fantastic sharing the
area with Gordon and Helen Ancona, Barry & Maree Macfarlane and John
Giotopoulous, across the way in a more primitive area was Dawn & Ron Evans
and Bob Ellis with Ian Convey. Observe the difference in accommodation!!! The
Gur was the headquarters of the felting and hat making classes run by Vivien
Young of Orbost, Victoria.
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We quickly settled into our routines and
Debra began the task of trying to conquer the heat control when baking bread in
the camp ovens and Gordo was organising an electric tree plug for Maree’s hair
dryer (he never did get it finished). We suffered through a number of
over-cooked loaves of bread from Debra until she finally got it right. John
soon became dubbed our Greek God after he fixed my van, fixed my gun, fetched
water, made our camp, made Debra an apron, heaps of other things but finally
when he fixed Helen’s zip it was decided he was just too good and could do no
wrong. It was a short jump from being our Greek God to Adonis.
The first event was cannon and mortar
shooting on Saturday and whilst not strictly muzzle loading a long range
cartridge event was held on Sunday July 4th.
The cannon shoot was fiercely contested in two classes – demi cannon up
to .75 calibre out to 100 metres with the larger cannons shooting out to 200
metres. The target was a “fortress” with the aim being to put shots through the
windows and doors for maximum score. The windows carried the highest score, but
a miss on the window only scored 1 instead of 5, whereas the door carried a
score of 2. Teams who backed themselves to shoot the windows (Barry & I for
one) were ultimately beaten by teams shooting at the door accumulating more
points. There was also a Cohorn Mortar shoot where teams were attempting to hit
a target by lobbing their projectile from a near vertical trajectory with
varying degrees of success. Below are some photos from the cannon event and our
little.75 calibre ships cannon beauty in action.
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The Sunday long range event was mostly
shot with cartridge rifles with a 5 at 200 event where the aim was to shoot the
smallest 5 shot group after unlimited sighter’s. This event is widely shot in
the US and Europe where sub MOA groups are very common, unfortunately nobody
here seems to be able to get near the MOA however the event was won by Neil
Fluerty of Fraser Coast.
The next event a walk back buffalo
shoot starting at 100 metres with varying targets right back to 600 metres.
Some brave souls continued to attempt to shoot the big buffalo in the afternoon
from 1000 to 1300 metres. Not too many hits at this longer range as very few
had sight settings for the longer distances.
The rendezvous started in earnest on
Monday with events where various clubs conducted novelty shoots for anyone wishing
to participate. The events were a lot of fun and there is serious competition
between clubs to see who can conceive the most devious targets. These events
continued through to Tuesday evening.
Tuesday also heralded the camp oven
cooking competitions and there were some extraordinary entries, from damper and
breads, to cottage pies and rack of lamb and to follow on with cakes and Danish
pastries all cooked either in the camp oven or on the camp fire. Debra won the
bread making section and was very thrilled to have done so.
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Some of the entries in the cooking
competition note Debra’s bread on the right! |
Our camp cooking judges – Helen
Ancona, Wayne (Ripley Rangers) and Maree Macfarlane. |
Jan Robinson, Debra (receiving her
prize) and Don Robinson at presentation night |
On Wednesday morning there were pistol
events following by the annual street parade through the town of Millmerran.
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Gladstone pistol shooter watched by
Lily Carre also from ESSA, all dressed traditionally. |
Dawn Evans of Ripley, watched by
Bob, Barry and other spectator |
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We once again gathered at the
outskirts of the township of Millmerran and were escorted by Scottish pipers (and
flanked by police) up the main street and into the town square. The Town Crier
and Lord Major of Toowoomba welcomed the Rendezvous attendees and ignited the
initial cannon shot to open the occasion and oversaw the volley fire
thereafter.
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Mick Taylor and Bob Doran both
members of BRML at Wodonga in front of the Millmerran Tepee |
Beginnings of the march into town
with the Ripley Rangers in the lead |
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Toowoomba’s Lord Mayor welcomes
attendees in the main street of Millmerran |
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Where else can you have cannon fire
and volley fire in the street of a town in Australia, or for that matter walk into
a bank or the pub with a gun in your hand and not be challenged? The town
really supports this event. For the uninitiated, compressed tissue paper was
used in place of ball for firing.
Our evenings saw many people visiting
us and spending time around our magnificent campfire, a particular highlight
was when Bob Doran, Dwayne from Wagga, Mick Taylor with the “Agitator” (Micks
son Alastair) and Ian Convey came and kept us in fits of laughter until bed
time on many nights.
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On Thursday and Friday the rendezvous
events started with 5 main events for anyone who wished to participate, musket
gongs, rifle gongs, the notorious key hole shoot, pop up turkeys and the flying
fox (in place of the running pig this year). Musket Gongs is for smooth bore
muskets mostly flintlocks, rifle gongs start with a 30cm disk then 15cm,
followed by 10cm and 5cm and finally 2.5cm steel rod hanging on a chain. I came
second in the rifle gong in the shoot off, being beaten by a whipper-snapper of
about 19 years old who could probably see a lot better than I can!!
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The keyhole shoot requires the shooter
to hit a flapper through a 32mm hole in a steel plate. After a few shots the
steel plate turns a dull lead colour grey and the contrast to see the hole at all
is extremely difficult making it hard to hit the flapper. Very few shooters hit
the flapper at all from 10 shots and the final shoot off was between those that
had hit the flapper 5 times.
Pop up turkeys, the shooter walks into
a gate with a gun at arms length and one of two turkeys head will pop up from
behind a log for a 5 second exposure, shoot quick or you don’t get it. They are
quite easy to miss, particularly if the light is wrong. This event was won by
Barry Macfarlane of SBPC.
The Flying Fox is a fox shape target
that runs on a wire that runs through a 10 metre gap, most shooters are unable
to acquire the target and shoot at it until the last 2 or 3 metres. This event
was won by the Whipper-Snapper from Gladstone after a shoot-off with Bob Ellis
from SBPC.
Throughout the week two volunteers
conducted the Seneca Run in medium density scrubby timbered area between the
200 and 400 metre ranges. For safety reasons all shooting was arranged from
known firing points in a southerly direction towards the danger area of the
range complex. The scenario was looking for two lost trappers and you had to
hunt for meat and fur on your way otherwise if you didn’t get any meat you
would starve. As the forested area was more or less trackless the organisers
put numbers on the trees and the contestants had to walk between the numbers
keeping an eye out for hostile Indians, checking for traps and game. Part of the game was choosing team names,
Gordo and Ronny chose Dumb & Dumber (we are still trying to figure which
was which), Barry and I partnered but no alias for us (we couldn’t agree on a
name) for the event however the highlight from the Seymour point of view was
the pairing of Johnny Gio and Dawn from Ripley (Qld), dubbed Adonis and
Aphrodite as they won the mixed teams event and Adonis is still beaming and
proudly showing off his awards at the Seymour camp - even though Aphrodite, who
had won the event before, probably coached him throughout.
The Saturday saw shoot-offs for the
rendezvous events and the Knife and Hawk and the Fire Lighting events, there
were a lot of entries and the winner was decided outright in each case.
Interesting is the different styles you see when watching the throwing actions
of the contestants. Below you will see three different knife throwers in action
and all were successful at hitting their targets.
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Barry Macfarlane – SBPC, WDML throwing the knife in competition |
Throughout the event Forbes Wholesale
hosted Happy Hour to raise funds for the organisers of the rendezvous to assist
with their costs of catering for the Saturday dance in particular. Each night
from 5 to 7pm campers would meet for quiet ale and chat before setting back to
their own camps for evening meals and entertainment. We managed to raise $260
in that short period and we understand that it will be used for the 10th Open
Rendezvous to assist with costs as this year had been fully accounted for with
no time to change any pre existing arrangements.
And finally - the dance and
presentations. Many couples spent a lot of time dressing up for the event and
it really adds enormously to the atmosphere. There was a Bush Band who played
beautifully and patiently guided the uninitiated to bush dancing into the
rhythm and style. It was a great night which ended far too early. Nobody
noticed the cold and just had the best time.
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Prpeared for the dance - Ron, Debra,
Adonis, Dawn, Gordo & Helen |
Ron, Dawn, Pascal, Lily, Gordo,
Helen, Dallas Fluerty and Nicole (F-Troop) |
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So the Rendezvous came to an end and
we packed up our camps and headed home. It really was a fantastic time. The
organisers are to be congratulated. I am sure they would have had hassles and hiccups
behind the scenes, but we as participants never saw or noticed any of that, the
whole event ran just so smoothly and beautifully.
A very big big thank you
to Don and Jan Robinson and their children and their team of workers
who did everything humanly
possible to make the event the huge success it was.
Participating clubs
represented in these photos
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Abbrev |
Club Name |
Location |
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BBPC |
Belmont
Black Powder Club |
Belmont,
Qld |
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BRML |
Black
Range Muzzle Loaders |
Wodonga,
Vic |
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ESSA |
Early
Settlers Shooting Association |
Gladstone,
Qld |
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F-Troop |
Fraser
Coast Muzzle Loaders |
Maryborough,
Qld |
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NEML |
North
Eastern Muzzle Loaders Inc |
Taminick,
Vic |
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Ripley |
Ripley
Rangers |
Ipswich,
Qld |
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SBPC |
Seymour
Black Powder Club Inc |
Nagambie,
Vic |
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SCFT |
Southern
Cross Free Trappers |
Mudgegonga,
Vic |
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TW |
Taree-Wingham
Black Powder Club |
Taree,
NSW |
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WDML |
Western
Districts Muzzle Loaders |
Simpson,
Vic |