Current Club: Nowra Rifle Club (460 Members)
When did you first join a club and start shooting? Club/Year: Mudgee Rifle Club. I commenced shooting on 23 Dec 1963 using a 1918 No1 .303 rifle, a rifle that my father used during his shooting career and maybe the one that earned him a win in September 1932.
The following day at the 1963 Christmas Shoot I won my first trophy (a frozen chook) placing a shot four and a quarter inches from the centre of a ‘cut out rooster’ held up on a stick at 600 yds. Having won a trophy, I was hooked on competitive shooting for life.
My first Queens Shoot was the final Queens held at Liverpool Anzac Range 1967. From memory there were 1000 competitors.
I joined Mosman Neutral Bay Rifle Club on 25th Jan 1969 at Anzac Range Malabar and I am a Life Member of the club. I retired to St Georges Basin in 2019 and joined the Nowra Rifle Club shooting on the Nowra Range which extends back to 800 metres.
How were you introduced to target rifle shooting? My Dad had been a member of Mudgee Rifle Club and he still had his rifle in the workshop which I used. Prior to that I did a lot of rabbit shooting. At the height of my rabbit shooting career, I was getting six shillings and sixpence a pair for rabbits at the Cudgegong Hotel Freezer. The hotel and the town are now under the Windermere Dam. I retired from rabbit shooting at the age of 16 in 1964.
What Disciplines were you shooting initially? I have always shot Target Rifle, both full-bore and smallbore. My earliest recollection of shooting with Mosman Neutral Bay Smallbore Club was in the Neutral Bay Primary School yard at night where portable targets and lights were set up. Shortly after I started shooting at Neutral Bay, we moved to a range in Manly Vale which we shared with Manly Smallbore Club.
What Disciplines do you currently shoot? Target Rifle/F Class/Hunter Class/Match Rifle In 2022 I took up the challenge of Match Rifle back to 1200 yds and occasionally 1500 yds, and enjoyed it immensely. We all know attention to detail is critical for successful shooting, however shooting at 1200 yards takes attention to detail to a whole new level. After two new telescopic sights (the first one was faulty), a new fast twist barrel and some heavy projectiles, within a few months I managed to shoot 75/75 at 1200 yds on two occasions. My wife Wendy was impressed when I was selected (in my first year of shooting Match Rifle) in the Australian Match Rifle Team for The Womera Match at Stawell 2022.
Do you shoot disciplines other than target rifle? For a time, I competed in 300 metre UIT shooting and represented Australia in the World Championships in Sweden in 1986. At Nowra Rifle Club it is possible to shoot any discipline you chose from muzzle loading black powder rifles, to pistols or shotguns. I have had a go at metal silhouette but target rifle keeps me busy enough.
What was your first rifle? For the first few years of my shooting, I used a 303.
What rifle(s) are you currently using? 308 Millennium manufactured in NZ.
What other rifle models have you used? Mauser, Omark, Maddco, Musgrave, Angel and No4 Conversion
How do you rate each from your experience using them? What rifle was your favourite? The Maddco was a great rifle but because it was so easy to use, i.e. to open and close the bolt, I gave it to my daughter Kerrie. The Omark was perfect for Snap and Rapid Service matches in the State Team. The No4 had an Enfield Envoy hammer forged barrel for use at the long ranges at Bisley and I used it to top score for Australia in the Empire Match. I have two Millennium barrelled actions which I use in the one Bill Heald stock.
What types of sights Front and Rear you have used over the years? I started with a Central sight in 1963 and have been using them ever since although I did change to quarter minute increments on the elevation adjustment. I started with a blade foresight, then used small rings and now use large rings with 0.5 dioptre magnification.
What Rifle Range did you begin shooting on? I learned to shoot on the Mudgee rifle range which was quite challenging and gave me a good grounding in wind reading.
What rifle ranges would you rate as the most interesting that you have competed on? Hard/Challenging/ Just Enjoyable: Trentham NZ was right up there followed by Pontville in TAS and Williamstown in VIC. All hard but readable, unfortunately like rifle ranges all over Australia only one of those three still exist.
Who were the inspirations in your early shooting career or the people you most admired in shooting? Ken Lee was captain of my club for a number of years and had a positive influence as a leader, motivator, and experienced shooter.
What was the best team (Club or Representative) you were involved with and why? My early NSW State Teams in the 1980s were stand out teams. It was hard to get selected and the competition was fierce. We had some good wins and we celebrated accordingly. The 1983 NSW State Team, made up of some very experienced shooters, travelled together by bus from Brighton Army Camp to Pontville Rifle Range. On the practice day the team members were joking and laughing and very relaxed, however on the day of the Matches you could have heard a pin drop all the way to the range.
What are your Personal Shooting Highlights? Club Championship, Competition Wins, Representative Teams? I won the Mosman Neutral Bay club championship in 1998-99 shooting 3 x 100 at each of the 6 ranges. I won the MDRA Champion of Champions 3 times.
At the time the club had 4 current Australian Team members and multiple Queens winners and it was harder to win the club championship than the champion of champions.
Winning the Grand Aggregate in Tasmania in 1991 was a highlight as it was a Commonwealth Year meaning state teams from every state were present. I have won 5 Grand Aggregates and picked up 45 Grand Badges.
Coming 2nd in the Queens 5 times is not really a highlight without a first place to go with it, but it keeps me coming back. I recall well shooting off for the 1983 QRA Queens being pipped by Jim Riley ( Jim 43/455VV = 24.2 & me 43/4555V = 24.1). To date I have won 105 Kings/Queens Badges.
Other things that give me a buzz are top scoring in Australian Teams, and coaching winning Merrett Teams.
Any particularly special shooting feats by others that you have witnessed? I think you would have to rate the win by the Australian Team in the Palma Match in South Africa in 2024 as something special and a magnificent team effort.
Who were the best wind coaches that you shot under and why? Reg Rowlands – Apart from his wind reading ability, he had the ability to relate to his shooters with his laid-back style, you would get on a roll and he would say “hit it again”.
What has kept you involved in shooting, what aspects do you particularly enjoy? I love team shooting, and the challenge of competition, and the elation of successfully handling the pressure. You will never find a better bunch of people anywhere in the world than the shooters I have known both in Australia and internationally.
Have you been involved in the Administration of Shooting? DRA/State/National? Yes, only at club level. When electronic targets were first introduced, I was very active in maintenance and repairs. Members of various clubs would give me cables to repair.
Any other shooting experiences? GPS shooting in NSW had the first recorded competition in 1870, however the first official competition was held in 1893. In 2003 I was invited to coach Shore School in preparation for the GPS Championship held at Hornsby Range. The team managed a second the first year and came first in each of the three years following. I quit while I was ahead (to shoot in Bisley) but the team also won the next year.
What were the earliest competitions you entered and how did you fare? In 1968 I won the Marrickville PM in C Grade and came 2nd in A Grade with 103/105(303). The following week I won the B Grade at Hornsby and have been in A Grade ever since. I estimate I have won 30 one-day aggregates including stages of the Queens. I won the ‘’City of Sydney Championships’’ in 1983, which was a 3-day competition with 550 entries. (all target rifle). On the second day it was a bit windy and my score of 143.13/150 was 3 points ahead of second place.
Have you competed Interstate or Internationally as an individual or part of a team? If so, give some details and outcomes for each. I represented NSW on 16 occasions between 1982 and 2012 comprised of:
- 11 NSW State Teams competing in the prestigious Merrett Match. (Baggy Blue No 368.)
- 3 State Teams competing against visiting international teams.
- 1 Team to NZ.
- 1 Team to Bisley.
I was member or the Australian Rifle Team 6 times, plus one NRAA team to Barbados.
In 1986 I shot in the 300 Metre World Championships in the Australian Shooting Team (UIT)
Bisley 2025 will be my second Australian Match Rifle Team.
I coached 2 winning Australian Veterans Teams in World Championships one in Brisbane 2011 and one in NZ 2019.
What Country Prize Meetings have you entered? Any favourites? In the 1970s and 80s a group of us would travel to every dog fight around NSW. The group included Andrew Powell, Tim Walter, Tony Moon, Rick and John Ashton, Mike Hobbs, Ian Griffiths and my brother David McGuigan. Invariable someone from our car load would win the shoot and the prize money would be enough to shout everyone in the car dinner on the way home.
I remember Tony Moon and I drove from Sydney to Canberra for a one-day shoot in 1975 and we came first and second. I won the Anzac Day Shoot in Sydney several times and that meant something special to me.
How do you think target shooting has changed in your time in the sport? In my time entries in Queens and Kings Competition have changed from more than 500 to less than 100. We used to buy the Sunday paper every week to read the shooting scores from all the clubs. John Brooker would read the scores through at the end of the days shooting. The only shooting news you get these days is another gangland hit. It would be a positive move if we could get all shooting sports and disciplines working together, both inside the NRAA and outside the NRAA.
Any other memorable anecdotes from your shooting career or about other shooters you would like to share? I coached Jack Buchanan to a 50 at 600 yds in a “Good Will Team” at Trentham NZ with the wind changing rapidly from 8 right to 2 left. After we finished Jack Bensley, our captain, asked why I kept Jack’s group at 3 o: clock. I thought it was funny.
I was shooting in a Palma Match in Bisley and had one shot to go at 900yds. The range officers made the call to stop shooting because we could no longer see the targets for the heavy rain. As I was standing behind my target, I overheard the range officers say “We need to get them back down as the 10 minutes is almost up and we will have to issue them all a sighter”, so we carried on in the rain without a sighter.
It is a plus to have a wife who understands shooting and is supportive. In May 1985 I took Wendy to the hospital in labour at 5am on the first day of the Sydney Queens. After chatting with the doctor, he said nothing is going to happen here for a while you could shoot the first range. My score book records: – 300m 49, Baby Boy 12:15pm, 500m 49, 600m 50. I won a Queens Badge.
