TOP GUN
Champion shot decided at Canberra shoot out

Watch and shoot ... Flight Lieutenant Newton Armstrong waits on the 500m mound for the targets to come up during 2003 Air Force Champion Shot competition. Photos by Paul Cross

2003 champion shot Flight Sergeant Dave Gay checks his score during the competition. FSGT Gay stole a march on the other other competitors on the final day’s shooting.

By Paul Cross

DRIVING rain punctuated by strong winds could not deter the Air Force’s best shooters from competition on Canberra’s MacIntosh Range recently when they took up arms to determine the champion shot for 2003.

At times laying in 3cm of water, the shooters fought it out to the last with Flight Sergeant Dave Gay from 114MCRU pulling away on the final day of competition to win convincingly. FSGT Gay is a previous winner of the competition, taking the trophy in 1999.

FSGT Gay finished the competition with an aggregate of 611, more than 40 points ahead of his closest rivals SGTs Wayne Sheppard on 569 and Bill Guthrie on 566.
Competition organiser and fourth-placed shooter Pilot Officer Jamie Purdon said this was the first time the competition had been run since 2000.

“The Champion Shot of the Air Force competition took more than a year to organise since it dropped of the events calendar,” he said.

“There was some outstanding shooting this year but unfortunately some of the shooters that should be here could not make it because of the short notice but we definitely had the top seven shots and they are very competitive shooters.”
He said the competition was undertaken in a relaxed atmosphere, which was conducive to better performance by all the individuals participating in the championship.

“The more you stress out about a competition the worse you will shoot. If you can relax enough to concentrate on each serial and not worry about any bad scores then that is the best thing you can do.

“Many of us here know each other and we have all be coached in the past two-and-a-half weeks by FSGT Gay for the Air Force Shooting Team.”

This year’s competition was run on the tightest of budgets with some reserve members paying their own way to come to Canberra to compete.

PLTOFF Purdon said that he was hopeful of more funding for next year’s championship and the combat shooting team.

“Squadron Leader Paul Collins from Training Command is very proactive in regard to combat shooting and is looking forward to providing us with some more funding so we can run this to the best end, with the right amount of staff and the right amount of equipment.

“We were fortunate that Defcredit stepped in at the 11th hour to sponsor us with enough money to buy trophies for the competitors.”

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