COBRAM PISTOL CLUB'S BLOG IS BACK IN BUSINESS

Hi Everyone, its been a while since we've posted on the blog page, (I'll let you in on a little secret: Blogger wouldn't let me sign in without the correct password!) but we are still here and continue to shoot. Cobram Pistol Club has experienced a resurgence in membership since our last post in 2017. The blog has generated quite a bit of interest, and some of our new members have invited their friends to come and shoot, who have then signed up, and then told their mates, etc. We've also had enquiries from people moving up to the Cobram / Yarrawonga area for work, who need a club nearby so they can continue to shoot.

Cobram has also been able to field a VAPA practical finals team for the past 4 years running, with our A Team being narrowly pipped for the prize only by a matter of 10 to 20 points a couple of years in a row. 

COVID has been quite disruptive to the club's events over the past 2 years, the Practical finals have been cancelled 2 years running now, but at least we have been able to have at least 2 or 3 shoots a month at a club level when we are allowed to. 

Full recoil...

XMAS Shoot - Steel Challenge

Service Match - 50yds: Boasey and Mick on the firing line

Bernie and Sam racing against the timer

Cowgirl 'Precious Pearl' having finished her Single Action practice came over and had a crack at ICORE. (With a single action revolver, reloads can be a bit slow...)

Cowboy '4xWrangler' and one of his tools of the trade.

Kris locked on target

VAPA Practical - Shooting 'weak hand only' 

'Strong hand only'

WORKING BEES

The club has also been able to get a few of the long term jobs off the list of things to do: Get running water on site, do major earthworks, run new power supplies to all of our ranges and new club house, and just generally make the place feel nice and clean.

We've finally got members who have access to some serious machinery. 

A big shout out to Ross for donating his time and fuel for this working bee.

Tidying up of the side wall between range 1 and range 2.

Before shot: Bye Bye old long drop!

After (it was cleaned up a bit more after these shots was taken)

Neat and Tidy

Trev on the trencher running new power conduit to the target frames

The club now has a power supply to each of our ranges for future use. 

A huge thanks goes to Trev, Ross, Shane and Cynan for their labour, and to the club's electrician Damien. We couldn't have done it without you guys! 

We have a new club house. 

Boasey managed to get us this very neat looking second hand garage for the cost of relocation. 

Great work by everyone that was involved in pulling it down, setting out foundations and pouring concrete, and re-erecting the shed.

It's great having a licensed sparky who is willing to donate his services to the club. 

Show Damien some appreciation by checking out his facebook page and website

Auselec & Heat n Cool it | Facebook

Auselec Heat N Cool It

BUNNINGS BARBEQUES

Following on from our Spring family fun day at Bunnings in 2017, we managed to get on the BBQ list. The first BBQ we did made more profit for the club than we would have made in the previous 5 years.... The second BBQ was even better.

The club manages to get at 4 BBQ's a year at Yarrawonga, which is an amazing fundraiser for us. 

2 BBQs allows us to cover all our annual costs: Rent, rates, insurance, annual reporting, targets and patches.

And as always: We're having a blast!

COME AND TRY PISTOL SHOOTING

Visitors are able to try handgun shooting under supervision without needing a license, so if you're interested in coming out to the club and having a shot or two, feel free to drop us a line. Make sure you add your mobile phone number to the message: It saves a lot of time when making contact; A 5 minute chat over the phone is a lot quicker, easier, and relays more information than playing 'email tag' over a number of days.

Till next time...

Bunnings Yarrawonga Spring Family Fun Day

Saturday 23^rd of September saw an opportunity for the club to get some much needed exposure in the community, thanks to Bunnings Yarrawonga and their Spring Family Fun Day. The pistol club, along with a number of other community and sporting groups were invited to set up information stalls in the Bunnings carpark to show everyone who we are and what we do.

While it was a little bit quiet on the day due to the local footy finals we managed to generate a little bit of interest with a few people wanting to know more about pistol shooting. We also met and talked with a couple of the club’s founding members.

The best part of the day was learning we have secured two Bunnings BBQ dates coming up in this November and March next year, which should raise some much needed funds for us. A big thanks to Duncan, Scotty, Shazza, Mike P, Geoff and James for giving up part of their Saturday to help crew the display.

Cobram Pistol Club information stall.

Hosting Social Functions

Cobram Pistol Club can  host social functions for interested groups. We always ensure safety is the first priority so shoots are strictly alcohol free. We can however accommodate a BBQ and drinks after a session. We will also ensure we have enough experienced members available on the day to help ensure a safe and fun experience

If you would like to find out the options for having a social function at our club please contact us through the blog contact page.  

A few of the lads on a bucks party accompanied by JD, Scotty and Duncan.

The Buck takes aim with a Ruger MkII

                      And a colt .357 magnum

The 38 Super and 9mm autos were a hit. (Rest assured JD is not in the line of fire here!)

What have we been up to lately?

Well another year is coming to an end and we are definitely ending on a high. We have  managed to double our membership in 2 years, and everyone is as keen as mustard which makes it easy to find the motivation to keep the club running smoothly! 

The coming year will see some new opportunities and hopefully funds to improve our ranges. We would love to hold  more and varied competitions like Action Match, Steel Challenge and Metallic Silhouette matches, as well as the old favourite, practical,  which will definitely keep everyone interested. 

If you are interested in coming along and having a go at pistol shooting please contact us through the blog.

We thought it might also be useful to put together a quick overview of what's been happening at the club over the last couple of years.

Welcomes and Farewells!

We’ve said goodbye to some old friends and stalwarts of the club. Bob Chamberlin, Jim and Jennifer Bennie and Peter Green will all be sadly missed and we bid farewell to Shane M who is moving to the US.  

We are however very pleased to have been able to welcome a number of new members into our club (we are always on the look out for more too!).  Mike and Merrilyn joined the club in early 2015, and the last half of 2016 has seen the club membership almost double with Murray, Kris and Michael coming over from the Murray Valley Pistol Club, and Tristan joining us from Geelong. Also a big welcome to James, Brad, Gagandeep (Sam), and Mikael, who are all locals and joined us having made contact through the Blog.

Competitions

The club holds competition shoots every third Sunday of every month (unless circumstances require a shift in date!). We always aim to set up interesting, challenging and fun courses that everyone from novice to expert can shoot. Whilst we record scores, the club competition shoots are really more about members trying to improve their own personal stats. The following pictures are from the various shoots we have held over the past three years.

JD (John), our ever reliable club captain who has been a stalwart of the club for many years. Good on you JD.

Mike bringing out the black powder powered toys

JD trying out the new red dot on his .22

Ruger Charger .22 – The closest thing you’ll ever get to a 10/22 without a Category C license and very fickle in its choice of ammunition. Loves CCI and RWS, and hates Winchester with a passion.

A ‘target rich’ environment: All of our steel plates and gongs on Range 2 set up for an impromptu shoot.

Duncan, doing his best to reduce the richness of the target environment. He was also hoping the loud noises would help induce the birth of his first child on this day (his wife is taking the picture!).

                        Keep practicing son.

JD scoring his targets, possibly hiding some of the evidence

Because the club is setup on sandy ground, things get a pretty dry over the summer months.

This is a picture from Round 1 – January 2016. Notice everything is dry as a chip on range 3.

The same range, same position, six months later. 200 – 300mm of rain in a couple of months helps.

Scotty (L) giving a stage briefing to Mike, James and Kris while Wade and Matt look on.

Scotty explaining how not to sweep your hand when opening a door or window in a practical stage.

"If you are aware of the course of fire": Merrilyn making ready, Scotty as CO/RO

James’s first practical shoot: Getting used to the sights. Scotty stressing the importance of ‘finger out of the trigger'.

Spectators and Competitors: L-R: Matt, Mike, Kris and Wade

James patching out.

Looking back up range at a really quick stage: PP1 activates swinging target T1. On signal engage targets as seen. Kris and Mike having patched out and reset the swinger.

Christmas 2016 Shoot

Thanks to Kris, we were able to do a couple of steel challenge stages at our last Christmas shoot, something many of us have not shot before. Brodie and Amanda have numerous times, and of course they smoked the targets with a practiced ease that left the rest of us in their wake. Mind you, Brodie has won more Championships than I’ve had hot dinners so it wasn’t surprising. It was amusing to watch the reactions of the people who haven’t seen Brodie in action before.

                 JD ready to roll.

Brodie hit all five steel plates before the first spent case hit the ground.

Update!

We have been a little quiet on the blog lately. As with most clubs, we are run by volunteers who all lead very busy lives. However we want to make sure we continue to spread the word about our club and upcoming activities, so will be making an extra effort to keep the blog up to date.

We have some exciting things planned for the club in the near future, so stay tuned for information about our upcoming competition shoots, meet and greets and general club activities.

If you are interested in finding out more about the club and membership, or are just keen to come out and see what we do, please contact us through the contact form. We will endeavour to get back to you  as soon as possible.

Make sure you visit us again soon!

Annual General Meeting

The Cobram Pistol Club Annual General Meeting is on this Thursday 13th November at 7.00pm.

Venue to be confirmed,

 Contact us through the Blog for more information.

If you are interested in meeting club members, or hearing a bit about what the club gets up to, feel free to come along!!

Welcome to the Cobram Pistol Club Blog

Cobram Pistol Club

The Cobram Pistol Club is excited to have started its very own blog.

We are hoping to spread the word about our activities and encourage people to come out and have a look at what we do. We are passionate about educating and competing.

More information to follow shortly. For now here are some pictures of one of our latest competition days.

Feel free to contact us through the contact form.

The range set up and ready to go

The range set up and ready to go

Are you ready? Stand By!

Scoring and the all essential patches