First-timers clean up at inter-school rifle shooting contest

The Toowoomba Anglican School student was one of nine, eight of them male, who jumped off the school bus at the start of the day and by the end of it, had walked away with the perpetual shield, awarded to the competitor with the highest individual score from two rounds of competition.

"They should have brought more girls - Jorja outshot everyone," event organiser Brendon 'Thorpy' Thorpe said.

She finished on 373.6 points, with another first-time shooter, Concordia student Lane Clarke close behind on 370.3. Local legend, Clifton State High School's Jacko May finished in third on 369.6 points.

Just shy of 40 students from neighbouring high schools and localities put together teams of three shooters each to compete in small bore, 50m and fifty shot target events at the Laurie Bowe Rifle Range at Leyburn.

As well as TAS, Concordia and host school Clifton State High, students from Allora, Oakey, Dalrymple Creek, Warwick, plus Clifton Benchrest Shooting Club juniors, took part in what's the only inter-school competition in Queensland.

TAS won the school trophy for the second year in a row, with a team made up of three western Queensland boys, hailing from Ilfracombe and Longreach.

"They were always going to be hard to beat," Mr Thorpe said. "They've spent their entire schooling lives growing up on stations, doing distance education, and have come into Toowoomba just for the last of their senior schooling years."

Team captain Dom Faggotter took out the highest individual shooter prize last year and the two Cameron boys were consistent all day as well, and were returning to defend their titles.

"A lot can happen with the wind and different rifles and ammunition, but they just didn't get caught up in the moment, quietly stayed confident, took their time, read the wind socks and nailed it pretty much," Mr Thorpe said.

Dalrymple Creek brothers Marty and Jonty May joined forces with Will Peters and "came to town to show us what they've learnt at school in the big city", in the words of Mr Thorpe, and didn't disappoint, putting the team in second place at the end of the day.

A brother and sister combination, Amelia and Cooper Steffan, together with Rebecca Robinson, put in a solid effort to lift the Clifton Benchrest Shooting club to third place.

"The weather definitely wasn't anything to write home about," Mr Thorpe said. "The wind was doing its best to blow a fair gale, pushing projectiles out and down an inch, inch-and-a-half to the right for most of the day."

He said they tried to structure the day based on the old saying, "If you want to keep a kid's feet on the ground, stack a bit of responsibility on top of their shoulders".

"We pride ourselves on hosting it in our community and hosting it safely," he said.

There's a mandatory 25 minute safety induction prior to the shoot where range officers take competitors through the rules, including seating, safety zones, the correct way to walk on and off the platform and approach the benches, and the importance of listening to instructions regarding loading and unloading.

"It sounds a bit regimented, but it has to be, to be seamless," Mr Thorpe said.

"The day teaches the shooters responsibility, self discipline, respect for not only themselves but for those around them, composure, patience, how to read the wind, how to breathe and slow their heart rate, and not to give up when the chips are down.

"(They are) skills they probably won't use every day in the classroom, but life skills that will put them in good stead."

Clifton has a proud history in benchrest shooting with ex-CSHS student and local legend Laurie Bowe, who the range is named after, leaving school and going on to shoot for Australia, on more than one occasion in the Olympics.

"We've had a few good footballers and polo players, but I don't know of many other Olympians that went through CSHS," Mr Thorpe said.

Arguably the biggest arms dealer in the country, Nioa donated the 2000 rounds of ammunition for the day, and students shot with a club-supplied .22 rimfire rifle.

Mr Thorpe said the Clifton State High School had a weekly shooting program on offer for students on the right behaviour level.

It's a fee-paying elective for sport of a Friday afternoon, where students are initially put through their weapons licence safety course over a period of four weeks by a qualified instructor, and then students visit the range weekly for 18 weeks a year, shooting 50m targets.