Club options in Brisbane

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Club options in Brisbane

Post by Nails » 08 Sep 2020, 7:33 pm

Hi all,
I’m a fairly new member to this forum and actively been reading many threads on here, it looks to be a great forum.
My wait for A/B licence was 61/2 months, I got the email approval almost 2 weeks ago and just waiting for my licence to come in the mail now. The gun shop has my PTAs already waiting to go.
I am very keen to get into clay shooting, not sure which discipline yet and maybe just for the enjoyment, not necessarily to enter competitions. I’ve only tried it twice over the last 6 months, enjoyed it greatly however it seems very hard to get a look in at SSAA Belmont where I’m a member. The reasons that seem to be stopping me are, - no licence yet, no licensed mates into this and the Covid issue means that they closed down clay shooting recently, it seems.
I’m also a member of a local pistol club and been going there almost weekly for supervised competition as I’m considering a cat H application too, but my question is, whats the best way or club to join? I would be disappointed if I joined another club and found it really hard to get booking (once I’m licensed) because they have too many shooters or some other reason for limiting attendance.
I’ve been looking at Sporting Clays as they are next door to SSAA Belmont, but this means a third membership and they don’t seem to publish costs to attend once you’re a licensed member.
Would any local forum members have comments and or recommendations please?
Thanks Rusty
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Re: Club options in Brisbane

Post by rc42 » 08 Sep 2020, 10:58 pm

Welcome Rusty.
Brisbane is a great place for shooting sports, the facilities around Belmont are world class but having no license really puts the brakes on at the moment.

All of the clubs have their own character and focus on particular disciplines
The SSAA is the jack of all trades club, mostly about enjoying using firearms and rifle shooting practice, the pistol section has the most competition types (when they are running) and nothing is taken too seriously except safety. They do have some clay traps but limited variation and steel shot only, the specialist shotgun clubs would be a much better choice for that.

What rifles are you getting and what type of shooting do you want to do? that is probably the best guide to your club choice. there are some amazing facilities for 50m smallbore and long range centerfire on the main Belmont site.

Lots of pistol clubs too, again SSAA has most competitions and disciplines, Metropolitan and CoB seem to focus mainly on IPSC but have limited events in other categories, BIPC is ISSF pistol shooting only, getting bookings for competitions is easy once licensed but everything is a pain for the year or so that it takes to get the Cat H license. What's your preferred handgun type and competition?
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Re: Club options in Brisbane

Post by Nails » 09 Sep 2020, 6:41 am

Hi rc42,
thanks for your reply, helpful and much appreciated. I actually meant to post this in the shotgun section, but maybe it diesnt matter as its fairly general anyway.

As I’m fairly new to guns, I’m not really sure what my final preference(s) might be so I’m trying to cover most options. I’ve been interested in clays for a long time though and I think this will end up being my preference. I’ve had a few distractions, thats my excuse for why its taken so long to get started. Its such a long haul though, one has to be fairly committed to actually start in this sport.

I’ve been using a 22 pistol regularly at the Ipswich indoor range under supervision and thankfully thats been easy enough to get into. As you say, no licence makes it hard to start at most clubs, but this club has given me a great chance to start shooting. I haven’t thought too much about competitions yet, just working on familiarity and form, accuracy hasn’t been great with scores generally between 80 and 90 in class D comp 11, but its enjoyable. I can apply for cat H in a few weeks, then another long wait I guess. Once I get there, depending on what I learn about the various competitions, I’m pretty sure I’ll just get a nice 22 pistol to start with.

I’ve got a Tikka 22lr on order as my first learner/practice gun and looking at a centerfire down the track a bit once I get more experience.

I have a relatively small property at ~500 acres where I plan to do a bit of hunting, dingoes mainly, so thinking of a 223 rem perhaps for that. I probably won’t use these rifles at a range all that often except early on and I think SSAA Belmont should be good to get setup. I could probably get more experience with cat H there too one I get my cat H licence.

So back to the clays... After a lot of researching, I think I’ve settled on the Beretta Silver Pidgeon sporting 30inch barrel and plan to order one very soon, licence could arrive any day now and I already have my PTA approved. I’m hoping to try the various clay types soon and go along every couple of weeks, so from your info above, I probably should join a dedicated clay club like Spoting Clays at Belmont . I see they have a range at Childers too which is close to my second home , maybe as a Brisbane member attendance there may be easier too, or would I need to join there as well to shoot clays?

So it looks like 3 memberships at least for the first year or two until I settle in, then maybe 2 will suffice.

Thanks again
Rusty
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Re: Club options in Brisbane

Post by ThatNewGuy » 09 Sep 2020, 5:10 pm

Hey Rusty,

If you want to shoot smallbore rifles or anything really at 50m and handguns then SSAA Caboolture is an option (if you are on the northside) it is also close to the clay target club (Literally 30s walk) its not a common club mentioned here but its worth a shot.

Just my 2 cents,
-NewGuy
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Re: Club options in Brisbane

Post by Robin » 09 Sep 2020, 5:41 pm

Hey Nails,

Have a look at one of the Come and try programs
https://qldrifle.com/come-and-try

They have 3 different programs, and each one , I believe will put you in touch with a club after the event, I'm joining a club but as Hunter class.

As far as shotgun, I go to Brisbane Spoting Clays at Belmont and to be honest, I like it.
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Re: Club options in Brisbane

Post by Nails » 09 Sep 2020, 8:48 pm

Thanks guys, I’m south-west Brisbane so Caboolture is a buit far for me. I’ve done one introductioty day,but another wouldn’t hurt, and a chance to see how Sporting Clays Belmont works too.
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Re: Club options in Brisbane

Post by bigrich » 10 Sep 2020, 10:53 am

Nails wrote:Thanks guys, I’m south-west Brisbane so Caboolture is a buit far for me. I’ve done one introductioty day,but another wouldn’t hurt, and a chance to see how Sporting Clays Belmont works too.


Try out at Beaudesert sporting clays if your southwest of brissy. I got a mate who goes out there for “field “ clay shooting and he reckons their a great bunch

They also do field shotgun At Ripley, which probably isn’t too far for you. Check the ssaa “stewart Dale “ Facebook page

Hope these help :thumbsup:
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Re: Club options in Brisbane

Post by rc42 » 10 Sep 2020, 11:06 am

I have little experience with shotguns but have been to a corporate team day at Brisbane Sporting Clays, great club with lots of different shooting areas in the forest set up for clays from different directions and speeds (not sure of the technical descriptions for each of those). Brisbane Gun Club is on a smaller block of land right by the road so their firing points are all closer together and look the same, I haven't been there but I expect that they cover the same shotgun disciplines though. There was a new shotgun range created on the other side of the Belmont site for the Comm games in 2018, just the ISSF styles available there and I'm not sure who runs it.
SSAA have a single trap on their main rifle range for practice use and a couple in their lower field for shotgun competitions, OK for occasional use but with a large rural land block you'd be better off getting your own traps and practice at home.

The pistol section at SSAA Belmont has the greatest diversity and highest number of monthly pistol competitions in Brisbane (when they are not Covid restricted), plus membership there gives you an annual range pass that applies to every range at the site so you shoot for free for a year for about $250 upfront. Rifle range goes out to 200yds for casual shooting and about 500yds for competitions or by special permission, the shotgun facilities are a token gesture but they are there.

A lot of the Belmont clubs have inter club agreements to allow members of other clubs to shoot and just pay the normal member range fees, you'd have to confirm with the clubs themselves but membership of one shotgun club may give you access to all of them.

22LR is the best first pistol choice as early enthusiasm equates to high round count, I sent around 1,000 downrange at my first practice session, it just sucks having to wait a year for the first centerfire pistol. If you're still in the pre license application stage you will have another 6 months to think about that.
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Re: Club options in Brisbane

Post by Nails » 11 Sep 2020, 8:36 pm

Thanks bigrich, rc42,
thanks for the pointers, quite helpful, I was thinking about Ripley, have heard some good comments about it and its a fair bit closer than Beaudesert for me, but I might get down there too at some point. As I’m still a member at SSAA Belmont, if I ever get this licence in the mail (auspost only delivers every second day now and as it comes out of Victoria, who knows) I’ll try those metal silhouettes at Belmont. I did have a go at an introductory day, but couldn’t get the scope on the rifle they gave me to work, couldn’t hit anything with it. At the time, I was sure it wasn”t me though, I’d been doing pretty well until then, but now that I’ve learned about eye relief, I think that was the problem.
Im also enjoying the indoor pistol range I’m going to in Ipswich, although the Belmont outdoor range does offer a lot different setting, I also tried some pistols there during the into day, including black powder. I’ll probably stick with the indoor range until I can get cat H, it just seems easier there.
For the clays, I’ll try an intro day at Sporting Clays very soon and see what the place is like, it sounds good and its not that far using the motorways, will let you know how it all goes, hopefully fairly soon!
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Re: Club options in Brisbane

Post by Nails » 23 Sep 2020, 1:58 pm

I went to Sporting Clays Belmont last Friday to try the new shotgun out, the staff I met were all very helpful. After I’d run about a hundred rounds through the gun my shoulder was feeling a bit secondhand so I left it at that. I met their trainer and booked in some training and also bought a membership so I plan to get out there fairly often.
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Re: Club options in Brisbane

Post by Robin » 23 Sep 2020, 3:50 pm

Hi Nails,

Sporting Clays Belmont is pretty good, I shoot there abit now, and I found having a trainer very helpful, it got me off the baby traps and into the big world.

I'm normally there on Saturday mornings, so hopefully we will cross paths eventually.
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