Benonian with an eye on the target
Northmead resident recently took part in the national field target shooting championships.
Rory Macleod, a Northmead resident, recently took part in the Field Target Air Rifle national championships, in Pretoria.
The sport is an outdoor event, where shooters use air rifles and fire at targets on a set course.
The air rifles are all limited to a certain power and targets are randomly placed between 8m to 50m away.
In order to score a point, a shooter needs to shoot inside of a cut-out hole which ranges in sizes of 15mm, 25mm and 40mm.
Rifles are not rested on a table or such, but are supported by the shooter in three different positions: sitting, kneeling and standing.
Macleod has been shooting air rifles competitively for just over a year and a half and in that time has qualified for the nationals, which a shooter can do only after achieving an average score at the different league shoots of over 60 per cent.
He placed 11th in the country and missed selection for the national team by a single point, however, he still managed to earn his full South African colours for having placed in the top 12.
“Nationals was an extremely tough, a three-day event, with over five hours of shooting each day,” said Macleod.
Anyone interested in joining the sport can find more information at www.saftaa.co.za, or by visiting the forum at www.airrifle.co.za.
