Thread: Toby Memorial - Where, what, why

I'm sure from all the smiles and laughter over the weekend all who participated will thank you heartily Brads

You and your wife provided an excellent venue and the care and effort you both put in created an event we will never forget.

Thank you



Fridays weather was stunning and made travel relatively effortless,

I heard a few stories involving a "travel tax" having to be paid by those with a heavy right foot !



Initial setup on arrival was event free and some innovative setups resulted in warm dry sleep as long as you weren't sleeping in the horse float aye Gibo

After setting up Rushys target




it was time to climb the hill to probably the most scenic shooting area you could ever hope to use

A convoy of vehicles started the run up the hill



A well thought out shooting area had everyone well hearded into one mob

It was well signposted and we were quickly sorted into yes you can stay or go away now


Once yarded up P38 read us the rules in his best Range Officer voice then threatened us with grevious bodily harm if we failed to comply



He had supplied a Cannon and Mortar and we used the former to officially kick off the event

A few hundred flicks on the lighter and we were away , heck knows where the projectile went


A very well behaved and safety conscious bunch started the assault on Brads gongs and the armour plated deer in the creek, swamp, Manuka thicket and open paddock. An air temp of 14 degrees, air pressure of 28.50 inhg and a 2.5 mph breeze from our right kept all entertained and the day progressed into much scorched grass, tortured steel and good natured banter blended in with very serious ballistics conversations .



The big 50 shook the Richter scale



As the morning wore on the gongs were taking a serious pounding



As more vehicles arrived those waiting to shoot continued to line their hardware up



A safety conscious bunch, -impressively so



At about this point Rushy snuck off to get the cooking underway


Someone had a bit of a treat in store and as long as Rushy diddnt find out that we had his spuds it was gonna be fun

Hey there's a projectile


Ram spud down with this....


After a decent lunch and a whole heap more shooting, the air temp changed to 11 degrees, air pressure to 28.95inhg and the breeze vary from 4.5 to 40 mph
It was in these testing conditions that 15-30 mins was set aside for the shooting competition to determine the evenings prizegiving

The details of which I'm sure the talented shooters can relay their experience

As the afternoon wore into evening mildly hypothermic symptoms allowed all involved to retire to the woolshed as snow fell in the main ranges to the west

We were greeted with tables loaded with roasted farm kill and tasty slices and fruit for pudding silenced the masses as we ate



In the warmth and comfort our friend Rushy spoke from the heart and allowed us to understand the reason we were there, Brads shed must have been a bit dusty as I had something in my eye a few times

Rushy in full song with Vietnamcam behind him with dust in both eyes


Rushy then introduced Tobys Mother who gave a beautiful word .

After dinner it was time to auction the beautiful .270 rifle that had been built and assembled by members of this forum



Phillippo proving to be the best tool for the job made an eloquent job of proceedings despite reservations about the calibre


All the authority in our world was contained in that small brown bottle, and this man knew how to use it



Long story short the .270 raised $13,250 for Tobys charity of choice and the evening settled into a steady hum of good bastards yarning about good barstards and the events of the day.

As darkness descended we needed a bigger area as we were now using much bigger words with gestures to match



When the group got too large for this drum we needed to flick a match into that bunch of sticks Brad had stacked up


Sunday dawned warm and clear and the shooting continued, the deer in the creek lost more plywood and the guys in the 600yrd club jumped into the 1000yrd club, wifey shot well at 540yrds


Even the 2350yrd gong felt some hurt from Kiwi Greg but that's his story to tell

Thank you to all who made the event fun, safe and memorable, I have intentionally left out much, as those precious things are all your stories to tell......

To all involved that is great Brad is a legend ,young Toby would be well impressed big ups all round what a wonderful group of like minded people and a great Forum .