East Central District Rifle Association

07/07/2025

05/04/2025

Does not apply to my own experience!!

Act Now! 😂🤣

27/02/2025

🏆 Upper Goulburn ADA Annual Dragon Diesel Range Event 🏆

Mark your calendars! The Upper Goulburn Branch of the Australian Deer Association is hosting the annual Dragon Diesel Range Event at the Violet Town Range on 15 March 2025.

🔹 Open to all licensed firearm holders using a deer or fox calibre centre-fire rifle.
🔹 Friendly competition with trophies and prizes in each category.
🔹 A great day for hunters and shooters to test their skills and enjoy the camaraderie.

A huge thank you to our generous sponsors: Dragon Diesel, Mansfield Hunting & Fishing, The Alexandra Hotel, and Loan Market. Your support makes this event possible!

📍 Save the date, spread the word, and we’ll see you on the range!

20/02/2023

Whilst this time of the year is our "off season" for training, development and competitions. we have been concentrating on range improvements, maintenance and repairs.
Graeme Kerr has been leading the charge with setting up our three new ShotMarker targets which includes building frames, target fascias and two positions at 100 yds and two positions at the butts alongside our three existing Hexta electronic competition targets.
This five shooting lane set up will enhance our ability to train and develop new shooters, enable a safe and accessible service to non-members to zero in rifles and test their long distance skills as well as increase timely accessibility to all the targets to our existing members and guests.
Another non-shooting initiative has been progressed after our AGM meeting which is the research into the history of our District Rifle Association and the clubs and their ranges that have been lost. The current count is 23!!

Alexandra
Eildon
Yea
Yarra Glen
Euroa
Merton
Mansfield
Croydon
Bonnie Doon
Mansfield Longwood
Ruffy
Christmas Hills
Ringwood
Burnt Creek
Creighton’s Creek
Strathbogie North
Strathbogie South
Kyabram
Dandenong
Numurkah
Avenel
Healesville
Violet Town 
This resonated with all the attending members, albeit with different suggestions on the way forward to protect our own Club and Association and ensure we retain the history of past and present clubs in our association.
Listed below is our current understanding of the lost and current clubs that are and were active in our District.
There might well be more as before the District Association structure was introduced, there were Rifle Club Unions and Civilian Defence structures that were the backbone of Country Victoria shooting activities.
Unfortunately, there is little or no written history.
It was proposed that the Committee authorize a campaign to contact past association individual members, their families, and successors to encourage them to contact the East Central Rifle Club based at our Violet Town range with any relevant memories, memorabilia, and ephemera.
Additionally, it is our wish to encourage the local community to reconnect with our sport of target rifle shooting.
Many farmers, graziers, landowners, and individuals have rifles for relevant use such as vermin, wild animals, hunting and humane euthanasia and in the past would go to their local rifle club to learn safety procedures, enhance their shooting skills and technical knowledge.
This would be done through local media, farmers, graziers’ groups, and similar country associations. An additional benefit will be that other shooters and potential members will see this media and make contact.
Our proposal is to use the new F class Sports Hunter class to introduce our East Central District shooting community to our Club at Violet Town.
Sports Hunter offers low cost of entry to our sport using off the shelf rifles up to 8mm with bipods, scopes, and suitable back rests.
The Sports Hunter class is a National Rifle Club of Australia (NRAA) initiative and now has many new shooters enjoying this discipline at club, open prize meeting and State level competitions.
(Several local graziers, farmers and hunters have come to either our Wednesday or Saturday shoots at Violet Town on a “come and try” basis and subsequently transitioned into Pennant Team shooters at interdivisional matches using the Sports Hunter F Class rifle discipline).
At the same time, we will be changing from using our "association" identity for club matters and use "East Central District Rifle Club" to reflect our commitment to target rifle shooting and prospective shooters in our catchment area of Country Victoria.

27/11/2022

La Nina and other climatic conditions have caused much flooding and subsequent inundation to properties across most parts of Victoria and our Violet Town range did not escape lightly.
Prompt action by two club members, Zac Economou and Ross Davies protected our electronic targets and butts (housing) from the worst weather conditions in years. Many thanks to them.
Unfortunately nothing could be done about the access track up the hill to the Butts which was badly damaged by torrents of water coming down the hill. Our existing drainage system was unable to cope with the sheer volume which washed away a large section of the track.
The shooting mounds and surrounding areas were saturated so shooting has been very limited. Fortunately, our new Clubhouse was not affected.
On Saturday 12th November we held our AGM and there were a couple of changes to our committee. Dr Bob irving (Facilities Management) and Des Coulter (Club Vice Captain) advised that they were unable to contribute to the Committee this coming year. Geoff Broughton and Neal Hambridge took over their respective responsibilities and Graeme Kerr added the Club Captain’s role to his Secretary’s responsibilities.
In the General Meeting that followed, the membership was updated on our grant application which had been unsuccessful on this occasion and it was decided that our cash reserves would be used to continue with a revised solar power and storage plan and budget. Funds were also ring fenced for the essential repairs, improvements and regrading of the butts access track.
The club did have one success in this round of grants with a contribution to club uniform costs for team shooters.
Our Pennant Team was congratulated for winning both the McAulliffe Shield and the Chas Hayes Long Distance competition as well as a creditable second place in the Avenel Shield. The latter is a competition which we manage and provide the trophy for off rifle team shooting over the two competitions using the MCIS formula for mixed categories. Nagambie Rifle Club were team winners and the best individual off-rifle was David Black, Shepparton Nathalia Rifle. Congratulations to all shooters and thanks to the GVDRA organizing committee.
Neal Hambridge, FClass Open and Graeme Kerr, Sports Hunter Class, were named as the Club Champions in their disciplines.
After the meeting was completed we took the opportunity for a novelty shoot using .303 SMLE from WW1 and WW2 vintages. The winner was Randell Underwood who a scored a possible in his first stage at 100yds.
The second stage at 500yards indicated that not just his rifle but all the other shooters’ rifles were not really going to do much other than scare any approaching enemy at that distance!

Photos: The MacAuliife Shield Pennant Team and Chas Hayes Pennant Team Long Distance Trophies presented to Neal Hambridge, Captain, on behalf of East Central District Rifle Club by Michael, Secretary. Goulbourn Valley District Rifle Association.

19/09/2022

Leigh Enfield reports:

East Central District RA wins the Chas Hayes Long Distance Pennant Shield

Saturday, 17th September was the third and final leg of the Chas Hayes Shield for long distance target shooting. The distance was 2 x 900 yards stages with 2 sighters/10 scoring shots for each stage.
The venue, Katandra Rifle Range and the weather….. ..well it started off reasonably close to the forecast, overcast with a gusting left to right wind that could require up to five minutes of correction at times. A wind coaches’ nightmare.
(After the two previous legs, East Central were in 1st place with 10 points, then Karramomous - nine points, Shepparton Nathalia - 8 points, Katandra - 6 and Nagambie - 5. so all the shooters and wind coaches were fully aware of the importance of their individual scores to their clubs final results).
As the first stage started, the weather began to deteriorate and it was lucky we had erected gazebos to give shelter to the shooters, coaches and scorers. Showers that were intermittent became continuous downpours - the only consolation was that wind became a little more consistent but certainly not benign.
Despite the inclement weather, the match was completed after just over four hours with 29 shooters completing the two stage event and after packing up all the electronic targets, monitors etc as well as the gazebos, we retired to the club house to do the next most important task - check the individual scores, totals, handicaps and add the top five shooters’ scores of each team to get an aggregate total for their team. Once this was done and ladder points allocated to the teams’ existing ladder tally, Richard Wall, the GVDRA president announced the final results:-
East Central District DRA - 16 points, Karramomous Rifle Club - 12 points, Shepparton Nathalia Rifle Club - 12 points, Katandra Rifle Club - 11 points, Nagambie Rifle Club - 7 points

Only 8 shooters were able to contribute the maximum aggregate score of 120 points to their respective teams maximum possible total of 600 which was a reflection of the adverse weather conditions.
Four of these were from East Central District RA. - Graeme Kerr (best off-rifle), Glenn Chisholm, Terry Gee, John Maccioni and backed up by 119 from Neal Hambridge.
A big thanks to our wind coaches, Graeme Kerr, Des Coulter and Terry Gee and to our travelling reserves, Des Coulter, Ted Plastow for their contribution.
A huge team effort and a great team result.

21/08/2022

McAulliffe Shield Final between East Central District and Nagambie Rifle Clubs.
Saturday 30th July, East Central District’s Pennant team were making their from their various townships to the finals of the McAuliffe Shield against Nagambie Rifle Club. This was held at the Karramous Rifle Range
The weather en route was very foggy until we got over Strathbogie range and we were greeted with clear blue skies all the way to the range.
The match against Nagambie was held over the three stages – 2 at 500 yards and 1 at 600 yards using the Club’s electronic Hexta targets.
A left to right wind varying between 12-15kph with subtle changes would prove to be a challenge for our wind coaches, Terry Gee, Graeme Kerr and Des Coulter who had to fit in these duties as well as being our leading scorers in the series leading up to the final.
A strong start at the first 500 yards stage by Nagambie with some excellent shooting from Joe Melbourne 60.5 and Josh Weaire 60.4 backed up by the rest of their team was countered by East Central’s Graeme Kerr (50.7 Sports Hunter) with Terry Gee 60.4, with Neal Hambridge and John Maccioni contributing 59s to keep us in touch with our competition.
The second 500 yards stage was almost as equally tight. Des Coulter scoring highest for East Central with an excellent 60.7 and Graeme Kerr with another 50.7 with one 59 and 2 58s from Terry Gee, Randell Underwood and John Maccioni respectively.
Nagambie had 2 x 59s and 1 x 58 which kept our focus for the final stage at 600yds as we were slowly clawing our way back into contention.
At 600yds Nagambie produced 2 x 60 possibles from Josh Weaire and Joe Melbourne but our consistent team effort had another possible off-rifle from Graeme Kerr backed up by a string of 59s from Terry Gee, Neal Hambridge, Randell Underwood and Des Coulter.
It was still too close to call so the team captains retired to the warmth of the clubhouse for afternoon tea and, more importantly to double check final handicap scores and aggregates.
Richard Wall, president of the GVDRA, asked Joe Melbourne and Neal Hambridge to announce the results and acknowledge the outstanding shooters and thank all the competitors, wind coaches and officials for a great day’s shooting.

East Central District 894 points with 76 supers to Nagambie’s 888 points with 57 supers. (maximum score 900 points)

East Central District’s contributing shooters:-
Graeme Kerr – 180.28 and best off-rifle
Terry Gee – 180.17
Neal Hambridge – 178.14
John Maccioni – 178.13
Randell Underwood – 178.10
Wind Coaches – Graeme Kerr, Terry Gee and Des Coulter
Reserve shooters – Des Coulter, Roger Piggott and Ted Plastow

East Central District Shooters who also contributed to the five man team scores through the round robin competitions:-

Round 1 - Zac Economou, Graeme Kerr, Neal Hambridge, Des Coulter, Terry Gee.
Round 2 – Graeme Kerr, Roger Piggott, Ted Plastow, Neal Hambridge, John Maccioni.
Round 3 – Terry Gee, Des Coulter, Randell Underwood, Dr Bob Irving, Neal Hambridge.
Round 4 – Graeme Kerr, Des Coulter, John Maccioni, Randell Underwood, Terry Gee.

14/07/2022

Apologies if you have had to scroll through an excessive amount of third party FB pages.
I believe I have corrected the setting that was an automatic default and was incorrectly allowed to bombard us with unwanted posts and content!
Comments, shares and reviews are still on as we welcome these from our friends in the sporting shoots community.
I am continuing to hide and/or lock third party posts so please bear with us as the changes take effect.
If you have any individual issues with ongoing unwanted content, please pms me directly so I can take the necessary action with FB directly.

14/07/2022

Last Saturday, our Pennant team were shooting the match of the "round robin" league away to Karramomous Rifle Club. This was the last match before the finals and it was coincidentally important to both teams were joint second, with the Nagambie Rifle Club already guaranteed a spot in the final scheduled for 30th July.
Whoever won the match would go forward to the final and on a dry, cold but sunny day, the wind was blowing right to left across the range with regular and subtle changes.
Our respective wind coaches were kept on their toes throughout the 3 stage shoot at 500 and 600 yards and upon completion of the shoot, there was no indication who had prevailed.
The teams retired for a warm up and afternoon tea in Karramomous' club house whilst the two team captains had the task of checking and then double checking off rifle scores, handicaps and overall aggregates.
Richard Wall, the home team Captain, declared the winners were East Central by a margin of just one point - 900 to 899.
There was some top rate shooting from our regular squad that needs to be mentioned.
Des Coulter, F Open and Graeme Kerr, Sports/Hunter disciplines both scored 180 off-rifle and did not require any of their handicap points. First class shooting.
John Maccioni F Open and Glenn Chisholm both shot 179 off-rifle and only needed one point each to get a maximum aggregate of 180. (John Maccioni had to borrow a rifle and ammunition due to a mechanical issue and scored 60.10. 60.9 and 59.3 and Glenn scored 60.5, 59.6 and 60.7)
Terry Gee backed up the 5 man team contributing shooters with 176.17 off rifle needing 4 handicap points for his maximum aggregate of 180.
It must also be noted that three other team members of our team each secured 180 maximums indicating the strength in depth of our squad.
Commiserations to Karramomous whose five contributing shooters scored 4 maximum 180s and 1 of 179 with their respective handicaps,
Well done to Peter Daldy, Leigh Metzke,Trevor Rhodes, Stuart Keating and Richard Wall.

22/06/2022

The weather over the last few weeks has curtailed non-essential shooting and has restricted our ongoing works for maintenance and improvement of the range.
We have been able to do some works thanks to our usual cohort of volunteers which included additional wind flagpoles, posts for safety fencing, retaining wall postholes for the 500yds mound which will enable us to complete a ramp for wheelchair and pedestrian access as well as levelling the "holding" immediately behind the mound. This will also give us a structure to build in seating for shooters waiting their turn to shoot.