On Sunday, August 25, the Birchip Rifle club celebrated its 125th anniversary with a gathering of members and guests on the range for a barbecue lunch and presentations.

After lunch president David Lee welcomed Councillor Bernadette Hogan and representatives from other clubs in attendance. David provided a brief history of the club, which began from a meeting at the Shamrock Hotel in June 1899.

The first shoot was held on the 16th August of that year. These early shoots were fired using Martini Henry rifles, shooting at solid steel targets that were white washed so the strikes could be seen and scored. The marker would then go out and brush over the shot ready for the next one.

With the introduction of the 303 rifles a few years later the timber framed targets covered in hessian and paper came into use. This calibre and target system remained in use until 1968 when the 7.62 cal. was adopted by the army and 303 ammunition was no longer available from the suppliers.

The rifles have now evolved into very modern ones, with many calibres in use and several classes of competition to appeal to a wide range of competitors. The advent of electronic targets has been a real game changer to the sport and they no longer need to have markers in a pit to mark and value shots.

Since the Birchip club changed to electronic targets it can now shoot all year around, as it is possible to shoot at night when the summer heat prevents shooting in daylight hours. The Birchip club was one of the early adopters of electronic targets, and possibly the first club to introduce the concept of night shooting.

The Birchip Rifle Club is fortunate to have a great membership of willing workers led by Captain Karrina Bailey. The attitude of the club is “enjoy your shooting and success will follow”.

This has proved to be a good formula, demonstrated by the number of trophies on display in the clubrooms on Sunday, which included the magnificent Salvitis Challenge Cup which dates back to 1887 and is an iconic piece of sterling silver that is currently held by Birchip along with the Skene F Class shield.

The recent redevelopment of the Birchip range was a huge boost to the members, with great new firing mounds and perfect drainage making everything much more user friendly. This was accomplished with a government grant and the much-appreciated support of Greg and Jackie Rymer and the crew at Greg’s Digging.

At the close of the talk, Captain Karrina took over and presented a life membership to David Lee for his service to the Club over 60 years, which was a fitting finale to a great day of celebration.

This article appeared in The Buloke Times, 30 August 2024.