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Neil followed in his father’s footsteps when he began target rifle shooting at age thirteen with Armadale-Byford Rifle Club at Byford range in 1966…..

During his time with ABRC, Neil held positions of Secretary, Delegate and Captain.

After the closure of Byford range in 1983, Neil transferred to Swanbourne range and, over the years, was a member of several clubs there. In 1988 Neil and Lyn and their four sons relocated to Geraldton and Neil joined Geraldton-Greenough Rifle Club, where he later became captain and was club champion on numerous occasions. Neil and Lyn returned to Perth in 2009 and Neil continued to enjoy successes with his shooting.

After Swanbourne range was closed in 2014, Neil joined Yarloop Rifle Club but with the opening of Pinjar range, Neil transferred to his current club of City of Subiaco. Neil has formed valued friendships with many shooters across the whole shooting movement – including many shooters from interstate and overseas – and is always willing to mentor and assist others where possible.

Over his fifty five years of full-bore target shooting, Neil followed the circuit of district rifle association prize meetings and has won all of them at one stage or another throughout his successful shooting career.

Neil has been nominee for both ANZ and Mid-West sports star awards of the year and has been ranked number one on both WARA and NRAA rankings. One of the personal highlights for Neil was in 1999, as member of the Geraldton-Greenough Rifle Club, he shot 27 consecutive perfect scores.

With consistent good shooting, Neil was always highly placed at each Queens Prize; being highest placed West Australian on many occasions. His first win of the Queens Prize for full-bore shooting was 2011 at Swanbourne range, when he was also winner of the Grand Aggregate. Neil followed this up in 2020 as first West Australian full-bore shooter to win the Queens Prize at Pinjar rifle range. Neil has also won Duke of Edinburgh.

Throughout his shooting career, Neil has been in the state team many times (7 we think) and the highlight was being part of the team to win the Merit match at Swanbourne in 2001. Neil was also selected to the Australian team twice, but unfortunately personal circumstances meant he was unable to proceed with that commitment.

Brad discovered target rifle shooting relatively late in life, this is what he had to say……

At the age of 43, I visited the Swanbourne Rifle Range to have a look around. Members of the City of Subiaco Rifle Club were keen to show me around and invited me to shoot as a visitor. Over the ensuing weeks I attended the range and used club equipment, whilst being coached by very supportive, experienced shooters, and soon after applied for membership.

Being and interested in rifles and ready to take up a new hobby, the sport offered a unique blend of ingredients that greatly appealed to me, such as: a competitive, outdoor sport that you can pursue as hard as you like (even to high level international competition); a depth and breadth of “science” behind it (such as ballistics, rifle characteristic,, etc.) for the keen shooter to educate themselves in; a great social atmosphere amongst people from all walks of life as you become part of the fraternity; opportunity for travel to country events where the local clubs welcome us and provide varied competition in a relaxed setting. There aren’t many sports you can enter in mid-life, and yet still reasonably expect to attain a high level of proficiency and remain competitive well into retirement years if health allows. Although it would have been good to commence at a younger age, I have now been shooting Target Rifle for 13 years, using both 0.308 and 0.223 calibre rifles, and anticipate doing so for a couple of decades more. Regardless of how long I remain able to shoot, though, the friendships we have formed in the club and shooting community will last for life.

Alan has been a member of our club for 55 years. This is his story……..

Being teenagers in the mid 60s, interested in firearms and target shooting, my younger brother and I were keen to get more involved.  Our mother made some inquiries through the WARA office based at Swanbourne and was informed by the Association Secretary, an ex army Colonel Luke McGuinn, that at that time, you needed to be 16 to join a civilian Rifle Club.  My brother was approaching that milestone and it was going to fall on a Saturday, so he and I drove to Swanbourne on his birthday, introduced ourselves to the Colonel  who then introduced us to the Captain of the Subiaco Rifle Club, Larry Gorman.  We were welcomed by all, allocated a coach and fired our first Lee Enfield 303 at 500 yards. 

We attended each week after this and were elected as members at a club meeting in December 1964.  Subiaco Rifle Club (now the City of Subiaco Rifle Club) has always been a strong club, it’s Social atmosphere, support of new members, competitive environment and general camaraderie of the members is still the foundation and the vision of our great club.

My wife is also a 40 years plus member and we are both involved with the well being of the club and other members, new and old.  It has been a fabulous journey to date and we intend to maintain our involvement as long as possible.  It has been a very rewarding pastime and urge anyone, young or old, male or female to consider Target Rifle as a sport.  The club membership age range at present is 16 to 80 plus and we can cater for most disabilities

Come and say hello, check out the facilities and meet a group of very nice people

Petrian is one of our youngest club members and we asked him to share his experience…..

A year has almost passed and now I’m a member of the Subiaco Club and I’ve participated in one competition, my first competition. I’ve even won a prize for getting the highest score under the age of 25. I’ve also won a little trophy for recognition of being top of the range on 3/11/2019. This is thanks to my coach, he’s helped me the most so far on this journey and I also thank everyone who’s supported me since day one. Ever since I was a little boy, I was so fascinated by the idea of rifle shooting. I always dreamt of it as a living, as a hobby, something that makes me enjoy myself more than anything else. I wasn’t able to start so young, but I did start as soon as I got the chance. When I reached the age of 15 and a couple of months later my father found this rifle club just an hour drive from us. On 8/12/2018 I arrived at this place, this community, filled with the most friendliest people I’ve ever met. They welcomed me in straight away and I knew that this was a good start. The place consists of many clubs to join, but the one that grabbed my eye was the Subiaco Club. One of them got to coach me, his name was Uncle Neil and he is one of the best shooters there. He taught me many things about rifle shooting, and he’s still teaching me today, I’ve recently learned how to calculate the wind that affects the bullet projectile.

Is Betty at 86 the oldest shooting Grandmother on the mound?…

Betty is still competing using the most demanding of all shooting positions. Prone Rifle is where she has to support her 5.5 kilo Single Shot Target rifle for the duration of her 14 minute stint on the mound . Betty is still competitive in her grade and an inspiration to us all. GO BETTY!!!