The anticipation for the Fly Nationals each year starts many months out from the event. Competitors are organizing accommodation, transport, who is travelling with who, who wants to share a bench. As well as the Championship Management Team is kicking off the advertising for the Championship sponsors, information stream for potential competitors and range facilities preparations.
July 28, 2025, was the official opening of nominations for this year’s event. This provokes more questions, who will get their name on the perpetual trophies for the 500m Centre fire “Jim McKinley Trophy” and the 200yrd Rimfire “Stuart Elliott Trophy”? Who will shoot the most Flies? Which state team will win the State Teams event?
4 days out from hearing those magic words “commence fire”, the advertising was done, bench draw was in progress and nominations had now closed with a mix of 61 Adult, Junior 15 -18 and Junior U15 competitors registered. But the hot topic was the weather, what will the conditions be, 3 days of ideal cool, overcast, light winds from a constant direction? No not this time… we had “3 days of Difference” what a way to find a true 3 Gun Champion.
With the bench draw released on Thursday. Friday setup and practice day out of the way, the first official day of competition had arrived. Saturday 500m CF Light gun class. All rifles must be weighed and come in on or under 7.711kgs. With weigh in out of the way, the opening greetings and briefing done, “Detail 1 LG to the bench please” was called and then the words that instantly change the conditions down range “Commence Fire”. WIND… strong cold wind, hard to paint a picture verbally. The forecast advertising through the week up to 60kph from the west, it was every bit of that at times.
The bigger calibres like 7mm and 30 cal’s were perceived as a real advantage in these conditions but this proved to be not so true. With Stuart Pethybridge from WA wining the 500m CF LG class with a score of 216.05 (5 Fly hits) using the tried and proven 6BR.
Day 2, Sunday 500m CF Heavy Gun Class. The wind had dropped and was switching around a little, the sun was shining and the mirage had arrived. No weight requirements for this class, the rule states: “Heavy gun unlimited weight, but must be manually lifted on to the bench by a single person”. Again, the big calibres were a potential advantage with the bigger hole allowing a visual of fall of shot in the medium mirage… this was proven not be so! 3:15 pm all cards had been scored and the 30 min protest period finished. Michael Truscott had taken the win in 500m CF HG with a score of 265.06 (6 Fly Hits) the 6.5x47L had worked very well. This score also secured Michael as the winner of the Jim Mckinley trophy, which is awarded to the highest 500m CF score for the Championships. Eli Groves won the Junior 15-18 500m CF Class with a score of 241.01 (1 Fly hit)
Day 3, Monday 200yrd Rimfire class. Again, a different day of weather… cool, overcast and very up and down switchy breeze. For some this was not a problem, Fiona Lacey from Team Kaizen Tactical was on top of the leader board right till the end. When Chris Parry on the very last card managed to sneak 1 point in front to take the win. Chris shot a 271.03 (3 Fly hits) to win the Adult 200yrd RF Class. William Calcutt shot a 228.04 (4 Fly hits) to win Juniors 15-18 Rimfire and Marcus Z shot a 214.01 (1 Fly hit) to win the Junior U15 Rimfire. Chris Parry’s score secured his name on the Stuart Elliot Trophy with the highest score for RF for the Championships.
SSAA Fly Nationals has a state teams event run within the competition, so it would be unjust of me not to mention this, and who the winner is. To compete in the State Teams event, you simply need to compete in the 3-Gun event. A competitor is a member of the state team as indicated by their SSAA Membership card. The Top 3, 3 Gun scores from each state are used as an aggregate to settle the placings. Let me just say… well done QLD with an aggregate score of 2090.27, Top 3 Shooters from QLD, Chris Parry (712.06), Michael Truscott (699.12) and Mark Lacey (679.09)
As the 2025 SSAA Fly Nationals was now wrapping up, 2:05pm was written on the last score sheet by the National Scorer and posted up for the final dispute period. 62 Competitions using 942 Fly Targets across 3 classes, over 3 days finished. It was time to gather and see who has shot their way into a medal position and how many Fly Patches each person won. As well as handing out amazing prizes supplied by the event sponsor and supporting sponsors.
Our event sponsor, Nightforce providing a Nightforce Competition 15-55×52 Scope fitted with a DDR-2 Reticle as a main prize.
A special thankyou to our event sponsor Nightforce, and our supporting sponsors: Kaizen Tactical / TSA Outdoors, BRT Flags, SEB Shooting Products Australia/ JJM Cleaning Products, SSAA Brisbane, and Flyshooter.com.au.
For a full copy of the results visit the Results section.
