The 500 metre Fly Shoot began in 1990 at Canberra, Australia. It was the brain child of John Rawson and Jim McKinley. The range at Majura in Canberra has a maximum distance of 500m in front of a 32 bench firing line. The first matches were a bit ad-hoc but attracted much interest. A match back then was 10 targets for the day with only one class and a weight limit of 50 lbs. In subsequent years a small committee consisting of Stuart and Annie Elliott, Jim McKinley and Ian Lampl took on the challenge of stabilizing and developing the matches. There were experiments with different target designs and colors and the rules until the final version was settled on. Jim arranged this to be a registered design and since each target contains the rules they are included.
We added a 2nd class called Light Gun and removed the weight limit on the Heavy Gun (or Open Class). The match was also shortened to be 5 targets plus a non counting warm up target to begin the day. There are 5 shots for record per target plus a maximum of 3 sighting shots allowed. These are fired at steel plates which are painted white and usually hang just below each target. Hits on these plates can easily be seen even in heavy mirage. Also it is easy for the target crew to simply repaint each plate during target changes.
The annual feature event is traditionally held in Canberra during March and is the called the Federal Cup. Sponsorship from the Federal Cartridge company, Wesfire and later Lightforce Australia promoting their Nightforce line of rifle scopes has helped promote the match The special Fly Patch was designed by Herb Valerius and has become one of the unique and sought after trophies. Anyone who hits a fly which is in the centre of the 10 ring gets a fly patch. Other ranges around Australia started getting interested and now hold formal matches often. They are held at Townsville in North Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, Tamworth NSW, Sydney NSW at two locations, Batemans Bay NSW, Melbourne, VIC, Monarto SA. to name a few of the regulars.
The event has also been shot overseas in Sweden and is held annually in the UK at Diggle. Several targets have been sent to the USA over many years and some clubs may already be shooting it there. All of these clubs develop their own version of the Fly patch which adds to the uniqueness. There is an annual 'Shooter of the Year' trophy for those that follow the circuit. The 500m Fly Shoot attracts shooters who like to have fun and shoot at long distance. The emphasis is on FUN and rule 10 ensures that. Everyone has their own pet calibre and can argue its effectiveness.
The larger calibres like 30s and 7mm's dominate as their holes are easier to see in the target but there are plenty of others shooting 6mm, 6.5, 270 and 338s. The target consists of a rich yellow thick paper with red printing. Approx overall card size is 24" x 16" (60x41cm) with the scoring area being 8-1/2" (21.5cm) in diameter and the 10 ring of 1-3/4" (4.5cm).
A unique V shape is printed under the scoring area as an aiming aid. See photos.
