DEBATES AND QUESTIONS – Wednesday 19 February 2020

The first device identified as a gun, a bamboo tube that used to fire a sear, appeared in China around 1000AD. The Chinese had invented gun powder in the 9th century. The ever mysterious gunpowder is just a combination of potassium nitrate, sulphur and charcoal.

The history of guns and is dotted with familiar names like Samuel Colt, who invented the first revolver in about 1836; John Moses Browning, who invented the Winchester and the pump shotgun; and Eliphalet Remington and Henry Derringer, who designed small arms.

Many of these designers were American, but there were Scottish designers such as Alexander Henry and, in more modern times, designers have been from Russia and England. Even Australia has had a designer, Evelyn Owen, who designed a machine carbine which was used extensively in World War II, in particular the Pacific and Asian battles, including the Korean and Vietnam incursions. While it was a bulky gun, it was very reliable and popular with the Australian diggers and got the nickname, the Diggers Darling.

The .50 calibre rifle was most likely designed by Joseph Whitworth, a prominent English engineer. His rifle design used polygonal , which meant the projectile did not have to bite into grooves as happens with conventional rifling. This rifle by Whitworth was more accurate than the previously designed Enfield, which showed up serious weakness in the Crimean war. The Whitworth rifles could hit a target at 2000 yards and the Enfield only 1400 yards. It is well known that .50 calibre rifles are known also as rifles.

However, that is not what this bill is about and that activity is completely separate from the current sport of long-distance shooting. The sport of shooting .50 calibre rifles is more popular and universal than many people realise. While it may not be well-known in the Territory from a public commentary point of view—and perhaps not in this —it is well-known in sporting circles in Victoria, New South Wales and Western Australia. Having said that, the sporting shooters in the Territory know about .50 calibre shooting and are keen to see a private range set up and the sport established in the NT. These groups include the Sporting Shooters’ Association, NT Field and Game and the NT Council members, who I have written to about this bill.

In the Sporting Shooters’ Association in Victoria, Lachie Adolph won the junior world title for .50 calibre shooting when he was 13 years old. He is an Aussie who took on the world and came home with a big prize. That was at an international shooting competition in New Mexico in July 2018. Since then Lachie has collected other titles in all age groups, including the national titles at a place called Warracknabeal, and he stacks up pretty well against the seniors. This young fellow is just one of the many people involved in the sport in Victoria through associations such as the Long Range Shooting Club. The sport is about accuracy, concentration and discipline and is growing in popularity every year in Australia and around the world.

The use of .50 calibre rifles is considered the most demanding sport of ultra-long range competitive target shooting, that is, 1000 to 1760 yards. It is a popular sport in some states of Australia, notably Victoria, and in Western Australia, the UK, America and countries throughout Europe.

Given the lengths of the required shot, there is a high demand for many skills and knowledge to be successful. To succeed at long-range shooting, the shooter must have good shooting skill fundamentals, a rifle with good precision and as consistent ammunition as possible—mainly to achieve a consistent muzzle velocity.

In addition to the successful hitting of the target—which is the ultimate goal—a variety of external factors must be taken into account with regard to ballistics calculation to be a good long-range shooter. These include:

• wind—both by the shooter and along the whole flight path to the target

• shape and weight

• air pressure, altitude and, to a certain degree, humidity

• temperature of the air, ammunition and barrel

• spindrift, an effect caused by the rotation of the bullet

• the Coriolis effect, caused by the Earth’s rotation

• a mirage which causes the shooter to hit high and to the side if there is a little wind

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