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The Sporting Shooters Association of Australia (Victoria) was incorporated as a public company on October 1, 1973. We exist to promote the shooting sports and protect firearm owners' interests.

With more than 40,000 members, SSAA Victoria is a leading body representing licensed firearm owners in Victoria. SSAA Victoria has more than a dozen branches and more than 30 sub-clubs and disciplines within the organisation.

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SSAA Victoria News

Victorians on target at the silhouette nationals

A group of Victorian shooters travelled to Tasmania recently for the:

Lever Action Metallic Silhouette (LAS) Nats 21st – 25^th March 2024 at SSAA Westbury Range.
Scoped Rifle Metallic Silhouette Nats (RMS) 29^th Mar – 1^st Apr at SSAA Tas State Range Runnymede.

For the LAS shoot the team consisted of Mark Butler, Greg Norton, Mick Manini, Grace Manini 15YO (Open Junior) Sarah Manini 13YO (U15 Junior) Grace and Sarah both learned to shoot in the Youth Traning Scheme at Springvale. For Scoped RMS we had the same team with the addition of Colin Robinson Lever action kicked off with a practice day on 21^st for everyone to sight in and get their settings for the 3 different rifle classes being shot over the next 3 days, Rifle, Pistol Calibre Rifle and Smallbore rifle. This was an important day as there would be no sighting in sessions on the mornings of each shoot. The club provided a fantastic, cooked breakfast each morning and the weather gods smiled on us for the entirety with chilly mornings and beautiful sunny days. A total of 37 Shooters representing all states except NT along with a 3 member NZ team were in attendance.

Rifle Cal – Open sights off hand to 200m Mick Manini 2^nd A grade with a total of 40 Sarah Manini 1^st B Grade & 1^st U15 Junior with 39 Grace Manini 2^nd B Grade & 1^st Open Junior with 38 Mark Butler (44) Greg Norton (49) both AAA grade out of the placings

Pistol Cartridge Rifle – Open sights off hand to 100m Sarah Manini had a breakout day, shooting 55 to win A grade and a score that would have put her in first place in AA grade, she also took 1^st place in U15 Juniors. Sarah had a long run of 17 Consecutive Pigs. Grace Manini took first place in Open Juniors with a 36. Greg Norton (AAA) and Mark Butler (AAA) both had a 52 and Mick Manini (A) had a 37 to finish out of the placings in their respective grades.

Smallbore (22LR) – Open sights off hand to 100m The Manini girls got off to a bad start with a rifle failure and both lost their first ten targets, other members of the team stepped in to share their rifles with the girls, Sarah sharing with club captain Mark Butler and Grace with Greg Norton. Grace ended up having a good day (42), taking out first place in A grade and open Juniors after a shoot off against a member of the NZ team. Grace shot 5/5 in the shoot off to make sure she couldn’t be beaten. Sarah ended the day 2^nd in B grade and U15 Junior (36) but did shoot 10/10 Turkeys with Marks rifle, a feat many say has never happened before. Greg Norton (AAA) had a 57, Mark Butler (AAA) a 56 and Mick Manini (AA) a 37 to finish out of the placings in their respective grades. Sarah took out the 3-gun title for U15 and Grace took out the 3-gun title for open juniors. Sarah also won the Lightforce performance Lighting lucky shooter prize of a magnificent light bar. Consistently shooting good but not winning scores put Mark Butler into 9^th Place & Greg Norton into 8^th position overall, a respectable effort amongst Australia’s top LAS Shooters

Scoped RMS Nationals The scoped RMS nationals were held at the new Runnymede Tas State range with the silhouette range only finished a few days before the shoot, it was an absolute credit to the team that put it together. Practice day on the Thursday was busy with most shooters needing to dial in 5 rifles for the proceeding days, with the added bonus that there would be a short sight in period on the morning of each shoot. Day 1 Hunter Class, centrefire (to 500m off hand) Sarah Manini had never shot centrefire before and decided the day before she might give it a go. Mick offering her $50 if she shot 10 as an incentive, but thinking, no way, never. Well just to prove dad wrong and take the $50, she shot 10 with Grace’ s little 6.5 Grendel, also winning B grade and U15 along the way. Grace went in ungraded and shot her way into A grade with an 11 to take out Open Juniors Greg Norton came away with a 3^rd place in A grade with a 12. Hunter Class Rimfire (to 100m offhand) Greg Norton 1^st in A Grade (18) Grace Manini 1^st in B Grade (18) and Open Junior Sarah Manini 3^rd B Grade (9) and U15 Junior Day 2 – Centrefire (to 500m offhand) Sarah decided an 80-shot centrefire match might be a little too much and opted for a day shopping in Hobart with mum while the rest of the team battled it out. Mick Manini took 1^st place in B grade (20) Grace Manini took 1^st place in A grade (35) after a shoot off against fellow Victorian team member Colin Robinson who took the Silver. Grace also taking out open Juniors Greg Norton Ended the day with a 37 which was good enough to get the bronze in AA grade. Greg & Grace both losing several targets due to using a 6.5 Grendel which was struggling on the day to knock over the rams at 500m. Day 3 – Rimfire (to 100m offhand) Today was a good day for the Victorian Team, Sarah Manini shot a 42 to win A Grade and U15 Juniors, Grace Manini was third in AA grade (45) after yet another shoot off, this time dropping her guard to be beaten by the NZ Captain Eric Clausen. Grace won open Juniors Greg Norton shot a 53 to win the Silver in AAA grade and Colin Robinson shot a 61 to win AAA grade and equal with the 2^nd place getter in Masters grade. Day 4 – Air rifle (to 45yards offhand) Probably the Manini girls favourite event, but with more shooters in AA and AAA grades than any other, it was going to be a big ask, and true to form, both girls performed very well on the day, Grace shooting a PB of 57 to take 3^rd in AAA grade and 1^st in Open Junior. Sarah a bit off her best, shooting 51 to take 2^nd Place in AA grade and first in U15 Junior. Colin Robinson (M) shot a 61 & Greg Norton (M) shot a 57 to finish just out of the placings in Masters grade Both girls also won the Aggregate medals in their respective age groups Once again Greg Norton’s consistency placed him inside the top 10 with an 8^th place in the 5-gun Aggregate (Overall Placings) a top effort shooting against Australia & NZ best. Well done.

Anyone interested in becoming involved in Silhouette Shooting or the YTS program should email the secretary at msrc.secretary@gmail.com

Winchester Australia embrace unique opportunity that SHOT Expo brings to the shooting industry

Clive Pugh, CEO of Winchester Australia discusses the unique opportunity that SHOT Expo 2024 allows for shooters to engage directly with the shooting industry. [embed]https://youtu.be/8J8ZSq1amas[/embed]

“No frills” State budget delivers funding for the Great Outdoors Taskforce, honours commitment to duck hunting and offers a reprieve for the fox bounty

SSAA Victoria joined other special interest groups in the “budget lockup” yesterday to be briefed by the Premier, the Deputy Premier, the Assistant Treasurer and Government officials on the 2024 Victorian State Budget. As widely anticipated, this was a “no frills” budget that served very much as a reset for a Government coming out of the COVID era and facing an election in two years with a new Premier. The future management of public land is a ‘hot button’ issue for hunters, with a VEAC investigation into the Central Highlands putting access for deer hunting (notably hound hunting) under a cloud. SSAA Victoria was encouraged by the announcement of a “Great Outdoors Taskforce” five weeks ago. The taskforce will conduct a more holistic and strategic review of public land use in Victoria. Minister Dimopoulos said at the time, “The end of native timber harvesting presents a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to design new ways of caring for our forests while giving Victorians more opportunities to enjoy the great outdoors”. Yesterday’s budget reinforces this commitment by funding the new taskforce. The budget papers reiterate that hunting access is a key part of the new taskforce's scope. In late January, the Government announced that duck hunting would continue in Victoria under changed conditions, including implementing an adaptive harvest model to set seasons and introducing some new rules for hunters. The budget supported this commitment with allocations totalling $12 million over the next three years. The budget also offers a reprieve for the fox bounty program, extending funding until 30 June 2025. Numerous programs that have previously supported shooting and hunting in Victoria either were not continued or not renewed in the State Budget. The Shooting Sports Facilities Program, which provided much-needed infrastructure funding for shooting clubs across the State, has now completely exhausted its funding with no new allocations. The second Sustainable Hunting Action, funded from 2020 to 2024, has also reached the end of its life, as has the deeply flawed and controversial Deer Control Strategy. As the leading shooting and hunting organisation in Victoria, SSAA Victoria takes an active role in the State Budget process, working with Ministers and Departments annually to advocate for budget initiatives to support shooting and hunting. The Association will continue to advocate for funding for shooting sports facilities for all clubs, for proactive initiatives such as the Sustainable Hunting Action Plan and for programs that bring society and the shooting and hunting communities closer together, such as the Hunters for the Hungry program.

Compliance data shows that antis can talk the talk, but cannot walk the walk

Today, the Game Management Authority (GMA) released the compliance data from the 2024 duck season. The data shows a high level of compliance amongst the duck hunting community. With more than twice the number of patrols as last year, the number of infringements by hunters detected did not increase statistically. As we reported at the beginning of the season in April, however, the incidence of illegal behaviour amongst the anti-hunting activists increased markedly. In 2023, two banning notices were issued to anti-hunting activists. In 2024, that number was twenty-two. Through the changes announced by the Victorian Government in January, the hunting community has committed to continuous improvement. There is a sad irony that the people who campaign to end hunting on the premise that hunters do not follow the law have demonstrated so compellingly this year that they can talk the talk, but they cannot walk the walk.

Activity	2023	2024
Total number of wetland and waterway patrols	216	511
Game and firearms licences checked	1,212	1,572
Hunter bags checked	981	1,213
Hunters who had over-bagged	2	0
Banning notices issued	2	22

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