Every year for the last 4 years Sports adventure shooting www.sportsadvenutureshoooting.co.za and Gunsite www.gunsite.co.za have travelled up to Ellisras to run a handgun range for the Firearms Festival sponsored by Tamboti Toyota.

This year www.tacqm.co.za got involved too.

2014 is the 15th annual EFF and it is a privilege to assist Doc Willie Barnard in the event.

Unfortunately many of our regular volunteers aka ‘Buller’s Bastid’s’ (A motley crew of Rooineke, Souties and Hendsoppers) were otherwise occupied.

I had resigned myself to running the range on my own. It is a ton of work for a group let alone an individual. It was a depressing thought, but I did not want to let Doc and his team down.

At the last minute Tracer from crb jewellers confirmed he could make it!
Tracer is a great guy. Aside from running crb jewellers, he volunteers (unpaid) with SA Rescue and has been deployed to the Philippines to assist with search and recovery.

The purpose of Sas/Gunsite/TacQM supporting the Festival is that it is a form of community service.

We share our skills with others and promote responsible firearms ownership. Think back to an individual who introduced you to the wonderful world of firearms, well, this is the Sas version of payback and pay-it-forward.

As the Festival is held in a bush veldt environment the focus is primarily on bolt action rifle shooting-hunting.

I am pleased to report that our efforts over the last few years the interest in handguns and has been on the increase. The first few years saw a calibres ranging from .22lr semi auto target pistols 9mm short etc. to 38 Special and 44mag Revolver! However this year would be different. More on this later.

On arrival on the Friday afternoon we came across the impressive sight of Doc Willie lying behind a cannon sighting it at a plate 50m distant!

A loud BOOM! And the not unpleasant smell of Black Powder wafted in our direction…..
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I knew then that this Ellisras Firearms Festival was going to be awesome!

It took Tracer and I two hours to set up our range. Doc Willie had built additional ranges to accommodate the additional shoots and the Sas handgun range had been cleared. In fact it the range had been broadened and the side walls extended and raised.

Understand that Doc does this at his own expense. However it was not all roses and tulips: The surface is thick dry soft sand, not dissimilar from beach sand.

Whilst such a surface is perfect for female beach volley ball, it is not conducive to Range Officers with day jobs….