Pistol club reloads after lockdown

Shoots and safety courses resume for a Banana Shire pistol club keen to make an impact

OPEN FIRE: The Callide Dawson Pistol Club will resume activities this weekend with a shoot.

PISTOL shooters in the region have been given welcome news with a pistol club reusing activities.

The Callide Dawson Pistol Club will hold its first shoot this weekend since the start of the COVID lockdown in March.

Club committee member Paul Fowkes said that June 27 and 28 have also been set as tentative dates to restart the weapons safety course as well.

"In the last five to six years we've put 700-800 people through the courses and it's vital to our income," Fowkes said.

"We've been turning people away in their droves because we couldn't guarantee what was going on with options to do the training

"The way we see it everything is back on sporting wise and at school and we have plenty of room to maintain social distancing."

Pistol Shooting Queensland's return to shooting checklist says that committee's need to decide on how to manage no more than 20 members per session and how

members will book in.

Fowkes said that the details of this weekend's shoot haven't been confirmed yet but it is likely to be a standard shoot with rapid fire or service match.

"We are a simple club operating at a facility divided into six to seven areas," Fowkes said.

"We don't envisage having a mad rush out there but some bigger clubs may well do.

"This weekend is a matter of getting the numbers back and people needing to get the number of shoots they need in for their weapons license."

The club has stocked up on hand sanitiser, disposable ear plugs and shooting glasses as a few of the measures needed to conduct COVID safe shoots.

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