SSAA Illawarra in Wollongong, New South Wales | Shooting/hunting range

SSAA Illawarra

Locality: Wollongong, New South Wales

Phone: +61 448 120 932

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• Sport & recreation
• Shooting/hunting range

25.01.2022 This is a tale of madness and dealing with Wollongong city local council! Several weeks ago the Wollongong Lord Mayor was heard on ABC Illawarra radio talking about the issue of deer in the escarpment and how expensive it was to remove them. Fast forward a few days and the club secretary wrote to Wollongong city council as shown below- ... I heard your recent ABC radio talk where you discussed the increasing deer problem on the escarpment & that council found the deer culling methods too expensive. We represent a local sports shooting club, namely Sporting Shooters Association of Australia, Illawarra Branch, with over 1700 local members. Our committee would welcome the opportunity to discuss the services our club could provide in assisting with reducing the deer populations on the escarpment. We are aware of the limitations with shooting close to residential areas, however, we have had experience working with the local Police, National Parks & the DPI. Our club cannot take a fee for this service, however, we would require assistance disposing of the remains. We are able to accept donations, as we’ve assisted Wollongong City Council in the past with the Clean Up Campaigns. We would like the opportunity to meet with you & your staff to discuss further. The response was at best pedestrian and just highlights how LAZY WCC really are, you can see their response below! The Lord Mayor has suggested that you contact the South East Local Land Services as any deer culling operations under the Illawarra Wild Deer Management Program is run by them. This program uses professional contractors due to the risk and animal welfare issues involved. So in other words the Lord Mayor has once again been caught out having a big whinge and has been caught buck passing (pardon the pun) council don’t want to deal with the issue but want the state government to deal with it and have contractors come in at massive rates and shoot the deer. Those who are in the know are aware that this is generally done out of a helicopter in excess of 10 THOUSAND dollars an hour PLUS. Don’t be fooled by the Lord Mayor and his fake tears it’s all a show and they know it

23.01.2022 Head over to the NSW DPI Hunting page and tell them who introduced you to hunting

23.01.2022 Good morning all, As many of us know and if you have forgotten Fathers day is not to far away. The Illawarra branch has decided that this year we will be running a fathers day special for all the members. As branch President i am very pleased to say that the next club shoot at Hill Top is the Presidents trophy shoot, at this stage we are allowed some 26 shooters, and the best part is that the club will be paying for half of your range fees on the day, this means that what eve...r you would normally pay the branch will cover 50% of your fees Peter Bryce and Myself have also agreed that from the 01st of September till the 14th of September we will be conducting all courses at 50% of the normal course cost. If you are a parent and would like to have your child accredited i also run after school classes, bookings are required. This has never been done before myself and the branch committee appreciate all the support from the members and we would like to take this opportunity to give something back to the members. Spaces at Hill Top are EXTREMELY LIMITED, if you are wanting to attend the President's trophy shoot i suggest you email Peter Bryce at [email protected] and book your spot quickly. See more

21.01.2022 Hi all, random question. How do you all go polishing spent cases, they have been vibrating in media for 24hrs and are now free of powder burn. Can you throw them in an ultrasonic cleaner to polish them up or do you use something else?

17.01.2022 30/12/2020 SSAA NSW Illawarra Branch Members / Law abiding firearm owners NSW Arbitrary decisions made by Firearms Registry ... Dear all, I have been in phone contact with the NSW Police Firearms registry this morning regarding their arbitrary decision in banning the Adler and Berika Shotguns. In my conversation with the FAR I have been informed of the following. The below information backs up what the SSAA ILLAWARRA Branch and the National Shooting Council have been advising over the last few days. The FAR is not and will not be releasing any written documentation regarding the issue of the Berika and Adler straight pull shotguns until the upper management of the FAR decide to do so. (When this will take place is anyone’s guess.) The FAR are advises that the Berika Black Op’s and it’s variants along with the Adler B230T and Adler TFDE are currently NOT banned in NSW, however the sale of these firearms is currently being stopped under ITEM 7. The FAR have also advised that these firearms are NOT being reclassified and the NSWPF have the right to put these firearms into any section they choose fit. (This is what we as firearm owners know as a shadow ban) The Berika Black op’s and Adler B230T and Adler TFDE are currently being subjected to Item 7, which prohibits any firearm that substantially duplicates in appearance (regardless of calibre or manner of operation) The FAR have advised me that the sale of these firearms is currently being prohibited to NSW owners under Item 7, the FAR have further advised that the issue is with the appearance of the firearm not the functionality. The FAR have also confirmed that the ballistic identification service of the NSW Police force have determined that this item falls foul of ITEM 7. The FAR has also have stated that the current ban is in enforce in NSW at this moment and that as long as the NSW dealer has a permit to sell the firearm under item 7 of the Firearms ACT, they can sell the firearm to any dealer in another state. When questioned as to whether the aforementioned firearms will have to be surrendered the FAR could not answer this and only would say that it is up to the Police Commissioner. When questioned if a buy back was going to be ordered again the FAR refused to answer and referred all questions back to the Police Commissioner. When questioned if the Firearms would be subjected to the Grandfather Clause the FAR again refused to answer the question and referred to the Police Commissioner. Again, our research has determined NSW Police are banning the gun simply because it looks scary, as we cannot fathom how the gun would possibly fall afoul of Schedule 1 - it is manually operated, based on a manually-operated sporting design, and is not used in any variant by any military force in the world. We are perplexed as to how the NSW Police BIS can classify these firearms under ITEM 7 when they have been on sale for over 12 months and that the Berika Black Op’s was recently stopped at the border by Australian Border Force with a large number of these firearms having to have their lower platforms changed along with their magazines, these firearms were than allowed to clear the border and were deemed fit for sale The Information we received today also backs up our previous statement that dealers in NSW have been advised they are no longer allowed to sell the Adler B230 shotguns, but no information has been provided as to whether existing owners of these shotguns will be allowed to retain them. Again If you have been affected by this change I encourage you to contact the Illawarra branch ASAP, we are also encouraging those affected to apply for a NCAT hearing to stop this arbitrary decision being made without due thought or process. Kind regards Chris Sainsbury President SSAA (NSW) Illawarra branch

13.01.2022 With a week to go to the end of winter what else should you do than head out and hit up the NSW State Forest, as you can see not a cloud in sight and the weather has turned on a show.

13.01.2022 How good do these look? It will be interesting to see the price point of these when they come out

11.01.2022 A big congratulations to all of the SSAA NSW Branches, I do know that as a branch we are helping to contribute to this, as a branch we are pushing 1700 members.

10.01.2022 A big shout out to our range captain John Locke, John bought this rifle from one of our now deceased members Gunter, I never had the honour of meeting Gunter but everyone you speak to speaks highly of him. I was given the opportunity to purchase Gunters old Bruno 308 by John, the rifle has lots of sentimental value and ties back to our branch, it will now sit in my collection with my other prized pieces, I look forward to taking this beauty out into the forest soon and doing exactly what Gunter would love to see it do best take down big deer.

10.01.2022 R-Licensed hunters - don’t book unless you intend to hunt and cancel if you can’t make it. Keep the system fair for everyone! Complaints about booked out forest...s with no one on the ground are increasing. As a result, your intention to hunt is now covered by a general written permission condition, which means breaching this condition is an offence and a range of penalties may apply. Let's keep the system open for all R-Licence hunters who are lucky enough to find time to hunt! Read the revised written permission conditions on our website - www.dpi.nsw.gov.au//permission-conditions-hunting-in-nsw-s

07.01.2022 A big thank you to Emma & Jai from SSAA NSW, the branch now has a spot on the NEW SSAA NSW website. Be sure to keep an eye out on the branch website as well as it is currently being revamped. https://ssaansw.org.au/branches-port/ssaa-illawarra/

07.01.2022 I'm writing on behalf of the Sporting Shooters Association of Australia (NSW) Illawarra Branch and it’s 1700+ members to express our deep concern at the changes in wording on the Permit To Acquire Application Form currently located on the Service NSW website as it relates to the 'Good Reason' for acquiring a firearm. We note that in recent weeks the wording 'Good Reason' to acquire a firearm has been changed to "Appropriate calibre, category, or actuation for target animal" ... Notwithstanding the wording of this change it does not seem to reflect normal public service writing style guidelines, our initial concern is, and we've shared that concern to many NSW hunting/shooting organisations, is that such wording points squarely at and opens the door to future restrictions on the legal ownership of multiple firearms of the same calibre/category. Given that firearm licenses in NSW and around Australia are based around a genuine need and category requirement, why is it that law abiding firearm owners are then required to justify a good reason when they have already been granted a firearms license? this is simply unnecessary and more red tape. Of further concern to many of the members of the SSAA Illawarra Branch and that of many other associations, we note that NO changes have been made to the wording of the Firearms Act 1996 in particular No.46, point 31 (3) (c) that would justify any changes to the wording of the Permit To Acquire application, this indicates to us that someone, somewhere is making changes without legislative approval? With all this in mind we strongly urge that the wording on the Permit To Acquire Application as it now appears on the Service NSW website be changed back to reflect the Firearms Act 1996 No.46, point31 (3) (c) that we are all obliged to abide by. Kind Regards, Christopher Sainsbury President Sporting Shooters Association of Australia (NSW) Illawarra Branch

05.01.2022 Good news shooters we are about to kick the New year off with a bang! Today I will be launching our GIPA requests with the Firearms Registry in regard to the Berika and Adler bans! This week I will be also making appointments with numerous local members and be putting the screws on them as to why it's taking in excess of 12 months for licence applications, I will be also be speaking with these local members about the ridiculous Military appearance laws, Deer management and wh...at part LLS is playing in all this. I will also be making contact with the Illawarra licensing sergeant this week in regard to safe storage requirements and all things pertinent to us. Safe Shooting courses will be back up.and running very shortly so if you know anyone who would like to get into the shooting sports please feel free to let Peter Bryce or myself know, all courses are run by appointment only and are socially distanced. Shooting resumes back up at the Hill Top range and we hear that the 800m range will be back up and running in no time! If Covid manages to bugger off by the middle of the year we might just might be lucky enough to book the 800m range for a full day of long range shooting! I have heaps more planned for 2021 including the SSAA Old boys day and possibly a trip up to the Lithgow Arms museum. It looks like 2021 is going to be a cracking year (no pun intended) Chris Sainsbury President SSAA Illawarra

05.01.2022 Handy bit advice thanks to the NSW DPI Hunting

04.01.2022 Today saw the President’s trophy shoot at Hill Top, the weather wasn’t bad to begin with but the wind picked up progressively throughout the day with the day winding up being a wash out with freezing cold rain and wind to match it. A big thank you to all the members who turned up and took advantage of the Father’s Day special, those members got to shoot for half the normal price with the club paying the remainder. We had three clear winners today with the SSAA Range captain s...neaking in to win it by a very small margin. We will be back at Hill Top in Two weeks for the clubs group rimfire championship now known as the Ali Ambs trophy, we expect a good turnout for this event and look forward to seeing many of you up there. Peter Bryce and myself are in the final stages of securing a venue for a hunting night and we hope to announce it sometime next week. We look forward to seeing you all very shortly.

03.01.2022 Ali Ambs Trophy - I can tell you chairs were thrown around, paper was sent flying and, competitors gear was thrown around the range and a brown dog was almost blown of its chain in the wind and that was all before we got halfway through the day! Well today really sought the competitors at the Hill Top Range, a few brave souls well just over twenty of us braved what one could describe as blizzard like conditions at the range and duel it out for the Ali Ambs trophy, the legend... himself Ali Ambs was present and it was fantastic to see him come attend this shoot in its innagrual year. Whilst the overall winner was not announced today due to wind tearing the place apart we will have a winner soon. A big thank you to Peter Bryce, John Locke and of course Ali Ambs for today’s shoot and of course the other competitors who braved the conditions. The next shoot is the 200m rimfire FLY shoot which will be held on the 500m range. We also have the first hunting of the night of year on October 11th at Towradgi, there will be a SSAA Illawarra first ever announcement. We will also be announcing a very special line up for the November Hunting night and this one will be one you will not want to miss out on! Look forward to seeing you all out on the range or at our next meeting at Towradgi

02.01.2022 Evening all, I’m looking at organising a state forest hunt for the members, we are looking at booking One of the following forest forests, Gurnag, Vulcan or Pennsylvania. The hunt will be over Saturday, Sunday and possibly Saturday night for those who hunt with Dogs... Accomodation is available is at Oberon with costs to be worked out alternatively we can free camp in the forest. Dates are yet to be confirmed but will be in the 6-8 weeks. Spots are extremely limited and a current R License is crucial to be apart of this hunt. If you do not have an R license please contact myself or Peter Bryce to see obtain one. If you are interested in being part of the hunt please message the page and we will be in contact with you to finalise details

01.01.2022 Hi all For sale $150-... Listed on behalf of a member. In as new" condition in the original box. I can probably even deliver. It's the one with the removable plug to drain media, leaving your cases easy to remove. Distinct from the std model where you have to sift the media out to separate cases. It comes with media in plus another fill of new media. Let me know if you are interested or know anybody who might be. No need to reply if not interested. If interested details of seller will be provided