December has seen the wrapping up of yet another successful year for AACTS’ Black Powder target shooters with the completion of a number of different disciplines and annual championships.
The 2004 Silver Bullet Knockout was won by Michael Garzia, runner-up was Malcolm Bonnici while George Annati finished third after a shoot off with Michael Risiott.
The AACTS 24-Shot 2004 Championship was won by John Cassar with 203 points, runner-up was Steve Thornton with 178 points, while Anthony Micallef finished third with 122 points.
A DTL clay pigeon Christmas shoot for AACTS members was also held in very windy conditions. This was won by John Cassar with 23 clays broken, second placed was Ron Soler with 18 clays after a shoot off with Charles Giuliano who finished third overall.
During 2005 AACTS will be working to promote Black Powder Clay shooting MLAIC Rules. Members on the AACTS Clay Pigeon Sub-committee hope that some of the many excellent local clay pigeon shooters take up this demanding but extremely satisfying discipline and that they will be able to represent Malta at the next MLAIC Zone Championship which will be held in Germany next August.
Frederick Bowman, a very promising and talented target shooter and John Cassar have also participated also in the UK based MLAGB 2004 Summer/Autumn Postal Competition.
Another important achievement during 2004 worth mentioning is that last August, for the first time in our history, Malta has finally participated in an MLAIC World Championship.
AACTS are happy to announce that a new exciting muzzle loading shooting discipline has been introduced.
This is known as ‘Historic Revolver’, where local shooters will be able to measure themselves against their British counterparts in this discipline as well. 2005 will hopefully see the introduction of flintlock long arms target shooting as well.
During November of 2004, five AACTS members have successfully completed a Range Conducting Officer’s course run by the Armed Forces of Malta. Lt Mark Mallia AFM held and examined the prospective RCOs. The newly qualified Range Conducting Officers are: Charles Giuliano, Luigi Cassar Manghi, Anthony Micallef, Julian Sultana and Michael Risiott.