Locked and loaded: Ricky Keirl was excited when he heard his club had received a huge grant to replace 11 older automatic target throwers (traps). Photos: Shannon Colee
Photo by
Shannon Colee
Shooters in the region have something to look forward to after Echuca Moama Field and Game had a grant worth almost $50,000 approved.
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The club will use the NSW Safe Shooting grant to replace 11 older automatic target throwers (traps) to assist the club to grow, thrive and enhance the sport of clay target shooting.
A total of $48,200 was approved by the Minister for Sport in July 2023 for the Murray River facility.
“The new traps are a lot more improved and a lot more safer to use. So we’re now going to decommission a few of the older traps we’ve got,” club president Ricky Keirl said.
“They still work, but for safety reasons, if you get the opportunity to keep up with the times, you should.
Good shot: Ricky Keirl says the new traps will have improved safety features.
Photo by
Shannon Colee
“(The grant) virtually only covered the traps. As a club, we’re going to have to build the trailers that all these new traps will go on. That will be done with our volunteers.”
Getting grants for the club has been challenging due to the nature of being attached to a border twin town.
“We can’t get most Victorian grants because our grounds are in Moama, but we feel like we get passed on a lot of NSW grants because we’re an Echuca Moama club,” he said.
“We got some help wording it all right, and it was just really great to finally get a grant like this after so long having them rejected.”
Mr Kierl said the club was excited about the new year, especially since this was the first grant application out of 24 to be approved by the NSW Government.
“There was a big cheer when I brought it up at the meeting. Everyone was just so happy to get the news,” he said.
“We’ve put in for a lot of grants over the years, and then we probably went for five, six years where the club had sort of given up, so getting this grant now means a lot to everyone.”
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