All guns blazing for Bendigo sisters

The Bendigo teenagers are hitting their targets and bringing home medals, sashes, prizemoney - even a new rifle - from meets across Victoria and interstate.

Matisse was the first to take aim as part of Catholic College Bendigo’s shooting team last August.

“She came home from school and said to her dad, there’s a sign-up sheet for trap shooting... but the competition is in two weeks, so you’d better teach me how to do it,” says mum Tarnya.

Dad Matthew borrowed a portable clay target thrower from his brother and gave his daughter a crash-course in what to do.

She represented CCB at the Zorth East Zone inter-school shoot in Echuca a fortnight later and finished second in the junior girls section after a shoot-off for first.

“It was so nerve-wracking,” the 14-year-old recalls.

“When you missed, the whole crowd would just go ‘oooh’; and when you hit a target, they’d scream and cheer.”

Matisse’s success at the school event led to an invitiation to join the Bendigo Bank Academy of Sport clay target squad and be coached by experienced international shooter Steve Atkins.

It didn’t take long before older sister Sarah wanted to get in on the act - and she, too, was quick to experience success.

Both girls have held junior firearm licences since the age of 12, but their shooting activities had been limited to firing the occasional round at their nan’s farm at Powlett, near Inglewood.

“Matt comes from a large shooting family and has grown up with it,” Tarnya explains. 

“So we decided the girls should get their permits because they are in a family that has guns around and we wanted them to learn about firearms safety.

“I am from Melbourne so it’s not something I was into, but I have had to get my shooter’s licence too, just so I can drive the girls and their guns around in the car!”

The Appleby girls have joined the Bendigo Gun Club with their dad and train at its Woodvale range on Tuesdays.

Their competition results in such a short time in the sport have attracted plenty of attention.

At the 2015 national trap championships in Wagga, the pair contested the champion of champions category and  Matisse won silver in C-grade while Sarah claimed B-grade bronze. 

Matisse also earned herself $600 and the overall C-grade high gun award at a shoot in Hay, NSW.

They were both successful at the three-day Commonwealth Carnival in Echuca in May, with Matisse winning the B-grade single-barrel and Sarah taking out the ladies and junior handicap prizes, finishing second overall on handicap and picking up bronze in the B-grade double barrel.

More recently, they contested the Bendigo club’s Queen’s Birthday shoot, Sarah won the A-grade and overall ladies double barrel events and was the second-placed junior overall behind a New South Wales state team member, who won a shoot-off.

Fifteen-year-old Sarah shot 161/170 for the entire day - not bad for a “beginner” gun.

Part of her prize was Puma .22 rifle, but she’s not allowed to own it because she is underage, so it is being registered to her father.

Clay target shooting is an expensive sport - both girls use Miroku Mk10 trap guns worth about $2500 each and competition fees can be as high as $300 for a multi-day meet.

Then comes the shells.

“These girls wouldn’t be shooting today if it wasn’t for our family friends, Brendan and Jenny Coates, who run Glen Avon Feedlot in Balranald,” said Matthew Appleby.

“They sponsor the girls for their shotgun shells. 

“To put it in perspective, Matisse would have fired off 45-50 slabs of shells since she started and that would be worth about $3000. Sarah would be up to 25 slabs.

“We just couldn’t afford it if it wasn’t for Brendan and Jenny. She was a really good field and game shooter and was on an Australian team so she knows how expensive it is and doesn’t want our girls to stop because of a lack of funds.

“They’re both so supportive and are very proud of the kids.” 

Tarnya and Matthew joke that they will be completely broke by the time youngest child Lachlan, 11, starts shooting (though he apparently wants to take up motor-cross instead!)

The sisters have developed very different shooting styles - Matisse is quick to say “pull” but slower to shoot; Sarah takes her time on the call but is faster on the trigger.

“Because of this,” says their mum, “Matisse is better at single barrel and Sarah is better at double barrel because if she misses her first shot, she’ll usually get the target with the second.”

Sarah has been elevated into A-grade and Matisse now shoots in B-grade, though their percentages are often very close.

The pair hope to one day take aim for their country at Commonwealth or Olympic games and have many role models helping them along their journey.

Past and present national representatives who have offered them guidance and advice include Bendigo sharp-shooter Glenn Woodhatch, La Trobe University student Emma Cox and world cup gold medallists Renae Birgan and Laetisha Scanlan.

The Applebys recently attended a junior development day run by the Victorian Clay Target Association and featuring Aussie champions mentoring rising stars in small groups.

Scanlan told Matisse she had great technique, showed her how to improve it by dropping her elbow, and gave the youngster her personal phone number to call if she needed future advice.

Birgan helped tweak Sarah’s stance and offered to give her ongoing coaching.

Expert input is vital, says Matthew, because shooters shown the correct technique from the start improve quickly, while those who develop bad habits struggle to better their scores.

The girls are honing their skills in readiness for this year’s school shooting competition in August, as well as state titles later in the year.

“The hardest thing for me when I first started was dropping targets,” Sarah says.

“I thought it would be easy, but I’d get so frustrated when I dropped one because I am so competitive.

“Most of my friends think what I’m doing is pretty cool - and my teachers definitely think it’s cool.”

They both love being involved in a sport not traditionally associated with females, where age is no barrier to success and every competition provides a real blast.

“I really like it when I get into a shoot-off with older men and beat them - especially when you know how long they’ve been doing it for,” says Sarah.

Matisse sums her feelings up simply: “I just like it when my shot turns the clay to dust”.