Shooter John Radford, 73, at his Coffs Harbour home with his shooting trophy.

Shooter John Radford, 73, at his Coffs Harbour home with his shooting trophy. Bruce Thomas

COFFS Harbour shooter John Radford capped a remarkable sporting career by winning the Australian title for rimfire benchrest shooting in Sydney over the weekend.

What makes the achievement so remarkable, however, is that Radford is 73 years old.

Old enough to be the grandfather of some of his competitors, Radford held his nerve to beat a field of 43 hopefuls, including the current Australian champion and Australian representative team members.

For his effort he was selected in the Australian team for the world championships to be held in Brisbane in May.

"The event produced the closest and highest-scoring match ever seen at an Australian championship," Radford said.

"I actually broke two Australian records to win the event and hold off the other competitors."

The competitors had to shoot a total of six targets over two days, with a possible score of 1500 points available should the marksmen hit all 150 bullseyes.

Radford scored an incredible 1491 points, with 76 centre dots, after getting away to a brilliant start by hitting 748 points out of 750 possible in the first half of the event.

"I shot three separate perfect lots of 250 out of 250, which I was very proud of," Radford said.

"This is the fifth Australian shooting title I've won.

"In my younger days I also won state titles in speedboat racing and water skiing," he said.

Radford has competed in the world shooting championships once before, in 1993, where he finished eighth in the 200-yard Light Varmint event in Finland.

Almost 20 years later, he is still living proof that sometimes experience is more valuable than youth in sport.