In the quickly gathering dusk of an early winters evening, those hardy Super City shooters were determined to finish the last pistol stage. With a very tricky shotgun stage still to go, the local boys were starting to wonder?? Enough they cried, so we pitched in and put all the props away. Having a beer in the dark now, with a few torches nervously seeking out the strange noises coming down from the black surrounding forest. We all decided to call it a day and go home.
It had all started on Friday when we started to put the match together, as it was the APC who had stuck a hand up to organize, we worked around Jon, Alex and co who did the pistol and rifle. Ron, Dan and Don did the shotgun stages, there was a total of six pretty good and varied stages.
With an advertised 11.00 am start, those driving from the Super City had time for brunch before leaving. Eventually there were 19 or 20 shooters lined up and rearing to go, so two squads were formed. It was very pleasing to see several junior shooters making the effort, good on you lads!!
Range One was set up with a challenging rifle stage, utilizing 4 steel targets at the 150m mark, and classic targets closer in, the shooter started off the bench to engage the steel then moved forward to some strong-weak hand from a barricade at 50m classics, prone at the steel and another change of position to sitting or kneeling at the steel, pick the bones up and move forward to finish 4 close in classics and a rather out of breath blast at the steel. It will be real interesting to see those results!
Range Three had a shotgun stage that was quite straight-forward in principal, 18 of the ipsc small square steel, 2 large poppers at 50m for slugs and 1 small popper to activate a couple of rather lazy clays. The trouble was some old coot had hidden things, under and around, well it was decided that the old coot would be first up. You know that joke about oldies forgetting things?? Well it is true, ask Ron. Anyway everybody else enjoyed the challenge. Rather a pity that the Super City squad missed out on the fun.
Range Four was a pistol stage which looked good but we [ squad one] ran out of light and didn’t get a crack at it.
The Darkhouse had an all classic target course set in and around, to be shot with both rifle and pistol, it proved to be a good fast stage enjoyed by all, 28 rounds and close shooting, Paul is still muttering about the use of one target partly obscured with hard cover, the G3 plonked two rounds neatly in the black. Going from the outside light into the dark is definitely a trick for tired old eyes. Didn’t get to talk to anyone on the other squad as to what they thought about it, maybe the scores will reveal all.
Ranges 12,13 and 14 had a good open shotgun stage. Starting with a couple of slugs on 40m classic cards then about 20 steel poppers of varying size and colour scattered around and a chance to do some pighunting with your 00buck. Don and Darryl had a blast with the new open class custom Saigas, these babies will change the way things happen in that division!! A good tip is to make sure you have some heavier game loads on hand for a stage like this, as it is rather disappointing if a target doesn’t drop as it should, I know according to the rules steel should be factored------but.
Well that is briefly it, the big lesson to be learned after today is simply get A into G a bit earlier in the morning, there is a load of fun to be had in these one day shoots. Next time, get that buddy who is thinking about 3 gun shooting to come along and have a go, or even a part of a go. Gun sharing can be easily sorted.
The Rotorua Pistol club thanks all those who went to the trouble and expense to come to our range and we hope to see you again soon
A reduced Speed Match was held on Sat 8th May, We shot the first 5 of the 7 Speed Stages, as usual it was a very enjoyable day, fast and easy to set up, great to watch and even better to shoot. results below, photos to come
Organizedby the good folk at Auckland Pistol Club, and held at our range, it attracted shooters from a wide area. The concept was two stages each of pistol, rifle and shotgun designed to introducepeople to the challenge. A basic classing of open or standard, kept the scoring from becoming too complex. Cyrus and John had travelled down the day before and had stage building well under way, we camped the night at the range to save travel and costs, the Moreporks etc kept us company. Up bright and early to ensure everything was ready, with more help arriving, and the day gradually starting to warm up as shooters turned up. Deb.pretty soon had collected a modest entry fee and had three squads organized, each to start with either pistol, rifle or shottie. A very good lesson to be learnt early in the day for me anyway, sort out the exact meaning of the stage instructions, if they are ambiguous it can cost you a lot of points. Both the shotgun stages required four solid slugs at paper targets and birdshot at steel plates whilst moving through the course of fire. Should be easy right? Not necessarily so!! Surprising how those little plates could remain standing if you had an open choke and no.7 shot trap loads. A hint for standard class shotgunners; work out a good way to speed up your re- loadingSimon had some neat little clips that held 4 cartridges, that is a good handful for most people, they are all facing the right way and with practice it will cut valuable seconds off your times. Our squad all enjoyed having a blast, although there was some under the breath muttering on range 2 at those elusive little squares hiding behind tyres or drums.
Next we were onto the rifles on range one, A mixture of paper targets at 40m and three of Mark McKendrys wonderful self indicating steel disks atthe 100m mark and a very generous stop plate at 150m. All to be engaged from four different ports. Twenty rounds neat, IF I repeat IF you knew your zero. It is rather frustrating missing targets like those discs because your rifle is not shooting exactly where you point it. Standard shooters have an even more difficult time with open sights. A good tip is to
figure out during your walkthrough, how to make yourself as comfortable and steady at each position and economize your movements. Weigh up your time factor if you run into trouble with missing repeatedly a steel target. The next rifle stage meant a bit of a balancing act while walking along two planks and engaging targets on either side, a compulsory mag change then onto that damnedable suspended wobbly cage thing that definitely should never have been brought south of the Bombay hills to engage paper targets peeping through a maze of drums. A good challenging stage I must admit, with some people doing better than others of course!
On range three a neat pistol stage with a good amount of movement [ some of it back uprange ] it had static paper targets, two drop-turn paper activated by poppers then angle back quickly to take 3 steel plates. Not an easy shoot for the geriatrics among us. A good point to make here and that is that less experienced shooters, MUST practice what they have been told about moving with trigger fingers well outside the trigger guard, and muzzle direction. A mistake on most ranges can suddenly turn a fun day out into getting DQ’d and shown the gate. The last pistol stage involved moving directly down range from box to box and engaging paper targets at close range as they appeared from behind drums. The nimble ones made it look easy and clocked some good times. Get careless once on a run like this and the good old 180 break will spoil your day.
The big trouble with all of these type of matches is that you only get to see how your own squad goes, it would be interesting to have the time to observe just what the others get up to, but then I guess the computer at the end of the day exposes all.
I am sure that everyone enjoyed the day,and went home reasonably satisfied with their efforts. The Rotorua club will definitely be promoting more Three Gun shooting as we have done for a long long time, about 20 years in fact. I would like to thank, on behalf of our club, all those took the time and made the effort to come and enjoy our valley. We hope you will come backRon
Club IPSC Day 16-01-10 17/01/10
Club IPSC Training Day, Saturday 16-1-10
A beautiful Saturday morning saw a group of shooters from Kaimai and Rotorua arrive at the range and set up 3 stages. From tyro to master grade, with a few oldies in between, we spent some time looking and talking about the very aspects of each stage that would [theoretically anyway] improve our scores. As we each shot the stage, we found out that theory and results are not necessarily always one and the same. Shooting while moving was one aspect our coach wanted to emphasize, as it can greatly improve times, also the way to approach ports, engage the targets, then move on. The need to economise on your footwork was also stressed! Attention to your sight picture is so important, as misses do cost you a lot of time. That little yellow timer always seems to me anyway that it is turning over the seconds WAY WAY too fast!!
We all had an enjoyable few hours, with a nice picnic lunch, then put all the props away and a tidy up. Off away from the valley to the mundane life that awaits -------
Hope to see you next time.
Service Pistol Nationals 2009 Taupo 18/11/09
Congratulations to Ron and Greg who placed highly at the 2009 Service Pistol Nationals held in Taupo.
The 2009 IPSC Nationals hosted by the Rotorua Pistol Club on the 13th November has been a huge success, With over 170 shooters it has been one of the biggest National IPSC Events in recent times, Congratulations to Greg who won the NZ Production Class Title
