Hihitahi Challenge 2016

I am very pleased to announce the date for the 2016 Hihitahi Challenge. The Challenge will be held on Saturday the 23rd of January, 2016. The 2016 event will be very similar to this year’s event with a few notable changes to improve the running of on the day. The event will still include hiking, basic navigation, shooting, distance estimation, flora & fauna identification, first aid, observation and we will see about throwing in some new activities again as well. This will be the major event on our competition calendar for 2016.

We were extremely well supported with sponsors this year (more prizes than we had competitors!). We will be approaching sponsors again for prizes for the 2016 event. If you know someone or a business that might be interested in supporting the event (or even being involved on the day) then let me know and I’ll get in touch with them.

I am not taking entries until I confirm a few more details. I expect to open up the entries in December. :thumbsup:


This is a long video from the 2015 event but it shows the event very well:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1mXgdGmeOI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1mXgdGmeOI

http://i747.photobucket.com/albums/x...ps5qszjzbu.jpg

Couple of prize sponsors on board:
@DPT - Darren was on board this year but between Malcolm and I we managed to drop the ball with his sponsored prize. Really awesome DPT have chosen to support us again!

Swazi - yep, Swazi clothing have come back on board as supplying some prizes for competitors. Swazi receive a lot of sponsorship applications from a whole range of people and we are hugely appreciative that they have once again chosen to support out Hihitahi Challenge!

I will be announcing more prize sponsors as they come on board. Freaking awesome seeing this type of shooting and hunting industry support! :thumbsup:

Hey Gillie - I'm keen on this event I'll drop you a PM. Was very interested in the Tarata shoot but not far enough along on the laod dev. Buga

Gillie when abouts are you opening up for registrations? Myself and a few others from Wanganui Hunters & Stalkers are keen to enter.

@chainsaw, @Reindeer I finally have some more time to give to this event and are now taking registration for entries. I have been pretty busy of late and still ahve a heap of work to put in to get the last details for this event confirmed. I'm going to use the next few posts to confirm some of the event details. :thumbsup:

Hihitahi Challenge 2016
Navigation Skills:
The competitor will come across several designated navigation points while moving around the course. At each of these points the competitor will determine the navigation values indicated on their score card. The values may include a magnetic bearing to another location, a distance estimate to another location, a grid reference, or an estimate of the competitor’s arrival time to another location. The use of a GPS will not be allowed!

Hihitahi Challenge 2016
Distance Estimation Skills:
At each shoot stage the competitor will have to estimate the distance to each target as their actual distances will not be given. The competitors distance estimate will be recorded on their score card. No rangefinders will be allowed. In order to score the competitor will typically be required to estimate the distance to target to within 10% (or there abouts).

Hihitahi Challenge 2016
Medical First Aid Skills:
The competitor will be presented with one of three different practical medical exercises i.e. an actual patient with a fake injury. A first aid kit will be provided to them and they will be asked to treat the patient within a time limit. The competitor will also be given 10x first aid related, multi-choice questions to answer as well.

Hihitahi Challenge 2016
Flora and Fauna Identification:
A section of the course will have trees and or animals identified on it. The competitor shall record the tree type or animal on their score card. Tree identification books or other resources i.e. your smart phone will not be allowed!
We will be introducing a couple of significant changes to this stage in the 2016 event!

Hihitahi Challenge 2016
Observation Skills:
Competitors will be challenged to locate and identify a number of object placed in front of them. They will be given an area to observe to try and find these objects. The objects will mostly be hunting and camping related.
This is a favorite stage for competitors and is much harder than it sounds!

Also we will again be placing numbers around the course at random intervals and locations. Competitors will be scored on how many of these numbers they can locate and record correctly on their course map.

Hihitahi Challenge 2016
Shooting Skills:
The competitor will come across several stages that require them to shoot at targets. Each shoot stage will involve multiple target to be shot under a time limit. For the 2016 event we are going to increase the amount of shooting over previous years so there will be more shots at each of the stages.

Hihitahi Challenge 2016
Basic fitness:
The course follows a farm access track, is approximately 10km in length and involves an elevation change of about 200m. Competitors will choose their own pace though and a high level of fitness is not required to be able to complete the course.
There will be no weather cancellation. If it rains then the competition will still continue, wet weather gear is advisable if it does rain. The shoot location is exposed and so competitors should plan to be out in the weather/wind all day. The course is between 800m and 1000m above sea level.

As above guys entries can now be registered with myself (just message me). We will limit the number of entries to 40 this year. Once you register all we ask is that you let us know if you can't make it along so we can open up your entry spot to someone else. We are not quite set up to take entry fees with registration yet so payment of the entry fee on the day is fine with me.

Individuals and Teams:
For the 2016 event we will have entry for both individual competitors and also two person teams. Each individual and each team will receive one score card and individuals will not compete directly against teams.
Only an individual competitor can pick up the trophy!

Entry fees:
The entry fee for the 2016 Hihitahi Challenge will be confirmed a little closer to the date. I expect it will be $40 or $50 per competitor and half that for competitors 16 years of age or under.

Prizes...:
Sponsored prizes are rolling in now and we have some really cool stuff to give away. Because of the quality of the prizes we are looking at how they will be distributed on the day. I will be identifying our prize sponsors in subsequent posts to this page. In previous years every competitor has got a prize. I expect the 2016 event will be no different.

Cheers,
Simon :thumbsup:

Entries are filling up with only about 15 available spaces left. Get in touch with me to enter.

Individual trophy is about done... :thumbsup:

http://i747.photobucket.com/albums/x...psb36v9xrn.jpg

The 2016 Hihitahi Challenge is only 2 weeks away now! We have over 30 registered competitors and still a few people who haven't confirmed with me. There are only 5 or so open spots remaining so if you are planning on coming along then you need to contact myself or Malcolm!
:thumbsup:

I'll expand the sponsors list as well. As per usual we have received some awesome support from a whole bunch of sponsors. Really great to see businesses happy to support our event.

DPT Machinists - DPT Machinists - DPT Machinists - Suppressors and barrel fluting.
Swazi Clothing - Outdoor Clothing NZ | Wet weather gear NZ | Swazi - NZ Outdoor Clothing.
HGD Designs - Home - Leather work, sheaths, slings etc.
Westlorne - Home| Canvas and Leather Goods and Upholstery - Canvas work, packs, webbing, pouches, etc.
Outdoor Brands Ltd - Wholesaler - they import brands including Remington and marlin among others.
Belmont Ammunition - Belmont Ammunition | Belmont Ammunition - Ammunition, Lapua, PMC.
@Bagheera - Not a business but an awesome competitor who wanted to contribute to the prize table.

There are about five more sponsors who we are still chasing and hope to be able to confirm in the next week or so - most of them are wholesalers and so are prepping to head to the SHOT show in the US! A busy time of year. :thumbsup:

Just out of curiosity, watched 2014-15 videos of shoot and prizegiving looks a bit informal. Is it first in best dressed? It may just appear that way or possibly the prize winners didn't really want to be on film ;)

Good work on getting suppliers to give prizes. I know hard that job is having recently gone cap in hand for prizes from businesses and the like.

@Reindeer have a read of the document i sent you a link to in that PM. That explains the prize giving for the 2016 event.

In previous years the prize giving has been in order of score. As your name has been read out (in order of your overall score) you come up to the table and choose what you want. We have received some comment or "constructive criticism" for this as only the people that do well get a chance at one of the really good prizes. Everyone has gotten a prize but not everyone gets a set of binoculars, or a suppressor, etc. I have also seen a few other events where the top prize goes to the top competitor who promptly sells the prize because they don't need it - i do not particularly like this practice but i do feel like we should reward performance over attendance. You can certainly see why several events draw their prizes (or at least the major ones). If we had a bigger competitor pool i would look at putting in prize categories such as most improved, best competitor under 25, best team with at least one member under 20, etc.

What we find key in approaching sponsors is trying to give back to them as well. We try and get back to them with how the event went, provide them photos, send them the video links, etc. With the 2016 Hihitahi Challenge we will be trying to be a bit more proactive in getting back to sponsors - each prize will have a little card with it that competitors can/shall write a little bit of feedback about the day and maybe a thank you to the sponsor, along with a few photos we will then get these comments back to our sponsors!

Gear requirements and recommendation for the Hihitahi Challenge:

This event is primarily aimed at hunters - in this spirit, attendees are encouraged to take with them what they normally would if they were going out hunting.

The minimum equipment required to be supplied and carried by each competitor is as follows:

• Suitable footwear for a working farm.
• Rain / wind proof jacket.
• Hearing protection for use when shooting.
• Pencil to record results on their individual score card.

We recommend each competitor carries the following with them as well:

• Lunch, snacks and hydration.
• Suitable firearm and ammunition for that firearm.
• Binoculars or similar observation equipment.
• Compass and map navigation equipment.
• Day pack.

http://i747.photobucket.com/albums/x...psb1sqmhfq.jpg

About 5 entry spots still available. Message me (or get in touch) if you want to come along and haven't already registered!

http://i747.photobucket.com/albums/x...ps1k3jwwjd.jpg

More sponsors have come on board!

Beretta NZ / Steiner - Beretta New Zealand – Firearms, Group Hunting, Sporting Clays, Duck Shooting, Benelli, Zeiss, Burris, Decoys, Franchi, Air Rifles, Airguns, Skeet » - Steiner, Burris, Stoeger, Sako, Tikka.
Deadeye Dicks Shooting Supplies - Deadeye Dicks - Home - Nightforce, Sightron, and retail store

Still chasing a few more and I expect to confirm them in the next day or two! Very, very cool to see the amount of support we are getting from hunting/shooting businesses!

Still a few spots left open if you were wanting to come along - just get in touch! :thumbsup:

Officially the entries are FULL!! :thumbsup:

Let me tell you, the pressure is on now to run an awesome event! So much planning coming together for this over the last few days. Course is about half set now, targets are all out, navigation stands all set (bar one), flora and fauna sorted, first aid sorted - can print score cards and maps now. Finish off setting the course on Friday and she is all on for Saturday!

That's awesome Simon, really glad to see people are finally getting behind this great fun event. :cool:

What time is kick off?

Looking forward to catching up with everyone & a few new faces :)

@Philipo 9am safety briefing - tell @andyanimal31 to be on time as he is running a shooting stand! Forecast is for partly cloudy and light winds! Competitors will be pleased about the partly cloudy, freaking hot up there yesterday! We are planning extra water on the course and drinks/hamburgers for afterwards.

We are even looking at alternative prize giving locations with so many competitors!

Im keeping an eye on whats going on!

Sent from my GT-I9505 using Tapatalk

To be honest Andy, it is going to take the first competitors a while to get up to where you are (45minutes at the earliest and probably more like twice that!)

Thanks to the Gillice team, Tracy and others who made today such a great day. Was a fantastic day with great weather, bit bloody hot really, and great people.
Its a great day out and makes a change from just putting holes in paper. @HNTMAD Thanks for donating the prize of a Mercator and pouch, I was super wrapped to get this and its certainly the quality everyone raves about:thumbsup:.

Cheers Paul aka fletch aka reindeer

Yes bang on Reindeer, was a bloody great day. :cool:

Was a good turn out on what ended up being a very long hot day in the sun, good on those that put in the effort to come & test their skills, I love this event as it has a bit of everything & is very well organised & run.

Many thanks to the Gillice families & all the other helpers, Tracey for letting us onto her little spot of "kiwi paradise" & to all the sponsors especially @DPT I look forward to using my new suppressor :thumbsup:



PS- the trophy looks mint on my mantle piece :D

@Philipo Did you get max points for time? I Hope you did as you put a damn good effort in bloody near running past me and steve :on fire:

Thanks for the comments guys, Yes was a great day - hot though! In fact every day I was on site was hot- made for a long few days out in the sun, heat and dust.

We had 33 competitors, including 6 females and 4 juniors, on the day which is an improvement over the previous two years. We once again had far too many prizes but this allowed the organising staff to also pick up a prize and we gave the last few away at the end. The end of day BBQ and drinks must have been good because there was little to nothing left afterwards.

I have yet to finish going through all the results and will post them along with the photos and video (eventually) once I have them collated.

Congratulations to the top individual competitors:
1st place @Philipo
2nd place @gamereaper
3rd place @Bagheera

Top team was won by a local husband and wife team (this is their third year of competition).

@Reindeer I don't think anyone meet the time window for score - the window we gave was simply too optimistic.

Well done Phillipo (and Gamereaper) with great performances on an unpredictable and challenging course. Phillipo you are one determined b×××××d, coming back after a couple of difficulties in past events - well deserved placing this time.

Thanks also to Gillie and Gillice for thinking up and setting up the event. As we ve come to expect, there were some challenging dilemmas in all stages, from the animal identification to the shooting. You sure need your wits about you.

It was good to see new hunters there who d just finished a HUNTS course and I d expect a lot of instructors around the country would put in a good showing too if they tried out here.

The 2016 Hihitahi Challenge was held on the 23rd of January. The morning fog burned away to reveal a hot and cloudless day. This year we had 33 competitors turn up to challenge themselves against the course (best turn out yet!). In my view the event was very successful with only a few issues coming up through the day that hopefully we will iron out for next time. At the end of the day there was a whole bunch of happy competitors and we got some really good feedback!

It was a scorcher of a day
http://i747.photobucket.com/albums/x...psssvaycme.jpg

This year we decided to make the random number placed around the course a little harder. This was reflected in the scores with the highest score being 13 found out of 20.
http://i747.photobucket.com/albums/x...psddh3z1gm.jpg

This year we expanded the traditional "Tree ID stage" to include animals as well. Turns out not everyone knows their native frogs! Can you name this one?
http://i747.photobucket.com/albums/x...pszi2ffa11.jpg

Observation this year shifted back to where it started and the scores came in about the same.
http://i747.photobucket.com/albums/x...pshr75yxxm.jpg

Some shoot positions stayed the same...
http://i747.photobucket.com/albums/x...psiyfjfiil.jpg

And we introduced a new one...
http://i747.photobucket.com/albums/x...pshynxa5bl.jpg

We brought the penalty targets into the unknown distance shooting. All the "no shoot" white targets were hit by the end of the day...
http://i747.photobucket.com/albums/x...psk9nnrzyc.jpg

Awesome to see juniors
http://i747.photobucket.com/albums/x...psmy4b9het.jpg

Father and son team
http://i747.photobucket.com/albums/x...pskos3wrjb.jpg

The magnetic bearings were difficult again this year. Some of the cards competitors had to find where hidden (cards were located a given distance along a given magnetic bearing from a marker). More than one competitor obviously just followed the competitor in front of them and they didn't realize there was more than one card...
http://i747.photobucket.com/albums/x...pszco9muei.jpg

BBQ and prize giving at the woolshed. Basically nothing left of the BBQ and everyone got a prize!
http://i747.photobucket.com/albums/x...psp4fs8t5m.jpg

Result Summary...
http://i747.photobucket.com/albums/x...ps4xdpnzui.jpg

Hahaha I decided to try a different tactic with range estimation this year, I just took a quick as look & went with my gut, turns out that was a shit plan. Taking a bit more time & using the surroundings to help with judgement seems to be more accurate. :D

Ummm... you do realise we play with the target sizes with the aim of making it difficult to do that - funny how changing the size of the target just slightly and using a bit of dead ground can really play with our perception of distance. And screwing up the distance estimates didn't seem to hurt your shooting score too much.
:thumbsup:

Finally finished the video! Enjoy!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZklJ3AXU8cI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZklJ3AXU8cI

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Gillie

Finally finished the video! Enjoy!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZklJ3AXU8cI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZklJ3AXU8cI

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Good work Gillie, Made too much of an appearance myself, Sausage fingers on the map :o @Philipo its a bit of a philipo benefit show :ORLY::thumbsup:

Thanks tho Simon it was a great day, I look forward to attending again whenever it may be. Great event.

Lol, yeah good vid Simon

Was a good day alright :cool::thumbsup: