Thread: Ruahine Hunter's Biathlon May 2014

Last year's Ruahine NZDA Branch Biathlon was a great success. This year we are back to make it better.

Date for this year's event is Sunday the 18th of May. Safety briefing will be about 9:30am and all competitors must attend this.

Neckshot is handling most of the details. I will be there to setup and run the event only. There will be limited open entries availible. If you are keen to come along the get in touch with @Neckshot.

The event is aimed at hunter's so bring along your hunting gear and give it a go. Doesn't matter how fit (or unfit) you are because we weight the scoring such that shooting well is much more important than completing the course in a fast time. You do not even have to run if you don't want to.

Competitors will need 40 rounds each and targets will be between 20m and ~350m. Anything under a fulkl length magnum calibre is fine if you have something bigger then get in touch with myself and depending on what it is and how hot you have it running I may allow it.

I am sure Neckshot will add a few details on here as well.

Here is a few photos from last year:

That looks to be a great outing.

Yup.
There obviously isn’t an upper age limit. Silly grey haired old farts

Age is no barrier the top three all had minimal amounts of hair and what hair was their was grey.I don't have much to add to what Gillie has said other than it is also setup for spectators to come along and have a look.Also numbers are limited.

Originally Posted by Neckshot

Age is no barrier the top three all had minimal amounts of hair and what hair was their was grey.I don't have much to add to what Gillie has said other than it is also setup for spectators to come along and have a look.Also numbers are limited.

Count me in Jase and probably Ginga

Originally Posted by kiwijames

Count me in Jase and probably Ginga

yep you two are in and who Is this Ginga fulla? hes not high up in the Deertalkers game is he?.no more spots left at this stage.

Originally Posted by kiwijames

Count me in Jase and probably Ginga

your post count is my birth year so you got lucky

Originally Posted by Neckshot

your post count is my birth year so you got lucky

Ruined it now. Ginga is a local lurker.

Originally Posted by kiwijames

Ruined it now. Ginga is a local lurker.

Yea rito all good.

looks like fun

Originally Posted by Neckshot

Yea rito all good.

How much area you need to run this, might see if farm owner would let me run something like that here in Te Kuiti. let me know if a space comes up bro it would worth the drive to come down if i can pry myself away from the farm

Mucko, If this event goes similar to past events i am sure Neckshot will be abck on here advertiseing more spots availible.

In terms of space required it depends on what type of shoot you want. There are a few basic requirements we look for with a property:

• Site access and parking.
• Terrain suitability for the type of field shoot.
• Individual shoot location suitability (ground form and stability, particularly if the shooter is required to move with a loaded rifle).
• Spectator and range officer positioning.
• Safe backstops for targets.
• Farm stock and facilities location.
• Farm access ways with shoot locations and target locations.
• Target placement and shooting directions compared to farm boundaries.
• Onsite communications - particularly the effectiveness of emergency communications.

For a hunters field target shoot you want uneven shoot positions with safe target placement out to about 350m. With a biathlon you want a safe track with multiple shoot positions such that the track is always safe while people are shooting. The farm we use here we use the race and eaitehr side of the race but always away from it. You could make a more difficult course by making the course run up a ridge with targets placed the the gulleys either side of the ridge. There are two major organisational problems associated with a biathlon event - finding a property to host it and finding people willing to help run it on the day.

A long range shoot obviousl same principles apply but distances are bigger. A 22LR field target shoot same principles but with much shorter distances. I prefer to have some trees or scrub to break up the terrain but as long as it is a little uneven we can make most locations work. All the targets fit in the back of my vehicle. Generally we set a course on a Saturday and run it on the Sunday. After it is finished on the Sunday we pack up the targets and i drive them home.

Originally Posted by Gillie

Mucko, If this event goes similar to past events i am sure Neckshot will be abck on here advertiseing more spots availible.

In terms of space required it depends on what type of shoot you want. There are a few basic requirements we look for with a property:

• Site access and parking.
• Terrain suitability for the type of field shoot.
• Individual shoot location suitability (ground form and stability, particularly if the shooter is required to move with a loaded rifle).
• Spectator and range officer positioning.
• Safe backstops for targets.
• Farm stock and facilities location.
• Farm access ways with shoot locations and target locations.
• Target placement and shooting directions compared to farm boundaries.
• Onsite communications - particularly the effectiveness of emergency communications.

For a hunters field target shoot you want uneven shoot positions with safe target placement out to about 350m. With a biathlon you want a safe track with multiple shoot positions such that the track is always safe while people are shooting. The farm we use here we use the race and eaitehr side of the race but always away from it. You could make a more difficult course by making the course run up a ridge with targets placed the the gulleys either side of the ridge. There are two major organisational problems associated with a biathlon event - finding a property to host it and finding people willing to help run it on the day.

A long range shoot obviousl same principles apply but distances are bigger. A 22LR field target shoot same principles but with much shorter distances. I prefer to have some trees or scrub to break up the terrain but as long as it is a little uneven we can make most locations work. All the targets fit in the back of my vehicle. Generally we set a course on a Saturday and run it on the Sunday. After it is finished on the Sunday we pack up the targets and i drive them home.

Thanks @Gillie We have 400ha rolling to steep with some large basins. 350m shots would be easy with plenty of safe back stops. heaps of parking and safe walking with large pockets of native bush about and some dead flat places. we could even shoot safely up hill and down hill.

Awesome, sounds like you have a great spot then. Get in touch if you are interested in hosting a shoot, my calendar is pretty full but you are not far up the road from me either. I know @Bagheera would be interested in having a shoot a bit closer to Hamilton.

Originally Posted by mucko

How much area you need to run this, might see if farm owner would let me run something like that here in Te Kuiti. let me know if a space comes up bro it would worth the drive to come down if i can pry myself away from the farm

I have a space for you if you want it @mucko