Thread: 39th Anniversary shoot

I have just got home from Sparrowhawk after our 39th Anniversary shoot to celebrate the birth of the Practical Shooting Institute and the introduction of IPSC to New Zealand. The participants enjoyed the camaraderie as old mates do and had an enjoyable weekend of rifle, pistol and shotgun shooting. With the bulk of us in our 60's and 70's, we found that we didn't move so easily but still retained our basic skills and managed to do justice to the memory of Colonel Jeff Cooper in the Cooper Cup match. A couple of us chose to use standard .45 Colt M1911's for authenticity (and I have the hammer bite to prove it), the rest being a selection of standard pistols with various sights and a couple of full-blown race guns. Shooting rifle matches that were designed for semi-autos with bolt-action rifles proved to be challenging, and one stage required 2 rounds on target 1, compulsory mag change, and 1 round on target 2 from the high-port position in 6 seconds which was not achievable, although I was just about to fire my .223 Tikka CTR for the 3rd shot when the targets turned away. I managed to destroy my suppressor with a tumbling projectile in the first rifle shoot (1, 2, and 300 metre steel man-on-man) and wondered why I wasn't getting any results after putting another 6 rounds through it until the RO spotted the problem! Oh well, I will build another one! I also muffed the compulsory reload on the shotgun man-on-man and never made it past the first round. Overall I finished up middle of the field and thoroughly enjoyed myself catching up with old mates. When we started IPSC in 1983 we were faced with many hurdles from the 'established' shooting fraternity but managed to convince the NZ Police. Since then NZ shooters have done well in IPSC World and Regional shoots and the sport is well established, with the difficulties now created by the new legislation. Meanwhile, I look forward to the 40th, next year!