Thread: Auck gong shoot done and dusted

Today we held the Auckland Gong shoot as advertised on the forum , what a great day for both participating and being in the beautiful Auckland weather .
Sadly from the start it didn't look like we would get a big turnout and it did end up that way from forum members not able to attend because of various reasons but I turned up as did Lurcher and 5 other keen shooters ranging from Club shooters to general target hunting good keen men .

Having taken a day off work as did my friend Matt we went and prepared the course of fire and set all the targets up at positions ranging from 340y out to 860y with targets ranging from just over 3"-4" upto 10 at the 860y .

Weather was sunny with changing winds from 4-7mph around the valleys and many hits and plenty of misses made - with the aid of good spotting and calling for the shooters by the spotters the hit rate was increase for some - I was using my FFP Mil dot spotting scope and having to try and convert on the run mills to moa which was fun if not testing on my little brain.

One thing one realizes is you must turn up with the correct projectile speed but sadly I was adjusting mine all the way through the comp as my chrony the day before was in differing light and left me upto 100fps out -be prepared or you'll miss shots you should be hitting.

I think some of the guys surprised themselves with hits at longer ranges than they had engaged before this little comp --one just keeps learning and it keeps this type of shooting very exciting.

At the end of the day there can be only one overall winner and that was Matt Ryan with some great rounds on target with his Savage 338lm -he sent some of the targets doing loops around the target frames but as they were his and he is an engineer he made them so they didn't break! Thanks Matt for supplying the targets !!
Thanks to Sportsway Gunshed for the caps as prizes which I forgot to take to the farm so only the winner got a Federal Ammunition cap the others will be for future winners of the gong shoot which we will hold every 2-3 months for those that would like to attend .

At the end of the day the boys shared a beer and watched while a bull decided to rob my car of its apples and when caught in the act dropped one as I confronted it - of course he ate it , he was a big bastard !

Some more pics

Matt the winner and the theiving cow

Good stuff el borracho. Its always hard to jack these things up.

Unless im mistaken,That dangley bit hanging off its tummy means its a bull

Looks like you guys had fun

Wish I realized it was on, will try make the next one.

Good looking day by the looks, my ticket never turned up??

Is amazing how many say they will come an then all pull out in the last week, you get to the point you PM or TX the usuals an do it yourself as it gets to be a pain in the ass

Well done guys, sounds like a good day.

Familiar face there. Tony M?

yep,it is Tony. Anyone spot the apple falling from the bulls mouth ?the prick chased me around the feroza after food -i hid behind a post.
These days improve your shooting if only by showing flaws .Great day and good company with other enthusiasts

Looks like you guys had good day.

Originally Posted by veitnamcam

Unless im mistaken,That dangley bit hanging off its tummy means its a bull

Looks like you guys had fun

No it just means its male possibly a steer .A big dangly bag at the rear full of testicles would make it a bull.

Nit picker

Originally Posted by veitnamcam

Nit picker

yeah not so much when your trying to breed some calves

damm, missed the altercation.....

Being a raw beginner at shooting past 100 meters my expectations for hitting anything at all past 300 metres were pretty low, especially since the targets were about the 1 MOA in size which leaves very little room for me to miscall wind or ballistics. And with a cheap $30 Chinese wind meter and an ‘un-tuned’ Android App I was not holding onto any illusions about being able to hit much. That said, the wind meter readings tallied with the more expensive Kestrel being waved about and ‘Shooter’ seems to work out some good numbers, that is once I played with the velocity back at home. Basically on the day I set the scope up to what the App told me to do and then relied on being talked in by whoever was spotting, and if I got a hit took down the actual MOA settings on the scope. Just need to work out why my app reckons that some shots needed an extra 1 MOA to be dialled; I need to go through my notes a few more times, find a pattern and adjust the velocity a little methinks.

The location was great from a shooting perspective, challenging shots across valleys/gully’s and at different angles to the wind meant that very few people were on target on the 1st attempt. For me, having the chance to try and tune my ballistic app to reality was a pretty good outcome as well as getting to shoot at some interesting targets. Good to meet some new faces as well, and see some awesome shooting.

Once again. Thanks for organising the shoot, looking forward to the next one!

Looked like an awesome day with views to match. The wind would have been a competition breaker on its own.
Well done on organizing the day and putting in all the hours to make it happen