Thread: The Ballinger Belt

How do I win this belt? Talk to me about F class long range shooting. (Is that F class?)

What is the minimum gear I can get into it with, what distances are we talking? And how good do these people have to be to be a contender for this competition?

What is the courses of fire at the big shoot at Trentham?

Ballinger Belt is not F class. It is shot TR class with 308 win, 156grain projectiles, ipen apeture sights and a sling. Ranges out to 1000yards. Google NZNRA website for rules.

Originally Posted by BillyDixon

How do I win this belt? Talk to me about F class long range shooting. (Is that F class?)

What is the minimum gear I can get into it with, what distances are we talking? And how good do these people have to be to be a contender for this competition?

What is the courses of fire at the big shoot at Trentham?

The Ballinger Belt is competed for as part of the National Rifle Association of NZ's Nationals in January each year.
https://nranz.com/nationals/ballinger-belt/

It is competed for by Target Rifle shooters (sling, jacket, open sights) not F-Class competitors.
FTR, FTR Classic, FPR, F-Open, compete for championships in their own classes.

The Nationals are competed for over 300, 500, 600, 800, 900 & 1000 yards.

To find out more contact your nearest NRANZ affiliated club or the NRANZ itself.
https://nranz.com/associations-and-clubs/

The minimum gear is a rifle that can shoot out to 1000 yards with a supersonic load.
My son started with an off the shelf Savage Model 12 .223 with a second hand scope and borrowed spotting scope, second hand bipod and rear bag. Steel plates for rear bag & bipod. Handloads with an 80gr projectile.

After a season he/we moved to 308's with Barnard actions 32" 1:10 True-Flite barrels, 155 gr or 185 gr projectiles in Lapua Palma cases. He now shoots target rifle and has represented NZ 4 times in 9 years. (FTR, U21, U25, Palma Team).

Start with what you can afford, plan to upgrade when you can.
Others will have lots of advice for you.


BALLINGER BELT NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP 2025
Seddon Range, Trentham, New Zealand

300 Metre Championship, Friday 10 January 2025
Wellington Rifle Association Championship, Sunday 12 January 2025
NRANZ Teams Event commences Monday 13 January 2025
Championship Commences Tuesday 14 January 2025
Championship Final Saturday 18 January 2025

BALLINGER BELT NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP 2026
Seddon Range, Trentham, New Zealand

300 Metre Championship, Friday 9 January 2026
Wellington Rifle Association Championship, Sunday 11 January 2026
NRANZ Teams Event commences Monday 12 January 2026
Championship Commences Tuesday 13 January 2026
Championship Final Saturday 17 January 2026

Greetings @BillyDixon,
You probably have suitable rifles to start with in your safe right now. I started aged 73 with a Tikka T3 Lite in .223, 8 inch twist. The loads were with the 69 grain Sierra HPTBT and the scope a fixed 10 power with turrets. Find out where your local NRA club is and join up. So far I have shot 300 and 600 yards, the latter with a 7mm-08 and may get to 1,000 yards this season.
Regards Grandpamac.

Originally Posted by BillyDixon

How do I win this belt? Talk to me about F class long range shooting. (Is that F class?)

What is the minimum gear I can get into it with, what distances are we talking? And how good do these people have to be to be a contender for this competition?

What is the courses of fire at the big shoot at Trentham?

It's not really about gear so much as learning to read wind, not at the vaguely amateur level of 95% of shooters who can shoot in the wind and they are rare enough, we are talking both PHD level of self education and an almost "sixth sense".

As a starter ask about the Ladies Challenge Shield ( it make the Ranfurly Shield look tinpot) , it's shot between Otago and Southland.

very right Tentman and a knowledge of the range and what the flags are telling one - I wonder if there is still a Gisborne rifle club - they had several Ballinger belt winners shooting when I shot with them - Gerald Fuller and Frank Jeune but the club was small then ( 1969 ish ) and not going ahead -we would get 8-12 on a Saturday afternoon - the old Gisborne range only went out to 600 - real education to go down to Roys Hill at Hawkes bay and shoot 800 and 900 yards - sadly Gisborne range was closed - some idjit decided to close to town

Originally Posted by Barry the hunter

very right Tentman and a knowledge of the range and what the flags are telling one - I wonder if there is still a Gisborne rifle club - they had several Ballinger belt winners shooting when I shot with them - Gerald Fuller and Frank Jeune but the club was small then ( 1969 ish ) and not going ahead -we would get 8-12 on a Saturday afternoon - the old Gisborne range only went out to 600 - real education to go down to Roys Hill at Hawkes bay and shoot 800 and 900 yards - sadly Gisborne range was closed - some idjit decided to close to town

Follow the link below for more details.
https://nranz.com/associations-and-clubs/member-clubs/
Clubs of the Central Region:

Cheltenham Rifle Club
Gisborne Rifle Club
Hawkes Bay Rifle Club
Masterton Rifle Club

Clubs of the Wellington Region:

Karori Rifle Club
Petone Rifle Club
Trentham Rifle Club

Thanks people ,it looks like the nearest club to me is Oamaru. Do they do any of this at the Bruce rifle range in Milton? I suppose I should ring Chaz Forsyth he will know about such things.

Oamaru, Invercargill, Ashburton (who are shooting through the winter).

The Ashburton District Rifle Club are shooting on Sundays at 1100 - weather permitting - through the winter.

Sent me a message for more details.

Don't want to be rude. But I don't think you can get help from the internet to win "The Ballinger Belt". Go and watch one in person, not on Youtube, and you will understand

Originally Posted by BillyDixon

Do they do any of this at the Bruce rifle range in Milton?

Not really for a while now.

BRC stopped being a full blown NRA Club many years ago, as at the time we would have had to follow their Range Rules exclusively and that didn't fit with our 'all things to all people' approach. We were a loosely NRA 'affiliated' Club and were mentioned on the website until the bad times in 2019 when the NRA dumped us pretty quick - which wasn't really a problem as only three Members maintained NRA Membership.

Originally Posted by turtleSO

Don't want to be rude. But I don't think you can get help from the internet to win "The Ballinger Belt". Go and watch one in person, not on Youtube, and you will understand

yes likely only one in ten thousand nz hunters and shooters even capable ??? years of practice finely tuned gear some real skill no extraordinary skill - try small bore first and if you can do 99- 100 regularly then give full bore a go but if you can only manage 80,s into low 90,s I would suggest your Ballinger belt dream is probably not reality

Here is a picture of the Ladies Challenge Shield from the 2021 match between Oamaru and Bruce



It is simply magnificent, I've shot for it once in a Southland Team but Bruce saw us off. I'd love to have my name on it!

That is what I call a trophy...

Originally Posted by Tentman

Here is a picture of the Ladies Challenge Shield from the 2021 match between Oamaru and Bruce

Attachment 255749

It is simply magnificent, I've shot for it once in a Southland Team but Bruce saw us off. I'd love to have my name on it!

One of the oldest sporting trophies in the country - I've shot for it a few times as well, but have never been on the winning team...

Here's how it looked in 1905...