Thread: Colyton GONG Shoot

An Awesome event awesome, organised by @Gillie at Colyton in the Manawatu today.

look at that sexy Savage amongst all the bland Tikkas

brilliant day, thanks to Simon and Malcolm, as well as the Central Districts guys for organizing and running a fun day.

some very impressive shooting (open sight 303 hitting gongs waaay out there), and to cap it off we were getting updates on Ausies trashing England on the way up, haha.

Would have been interesting with the wind we had today!!!

How many turned up in the end ?

I would of been there but was outa town, bad timing with school holidays etc & wasn't to impressed with Ken wanting everyone to pay 8 weeks in advance with "no refund" policy.

Originally Posted by Blaser

Would have been interesting with the wind we had today!!!

it was indeed, the standing shots especially were "challenging"

Was an awesome event, the wind was definitely challenging. 😜

The pay upfront thing seems to have done wonders to get guys to show up instead of several pulling the pin at the last minute and leaving the organizers holding the can. Reckon we had close to 30 competitors ?

Yep, had a good weekend setting the shoot on Saturday and then running it on Sunday.
Sunday was windy, and it seemed to get worse through the day as well. Good turn out though, 26 competitors in all (and I think there were 2 (?) that didn't turn up). When I shot the course on Saturday I was worried it was a bit easy, but with the wind it proved to be a bit on the difficult side. All in all though a very good day, with a great bunch of guys. Sorry, I didn't get any photos or video myself - I was kept busy as range officer for my squad.

I thought the 3" dot at 13m would have been pretty straight forward for most but with the wind, only 3 competitors managed to hit it twice! And for those competitors that thought the short range stage time limit was too quick (two standing targets at less than 25m, then a 5m change in position finished with 2 shots at a 175m target all in 20 seconds) there were two competitors that managed to hit all of these in the time limit and another 10 competitors that managed to hit three from the four.


For those coming to the Tarata event you will see some of those targets again but likely at longer distances!

Originally Posted by Philipo

.... & wasn't to impressed with Ken wanting everyone to pay 8 weeks in advance with "no refund" policy.

Originally Posted by ebf

The pay upfront thing seems to have done wonders to get guys to show up instead of several pulling the pin at the last minute and leaving the organizers holding the can.

I am slowly warming to the idea of pre-paid entry fees. As the upcoming Tarata medium range entries have filled up 2 months early I am left wondering how many will turn up on the day given I will have bugger all opportunity to organise someone else to come along if people decide not to come at the last minute. I like the honesty system we have run up till now, keeps things simple for Malcolm and I. And yep, it sucks when people don't turn up having said they are coming.

Most of our expenses don't go out until a day or three before then event. So maybe a pre-paid entry that is refundable up until two weeks before then date would be a reasonable compromise?

Originally Posted by Gillie

Most of our expenses don't go out until a day or three before then event. So maybe a pre-paid entry that is refundable up until two weeks before then date would be a reasonable compromise?

That sounds reasonable to me, out of interest whats the average cost to a competitor for these sorts of events?

This Colyton shoot was run by the Central District Field and Game Club. Malcolm and I took $200 to cover expenses (diesel basically) and the club charged a $25 entry fee. So with 26 competitors the club raised $450 or so minus the BBQ costs.

Our most expensive events (Woodstock Long Range, Tarata Medium Range, and the Hihitahi Challenge) we charge a $40 entry fee - juniors are either half price or free. Most events are $20 or less. Hihitahi is the worst event for expenses - we need about 28-30 competitors at $40 each just to break even...

Originally Posted by Gillie

This Colyton shoot was run by the Central District Field and Game Club. Malcolm and I took $200 to cover expenses (diesel basically) and the club charged a $25 entry fee. So with 26 competitors the club raised $450 or so minus the BBQ costs.

Our most expensive events (Woodstock Long Range, Tarata Medium Range, and the Hihitahi Challenge) we charge a $40 entry fee - juniors are either half price or free. Most events are $20 or less. Hihitahi is the worst event for expenses - we need about 28-30 competitors at $40 each just to break even...

$20 - $40 as an entry fee for this type of event is very reasonable i reckon, wouldnt hesitate to pay this prior with the potential risk of no refund if i wasnt able to attend for some reason. That level of entry fee is small in comparison to all the other costs we have as shooters and hunters.

Originally Posted by Philipo

wasn't to impressed with Ken wanting everyone to pay 8 weeks in advance with "no refund" policy.

I think its a great idea for all events ... People give a lot to organise events and a lot of the time the tyre kickers in life commit to
an event only to not turn up on the day.

We now have a non refundable deposit policy on our HUNTS course as a result of peoples changing attitudes to commitment ... People were happy to pay it - and those
who pulled out last minute were, if not happy, then at least accepting , as this had been made abundantly clear to all

I think its fair enough - and should be adopted for all events.

So Gillie,
What are the next gong shoots you are going to organise before Christmas? And where about in north island?
Thanks

Not much left this year now. Tarata Medium Range + rimfire (Taranaki) towards the end of November, then i guess i am running a hunters event in Taihape early December and a rimfire event the weekend after that one here in Taranaki again.

Looks like our Hihitahi Challenge will be later January 2016

Yep taihape steer dorkers good to go for december!
Also our taruarau sheild shoot is looking to be on the 7th and 8th of november for those of hawkes bay side

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