The weekend just gone of the 26th may I attended the Gunslinger premier event the south Island contest leg held at a station near Takapo .Not having been to the south Island for some time it was just a great feeling to be back and see the snow capped peaks and mountain backdrops which give such an adveturous feel to this adventure .
I flew down travelled with Christian the gunsmith from Barretta and new guy to the sport Gary Holder who was very excited to be doing this as his first big outing .
Now as an event this let me clarify this is no sunday afternoon shoot this is a full blow well organized and policed event with RO at every firing point in the hills and on the flat -in short a massive undertaking by Shane Cossar with many weeks of planning and reconnicence with to map out and plan a very demanding course .I watched Shane breif his ROs for over an hour the night before about every thing to keep the contest oiled safe and moving at speed .
Well how did I do --complete shit lol -hero to zero on this occasion but thats shooting for you on "the day "
We drove in to Tekapo and found out back packers where 8 of us stayed , some stayed other hostels and camp grounds and some stayed on the station where we shot -40 shooter at least and 10 of those had flown in from New Caladonia .
Our first meeting was at the station at the shearers quaters where we meet many of the other shooters from all over the country .the new Caladonians came as a team and so well prepared all sporting ex millatary gore tex jackets and pants with neck/face warmers -I am sure they were very worried about what conditions we might encounter -as I was I having no experince in the high country .
After a early night of laughs and a few drinks we left so to get up for the practice day the next moring .After sighting in again -luckily I might add cause my scope had gone a good 8" side ways we started on a few close targets 3-4 hundred or so yard targets -I saw a few rabbits on the hill above at 860 yards and let 2 go at them -great line but went foot behind them on both occasions.
Contest day arrived the next noring and we were up in the dark awaiting a Helo to pick us all up and ferry us to the top of the hills to start our walk down to the various shoting stations dotted high up along the ridges.
Each team started their event on the uneven rock slops shooting from all sorts of uneven hard shoting positions at the different targets in the feild way below .I have to say if it was demanding getting the wind right and on many occasions it became confusing -the targets are not big and they are very far away with the furtherest being 1650 y away and the closest on the ridge around 700 plus y ,most of the shots from 10 deg to 25deg down on to the valley floor .
I watched Ken Black in my troop of 6 make 2 first round hits at 1650 and finnish with 3 in total -I was pepper and salt around the edges -this is the bugger its not that you far away from a hit -inches or a foot but a hits a hit and a miss is a miss and I made far to many of the peppering kind .
Each station you would arrive at a RO would be awaiting the troop to arrive ,give a brief and you would have several minuted to find range and write down you info set up your gear and get ready to fire one after another in a set time useually of 4-5 minutes for 5 shots - you can work as a team of two spotting and calling wind but if your unsure about the wind flows around the valley it can be hard work -lessons learnt by all I am sure .
The weather wasnt bad but the wind got upto 23mph and many figures below that which made for an interesting time but many good shots were made made never the less .I watched one of the New Calidonian guys do 3 heart shots on a coyote target at 800 yards which with the conditions was excellent - I made a body shot and one heart .
Some of the positions we really hard to as you had to shoot from a given position even if it didnt suit you ,you had to make do and believe me some of those rocks are sharp and uncomfortable and with shooting on a down hill angle it was all good fun!!
The walk down hill with a 10kg pack and heavy rifle I found hard going and yesterday nearly could not walk without alot of pain -seriously it was hard work .
All in all an amazing event and a huge undertaking by Shane Cossar and his team -hats off to you all .
Our ten forign guest left very happy with the event and their performances which were impressive in our detail and the remainder of us had an amzing event even if we hadnt achive glory
