Thread: NZDA prize shoot

Originally Posted by 19Badger

People want everything given to them and don't want to work for it, and most are embarrassed if they don't shoot as good as others say they do.
With the high animal numbers now you don't have to be a good shot to get an animal, if you miss this one there is another just around the corner.

Personally, I don't think enough emphasis is put on being a competent skilled shooter to make clean kills on game.
Talking to someone recently that runs a 100, 200 & 300 event as the distance increases the scores decrease and quite typically for some to such an extent, they would miss an animal or wound it.
Usually, those people don't come back to shoot another match.

I don't think shooting has to evolve from the basics, there needs to be variety to keep people interested and engaged, but I also think there needs to be some "coaching" and some importance put on the skill of shooting.

Having "operated" (basically Ive been the only person brave or stupid enough to put out a schedule of events) the old NRA range here for nearly 10 years now after having been a hunter for 50 plus years and a target shooter for 40 or more I don't think basic marksmanship has gotten any worse.

However as we have moved from a competitive environment of shooting for score to a more individualistic approach not all range operators have changed with the times.

We started shooting steel on our range about 3-4 years ago but it's only just this season I've been sucessful in offering shoots that really have gotten the guys/gals enthusiastic and returning regularly to shoot.

The most popular things we do revolve around a couple of key factors, they are based on you-tube shoots so shooters can see how they're done, they have a scoring system that is very simple and does allow a "shoot for score" element, we take care to make sure they start with a large enough gong that everyone can hit and we keep the round count very modest. There are about 400 NZDA members in Southland who are associate members of the range (so free use) and we see very few of them but I don't really think that's an issue, they will come in due course!