Thread: Ruahini NZDA Hunters Biathlon May 2013

As you may be aware Neckshot has been organising a Hunters Biathlon Steel Gong Shoot with the Ruahini branch of the NZDA (LINK). My father (Malcolm) and I were just there running the shoot. Neckshot was left organising the location, the marshals, the BBQ, the prizes and of course the competitors. Malcolm and i set up the course (actually to seperate courses) on Saturday and then i was pretty heavily involved in managing the shoot on the day, freeing Malcolm up to compete.

The event was a biathlon, so competitors had to move between various shoot stages and had there overall course time recorded. Competitors were encouraged to compete in their normal hunting gear (which is why some of them are wearing camo clothing to a target shoot) including boots, day packs, bumbags. Their overall score was based on the number of targets they hit combined with their overall time. Target hits made up two thirds of their overall score leaving the remaining one third for their time. There was no time penalty for a missed shot. A possible overall score was 300.

We had both courses running at the same time. Both courses involved 10 shots and all competitors completed both courses twice making up their 40 shots.

Course 1 involved:
The competitor started with a 600m run (tail wind assisted) to shoot position 1. At position 1 they fired 1 shot at a ~150m 10" square target from any position followed by 1 shot each at two 10" targets at ~25m standing.




Note the wind blowing the rifle sling... and target 2 has been hit.

From position 1 the competitor ran back up the course (into a head wind) about 250m to postion 2. Here they fired 1 round each at two 10" targets located at ~110m and ~165m from any position but prone (they could use the trees for support). Here they also fired 1 round each at two 6" targets located at the same distances from any position.





Once finished here than ran about 50m to position 3. Here they fired 3 rounds at a single 6" target located at ~100m using any shooting position. The challenge here was waiting for the target to stop swinging so you could fire at it again.

From position 3 the competitors had a 300m run back to the start/finish position. This was the easy course. Most competitors finished this course in about 20 minutes.

Course 2 involved:
The competitor started with a 300m run up a hill and into a head wind to position 4. Many competitor were physically blown backwards while making there way over the ridge. Here they fired 2 rounds at a 6" target located at ~120m using any position but prone. They then fired 1 round at a 10" target at ~160m and 2 rounds at a 10" target at ~230m using any shooting position. The wind made this stage really difficult. Malcolm found his 223 was hitting 5-6" low at 230m because of the wind. Neckshot marshaled at this position all day and did an awesome job in the conditions.





Once finished at postion 4 the competitor had a 250m run to postion 5 & 6 (tail wind assisted). At postion 5 they fired 2 rounds at a 6" target at ~110m using a tree for support. They then moved forward to position 6 and fired 3 rounds at two 10" targets at ~340m. The wind made these longer targets really difficult.





From here the competitor had a 100m run to the start / finish line.

This was the more difficult course though again most competitors completed it in about 20 minutes.

At the end of the day we gave out some prizes and had a BBQ lunch.

All in all it was a great day. I didn't hear any bad comments and we learnt quite a bit about running the shoot that i can use to improve the next one. Rotorua long range field shoot this weekend here we come!