Thread: Taupo range

Four position unsupported is the basis for hunting. Often you use a rest or have to improvise of course, but you can only do that well once you can do the basics on the range. An average competent range shooter will be a good shot out hunting. Even someone who's just done a couple of seasons smallbore (22 prone w sling and aperture sights) has a big head start out on the hill.

Originally Posted by Bagheera

Four position unsupported is the basis for hunting. Often you use a rest or have to improvise of course, but you can only do that well once you can do the basics on the range. An average competent range shooter will be a good shot out hunting. Even someone who's just done a couple of seasons smallbore (22 prone w sling and aperture sights) has a big head start out on the hill.

Greetings @Bagheera,
Agreed. The .22RF also teaches follow through due to long barrel time. Any tendency to snatch the shot shows up on the target. Endless practice either prone or from a bench with a bipod or rest and a rear bag helps little for short to medium range hunting. It may help for longer range shooting if done at longer range like FTR and similar disciplines. 4P shooting as in the NZDA comps seems to have faded to the point of non existence in some areas in some parts of the country like Hawkes Bay to my regret.
Regards Grandpamac.

Here, a public thank you to @Gillie whose field shoots are another step up.
The walking around kindly opened up farm land is very nice and his "stages" have offered practice in all sorts techniques you can use in the hills hunting deer, chamois or whatever.
Sometimes you're sitting on a sheep track on the side of a hill, sometimes draped prone over a nice boulder, sometimes squeezed between manuka bushes on your tiptoes. Always with a time limit. It's a bit like hunting goats in open country. Plus shooting way out with your hunting rifle on a daypack or bipod across a gully in the wind - could you really kill that 358m tahr first shot ? Kneeling 20 degrees downhill at 273m ? Three shots in 20 seconds offhand at 15m ?

He's also held a lot of "practical" style events that require trick shooting like hitting an orange target close between two white "hostages" or "know your limits": shooting smaller and smaller targets and you can stop whenever you want but if you miss you lose all your points, or shooting from a wooden frame a few feet above the ground, changing position for each shot off a wooden tripod. The standard has gone up over the years and there are quite a few people now who can walk that walk (I struggle).

As for the Hihitahi Challenge, it's just a great day out and over the years has given me incentive to do a first aid course, study plant and bird identification and brush up on my map and compass work (a prismatic compass and protractor would help but I've stubbornly stuck with the Silva). I think all NZDA HUNTS instructors should be required to complete that course from time to time. As for why we didn't get more participants, I think for a lot of people if they've got a free weekend they'd rather go out hunting. I always spent a day or two in the Kaimanawas after Hihitahi. The practical/tactical/target style shooters often aren't so into the bushcraft aspect and don't feel the conflicting pull of the hills so much. Hats off to Gillie and team - you need a large and dedicated crew to run an event like that.