New Zealand Deerstalkers' Association

Protecting Hunters' Rights in New Zealand

Silhouette Report and Results

Report - Geoff Brewer, Silhouette Team Leader

First off what a good team spirit the team had, it was a pleasure to be part of the silhouette team.

Silhouette Team

Back - Left to Right: Steve Smith, Richard Huby, Erik Clausen and Stuart Knox.
Front - Left to Right: Allan Murray and Geoff Brewer.

Everybody looked after each other and Allan went to great lengths to make sure we had everything we needed; air for the air rifles and shelter when we went out to Ipswich, water, chairs, spotting scopes, which saved us taking them (Allan lives in Brisbane now) and for Steve who drove us everywhere. A great time was had by all.

Shooting started with a couple of demo matches on the Wednesday; a field rifles match in the morning and a cowboy lever action silhouette match in the afternoon.

Here we met up with all the Aussies I had seen the month before at their Nationals and meet the Samoans for the first time and who were on their first shoot away from home as well. They only started shooting silhouette last year, so it was good to have them there.

I have shot field rifle before, but it was a good chance to check the light rifle and have a shoot under no pressure.

In the afternoon was the cowboy lever match; this is shot with old lever action rifles using pistol loads at pistol silhouettes. This was a lot of fun as we none of us have shot this before - just as hard though. All the rifles were loaned to us for this demo by our ever present range officer Andrew Judd known to everybody as Juddy. What a guy - he had arranged all the rifles for the Samoan team as they didn’t have time to get there paper work done in time, and last time had loaned us air rifles for the match. This time we had our own. Nothing was too much for him; he went out of his way to make sure everybody had a good shoot. He did all of the range controlling for all the shoots and he and Conrad Smith all the scoring, a great effect by both we thank you for this.

Thursday was our first competition, the Air rifle match all to be 80 shot matches. This was shot on the Belmont pistol silhouette range. It took most of the day to shoot; we had a one hour lunch break to allow the 3P teams to check their centrefire rifles, as they were on the range right next to us - air rifles make very little noise.

NZ Team and Gun

Left to Right: Allan Murray, Stuart Knox and Steve Smith.

We got off to a reasonable start, some of us shooting better then others, Allan top scoring for the Kiwis with a 33, followed by Erik on 31. Matthew Everingham of Australia showed everybody how it was done with a 38, going on the next round to shot a 39 - he made it look so easy. After the shoot was over he went for a long run on the rams, ended up with 73, then pigs 43, and said he was getting tired - not surprising - he shoots with a 6kg rifle.

The next round we had our ups and downs. The weather was getting cool, still 24 degrees, but a cool wind was coming through the range - even the locals were feeling it - we had all put on something warmer. Then it was all over, the scores put out, and we had done not so well. NZ B fourth, NZ A fifth and NZ C sixth; Erik shooting the best out of us for fifth overall in the individual; a good effect by him.

Our next match, smallbore was to be out at Ipswich, which is about 50km inland from Brisbane. The locals all told us that it is about 3-4 degrees warmer out there than in Brisbane, so we went prepared, we thought with plenty of water - never trust the locals as they can get it wrong. We got to the range no problems thanks to Kylie our GPS girl on loan from Sue Murray. Allan and Sue were already there and had set up cover for us all along with a temperature gauge - nine o’clock and it was already 33C - so much for the 3-4 degrees warmer! The temperature steady rose to 40C and stayed there for several hours. This made shooting very hard going and for some of us - we were really feeling the heat - drinking took on an all new meaning; drink or die.

The Team at Ripley

Left to Right: Steve Smith, Richard Huby, Allan Murray, Erik Clausen, Stuart Knox and Geoff Brewer.

This was a brand new range set up only the week before the competition, but in a nice setting with bush around three sides along with plenty of wild life around; there were several families of roos about as the range is set on a 1500 acre farm owned by the SSAA.

Ripley Range

Shooting got under way. We were to shoot 20 silhouettes - something we had not done before, so all a bit strange to us. None of us did anything to write home about in the first match, Allan again leading the Kiwi’s with a 24. The heat made it hard going; a break for lunch then backs into it the temperature, which was still hot. Allan had a good one shooting a 32 and Steve a 28, the rest of us making hard work of it.

To our surprise, when the scores came out, NZ A was third and Allan was also third individually, NZ B fifth and NZ C sixth - so a good result after all, as the scores were not so hot.

Allan

Allan Murray receiving his bronze medal.

So it was over. We were all feeling tired and by the time we had packed up it was getting dark - no daylight saving over here. On with the GPS (Kylie) to guide us back to the hotel (what great things GPSs are) Kylie took out all the stress on our drive back to the hotel we just sat back and she told us where to go.

Back to Ipswich the next day for the light rifle cooler. Today only 32C at nine o’clock, but again going up to 40C, only this time the temperature would change about 5 degrees in fifteen minutes and keep this up all day. We had brought more water today and everybody kept watch to make sure we were drinking enough.

Shooting under way, the first to round Allan, top scored with Mal Smith from Australia with a 33 - the rest of us making hard work of it but hanging in there. Today we were back to shooting 10s after a word to the range officer. In the heat this was much better, and what we are used to as well. In the second round we all shot better, except Allan, but he still put up a good 28 along with Erik. Then it was all over and a quick pack up as the rain was coming, but we didn’t quite make. With a heavy shower coming through we all went up to the club house for the scores to be posted.

Again to our surprise we hadn’t done too bad. NZ A third along with NZ B fourth and NZ C fifth with Allan third individually; not to bad after all. In the three gun teams NZ A got third and 3 gun individual Allan fourth and Steve fifth. In the end the silhouette team came away with five bronze medals, well done.

Allan