Aimee Blackwell of the Manawatu Branch has been named NZDA's Young Deerstalker of the Year for 2026, taking out the Newton McConochie Award for the most outstanding young deerstalker.
This year’s prize pack is sponsored by Hunters Element and includes:
Aimee started shooting at eight years old, learning on a .22 under the eye of her father, Ross. Rabbits and possums came first, and a solid tally over the years, along with a regular spot in the Manawatu Branch rabbit tail tally competition after the family joined the branch in 2021. She became a junior member in her own right in 2025.
On the range she has been hard to beat. Aimee has won the Junior Rimfire Trophy five years running, and she is just as reliable off the mound, recording scores, marking targets and helping with target changes on range days.
Her move up through the calibres, from .22 to .222 and then .308, came with a clear goal. Once Ross was satisfied she could put rounds on a four inch gong at 250 yards, he set up a surprise birthday hunt. Aimee listened to every instruction and made a clean, ethical shot on a fallow doe. She has since entered a fallow buck in the junior competition, followed this year by a 12 point red deer, and she turns up to Douglas scoring each year to scribe or help with measurements.
In 2024 she completed the HUNTS course and came out of it a capable, safety focused hunter. She has written about her HUNTS experience and her hunting trips for the branch newsletter, gained her firearms licence, and recently started reloading her own ammunition, picking up a real understanding of ballistics along the way.
The outdoors runs through the rest of her interests too. Aimee has won the Branch Junior Photography Competition five years in a row.
Outside NZDA she shoots with Target Shooting NZ and for her high school representative smallbore rifle team. In 2025 the team won the Manawatu Regionals, placed sixth at the National Secondary Schools competition and won the Plate Final. She and Ross also placed third in the Family Rimfire event at the Taupo NZDA Prize Shoot, and she recently notched a personal best at a club gong shoot, connecting at 550 yards.
What stood out just as much to the branch was how often she shows up. Aimee is a familiar face on the range and at club nights, selling raffle tickets at prizegiving, at AGMs and working bees, or out hunting. Her attitude has made her well liked by members of every age.
Congratulations Aimee, from everyone at NZDA. And thanks to the Manawatu Branch for putting her forward.
Thanks to Hunters Element for backing this award again!
