Wednesday brought the beginning of the Ballinger Belt series (see article in the brochure for the history of the Belt), which is the main individual competition of the year for New Zealand fullbore shooting. Today we were eased into it, with purely short range shooting, twice at 300x in the morning and twice at 500x in the afternoon.
While it was another very hot day it was tempered with more cloud, and the shooters often faced overcast conditions when shooting which was very nice after being roasted the previous day!
The team’s acclimatisation was in full swing in the morning, with scores improving as they began to fine tune their technique for the conditions and style of shooting, with three of the team “going clean” lead by Matthew Ensor with an impressive 100.12 out of 100.20.
After a quick lunch the team shot for the first time at 500x, and as the wind began to pick up with a bit of a fishtail it was a bit more tricky to find the centre, but 4 of the team went clean there and there was a plethora of 50s as well. Matt Ensor continued his fine form, dropping only a single point all day to be top man with 199.22.
As the dust settled, 11 competitors had scored 200/200, with 4 sharing the lead with 200.29. An improved performance for GBRT, but the competition is fierce as these scores show and, with longer range shoots tomorrow, if the wind picks up and moves around it could all change!
After shooting there was a “bring and sell” event at Karori Rifle Club, with lots of shooting related items on offer, before our entertainments team hosted us for a happy hour of drinks and shooting banter as we withdrew from the heat of the day.
If you haven’t got a copy of the team brochure yet, have a look at the one on this website. Has anyone finished the crossword yet?
