7th Pacific Regional Shooting Championships – Benchrest

by Graeme Smith, New Zealand Deerstalkers Association

Pacific Regional Shooting Championships Week 2

Back home from the events in Tokoroa it was time to move on as the Aussies and New Caledonians were arriving for the Benchrest Championships to be held at the Packers Creek Range in Nelson.  It was to be 5 days, one of Practise, two of Centrefire and two of Rimfire Benchrest.

Centrefire Championship – Light Varmint.  With Six shooters from New Zealand, Australia and New Caledonia plus 3 Individual we had a field of 21. The very experienced Australian Team was thought to be the dominant group however things were about to be turned upside down. NZ Shooter Ian Owen started the ball rolling with a .118 Group with plenty more appearing with high 1’s and low 2.s. The competition was going to be hot. By the time the first 5 groups had been completed, Owen was leading the field with a Championship record aggregate of .1852 followed by surprise, surprise, Herve Noveri of New Caledonia with NZ,s  Dougall Cameron holding 3^rd place. On to 200 yards, and with conditions being very favourable to small groups and we sure saw plenty in the 3, s and 4, s. Nelsons Jude Peacock started at 200 yards with a new record small group of .138. Yes, that is 5 shots under a ¼ inch at 200 yards. It will be a long time before this record is broken. When all was tallied at the end of the day, New Caledonian Shooter Herve Noveri topped the charts for a memorable win. Add to that Noveri and Christophe Nagle taking the Team Championship – it was surely a Golden Day for New Caledonia.

 

Part of the Pacific Regionals is Teams Competition, consisting of nominated 2 Person Teams – 3 Teams per country.

Light Varmint Teams Gold Medal New Caledonia, Silver New Zealand 1 (Ian Owen and Tony Titheridge) and Bronze Australia 2 (Ean Parsons and William Greer)

 

Centrefire Championship – Heavy Varmint

This event was again to provide some surprises along the way. We were blessed with fine and pretty calm weather which was sure to suit the shooters and create small groups.

Detail 1 at 100 yards and Australia’s Steve Sori kicked it off with a new Small Group record of .127, in fact all five detail small groups were in the 1, s. It was sure going to be competitive. Nelson Branch President Greg Couper showed his true colours to lead home the pack with and Aggregate of .1940 followed by Australians Ean Parsons and Steve Sori.

The afternoon 200-yard event was again to throw up some surprises. Jude Peacock turned in an outstanding 200-yard group the previous day. Well to show it was no fluke, she again dominated the event with a new Small Group record of .247 and went on to take the 200 Aggregate with a .2652. It was a great result for the home side with Couper taking the HV Aggregate followed by our own Judy Peacock.

 The Teams Championship was taken by Australia 2 (Ean Parsons and William Greer) Silver New Zealand 2 (Greg Couper and Jude Peacock) and Bronze Australia 3 (Steve Sori and Milan Morrell)

 

 

The final Awards for the Centrefire competition was the presentation of the Medals for the 2 Gun Competition – the overall aggregate from all 4 distances

2 Gun Individual:                                                                             2 Gun Teams

1^st           Ean Parsons        Australia              .2650                     Australia 2 (Ean Parsons/ Greer)               .5456

2^nd          Judy Peacock     New Zealand     .2698                     New Caledonia 1 (Noveri/Nagle)              .5748

3^rd           Steve Sori            Australia              .2756                     Australia 3 (Milan/Sori)                                  .5771

4^th           Herve Noveri     New Caledonia .2763                     Australia 1 (Darren Parsons/Sullivan)      .5848

5^th           William Greer    Australia              .2806                     New Zealand 2 (Peacock/Couper)            .5867

Rimfire Championship

A change of pace for the final two days of the championship with the conduct on the rimfire championship. This event is shot as a score event rather than groups. Over the 2 days each shooter completes 6 x 25bull targets at 50meters using standard velocity .22 ammo. It was great to have the Australian Rimfire Team here as they are very experienced with most of the Team having recently returning from the World Championships in Spain. So, NZ knew they were in for a fight.

 

Day One weather conditions were a little tricky with the breeze unstable and considerable patience was needed to get on top of it. After 3 Targets (Maximum score 750.75) late addition to the Australian Team Brian Mitchell was leading the way with 736.36 and Team Australia 1 in front of the Teams Match on 1469.68

Day 2 saw some improvement in scoring – conditions much the same but probably most shooters had come to terms with what was required.

Neil Digweed from the Australia 1 Team scored the only maximum target with a score of 250.12 as part of his winning score of 742.38, ahead of fellow Australians John Patzwald (740.43) and Paul Sullivan (740.40). When all the targets scored and final tally done Australia had taken a clean sweep of both the Individual and Teams Championship.

 

Individual Championship                                              Teams Championship

1^st           Neil Digweed   Aus.         1477.70 Australia 1 (N Digweed / P Sullivan)         2951.146

2^nd          Paul Sullivan                       1474.76 Australia 3 (J Patzwald / B Mitchell)          2933.140

3^rd           Brian Mitchell    Aus.       1468.65 Australia 2 (J Mitchell / N Ward)                2917.122

4^th           Nick Ward           Aus.       1465.68 New Zealand 1 (I Owen / T Titheridge)   2875.107

5^th           Greg Couper      NZL        1452.57 New Zealand 2  (J Peacock / G Couper)  2815.87

 

So ended an excellent few days and we look forward to 2020 when we do it all again in New Zealand     

2018 Pacific Regional Rimfire Benchrest Championship

Rimfire Championship

		Team	Target 1	Target 2	Target 3	Total Day 1		Target 4	Target 5	Target 6	Total Day 2		TOTAL
1	I Owen	NZL 1	243.08	230.09	232.03	705.2		244.07	246.12	244.13	734.32		1440
2	Tony Titheridge	NZL 1	244.13	233.07	241.1	718.3		235.06	241.11	242.08	718.25		1437
3	Judy Peacock	NZL2	220.04	228.03	231.03	679.1		230.06	234.06	220.08	684.2		1363
4	Greg Couper	NZL2	243.09	240.12	242.05	725.3		242.13	245.1	240.08	727.31		1453
5	Ian Hutching	NZL3	238.07	240.06	223.06	701.2		237.08	243.11	239.1	719.29		1420
6	Dougall Cameron	NZL3	233.05	228.06	235.03	696.1		230.06	169.03	217.03	616.12		1312
7	Neil Digweed	AUS 1	246.11	247.12	242.09	735.3	S	248.12	244.14	250.12	742.38	Gold	1478	Gold
8	Paul Sullivan	AUS1	249.15	240.1	245.11	734.4	B	247.11	249.17	244.12	740.4	Bronze	1475	Silver
9	Janette Mitchell	AUS 2	239.06	242.06	240.09	721.2		246.12	245.13	240.08	731.33		1453
10	Nick Ward	AUS2	246.11	240.09	243.1	729.3		246.14	246.13	244.11	736.38		1466
11	John Patzwald	AUS 3	246.1	240.11	239.11	725.3		246.13	248.16	246.14	740.43	Silver	1466
12	Brian Mitchell	AUS3	244.13	247.15	245.08	736.4	G	243.09	245.11	244.09	732.29		1469	Bronze
13	Carina Jackson	NZ Ind	241.1	240.1	222.04	703.2		241.07	246.07	242.09	729.23		1432
14	Steve Williams	NZ Ind	217.02	213.03	205.04	635.1		221.05	220.05	200.06	641.16		1276

Teams Championship

					Total Day 1			Total Day 2				Total
Australia 1	P Sullivan, N Digweed				1470	G		1483	Gold			2951	Gold
New Zealand 1	I Owen, T Titheridge				1424			1453				2875
Australia 2	J Mitchell, N Ward				1451	B		1468	Bronze			2917	Bronze
New Zealand 2	J Peacock, G Couper				1404			1412				2815
Australia 3	J Patzwald, B Mitchell				1462	S		1473	Silver			2933	Silver
New Zealand 3	I Hutchings, D Cameron				1397			1335				2732

HB  – INDIVIDUALS		HB		AGG	Placing
Greg Couper	NZ	0.2379			1st	GOLD
Judy Peacock	NZ	0.2544			2nd	SILVER
William Greer	AUS	0.2614			3rd	BRONZE
HB TEAMS		HB		AGG		Placing
Ean Parsons	AUS B	0.2632
William Greer	AUS B	0.2614		0.2622		1st	GOLD
Greg Couper	NZ B	0.2379
Helen Owen	NZ B	0.2939		0.2659		2nd	SILVER
Steve Sori	AUS C	0.2673
Milan Morell	AUS C	0.2860		0.2766		3rd	BRONZE
Judy Peacock	NZ C	0.2544
Steve Williams	NZ C	0.3262		0.2903
Paul Sullivan	AUS A	0.2873
Darren Parsons	AUS A	0.3109		0.2990
Herve Noveri	NC A	0.3281
Christopher Nagle	NC A	0.3134		0.3207
Ian Owen	NZ A	0.3336
Tony Titheridge	NZ A	0.3198		0.3266
Remy Amice	NC C	0.4022
Christian Jahja	NC C	0.4171		0.4415
Edio Marcon	NC B	0.4399
Francois Ductane	NC B	0.4346		0.4668