Indoor Shooting
The core of TSNZ shooting involves the 1000+ Members who shoot at one of the many INDOOR ranges throughout New Zealand.
Indoor Smallbore Shooting – .22 calibre over 20 yards or 25 yards
Indoor Smallbore shooting is done from the PRONE position – shooters lie on the ground. Beginners will rest the front of the rifle on a stand, and then progress to wearing a jacket and sling and supporting the rifle with both hands.
TSNZ Members can shoot at a social, club, association, representative, championship or national level, with Clubs shooting every week and there being many competitions run during the Indoor Season, which runs from 1 April to 30 September.
Shooters are graded at the end of each Indoor Season, and can move either up or down depending on how they have shot that year. Grades are D (up to 89.99), C (90.00 – 93.99), B (94.00 – 96.49), A (96.50 – 97.74), and Master (97.75 – 100.00). New shooters will usually enter at D Grade.
There is one NZ indoor range running on electronic targets, and these shooters have only one aiming mark to shoot at. Their scores are shown immediately for both the shooters and those watching from the social area.
Indoor shooters can participate just at Club level only if they want to, shooting once a week (or less) at their local range, or can compete in a variety of different events both locally and around NZ:
- Local Championships – these are run almost every weekend throughout the season, details can be found on the website Calendar. All TSNZ members can enter these competitions, and as the entries are graded shooters from D Grade upwards all have the chance to win at their own level.
- Inter-Club and Inter-Association shoots – either travelling to each others ranges and asPostal competitions.
- NDC – National District Championships – where shooters are selected to represent their locality in Open, Composite or Junior teams.
- Island matches – Teams of Ten in the North Island and Andrew and Faulkner in the South Island.
- North vs South Interisland match – shooters have to qualify to be selected for this prestigious event, and once there if they shoot well have the opportunity to make it into New Zealand teams – Open, Women, Juniors or Veterans.
- School competitions – both postal and shoulder-to-shoulder matches exist specifically for Secondary School students.
Many of the Clubs around NZ have their own equipment they can let new shooters use, so initially there is very little cost to having a go at Smallbore shooting.
Clubs are able to set up Social Group or Business House shoots, and there is no need for a firearms licence to go along to one of these.
Once a shooter decides to continue they usually start to buy their own equipment, and the TSNZ Trading Shop sells a huge variety of equipment for those who want to invest in their sport.
INDOOR BENCHREST SHOOTING
Benchrest shooting indoors is relatively new to TSNZ, and is only run as a separate event at a few Clubs. Currently there are TSNZ Guidelines for Benchrest shooting which will continue to be moved into Rules as the sport develops. Shooters can use their standard indoor rifles and sights but the rifle is placed on a rest at both front and back instead of being held, and the shooter sits to shoot instead of lying prone.