Shooters brave the warm

Ruapehu Bulletin, Volume 12, Issue 548, 9 August 1994, Page 5

Shooters brave the warm

By Michele Monaghan Black powder shooters from all over the North Island braved the cold for Waiouru' s annual mid- winter rendezvous held at Shepherds Hut over the weekend, 30-31 July. About 18 people packed up their coon-skin hats and tee-pees and headed for the mountains. More people would come but they "chicken out" because of the cold according to Taumarunui muzzle loader Roger Allen. (He said they

don't go by black powder in Taumarunui in case it got confused with black power.) "When you tell people you're coming to Waiouru to stay in a tee-pee they think you're mad," said Roger. The general impression was disappointment be- , cause it hadn't snowed. Some even said that the summer shoot (The mountain man) was colder. "It's the first one I've been to that it hasn't

snowed," said one participant. The rules are simple, there aren't any (apart from safety) and each year the mid- winter rendezvous provides something different. This year the winner was selected by reversing the scores ie: if you score 08 in part of the shoot that changed to 80. Shooters didn't know this at the start (last year the winner was drawn out of a hat) so anyone could have won. "It keeps them honest,"

said one participant. The shoot was put on by the black powder section of

the Waiouru gun club which only has about five members.

"We may be small but we still turn on the best shoot," said Merv Beech.

Visiting shooters agreed that the Waiouru winter shoot is always a good one.