Regardless of whether you are in a hammock, under a tarp or a tent, the challenge can be making sure the shelter above stays tight and secure during the night. Many forms of nylon, polyester and other common materials will actually stretch a bit. Especially when including things like moisture, combined with a bit of wind…
Lemons in the Bush – a lesson in safety.
I am typing this post with one hand. Its taking a lot longer than it should and really, is a right pain in the arse. I feel like a total numpty at the moment and it’s completely my own fault.
How to tie your laces.
While tying your boot laces is a simple task – there are a few tricks to be learnt.
Kaipara Field Steel – March 2016
A brisk morning quickly warmed up as a field of twenty shooters went through the safety briefing prior to the Field Steel shoot.
Fifteen stages and a round count of eighty awaited them.
A bit of an international event this time – we had shooters from NZ, South African a couple of Swiss and four shooters from New Caledonia.
Variety in Field Steel Shooting
Christian had set up a variety of stages for us to shoot. Ranging from simple (made tricky by wind swirling down and around in the gullies below) prone shooting, through to barricade shooting in multiple positions and a couple of no-shoot ‘hostage’ style scenarios.
The tree stage being a great example – a crook in the tree, off of which you shoot at an IPSC plate, with two no-shoots on either side, at 468 meters. Not only was it a tree fork – not the flattest, easiest of rests, but the ground in front of it was eroded and uneven. It was a case of trying to find a position where you could get your legs up, supporting your elbows and lock into position.
I have just started using a sling in these positions, as well as the Wiebad Pump Pillow – and coordinating all the parts into some resembling a coherent position to shoot from was a bit of a challenge. It is something I will persist with, because once you got locked in, the sling and support did get everything stable.
At the other end of the spectrum – the 1070m plates.
Well – my goal was always to get the .308 out over 1 kilometer, and I can do it ‘comfortably’ now!
Spotting – as challenging as shooting?
Certainly as stressful at some points. Especially when you are spotting for some like Christian.
Certainly for me, where I am still learning to call my own shots, now being responsible for calling and potentially correcting for someone with a lot more experience – I felt a bit of (totally self-inflicted) pressure to get things right.
However. Field Steel is also a phenomenal way to learn. Watching other people’s shots lets you repeatedly see where their bullets are going, forces you to be constantly trying to evaluate the wind and also gets you thinking in terms of correcting from the last seen shot.
Christian and I have had several discussions about it since the Field Steel shoot and I can confidently say you will be seeing a lot more discussion and ‘instruction’ about spotting coming up on this site in the future.
The New Caledonians (our shooting tourists!), despite seeming to be rather cold (based on their heavy jackets) managed to take away the two top spots – some great shooting and the heavier .338s seeming to be the winning combination on the day. Congratulations to Sebastian and Rudi!
Photos by Sebastian
Things to improve on
Wind calls
A couple of stages involved a fairly simple setup, out to 550 metres. In this particular lane – the wind comes down from the right, hits another valley coming in from the left and swirls.
Also – I have no doubt that without Christian helping out with the spotting – I would likely have been even further down in the list – it’s hard to understate the help that someone who can accurate call your misses makes.
Getting comfortable on the barricades
The difference between getting into a comfortable, solid position, and ‘good enough’ also can’t be understated. I pretty much knew when I was going to be on and when I was rushing things. It’s amazing the difference a timer makes!
After shooting and knowing that I should have spent more time getting comfy, I would often find I also had piles of time left available to me – so shouldn’t have!
Photos by Simon Gillice of Gillice Practical Rifle Events
Summary
Overall, another great day out on the hill! I am keen to get some more time practising my wind calls and spotting and have a couple of things to sort gear wise before the next shoot. Learnt heaps, looking forward to the next Field Steel Shoot!
Good Blokes – Boris Vos – Lead Ranger
I originally heard of Boris via a UF Pro Series – Tactical Tracking – which, if you haven’t seen – go watch. Now! Then, come back and learn a bit more about the main ‘star’ of the show, Boris Vos.
Boris is also the head of the Lead Ranger Program
And then you start looking into his background…
I was lucky enough to spend some time learning a bit more about his background, his projects, and how he spends his time!
Check out the chat below and make sure you pop over to his sites and check out Lead Ranger and the related organisations!
Mike King’s on a mission. We need to get on it with him.
And what a mission it is. In my talk with David Benefell, we talked about the necessity of men (and everyone really) to have a mission. It’s really hard to get passionate about anything if you don’t know what it is you want to get passionate about. Mike knows what he is passionate about. Helping…
The First Lite Wick Hoody – a sun shirt for shooting in.
I have had several people in my family have melanomas cut out of their bodies – and – given that I get a decent amount of prolonged sun exposure some days, and, doubled by the fact I have close to red-headed and covered in freckles (two things that make you rather sensitive to sun exposure)…
PLB or EPIRB?
I say generally because, with each generation, some of the differences decrease – as technology advances the products can seem to become more similar in nature. I think the key difference lies in what that original intent of these devices was.
PLB or EPIRB? What is their purpose?
Primarily, both a PLB or an EPIRB is a device capable of transmitting its location to be picked up by satellite and radio systems – both systems are transmitting on 406 MHz which is picked up by the Cospas-Sarsat global satellite system.
Both are global devices – and this is important to remember. Even if you purchased your PLB/EPRIB overseas, provided you keep your registration details up to date, the amount of extra time that the information takes to get back to the appropriate rescue system should be minimal. However, this is why is it critical that these details are kept accurate.
The questions definitely needs to be not if I should have one, but which one is more appropriate to the situation.
PLB – Personal Locator Beacons
The PLB was designed to be a personal item – one what that carried on the individual at all times, as a result, these are lightweight, often now as big as a cellphone, require manual activation, and will have a minimum of 24 hours of battery life. While they may float, not all are going to. These are registered to an individual person.
EPIRB – Emergency Position-Indicating Radio Beacon
EPIRBs are generally expected to be permanently attached to a vehicle – be it a boat, yacht, aeroplane or otherwise. As a result, they can be a little larger, but with that comes more features – many units will automatically active if they get wet, and the minimal battery life for an EPIRB is 48 hours. Larger, more powerful flashing beacons are another common feature – as is the fact they will float. The EPIRB is registered to a specific vessel, not an individual.
So which one should I get?
Depends on their use. Is it a personal device for tramping and the like? A smaller PLB is likely to be more practical. Got a new boat and heading way out to sea? Then an EPIRB is a requirement.
A little more info…
A reader adds…
“The EPIRB equivalent for aircraft is called an ELT. Same thing but they are designed to interface directly with aircraft systems in addition to the standard beacon functions.
It is also worth noting some more advanced EPIRBS have the capability to define the type of emergency on the vessel depending on whether the EPIRB is using the long or short message format and/or location messaging protocol or national messaging protocol. No matter the message format or protocol COSPAS SARSAT accept all of them as defined in the T01 document.
Also with the introduction of the new MEO SARSATs, it means that they can obtain a Doppler position to reference against GPS position on the first satellite pass. “
Proud Dad Moment.
I wanted to head down the New Zealand Deerstalkers Association – Auckland Branch range – and, figured it was a good opportunity to get C acclimatised to the noise of a shooting range. Reality is, I spend a bit of time at them, so both my kids are going to end up doing so as well.
The Range Officers were (as the normally are) very welcoming, and also very pleased to see kids at the range – I occasionally get asked my thoughts on kids at a range, and, provided they have enough awareness to not totally wander off on their own – I actually think (with appropriate PPE) and range is actually a very controlled and safe place to be. I don’t go too many places where there are designated people, whose sole purpose is to ensure everyone behaves and stays safe, but that’s exactly how good ranges are run.
I had quite a few shooters offer up 22’s for the little one to shoot if she was interested as well – but I happened to have a couple in the truck of my own… 😉
I managed to leave the bolt of my 22 in the safe (having spent the previous day telling another pile of new firearms licence applicants to always double-check) – but had a right-handed clone of it anyhow.
I had a new Lithgow Arms LA101 Crossover to set up for a client (I am still getting mine left-handed one setup – great gun!) so had it on paper and zeroed in a couple of rounds – and proceeded to put a few more to get an idea of groupings and confirm things.
After remembering just how mild these LA101’s are to shoot with subsonic rounds, I started to consider a possibility.
One of the RO’s pointed out that the 25-meter range was empty – and I was more than welcome to take it over if the little girl wanted to try and shoot something.
I asked, and she, a little to my surprise – said she did!
A while later, having rigged up a shooting position involving a chair, car seat and some heavy mags, and a brief, modified safety briefing for a 5-year-old, the little one squeezed off the first couple of rounds on a 22.
It was interesting watching her shot – because, the eye relief is obviously so long that I really wasn’t sure how much she could see – but after about the third round, something clicked, and she started to move the butt of the rifle. Fourth round – she hit the target! With some cheers from both myself and the RO – we headed down to look at her handiwork.
“Would you like to shoot some more?”
“Yes!”
We found a can (will pack some of the Gun City Ltd Clay holders next time) lined it up, and she nailed it. Found some more, put them up as well and she proceeded to shoot them all down. I initially thought she was missing – but later realised that the can just haven’t shifted – so had a pile of holes in it. I am not actually sure if she missed at all!
Needless to say, I was chuffed – and we have also established she is left eye dominant – so that works out a bit easier for me as well.
There was a moment of apprehension (on my part) when she took a little spill on the way back to the truck (running with her target) – but amidst the tears (little knee graze) she did make clear that she did still like the shooting though…
A trip to the cafe to celebrate on the way home, and she is keen to head out again. I am happy to take her!
Building Leadership in Kids
My kids are chalk a cheese, personality-wise. Both are extremely outgoing, a highly likely to wander up to anyone to say hello and ask them their name. On their own, one is timider, one is less inhibited – to the point of wandering off by herself and getting lost. Regardless, I am keen to build…