As a young trapper boy, Gordon McPhee was handed a gun. Fifty seven years later, he still hasn't put it down.
The Rata man is competing in clay target shooting at this year's New Zealand Masters Games.
Gordon got into the sport as a trapper boy, loading the traps for shooters but he soon found himself, at 13, on the end of a gun.
"They dragged us out one day and said here, have a gun ... and I've been shooting ever since."
Gordon now has is own gun club where he lives at Rata, complete with 25 traps. It's just been given a grading to host nationals by the New Zealand Clay Target Association.
But when he's not shooting, Gordon's also keen to pass on his knowledge, having coached at Palmerston North Boy's High for the past 28 years. "They've been pretty successful."
The sport has taken Gordon around the globe.
"I've shot just about everywhere in the world, except Russia. Probably America is the mecca for shooting, England also."
In fact, Gordon hopes to be selected for the New Zealand team for the World Champs in Illinois later this year.
The 70-year-old shoots sporting clay which he says takes a good two years to learn. "Even after that you're still learning."
It seems he's learned it pretty well, finishing third at the world champs once. "I've been in the New Zealand team for the last 19 years," he said.
So what does it take? "Hand eye co-ordination is the most important thing in this game, then practice is your next move." He shoots three or four hundred clays a week.
There's a social side too. The clay target scene has also given him a few friends over the years and he even met his wife there. "There's nobody who doesn't know you."
Gordon was in action yesterday at the Wanganui Rangitikei Clay Target Club on Marangai Rd.