Gisborne Pistol Club holds its Gaddums Hill End of Year Shoot

WATCH YOUR BACK: One of Gisborne's gunslingers Greg Bothamley will start shooting it out three hours before high noon tomorrow in a Cowboy Action Shooting event as part of Gisborne Pistol Club’s Gaddums Hill End of Year Shoot. Pictures by Paul Rickard

SHOOTOUT at Gaddums Hill? Not quite but modern-day cowboys and cowgirls will hark back to the days of the American Wild West in a two-day shoot tomorrow.

Gisborne Pistol Club will be running the Gaddums Hill End of Year Shoot, starting at 9am.

“The Cowboy Action Shooting (CAS) event incorporates the northern eastern regional champs,” says club committee member Aaron Manson. “It’s the fourth time we’ve held the CAS event here.”

The shoot caters for a section of Gisborne Pistol Club members.

“They wear cowboy gear from old western movies and use six-shooters, lever-action rifles and shotguns,” says Manson, the reigning North and South Island International Practical Shooting Confederation (IPSC) champion.

Unlike IPSC competitors, who are on the move while shooting at targets, the “cowboys” stand still while they fire.

They load five bullets into their six-shooter guns, leaving one chamber empty for when they start.

After finishing with their six-shooters, they then fire off rounds with lever-action rifles and finish with shotgun rounds.

“It’s good to watch but I prefer firing more rounds,” said Manson. “The average number of rounds for a CAS stage is 26 whereas at IPSC events we can have courses of up to 32 rounds and use as many rounds as we need to finish the stage.”

Leading the local assault this weekend will be Manson’s father Warwick and fellow “gunslinger” Greg Bothamley.

The pair have had recent success at North Island and national level.

A 13-year shooting veteran, Warwick was first in the frontier cartridge black powder category, third in the Quigley black-powder rifle 200 yards freehand and third in the Quigley smokeless powder rifle 200 yards freehand at the North Island champs in Wanganui.

National titleHe won the national title in the black powder frontier cartridge section in Palmerston North last month.

Frontier cartridge black powder dates back to the 1800s when all cartridges were loaded with black powder. Smokeless powder was invented in the later 1800s.

Bothamley, who has been shooting for 15 years, won the North Island lever-action rifle calibre 100 yards freehand, the Quigley black-powder rifle 200 yards freehand and Quigley smokeless-powder rifle 200 yards freehand.

He was second in the long-range black-powder rifle at 200 yards, seated; first in long-range smokeless-powder rifle at 200 yards, seated; third in muzzle-loaded black-powder rifle, freehand; second in the Deadwood Challenge using pistol, rifle and shotgun; and third in his cowboy category.

At the national champs, he won the long-range lever-action rifle calibre and was named best dressed cowboy at the Saturday night function.

The Quigley was named after the movie Quigley Down Under, where Tom Selleck’s character freehand shoots a bucket from 200 yards,

The Deadwood Challenge is a test of speed using pistol, rifle and shotgun.

A dinner for competitors and helpers will follow tomorrow’s shooting.

Meanwhile, Aaron Manson was unable to add overall national glory to his North and South Island honours at the the national champs in Wanganui.

“I reallly wanted to win. I’ve never won it before but a bad first session on day one ended any hopes I had.

“I clawed my way back on day two and day three to win the grand master open grade but I but couldn’t catch Ramel Maligro — my New Zealand teammate — who was the overall open winner.

“I did, however, beat my biggest rival — fellow New Zealand teammate Ryan Ainsworth (a former Gisborne shooter now living in Auckland) — who came third.”

Aaron’s partner Natalie Hawes was also in good form, placing second in the open D-grade and fourth in the open women’s category.