His own shooting was good enough to win him a gold medal in his class.
Wanganui shooter Gordon Eastabrook, who has nearly 23 years' Masters Games shooting experience, said each round of shooting was timed at 40min.
"But I normally get my shots off in 19 or 20min. I may go through about $19 worth of ammunition here today," he said.
Seven targets are pinned 50m downrange from the shooters, who lay prone with their rifles. The first target is used to get the sights right, and then the shooter moves through the six remaining targets, firing five shots at each.
"At this range we get down to about a 60mm cone of fire, where all the bullet holes are concentrated," Eastabrook said. His "cone of fire" was tight enough to win him a gold medal.
Like any other sport the competitors have their specialist equipment. Not just the rifles, which range in price from $250 for a second-hand unit to well over $15,000 new, but also professionally made canvas jackets to relieve stress when using a shoulder sling, and standalone scopes to help sight the target. Paul Turner said they were fortunate to have six units, worth $500 each, donated by the New Zealand Charitable Trust and Pub Charity.
Te Puke's Allan Beaver is another games veteran with medals to his name, including a gold from Saturday, and a busy schedule of competitions around the country. After the competition was done and the range all but abandoned, he set me up with his blue Feinwerkbau rifle, 12 bullets, and a single target.
"What you need to do is breathe out, look at the target, and then pull the trigger. This one has a 50 gram trigger, it's very light. I love it but everyone else says it's too sensitive," he explained as I lay down with the weapon.
"Don't look at the target for too long or your eyes will play tricks on you. If you can't make the shot then just flick your eye away for a few seconds and then look back to the target. You have to make sure the ringsight at the front is in the middle of the rear sight, and then the target is lined up in the middle of that."
It all sounds easy enough, but it really isn't. The rifle is a heavy piece of equipment and, even with the barrel resting on a box, it was an effort on my elbows to keep it propped up.
Your eyes can start to ache from squinting down the sights, or play tricks on you if you have both open at the same time.
The target looks awfully small in that front sight, a tiny dot.
Keeping the weapon still after you breathe out must be a skill learned over years of practice. Even when I hold my breath it seems to jump all over the place.
I gently move my forefinger away from the trigger guard to the trigger itself.
Pop.
Once you've fired you eject the spent shell, reload, breathe, gently squeeze, and repeat until your tray of bullets is empty.
How did I do with my shots? I punched 12 holes in the paper target, including one worth nine points, which I'm told isn't too bad for a first timer. It's easy to see how this can become addictive.
