Dear Auckland Shooting Club Members!

 

The time is here again, were I am trying to remember all the happenings of the previous shooting year where we generally shoot our traditional four competitions. However, this year we also celebrated the 50 years existence of the “Swiss Farm Shooting Range”, with a shooting competition on two weekends in November.
First let’s reflect on our yearly traditional shooting championship.

The numbers are as follows:

The club has lost further ground in membership participation, the downward trend has continued for many years, except in 2015 where we had an increase in membership. It is a worrying sign but there may be light at the horizon. I will elaborate in further detail below.

Our traditional Swiss Shooting Competitions have produced s some strong winners. Here they are:

Main Competition:

For years Andrea has dominated the championship only to be beaten by her brother by one point. I don’t believe that Andrea’s domination is over and believe she will return stronger in the years ahead.
Ladies Competition:

Congratulations to these three shooters. Anilise is a new promising shooter for Hamilton I hope she will be returning to further compete as she could be a serious contender for the top prize.

Welcome home Selina, it’s good to have you back in the team. I am sure you will do all that is possible to climb up the scoring sheet.
Junior Competition:

Once again, the Hamilton junior shooters have come out at the top like so many years before. Thank you for coming up with your parents and participating in a challenging weekend of shooting the complete championship. I have got to admit, it is not an easy task to complete the whole competition in just two days. Congratulations to you all. Hopefully in the upcoming year, we from the north of the Bombay Hills are able to further fine tune our skills and be a strong contending force once again.

Championship Medals Sponsors:
Peter and Andrea Matys, Thank You for donating the championship medals for the next 5 Years!

It is great to have you two as sponsors on and support our Swiss shooting traditions for years to come.
Field-Championship Medals
This year I had the pleasure to process the scoring cards for Melissa Lanz for her personalised bronze medal from the Swiss Army. Furthermore, I also processed the scoring cards from Hans Vetsch for his gold medal. Congratulations to both of you for your achievements.

To all other shooters, please check if you have 8 green cards and 8 white cards. (Anerkennungs-Karte). By now some of you will have a collection and should be eligible for a medal.

 

Working-Bee’s 
Generally, there are always the same people attending the working bees, the others have a busy lifestyle. It does however look that members prioritise their own needs first. I and my helpers would love to see a bit more comradery displayed in regard to working bees. So, to the people that have found their way to the club for working bees, I would like to wholeheartedly thank you for your commitment and help. The range and ground would not be on such a high standard without your outstanding help.

I would like to thank Ernst and Melissa for their great culinary feast they provide for every working bee.

 

Test firing or sighting in rifles:
Over the last few years some of the members have requested to test fire or sight in privately owned rifles that are not used for our traditional shooting. This request is usually made on the day on the range when I am and my helpers are eager to pack up and go home. Generally, once home my shooting weekend continues with storing and locking up shooting gear and processing scores and administration. Due to time constraints, there will be no more test-firing or sighting-in of privately owned rifles on official shooting dates. However, there will be an opportunity for test-firing or sighting-in of privately owned rifles at the end of a working bee. To make it clear: The person wanting to do the test-firing or sighting-in must have been an active participant at the working bee.

 

50-year anniversary and jubilee shoot:
Right from the start of 2017 some of the shooters have started to put our thoughts together on how to celebrate the Auckland Swiss Club Farm 50th year of existence.

We put a lot of time into the planning the day. A massive thank you goes out to Sandra Hess and her crew, they have done an absolutely awesome job in planning and organising the day. Also, a great thank you to Peter Deutsche for his wide variety from official administration and the all-important link to the Swiss Embassy in Wellington. His thoughts and input really smoothened the organisation on the day. Another great supporter has been Ernst Lanz being the coordinator between the shooting side and the day activities, furthermore he too was at the forefront helping for a smooth operation on the days of the jubilee shoot. I also would like to thank other helpers on the day, especially the Kaiser Family, the Blaser Family, Andre Belami, Steyn Kruger, Daniel Wiederkehr and Peter Matyis and my administration team: Erika Lanz, Selina Storchenegger and Jennifer Kaiser. It was a awesome and great team effort by everyone.
Part of involvment was in finding sponsors from as far as Switzerland. For a month, I have written to various companies and kindly asked for the donation of merchandise, vouchers or for over the counter products that the companies where well known for. Our main Swiss Sponsor was: Victorynox with pocket knifes worth $2500.-.  Other companies that donated goods were: Truttman Shootingsport, Swiss-Cheese association, Grunig-Elmiger Sportsrifles, Ballenberg openair museum. Our New-Zealand sponsors were: Hans and Sylvia Enzler, Heidi Müller and Kembler Plumbing products. A massive Thank-You for your great support. Another donation came from my brother in law and my sister in Switzerland which generously send all the accumulated donation to New-Zealand.

We had a great turnout of new shooters with some really noticeable scores.

We hope they return next year to compete in our regular competitions and improve their overall shooting skills.

There were 17 junior participants:

There were 15 female participants:

There were 27 participants in the male category 

Looking ahead to shooting season 2018 and beyond:
The “Any Sights-Any Rifle” competition is buried and will no longer able to be continued, as dedicated helpers were hard to be found, personally I feel it would not be fair to put the already dedicated helpers under more attendance and helping pressure.

Presently we are in discussion to open up the range to other interested shooters. They would be competing alongside us in two different categories (open sights and telescopic sights) but will be using their own rifle and their own ammunition, shooting the same program as we already do.

Therefore, the shooting weekends will be again Saturday and Sunday, total numbers of shooting weekends will be 5 including the Hamilton-Weekend.
In June 2018, I will be traveling to Switzerland to participate in a shooting event in Weiningen where I grew up. If anyone is interested in joining then please let me know, this is a very unique and truly Swiss experience and I get plenty of enjoyment from attending.
The next big shooting competition based in Switzerland will be happening in 2020, it is now time to put the planning into motion. Please let me know if you are interested in travelling to Switzerland to participate with our New-Zealand team. We need to find the right selection of rifle to use, as shooting off sandbags is not permitted except if the shooter is 60 years or older in the year of participation.

Participation in Switzerland also means training; therefore, I will organise training days as soon as I know the course of fire. Last time we met about 10 times to fine tune position, aiming, trigger control and releasing the shot.

Shooting dates for 2018 are as follow:

• 24 & 25 February:  Obligatorisch
• 24 & 25 March:      Feldschiessen
• 28 & 29 April:        Einzelwettschiessen
• 26 & 27 May:        Hamilton Day (Only for Swiss-Shooters from south of the Bombay’s)
• 09 & 10 June:       Swiss Abroad Competition

All shooting starts at 10 am
Wishing you all: A Merry Christmas and a Happy New-Year 

Riflemaster of the Auckland Swiss Club: Henry Werffeli

Dear Auckland Shooting Club Members!

Once again it is time to reflect on the past shooting season and put the findings and thoughts on paper. The Auckland Swiss Club’s shooting Section Membership presents itself as following:

Obligatorisch and Feldschiessen participation have stayed at the same as last year. There is a slight drop in the other 2 completion. The big decrease came in the Nachdoppel Competition. It may just been time available that not more have been shoot. I use the Nachdoppel opportunity as good and competitive training exercise. The medal count on this competition is entirely calculated on participation but not on scored points. With 30 competitions less than last year there will be about 10 medals less to hand out.

Our traditionally Swiss Shooting Competition also produces winners. Here they are:

Main Competition:

Since the competition format has changed in 2008, the 2013 is the 3.highest final score. As you can see the first 2 position could only be separated by age. I am sorry to say it is a Swiss ruling and not made up by me. I have found myself in the very same position many times when I was still shooting in Switzerland……I used to say: “Too young to win”.

Lady’s Competition:

Melissa’s Score is 2 points up from the Lady’s winner of last year. In actual fact it is the 2. highest Score since the new championship format in 2009

Junior Competition:

All 3 top junior shooters scored lower than last year winners. However Kevin Gretener increased his personal score by 12 points. Well done.

Summary:

Scoring this year was down again. Our submitted medium club result is quite down from last year’s. I actually recalculated it twice over to make sure that I got it right. The 2013 shooting season has been marked by some noticeable changes. The first time in the clubs history there was more GP90 ammunition used than the GP11, mainly due to the fact that more and more privately own PE90 are used by club members.

Any Sights Any Rifle:

Any Sights any Rifle had its first entrants in 1998. Over the years we have had a steady increase in participant’s numbers. Due to the numbers of participants of last year Daniel and I decided that we would like to further modernize and mainstream this event. With the help of David Latham we created an online booking system which works a treat. We have also extended the 2 weekend competition to a 3 weekend event. After all the powder smoke has settled it was time to go over the books and reflect.

Total Competition shoot =206

Top Score: 1. Shane Willis: 200.11, (New Range Record) 2. Suzy McCall 200.09. Over the 3 weekends I have seen some very high scoring. The first 14 position had a score of 196 points and more. You can check the Any Sight, Any Rifle, scoring list or the traditional Swiss Shooting Championship on the Auckland Swiss Club Web-Site, Subfolder “Shooting”.

Nominated Points and Round Robin (knock out) Competition and the Round-Robin-Shooting Competition

Both competitions have been canceled due to the third “Any Sight Any Rifle” weekend. I also felled that I wanted to give our neighbors a break from the shooting noise. Some of you will be aware that some rifle range related question has been asked by some of our neighbors which I would like to address in the near future.

Field-Championship Medal

This year I have processed the cards of Fritz Scheidegger, Arthur Winterton and Geroge Russenberger. Shortly they will receive their bronze medal for their efforts. Congratulations! For all the other long time members of the shooting section, just have a look – if you have 8 white and 8 green cards hand them in to me and I will send them to Switzerland next time.

Working Bee’s

There will be one if not two working bees coming up. Firstly we need to re-face all the targets. Further I would like to do some work at the shooting hut in regards to noise and sound pollution. I was able to get hold of some free acoustic rated product and would like to insulate the roof space of the shooting hut.

Loraine, Daniel, Andre, and myself have measured noise level during a shooting exercise in and about the shooting range as well down by the neighbors. Findings: Noise levels are still below of what the Riverhead Deerstalkers range has to maintain. The noise level inside the hut was between 125-135 decibels, down at the neighbors the readings were between 42-45 decibels. Luckily I also have one of our club members taking an active interest and helping out and making suggestions. Thank you Neil!

Clarification of the use of a .223 Rifle used by other than Junior or Lady Shooters.

History:

Originally the .223 rifles were introduced for our junior and lady shooters to take part in the Swiss Shooting Competition as handling the karabiner was too unfamiliar to them and as a result they would not take part or were severely handicapped.

Part of my job as Riflemaster is also to promote our National shooting sport. Therefore we built the .223 rifle to give junior and lady shooters a chance to take part in our Swiss Shooting competition. It also gives junior and lady shooters a fair chance to compete with us, the more accomplish shooters.

Present Situation:

Over the years the .223 rifles have been increasingly used by other than junior and lady shooters.

This has created an unfair advantage to those shooters over the ones using the karabiner

Previously I did not see a problem giving the .223 rifle to a less accomplished shooter.

However the situation has now changed and therefore the ruling on the .223 rifle needs to be clarified.

Clarification of ruling:

As of the shooting season 2014 the following rules will apply when the .223 rifle is used by other than junior and lady shooters.

• Junior and Lady Shooters will always have priority on the use of the .223 rifle.

• Any non Junior and Lady Shooters will be exempt from being recipients of any Interclub Championship Medal or Championship Trophy if they shoot with a .223 rifle.

• The scores will still be recorded and processed as normal for all non junior and lady shooters that are using the .223 and will still receive the medals and scoring cards awarded by the Swiss Shooting Federation.

 

PE90

We are still no further with the club owned P90, mainly to the wording of the rules of semi automatic rifles. Strictly speaking one can only shoot a semiautomatic rifle that has his or her name registered to that rifle. I also have a understanding from further up the line that a other shooter could use a privately owned rifle as long the owner is coaching the shooter and is not more than one meter away from the rifle. Please note non registered shooters are not permitted to carry the rifle to and from the shooting position. This rule will be strictly enforced.

The club has entered a tricky situation were rifles are privately owned but not club owned which will restrict some shooters. These rifles naturally carry a big price tag till they are finally here and not all the new owners will freely let them to be used by others, which is quite understandable.

Eidgenoessisches Schuetzenfest 2015: Raron/Visp,Wallis, Switzerland.

Date 11.06.1-12.7.14, Swiss Abroad Day: 27.June 2014

Yes, the big one is coming up and it is time that we get organized. It will be held in the beautiful Rhone Valley on an old army airport in Switzerland.

Anyone interested please let me know of your intension early as quite a lot has to be organized.

I will be organizing a training program for you to attend. (Mandatory! Henry’s Law) You would also need to book for the accommodation as I have only limited space available at my Sisters and Brother in laws holiday home in Buerchen. Right in the centre of that village is a nice sport hotel mainly used by the winter sport enthusiast. I think that this could be quite a good option as usually hotel beds are rare closed to the shooting centre. Looking forward to hear from you!

Thank You!

I would like to extend a big: “THANK YOU” to all the help I have received from you on the day on the range over the past shooting season. I could not have done it without you all.

I especially would like to mention a non shooter and thank him for the endless hours he has put into the new online booking system. I think that you have created an outstanding online booking system.

Thank You! David.

Shooting Dates for 2013 are as follow:

To all of you and your family, on behalf of the Auckland Swiss Shooting Club, I wish you all a Wonderful and Prosperous 2013

Riflemaster of the Auckland Swiss Club: Henry Werffeli

NEWSFLASH:

Round Robin Competition will now be conducted on the: Saturday the 18.01.2014, starting 10am

Dear Auckland Shooting Club Members!

Now that all the shooting is done, it is time to reflect on the past shooting season and put the findings on paper. The Auckland Swiss Club’s shooting Section Membership presents itself as follows:

 

I am very pleased with this year’s participation even though I had great hopes to stabilise the declining numbers in the compulsory Swiss Army program. A good indicator of the numbers is the increased participation at in the Einzelwettschiessen and the Swiss Abroad Competition. 

A Competition also produces winners. The 2012 trophies winners are:

Main Competition:

 

After Luke Schmutz (2008) and [edited] (2010) it was now Marcel Lanz’s turn as a junior shooter to outscore all of us. It was a great internal family battle as on the very last shooting opportunity of the year Marcel kept his nerves to push his dad off the throne.

Lady’s Competition: 

 

This year’s ladies competition was not as close as last year’s one and Andrea seems to have a firm grip on the trophy. But every year the competition starts at zero again so it will be interesting to see who is able to challenge Andrea for the title.

Junior Competition:

 

All 3 top junior shooters scored higher than last year which is certainly a very encouraging sign. I also would like to mention Orlando’s achievement; in his last year as a junior shooter he shot his whole program with the K-31’s big caliber rifle. Well done.

Summary:

The scoring was generally down except for the junior competition but I think the bad weather with its shifting wind conditions had a big role to play. Weather conditions have to be taken into the equation and I just hope that in the upcoming shooting season we will be more favored by the weather god’s.

Participation has once again been down, this year by two shooters. For a long time it looked that we may break even with last year or even do better, especially as the “Hamiltonians” came up with big numbers. At the end we were just short.

I would especially like to thank all the shooters from Hamilton and the wider region. When considering their traveling time, you do display a lot of commitment and I certainly know that it is not an easy task to stay focused on shooting, as socializing amongst club members is as important and to be honest the Swiss Farm accommodation is no Hilton or the comfy bed at home. It is also great to see that there is junior shooters interest in your club. You all have my deepest admiration. Thank You.

Any Sights Any Rifle:

Any Sights any Rifle had its first entrants in 1998. Over the years we have had a steady increase in participant’s numbers. Last year Daniel and I decided that the organization and the running of this competition needed to change in order to accommodate all shooters that have shown interest. Over the last two years the new system has proven its valve. Last year (2011) we went for the first time over 100 participants, this year the record was exceeded with 158 shooters (2012). Pretty much all records were tumbling except one, the range record (200.7) shoot last year by Andrew Wakker still stays intact. For any serious contender an extraordinary effort is required to beat this. I even thought about building a new canon in order to increase my chances at it…… The 2012 competition was won by Debbie Wakker supported by a Swiss-Clause as Christian Neubauer had scored 197.7 points as well.

Due to the enormous success Daniel and I have now decided that next year we will throw in another weekend.

Nominated Points and Round Robin (knock out) Competition:

As every year in November we meet for the Nominated-Points and Knock-Out Competition.

Two shooters indicated early on that they did not just come to make up numbers.

After all shots were fired and calculations were done it came apparent that Melissa Lanz and Terry Mason were in fact on a dead heat as both had scored their nominated points. So another round was called for the two shooters, this time 5 shots were fired and then the shooter had to nominate their accumulated scores. At the end Terry Mason was declared the winner.

The Round-Robin-Shooting Competition is a rather short competition.

With only 2 sighting shoots and 6 counting shots there is not a great recovery space for a previous bad shot, so full concentration is asked for.

Right from the start, the scores were really even and continued till the final round.

At the end of the game Melissa Lanz got her revenge from the previous loss and outscored Terry Mason by 4 points. The little final was won by Henry Werffeli over Marcel Ruedi, last year’s winner.

Field-Championship Medal

This year I have only processed the cards of Andre Belami. Shortly he will receive the bronze medal for his efforts. Congratulations! For all the other long time members of the shooting section, have a look – if you have 8 white and 8 green cards hand them in to me and I will send them to Switzerland next time.

Working Bee’s

Unfortunately a heavy rainstorm had a huge impact on the shooting range; mainly the road down to the bridge but it also affected the foundation of the bridge. After seeing the damage it became apparent that something needed to be done in the shortest time possible as another storm could have taken the whole bridge away. I would like to thank everyone that got involved in building another foundation. It was a great display of team work.

At the same working bee some dedicated club members dug and installed a new drain in front of the door. I am glad that no one needs to get muddy shoes anymore before stepping into our little sanctuary.

I can honestly say I really appreciate all your hard work. Great Job’s! Well done!

Members:

Sadly Heinz Leuenberger has announced at the last Hamilton-Day that he is giving up shooting due to poor eye-sight and the cold weather conditions in May. It is something we all have to face at one point in our life and I fully understand. I would like to thank Heinz for the many years in participating as an active member of the shooting section. We will miss him as he was competitive till the last shot was fired and also very helpful in running the range in taking scores.

At this point I would like to encourage all members of the shooting section to further search for Swiss people whom would like to be part of something traditional. We have a great coaching team and would be only too happy to pass our knowledge onto new shooters. Please be assured any new shooters are always welcome.

PE90

We are still trying to solve a few issues around the P90 and its E-cat regulation as it is quite complex. Please note it is still a work in progress and hopefully I am able to tell you more about it soon.

Thank-You

With Marcel’s departure to Whangarei a very committed club member departed.  Over the years Marcel has taken a lot of work off my shoulders and was a great help in helping to maintain the shooting range. For all your hard work I herewith would like to Thank-You very much Marcel. We all hope that you still keep being an active member of the shooting section.

I also would like to thank Daniel, Ernst and Melissa for their great help in running the range.

Christian, Thank-You for your work and expertise in getting the new .223 rifle tuned up. Great Job well done!

Thomas, Thank-You for helping out with your digger. We could not have done without you and the digger. Thank-You!

To all the others who provided a helping hand during the year: Thank-You too!

Shooting Dates for 2013 are as follows:

 

To all of you and your family, on behalf of the Auckland Swiss Shooting Club, I wish you all a Wonderful and Prosperous 2013

Riflemaster of the Auckland Swiss Club :  Henry Werffeli