Wainuiomata Target Shooting Club

Towards the end of 1971 Warwick Avery put a notice in the local paper inviting anyone interested in establishing a rifle club in Wainuiomata to attend a meeting. Seven people attended this first meeting held at his place in the November. Following this, the necessary arrangements were made to form a club and we began shooting in 1972.

For the first year, as a temporary range, the club used the indoor practice bowling lane at the cricket club rooms in Fitzherbert Road. The targets and the protection behind them had to be set up and taken down again each week. The mounds were set up on the concrete area where all the ground maintenance equipment was stored. Through the winter, lying on a concrete floor in what was in effect a large barn with a very high roof was extremely miserable. On one occasion we even had snow flakes coming through the broken windows high on the east end of the building. The important thing was not to put a stray bullet through the curtain that divided the bowling lane from the social room. Not everyone was successful!

In 1973 a permanent range was built on land provided by the Council near the end of Burden Avenue. This was all done by the club members and any stray friends and supporters that we could round up to help. We were fortunate to have a number of tradesmen in the club who were able to oversee the work and ensure that it was done properly.

There were six mounds and the plan was to add a second tier and an upstairs social room when numbers required it.  This never proved necessary although at its height the club closed its membership at 40 and did not accept any young people under 14 years of age.

We have always encouraged school-aged students to join the club, preferably along with a parent. We see this as a way to provide an alternative sport option and to teach these young ones gun safety. We also provide a challenging option for those more mature sports people who find that their bodies can no longer cope with the rigours of a highly physical sport but still want to take part in a competitive activity.

Over the years the club has produced North Island and New Zealand representatives as well as top secondary school shooters and New Zealand secondary school team members. We take part in interclub shoots through the season and individual members attend championship and Representative matches at other centres.