A champion sharpshooter who tutors at the Taratahi Agricultural Training Centre is designing "bullet-proof" practical stages for the upcoming North Island 3-Gun Championships.
Tutor Phil Dunlop, who is reigning North Island 3 Gun Champion, also has been using the holidays to manufacture moving targets at the engineering block at Taratahi ahead of the event, which will run at the Wairarapa Pistol and Shooting Sports Club (WPSSC) at Gladstone on February 15 and 16.
Competitors in 3 Gun events combine accuracy, speed, and power to complete stages of unique shooting scenarios using a rifle, handgun, and shotgun. Each stage requires shooters to transition between the firearms and at varying distances to shoot targets - some paper and others steel - while also ignoring other targets that incur penalties when hit.
Mr Dunlop also is the WPSSC practical shooting co-ordinator and is designing the Practical Shooting stage for the championships next month "in a way that will push competitors to their limits", he said.
Each stage was different, he said, so competitors "will have no idea how it will play out until they are on it".