.303 Rifles

The Victoria 303 rifle team fulfilled their pre-tournament promises by successfully defending the Haslam Shield for the inter-varsity coached teams competition during Easter Tournament.

The shield competition was held on Saturday, 5th April, at the West Melton range about 15 miles from Christchurch city.

By lunch lime, after the 300 and 500 yds. ranges, Vic with 555 out of 600 was leading Canterbury by 7 points and Massey was a further 3 behind.

This was a handy lead from the strongest competition.

In the afternoon, with two ten-shot matches over 600 yds., conditions were clear, but a strong steady easterly blew across the range. With some sound coaching by Graham Wakefield and Jim McKinlay, Vic was able to finish with a record score of 1,093 out of 1,200, followed by Massey with 1,071.

The NZU team was chosen after Saturday's shooting, and Vic supplied half of the B-man team—J. Williams, J. Whiteman, J. McKinlay and K. Winn—with G. Wakefield as non-shooting coach.

Monday's shooting, again over the same ranges (300, 500, 600, 600 yds,) took the form of NZU vs. a Canterbury Rifle Assn. team, and North Island vs. South Island.

John Williams (Vic), who had top scored on Saturday, was first down for NZU and put up a possible 50 on 300 yds.—a score which was only equalled by two Massey shooters.

Great difficulty was experienced in holding the rifles on aim in strong winds, but by concentration, and some good coaching, NZU came out with 1,437 out of 1,600 to beat the Canterbury Association by a mere 8 points. Vic's John Whiteman finished top equal NZU scorer, and top scorer over the two days.