Murchison East gunslinger David Black currently reigns supreme as the champion of New Zealand’s most historic sporting competition, after emerging from his trip across the Tasman in January having won the Ballinger Belt — the national long range target shooting championship established in 1861.
The four-day event had Black tough out turbulent Trentham winds in the country’s capital to finish on top with an aggregate score of 553.043, seeing off a raft of local and international talent.
Black’s mettle was put to the test during the competition’s shoot-out, where he would exit the mount following a successful 15-shot final from 900 yards out.
“To win was pretty special, considering it is a very hard and merciless range,” Black said.
“It is a very windy range; I would regard it as one of the hardest in the world.
“You need an ounce of luck to win, but I don’t think you get that sort of luck over three (and a half) days.”
Black had the Belt in his sights from the off with consistent shooting early in the piece and approached the final day with a six-point buffer over the next trailing competitor and kept his foot on the pedal to emerge a champion.
However, despite displaying a well-drilled performance to claim victory, Black admitted his preparation schedule was interrupted through outside influences in the lead up to the event.
“I probably didn’t practice as much as I should have, at least on my home range,” he said.
“I am a farmer and we have just come through the harvest, so I didn’t have a lot of spare time to get out and shoot.
“For a while there was a total fire ban in effect meaning a lot of ranges were closed, which stopped me from fine-tuning ahead of New Zealand.”
Not one to rest on his laurels, Black has been back at it at his home range of Shepparton-Nathalia, and has his sights set on Brisbane where he will compete for national glory with the state side later this year.