Greymouth woman in rifle club

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32525, 8 February 1971, Page 6

Greymouth woman in rifle club

(By

FRANK SNOW)

GREYMOUTH. I The West Coast’s only woman member of a heavy bore rifle club is Mrs Wendy Prince, 29-year-old mother of three young children, who lives in Cobden, Greymouth. Mrs Prince has been an active member of the 20-strong Greymouth Rifle Club for the last year. She is a regular competitor in the club’s weekly shoots at its Rutherglen range, seven miles from the town.

“I joined,” she said, “primarily for family reasons. My husband, John, is a very enthusiastic member of the club, as well as being a keen member of the West Coast DeerStalkers’ Association, which has lately become more interested in the associated value of range shooting, using the same range.

"Association members have their shoots on Sunday mornings and the rifle club takes over in the afternoons. John, being so keen, usually attends both sessions. So I decided it might be a good idea if I joined the rifle club. Instead of my husband being away from the family nearly every Sunday, we both now spend the day with a common interest and at the same time make jit a picnic-lunch outing for the whole family. It works admirably. Although it did involve one “small compromise” with the children Terry, aged 10, Steven, nine, and Susan, seven. Mrs Prince always finishes her shooting earlier than the rest to enable her to take the three for a swim in the Paroa swimming-pool two or three miles away. Born and brought up in Westport, Mrs Prince moved j with her family to Greymouth nine years ago.

Her husband, she said, had given her expert tuition in safe handling of and firing with a rifle. The children have also been taught safety rules near the mound from which their parents might be firing. While I was at the range, shooting was from its maximum mound—6oo yards. As a result of her husband’s tuition the weight (141bs) of her rifle had. never been a problem to her. Nor had she ever been worried by the .303 rifle’s reputed “heavy kick.” She said: “Having been property taught how to hold the rifle for firing I can truthfully say I’ve never from the very outset felt the so-called ‘kick’.” Mrs Prince said she would like to see other women taking up the heavy bore sport, just as there were many women today keen on small bore rifle shooting. “I think,” she said, “the majority of women might have an inherent fear of firearms in general, and particularly the heavier calibre rifles. For myself, while I respect it, I hold no fear whatever for a .303—a1l that concerns me is finding my mark on that target.”