Friday, only a few hours to kill before heading back and I want to do something. There was a poster in the hostel for a small-bore rifle range up in the hills above Kaitaia, and I gave the guy, Pete, a ring and went up there. Now, I have always been suspicious about guns and rifles, as their sole purpose is to take life. A gun collector is a different breed altogether.
Pete is a farmer and has taken over the land from his father who died a year or two ago. He had a friend, lets call him John. John used to help on the farm, and was Petes good friend, but Pete thought John was a bit dodgy as John had got his wife by stealing her off another man. Thats mates though. Johns wife got cancer and was slowly dying, and on the day she died, Pete finds out that John has been having an affair with Petes wife while his own wife was dying, and they were planning to take Petes family farm off him.
What would you do? Pete has always shot guns, hunted with them and collected them for years. He knows how to kill things. He thinks bad thoughts about these friends of his. What does he do? He thinks about killing his wife and old friend, knowing which rifle would do the job, but keeps his farm going, gets his head together and meets someone new. In the end John gambled that his dead wife would leave him money but has actually written him out of the will, and is now penniless and without friends. I reckon he got what he deserved.
I dont know if I would have that sort of self control, and he goes down as another person that has impressed me. Many people have killed and been killed for less.
We spent the morning talking and shooting. Its been a while since I last shot a rifle but I soon got back into it, and got my grouping down to about an inch; not great but I havent shot in years. Pete has old Enfields from carbines to No.4's, SKS, Japanese rifles, M1, M14, M16, an SLR, Hungarian rifles, Swiss, Swedish and more. We spent most of our time with single shot and semi-automatic .22 rifles. Here shooting is a necessary activity in killing vermin like killing possums and also killing wild pigs, so its part of the rural culture. It isnt made into a sport with nice red jackets, 200 hounds, Pimms, and a trumpet, but in mud, rain and done in working clothes.
Anyway, I did get pleasure out of shooting, which worried me. I thought I had got rid of that side of me, but its still there. It was good FUN shooting, and i liked the sound of the falling plates as I blat away with a semi-auto rifle with fat scope.
Time to head back to treehugging and veggie food.
Trev and Maria werent going to be able to go to the Rugby match as they had a big booking for Saturday night, so it was just me meeting up with Warwick, Jackie and Stu. Jenny and Zoe were coming later as Jenny had loads to do, including some business in Ponsonby.
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