News | July Sporting Clays + DTL Weekend Coming up

Wairarapa Clay Target Club
16 hours ago
5 min read

July Sporting & DTL Weekend

24 - 26 July | Wairarapa Clay Target Club

After another hugely successful month in June, we're back again in July with another Flexible Shooting Weekend.

Whether you're completely new to clay target shooting, a secondary school shooter wanting to build experience, a gamebird hunter still keen to shoot after the main season, or an experienced competitor chasing a Club Championship, there's a place for you here.

These weekends aren't just about competition.

They're about getting people onto the grounds, enjoying some time outdoors, improving their shooting, making new friends and catching up with old ones, introducing family and friends to the sport, and creating a club environment that people genuinely enjoy being part of.

Shoot one round or ten.

Stay for an hour or spend the whole weekend here.

Come and go when it suits you.

Get some coaching, have another crack at a score, try a discipline you've never shot before, or simply enjoy a relaxed few hours around the club.

This month features:

• English Sporting Cash Match

• Super Sporting Cash Match

• DTL Single Barrel Club Championship

Alongside everything that has made these weekends so successful over the past few months: flexible shooting, coaching, re-entries, introductions, family participation, and the freedom to participate in whatever way suits you best.

Three-Day Format

Shooting Times

Friday: 12:00pm – 5:00pm
Saturday: 9:00am – 5:00pm
Sunday: 10:00am – 3:00pm

Friday afternoon remains a great option for quieter shooting, practice, coaching, introductions, and posting early scores before the busier weekend period.

The Disciplines

English Sporting Cash Match

This month’s English Sporting layout will be run as:

40 - target rounds

(three sporting fields in use this month)

No club championship attached this month. Cash prizes will be awarded from each shooter’s best 40-target English Sporting round of the weekend.

Shoot as many rounds as you like, and we’ll count your best score

Super Sporting Club Championship

Super Sporting returns as our:

60-target Cash Match

No Club Championship attached this month.

Cash prizes will be awarded from each shooter's best 60-target Super Sporting round across the weekend.

Shoot as many rounds as you like and we'll count your best score.

DTL Point Score Club Championship

This month's DTL discipline will be:

Single Barrel – 25-target rounds

Single Barrel is one of clay target shooting's traditional disciplines and provides an excellent opportunity for both experienced DTL shooters and those wanting to broaden their shotgun skills.

Your best two 25-target rounds across the weekend will count toward the Club Championship, making it a 50-target championship.

If shooters are tied at the end of the weekend:

third rounds will be used as tie-breakers
then fourth rounds if required

This means additional rounds effectively become your "shoot-off" rounds, while rewarding shooters who continue improving throughout the weekend.

Shooters will score and referee each other in the usual club manner.

Coaching, Introductions & New Shooters

One of the biggest successes of these weekends has been seeing experienced competitors, new shooters, secondary school shooters, families and gamebird hunters all sharing the same grounds and learning from one another.

That will continue in July, including introductions to:

Sporting Clays
DTL Single Barrel
general shotgun handling and shooting technique

Intro Sessions Available:

✅ Friday afternoon

✅ Saturday 9:00am

✅ Saturday after 2:00pm

Because Saturday through the middle of the day becomes extremely busy, no introductions will be run during that peak period.

No introductory sessions will be available Sunday.

Coaching During Competition

Coaching and guidance will still be available throughout the weekend, including while shooters are completing scored rounds.

However, during busy periods this will need to be limited to shooters who are already comfortable and competent participating within normal squad shooting.

For more advanced help or technique refinement, catch up with James (0272779221) or David during the weekend.

Practice Shooting

Practice remains available across the weekend on the sporting fields using the Claymate card system.

However:

practice takes second priority to competition shooting
there is unlikely to be much practice availability during peak periods Saturday and Sunday

If you’re wanting significant practice time, Friday afternoon or quieter periods Saturday are strongly recommended.

Important:

There is no practice shooting available on DTL trap.

All DTL shooting must be completed as official scored 25-target rounds paid through the office.

Grades & Prize Money

All three disciplines will use the following grades, with prizes subject to the eligibility requirements below:

AA | A | B | C | Novice

For each discipline:

🥇 Grade Winner — $50

🥈 Runner-Up — $30

For Super Sporting, prizes will be awarded based on each shooter’s best 60-target round across the weekend.

For DTL Single Barrel, prizes will be awarded based on the final Club Championship results, using each shooter’s best two 25-target rounds across the weekend, including any tie-breaks.

For English Sporting, prizes will be awarded based on each shooter’s best 40-target round across the weekend.

Shoot as many rounds as you like — we’ll count your best scores.

There will also be:

🔶 Falcon ammunition prizes

🎁 Random prize draws

As always, we’re working hard to give back to the shooters who support the club and make these weekends what they are.

A lot of the ammunition and development-focused prizes are intentionally aimed toward novice, unregistered and developing shooters.

Prize & Club Championship Eligibility

To be eligible for Club Championship titles, cash prizes, Falcon ammunition prizes and random prize draws, shooters must be a paid-up Wairarapa Clay Target Club member for 2026.

Membership options are:

Full Membership: $100
Junior Membership: $20
Associate Membership: $20

Associate Membership is available to shooters who are already full members of another NZCTA-registered club and are NZCTA-registered elsewhere.

Shooters can join or arrange membership through the club office during the weekend.

Club Equipment & Membership

Club equipment remains available throughout the weekend for those wanting to try the sport or get started.

If you require club equipment, please indicate this during online registration.

New shooters are very welcome to become members immediately if they wish. Membership provides:

cheaper practice targets
access to member ammunition pricing
full participation in club activities

Shooters attending their third shooting visit will need to become club members to continue participating.

What We've Learnt

Over the past few months we've learnt something really encouraging.

People still want to shoot.

They still want to compete, improve, spend time outdoors and be part of a welcoming club.

The difference is that people want flexibility.

Some can only make it on a Friday afternoon.

Some come for a single round.

Others spend the whole weekend on the grounds.

Some chase Club Championships.

Others simply enjoy another opportunity to learn, improve and catch up with good people.

By opening the club to all of those different ways of participating, we've seen more people through the gate, more targets being shot, more coaching taking place, and more experienced competitors generously sharing their knowledge with the next generation of shooters.

One of the most encouraging developments has been seeing secondary school shooters returning to club weekends, broadening their experience beyond the school DTL circuit and learning alongside some of the country's most experienced competitors.

That is exactly the sort of club culture we want to keep building.

Registration

Online registrations will be live soon. Check back later

👉 Registration link:

Live scoreboards and all event information will again be available through the club website across the weekend.

Looking Ahead

This July weekend continues the Wairarapa club’s evolving approach to modern clay target shooting — mixing flexibility, competition, coaching and accessibility into a format that simply works for how people want to participate today.

We’re looking forward to another big weekend.

Come August we'll be kicking off the 2026 version of the Falcon Sporting Clay Series. Stay tuned!