POLOKWANE – He says the province boasts the largest complement of members actively participating in sport shooting, hunting, as well as a combination of the two.
He also added that the growth of the sport has prompted them to establish their own shooting range which is situated on the outskirts of Polokwane, 13km out on the Soetdorings road.
“We are inviting people who have questions to contact us and learn more about how to join as well as how they can attend our shooting days and become part of the sport, or just to come to our range on a Saturday and introduce the children to the importance of weapon safety. We have 470 paid members and the aim is to increase the number.”
Sharing some of the success stories of the organisation, Willemse said in 2018 they made enormous progress.
“We were able to officially open the range to our members and the public in November. In 2019 we were able to host our first national championships on home ground and the attendance was phenomenal from other provinces and the end result was a huge success.”
He says on the range they accommodate long distance shooting up to 1 000m, 200m discipline simulating hunting conditions, handgun, small rifle, air rifle, bow, shotgun, clay pigeon shooting and semi-automatic rifle up to 200m. “Members can obtain dedicated sport shooting and dedicated hunting status (Section 16 applications) and we offer shooting activities on the range that the whole family can attend. Our members also take part in organised bird and other hunting activities,” Willemse said.
He added that apart from shotgun, they shoot at paper targets and on the long range these targets consist of close to life-sized animal targets.
“Our club shooting days are usually on Saturdays and are open for the public to attend. Unfortunately, the range is not open during the week. We also support our local gun shops who also played a huge part in the success of our range and would like to thank Wildman Polokwane and Lekana Gun Shop,” Willemse concluded.
The South African and Sport and Hunting Federation was established in the early 1990’s in Limpopo and since then expanded to provinces like Gauteng, Mpumalanga, North West, Free State, KwaZulu-Natal and the Western Cape
For any enquiries contact Willemse on 082 809 7006.
