People have been shooting military rifles at targets for at least 150 years.  Much of this activity ended up as the strictly deliberate target shooting of the NRA.  Some groups wanted to shoot more active style matches and the unrestricted version of this turned into Practical Rifle (IPSC).  People in the middle who wanted to shoot authentically configured military rifles at targets but with some action initiated Service Rifle shooting.  Several clubs round NZ were doing this in an uncoordinated way. In late 1997, the International Military Arms Society Inc, based in Auckland and Wellington Service Rifle Association formed the New Zealand Service Rifle Association Inc.  A joint set of rules and matches was written and called the Service Match Code, now in its fifth edition.  Currently the main clubs running exclusively Service Rifle matches are Wellington Service Rifle Association Inc (WSRA), Auckland Service Rifle Association Inc (ASRA) and Central North Island Gun Club (CNIGC).  A group in Canterbury also run regular SR shoots.  Other clubs run SR matches as part of their overall programmes.  SR shooting consists of using military rifles to shoot at fixed targets at fixed distances from 50m to 600m.