Nigel Laurence Hutton nursed a murderous hate for more than five years before he pulled the trigger.
His urge to kill came after a serious assault at the hands of a man less than half his age.
From then on the Cape Barren Island resident pledged ``payback''.
``I was no way ever going to let him get away with that (assault),'' Hutton said in a frank but remorseless police interview played in the Launceston Supreme Court yesterday.
``(I) hold a grudge . . . never let anyone get away with anything.''
On September 4, Hutton walked in to the island's community store, moved towards Aaron Maynard, 25, and pulled out a sawn-off shotgun.
He positioned himself in front of Mr Maynard ``to let him know what he was going to get''.
``He got a surprised look on his face and I pulled the trigger,'' he said.
Luckily for the victim it was a ``bad shot''.
``I probably needed more practice,'' he confided to police.
He said he was surprised by how bad the gun's aim was after he shortened it and went practise shooting for the kill.
``I made a mistake by cutting it too short,'' he said during the interview.
Mr Maynard escaped with non-life threatening injuries, including 30 superficial puncture wounds across his body from the shotgun blast.
But Hutton didn't know that during the interview.
``One only hopes he suffers like I did,'' he told detectives Senior Sergeant Johnathan Higgins and Senior Constable Phil Barrett at Launceston police headquarters hours after the incident.
Yesterday in court, Crown prosecutor John Ransom accepted Mr Maynard had seriously assaulted Hutton at a party about five years ago.
Hutton claims he was blind-sided with a king hit from Mr Maynard and then stomped with steel-cap boots within an inch of his life.
About a year later he suffered two heart attacks that he blamed on the assault which was never reported to police.
Hutton knew he wanted to kill Mr Maynard, he just didn't know when.
The murder plan crystallised two weeks before the shooting when both men had an argument at the council depot.
``He spoke to me like shit,'' Hutton said.
``I wasn't going to take no more of it.''
About 1pm on September 4 he went grocery shopping and saw his nemesis in the store reading the paper with his mate Larni Everett.
Hutton continued shopping and returned home, explaining to detectives ``there were frozen things that needed to be in the freezer''.
He grabbed two registered firearms and returned to carry out the murder.
He kept one gun in his vehicle in case he needed to go bush and hunt wallaby after the kill.
Mr Everett told police that Hutton was about two metres away from him when he pulled out the gun.
The store attendant and Mr Maynard's partner, Kathryn Longey, said she thought Hutton was just showing her boyfriend his firearm until he pulled the trigger.
The victim and Mr Everett charged the gunman, taking his weapon and throwing it on a roof.
Even though he had another cartridge he never tried to load it.
``I thought I would kill him with the first shot,'' Hutton said.
Scuppered, he barricaded himself in the store fearing a reprisal attack and was arrested by police about an hour later before being charged with attempted murder.
``How calm were you through all this?'' Detective Barrett asked.
``Calm. I never panicked, I was there for a reason,'' Hutton said.
He will be sentenced on November 18.
