Different from other years, and possibly another thing that merits repeating is the separation of the Awards meal (whether lunch or dinner) from the rest of the event.
People have time to relax, re-connect with reality and start thinking about the long trek home.
​To ME, that means disassembling the gun

Packing almost everything, and getting ready for the flight back.

I wasn't happy flying with Aer Lingus on the way out and I wasn't happy with the return, either, but we survived, the gun arrived well and you cannot really ask much more than that.
But, we are getting ahead of ourselves.

One of the criteria of choosing the venue was that the "main hall" could house a 600 person meal.
Why so many? because out of 436 shooters, some take a "significant other" to the official ceremonies, there are a bunch of dignitaries that also need accommodating, not the least the sponsors, and so, as the WFTC's grow and grow, the needs also grow at an even larger pace.

But let's put some faces to the names you can find in the score's tabulations.

First award given was Piston/Ladies, on the left Ingrid Reinu (3rd) , center Luciana Silveira(1st) and right Heli Jalakas (2nd)

Next, Junior Piston; on the left Rein Reinu (3rd), Faustino Avondet (1st), and Eva Maria Tõnurist (2nd)

Now, Veteran Piston; on the left, Ray Apelles (3rd), and on the right John Amos (1st) Dan Horrocks had departed.

PCP Ladies: left to right: Natalie Shead (3rd), Ana Pereira (1st), and Helen Carragher (2nd)

PCP Junior; left to right: Bianca Müller (3rd), Redvers Gallagher (1st), Dylan Varney (3rd)

Piston Teams, left to right: Germany (3rd), England (1st), USA (2nd)

PCP Teams, left to right: Wales (3rd), Spain (1st), England (2nd) It's important to note that it was a VERY CLOSE result, only 2 points (or 0.4%)  separated 1st from 2nd.
Should we start planning a team shootoff procedure?

And now, individuals, 10th to 4th in Piston:
At rear, left to right: Nicolas Godan, Bruno Silva, Ferenc Toth, Jan Homann
In front: Brian Samson, Leo Gonzales, Joel Goodwin​

And the Piston Podium: John Farbrother (3rd), Steve Privett (1st) , John Amos (2nd)

Now the individual PCP's, 10th to 4th,
At rear, left to right: John Chopping, Ferenc Sas, Dan Eley, Steve Franklin
In front: Stefan Kawnik, Redvers Gallagher, Luiz Barreiros

And the PCP Podium:
José Redondo (3rd), John Costello (1st), Jack Harris (2nd)​

By the end of the day, we had a wonderful event, really good shooting was posted by the top shooters, we learned quite a lot, and I feel that everyone is pumped up to do our best to go to South Africa in 2020.

As the South African delegation presentation for the 2020 WFTC's took as a motto:

"Africa is calling"

Hope you have enjoyed all these pictures, it is a pleasure and a privilege to go to a sporting event wearing the Team USA shirt, I would hope that many of you now realize that you do not have to be "superman" to take the decision to compete and carry out the dream.

Who knows? we may meet in some place.

Keep well and shoot straight!






​HM

Apologies for not having posted this entry before, but things went real fast betwen the evening of the 4th day and my return home.
Now that all pending matters at home have been addressed I can sit down and post the ending of the shooting portion of the 2019 World's.
The awards lunch will be posted as a different entry.

The WFTF has a very specific shootoff procedure.
The almost 40 countries that make up the WFTF decided that the American way of a "sudden death" was not really appropriate, and so a different method was devised that falls much more in line with the WFTF concept of a "lane".

As per the rules, IDENTICAL lanes are prepared, as many as are needed, and then shooters are invited to dispute the places shooting at the same targets, same time, same place, under "same conditions".
First round is conducted in the "free position" (mostly seating), if the tie persists, then the shooters go to the kneeling position, and if the tie still persists, shooters go to the standing/offhand position.

And so, there is also some strategy to the shootoff.

In the 2019 WFTC's case, the shootoff was carried out in an open field, while nearly all the targets had been placed in the woods. So that was, undoubtedly, a challenge.

Here you can see the 6 shootoff lanes prepared and ready to receive the contenders.

Shootoffs were a little late in starting, and even with the late start some of the shooters had to be waited for because they were not prepared. The long wait is always an important part of the challenge of the challenge of a shootoff, and so is the fact that there is a "public" now watching your every move.

But, good shooters should be prepared to isolate themselves inside their minds and just dedicate 100% of their brainpower to crafting the best shot possible. One at a time.

Of MOST interest to me, was the shootoff for 3rd, 4th, and 5th of the Piston class.

To the line were called John Farbrother, Leo Gonzales and Joel Goodwin.

It is worthwhile to note that John F had been shooting with 2 broken ribs. Being the defending champion (he won in Poland), he shot to the best he could and won the first round of the shootoff to get the 1-2-3 for England.
Quite an achievement!

With John in 3rd Joel and Leo buckled up and continued shooting.

Round after round, the tie persisted, if Joel missed the long one, Leo woud miss the short one and viceversa.

To the point where Andy C must have said something to Joel and Leo, because they are all laughing.

Finally, after quite a few rounds Leo got both and Joel missed one, thereby placing Leo in 4th and Joel in 5th.

Congrats to them, great job of "keeping it together" through three days of instense concentration, adverse elements, and changing conditions.

I will not mention the scores, those can be found here, and studied by using different filters to sort things out, if you are so inclined.

What you cannot elucidate from a spreadsheet of numbers is the human qualities and values of most shooters.

In any case, it was deeply satisfying to see Leo take 4th, I am sure he still has important successes waiting for him in the future.

And that is something that is important: The USA has been working on  the spring-piston side for some time, the team is made up of young shooters, but also of experienced shooters, and it is this combination that has landed the  Piston Team a place in the podium for two years in a row.

Yes there is a LOT of room for improvement, but with shooters like Ray Apelles, Nathan Thomas, Cameron Kerndt, Matt Brackett and Jay Hannon, I am sure we will be placing well.

The composition of Piston vs. PCP was also interesting, about 20% of the 439 shooters were springer shooters. 

On a closing note, I must set apart a short space to thank those that made this memorable experience possible.
I am sure there are better pictures of him, but this pictures paints his character.
This is Andy Calpin, a veteran of a thousand battles and passionate FT shooter.
This time he did not shoot, he agreed to spend a grueling week as Match Director, a week of hard work just making sure that the match run as it should. And, by gosh, he did it!

There were 7 cold lines that I am aware of in the three days of the competition.
​Targets performed flawlessly, and there was no time lost between the end of one stint and the beginning of the next.
All in all, an admirable achievement.

We also need to thank, Bob Farnworth, who acted as "Captain of the boat", and Brian Samson who designed all the Paperwork/Cyberwork and even came out with a device that allows all scores to be put into the system as soon as they are handed in.
Very kindly, Brian has offered all this technology to future hosts of WFTC's.

There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that FT has grown because there are MANY persons that do what they can for the sport. Each at his/her own level and possibilities, there are MANY, and in this sense we need to thank the whole crew that made such an excellent event possible.

So, THANKS, to one and all!

Keep well and shoot straight!






​HM

After yesterday's deluge, and 400 shooters had trampled the course, it was quagmire.

We Americans would have charted some cartloads of pea-pebbles for the shooting boxes. To the Europeans, sitting in mud is almost a hobby in itself.

Because I had been relegated to the "runt of the litter" (and rightly so, LOL!), I was shooting again in the morning and my squadmates had changed.

I would be shooting with a girl from England, Hellen; and a young man from the Ukranian team, Oleksander.

After exchanging pleasantries, we sat down to shoot. It was interesting to see a 6' tall guy take the pretzel position:

, 
Do note his right knee tucking in the stock.
And the position of the stock's forearm riser at a compound angle.
Peculiar stocks these FT specific stocks.

I had taken a few shots in the sighting in range and I felt confident that I finally had found my zero. Based on the misses of yesterday and the info given by the sighting-in range, I settled on a course of action and decided to follow it.
We started on lane 2, and I hit targets 3,4,5,6, and 7, then missed target 8, hit 9 and missed 10.
Not bad because I was seeing my misses and most were because I was overestimating the wind. I was not trusting the App.

Then it was time  to change "decade" and we went on to lane 6, missed target 11, but hit 12, 13, 14, 15,  and 16, which was good because they were kneelers:

then hit 17, missed 18, but hit 19 and 20.

I was very happy with how the gun was shooting and how the pellets were flying into the KZ.

We changed decades and I missed 21, but hit 22, 23 ,and 24. 

I was "right chuffed with myself" because lane 12 was out in an open "cul de sac" of trees and the wind was swirling about.

and then we changed decade.

Hit targets 31, 32, 33, and then disaster struck.

Gun would not cock.

As much as I tried, took the gun out of the stock, checked for loose parts then augmented the trigger tension, in the hope that something had oxidized with the rain, and a little more force in the release of the springer would return the gun to operational status again.

Nothing worked.

And so ,with a VERY heavy heart, I had to abandon the competition.

With 23 hits out of 29 shots actually taken, I could have ended with a 40.
BUT the stars simply did not align and I had to abandon the competition.

I still kept score for my squadmates and we had a jolly good time of it, but deep down, I felt real sad.

Anyway, a bad day at the range still beats the best day at the office, and I was glad to be out here in good company, enjoying the outdoors.

And so, the match ended for me with very low results.

I'll have to get home, disassemble the gun and take a good deep look at what we can do to make the whole thing much more reliable and much more resistant to the elements.

A friend once said that in an airgun match anything that could go wrong WOULD go wrong.

I think there is an important life lesson in that.

Keep well and shoot straight!





HM

Day 3 was horrible, LOL!

It had been forecast to rain, and most of us were prepared for it. 

SADLY, I had nor prepared my stock for it.

During the first warming up shots in the rain the rifle got soaking wet.
Now I have an aluminum bedding block 1/8" thick shaped as a "U Channel" under the action, like a bedding block. And I THOUGHT that would be enough, normally, it is. At least for the rains we usually shoot in.
Not in this case.
The stock warped and I just could not find my zero.
​But let's go back to the beginning of the day.
Apologies for the quality of the pictures, but I took my waterproof camera that is not as good, but much more survivable.

And don't pay attention to the date stamp, I re-programmed it after I remembered it but a few pictures got stamped.

After 10 shots warming up and cocking always very carefully in a horizontal position, I decided to take some sighting in shots with the hold that had produced good results the day before, and it was good, so after 10 more shots, I cased the rifle and went to the starting point.
We all looked like a bunch of wet puppies, LOL!

But the show had to go on and at the appointed hour, the horn sounded and everyone gathered to enter the shooting area.
This time the Marshalls did make it a point to mention that all the guns had to be laid down under the blue rope that marked the firing line.
Though they forgot to mention that all targets should be brought up before leaving the lane. Again, some UK shooters complained about a fact that is not written in the rules and that is not a universal habit. What is more, in some countries shooters LIKE to bring up their own targets for two reasons:
1.- They get to locate them when it is confusing/there are many visible targets, AND
2.- they like the opportunity to gauge the wind.

But, along the shoot, a Marshall had to come along all the course telling this to all shooters.

Still, not a big deal, except for my partner, that shot at a laying down target and lost a point.

In the woods, the rain was not as horrible, nor the wind.​

It even got hot and steamy

Little rays of sunshine provided a very peculiar experience, in the dark forest, the target appeared to be closer than it really was.

Here you can see the stark contrast of the tree shadow in the light, and compare that to the subdued shades of grey of everything else.

Intermittent bouts of rain kept us on our toes

Some parts of the footpath were clearly hard to negotiate
Some shooters simply decided to NOT shoot.

In the end, it was a horrible day because as the shoot progressed I could see the POI change from here to there as the stock warped.

But tomorrow will be another day and the caliber of a person is gauged as much by how that person takes the defeats as the successes.

"Could, Would and Should" need to be used sparingly in our thoughts, and always in a planning mode, not in a lamentation mode.

The ONLY shot that matters is the one at hand.

And that is an important life lesson.

Keep well and shoot straight!

First of all, apologies for posting this a little late. But one of the disadvantages in shooting one afternoon to then shooting the nexrt morning is that you have precious little time to eat, get your next day in order and take care of yourself (shower BADLY needed, LOL!)
But if I have learned anything going to the WFTC's over the years is to take things in stride.
As heartbreaking, and distressing, and depressing, the scores may be, you are still here.
You owe it to yourself, and to your gun, to craft EACH shot to the best of your ability.
Sometimes it will seem the gun does not agree with you on this but, if you look closely you will find that you didn't fully supported her needs. More on that when we post the Day 3 entry, but for now, I will only say that to improve in FT you need practice and dedication, and one more important quality: you need to be truthful to your own self.
But, we're getting ahead of ourselves, let's take an overview of the Day 2 that is the first day of actual competition.
Day starts with another round of practice and sighting-in. After this, competitors concentrate at the entrance to the courses and await the safety briefing:

Up until today, weather has been favourable, tomorrow will be different, but for the time being, it has been a few days of very nice weather.
A bit windy, but that is in the nature of a country where no point is more than a 70 miles from the sea and there are seagulls everywhere, just to illustrate how "flat" it is.
​As explained yesterday, the courses had been set in the woods, which would offer some cover from the open wind.

This is a typical lane:

And you have to look real hard to see the targets.
As we have always maintained, FT at the World's level is a distance game.
Almost ALL targets are between 38 and 55 yards.

Apologies for the pictures but these were taken the full extension of the ExiLim telephoto.

Along the lanes, you find the Chrono station. All rifles get tested each day.
WFTF has taken the determination that the official Chrono for these events is the Czech Air-Chrony

A constant worry of  shooters, specially when you travel long distances is to stay "legal".
And so, there are always chronys available at the sighting-in range and at the equipment checkup.
It is per the rule book, in WFTC's, to number the targets so you have a correlation between the target you are shooting and the lane in which you are.
If you are on your first shot and you are in lane 19, then the first shot has to be on target 37 and the second on target 38
Shooting out of order gets the hit (if any) cancelled.

So, let's take a look:

A detailed picture reveals that the bunny is "floating" in a base that is attached to a diagonal fallen log.

Quite imaginative, and quite hard, because it is very hard to rangefind something that is backlit and has no "surroundings". Our eyes do not compute that very well.

The organization, again, was excellent in general, there were only two cold lines called and those were quickly and effectively resolved.

It called my attention that, for years I have been advocating using grass marking paint/survey paint for the targets, and that is exactly what the WFTC's is using:

One thing that needs to be continually improved is the Marshalling.
It is normal for Marshalls to revert to what THEY consider "good", in other words, what is done in their respective clubs or federations, that is human. But in the WFTF there are more than 35 countries, and there ARE comprehensive rules.
Marshalls should STUDY those rules, abide by them and not "invent" rules that are not in the Comprehensive Rules. Nor should they stop enforcing those rules that ARE part of the comprehensive rules.

IF the organizers consider something to be a "SAFETY" issue, then it should be part of the "safety" briefing. That is what it's there for.

As a common "tourist", if  you see that the pathways are narrow, the positions somewhat restricted and you want to be respectful of the shooter that is in the box, you do NOT approach the line to put down your rifle. You remain respectfully BEHIND, where you know you are not distracting him/her.
Well, after doing just that and watching a lot of people do that

I was "chewed" by a Marshall for not putting my rifle under the line of fire rope, and facing muzzle down-range.

I guess it's part of the cultural differences. We consider a cased rifle a "holstered gun", but here it is not considered "safe", even in a case.

I am not against each range adopting whatever safety measures they want/deem proper, that is what Marshalls are there for, BUT there should be more coordination and safety issues should be part of the safety briefing.

The other side of the dis-coordination is the non-enforcement of rules that have been discussed long and hard

A LOT of fuss was raised by some of the RGB's within WFTF about the foot position in the kneeling lanes.
Endless discussions about it ensued but in the end, a solution was decided upon and the rule was adopted that the foot needed to be vertical.
But this was not uncommon among the UK shooters:

It was also decided that the foot could not be covered by the jacket:

 to the extent that FT jackets are shorter than the Olympic counterparts.

​As I have always maintained, there is no rule more unfair than that which is not enforced.

Did I go looking for a Marshall? Nope. I'm an American, we are not snitches.

Did I present a formal observation or comment? Nope! I did that in Lisbon and never got an acknowledgement or an answer.

So, ¿Why worry?

Because in two years' time, there is a good chance we (the USA) could be hosting the WFTC's 2021

And if we want to do things well, we need to take note of all "the small stuff".

EVERY GP safety briefing I've been to, usually presents the question of the kneeling position, and so, it has become almost a habit to re-hash that. Expediency should not take the place of completeness.

We'll  see what happens in the future. It is always good to learn from each day we live.

And on this note, let me confess that I did badly.

I CHOSE to believe what the sighting-in range was telling me. And just as the Long Island (NY) sighting-in range, it fools you (this is another lesson for when it is time for us to organize it.- providing a GOOD sighting-in range is more than putting a lot of paper targets out there.)
People will travel thousands of miles if they go to the US to shoot, as we all know, things happen to airguns when we travel. The least we can do is provide a good sighting-in range.
Luckily, I had obtained enough ballistic data from BlackBrook and that info is solid, but the zero was simply not where it should be.
The first half of the day was terrible, but I could recover some by the second half. Missing only two in each of the last two "decades".

Yes, it was a hard lesson.
And we are already thinking of ways to overcome this, part of it is, of course, practice more and test less. I am always testing things, but I need to concentrate on "perfecting", which in latin means "finishing", a system to shoot.
That will be the mission, and the trip will be most interesting.

Keep well and shoot straight!






​HM