You may imagine that if going to a shoot within the US requires careful planning, going to a shoot, literally, halfway round the world requires even more.
And some things might look simple, except when you tackle the thankless job of herding cats! LOL!
My lovely Veronika has taken the task, every year since Norway, three years ago, to have some pins made for the Team USA members to exchange with other shooters and the public in general. It is a VERY European thing to do. Funny thing is that you have to "choose your audience". When you exchange pins with other shooters, MOST of the time, they will give you a pin of their Club or their RGB, when you exchange pins with the general public, the pins are more related to places and nations, rather than the narrow shooting world we live in.

And in this sense, the pins Team USA has taken to the World's are now a collection series. Always a figure clearly alluding to the locality where the World's is being contested and also an allusion to the American Flag, the Stars and Stripes.

It is always good to remember that whenever we go to one of "these things", we are Ambassadors. Not only of our country, but also of the sport in general towards the general population of the country we visit. We need to put on our best behaviour because we are guests. Using images that create good, neighborly relations go a long way towards making the sport more acceptable to the local population in general, as well as to create brotherhood amongst shooters.

Too many bad examples around the world that are not needed exist of people creating bad feelings. We keep our civility, manners and courtesy. Without forgetting who we are.

Now, the Team has decided to get some "uniforms", at least as far as a presentation polo and hat is concerned, since that seems to be the general tonic at these events.
Some of you have seen the choice of shirts in my previous note about the NERFTC's at Crosman, where Team USA took First place and Team Canada took Second. Closely contested no doubt. I am sure that if Tom Peretti had shot as well at Crosman's as he shot at the Canadian Nationals (he took 1st in Piston), we would have been in deep trouble! LOL!

And with uniforms, of course, nametags have to be made, otherwise, whose shirt is whose?

:-)

And so the details of all the aspects get slowly done and taken care of.

I will keep you all posted.

;-)

Un abrazo!





HM

This is the Fifth year that Crosman Corporation hosts, at their headquarters in East Bloomfield, NY, USA; the "North East Regional Field Target Championships" (NERFTC's for short).

It has become the largest Field Target event in the USA, with 89 shooters attending, 8 different individual competitions being disputed and an International Team event.

Back in 2008 and 2009, when Broome County Sportsman's Association (BCSA) was doing it, the NERFTC's was growing, but there was doubt about whether the FT shooters had the commitment to do a successful two day event. So the first year that Crosman hosted the NERFTC's under the auspices of the Eastern Field Target Competitors Club (EFTCC) it was shot all in one day with 20 lanes for 80 shots. It was a resounding success. Scores were real tight across classes and everyone had a ton of fun.
You can see the scores of that event at the EFTCC's Match Library, here.

For the next year, 2011, Crosman decided to do a two day event, with Friday open for fun and visits to the Factory.

By this time, EFTCC had refined the layout and the Match was shot over 2 days, 30 lanes, 120 shots.
Again, it was a success.

And so it has been, year by year the Match grows and matures and this year marked the last time that the Match will be hosted under the auspices of the EFTCC.

As with most things in life, if they do not evolve and change, they stagnate and die. So, Crosman is electing for change and evolution.

This year's NERFTC's was an incredible experience for me. On one hand I was entrusted with a very young shooter and his father, on the other my first day performance was completely sub-standard. But we are getting ahead of ourselves, let's start, like some good stories, from the beginning.

We drove the 5½ hours that takes to reach the upper regions of NY state through some rain and bad weather. Nothing unusual for this time of year. By the time we reach the Microtel in Victor, NY, we met Tom Wade and Tom Holland and we did our check-in.
We went to dinner at Chili's and had an early night.

We were at Crosman's Friday early morning. Flags had to be hung, rifles had to be sighted in and we needed to get some serious trigger time.

Friends started to trickle in from all over the continent, from Canada:

To the far flung west:

To the "locals"

After a good day at the range, it was agreed that we would meet with other shooters, again at Chili's! LOL!

Dinner was full of laughter and good points, not only about shooting, but about life in general. The social aspect of these shoots is also an attractive part of them.

The first day of the shoot was somewhat of an anticlimax for me. I shot terribly! With barely 36 points out of 60 I knew it was going to be an uphill climb the next day to even place decently. The high point of the day was shooting with young Henry LaVoie and his father Mark.






















By the end of the first day, Jerry LaRocca was leading the WFTF Piston pack having shot a 41 and tying with Ray, Veronika shot a fantastic 39 to place 3rd and besting me by 3 points.

But, as the great Yogi Berra once said: it is not over until it's over and by Sunday, Mother Nature unleashed her furies on us.

It rained and then cleared and then rained some more and seemed to get stuck raining, but in an hour or so, it cleared again; just when everyone felt that it would stay clear the skies darkened and it started raining again.

Over the course of the shoot, it rained and stopped no less than 5 times. By the time my squad (Art Deuel, Tom Peretti and myself had one more lane to go, thunder started striking within earshot and the MD Mark DeBoard decided to suspend the shoot while the thunder and lighting went away.

Tent became a little overcrowded and we were asked to put our gear in the cars to make space for people.
Just when most of us had put away our gear, word came about that the shoot was to resume.
So, we picked up our gear and headed for the range.

Shooting in the rain is more a question of experience than anything else.
People get hurried and start loosing focus.
Water starts getting into the actions of some rifles and into the stock of some others.
Shot cycles change, and not always for better.
Pellets get wet if not carefully loaded and in spring guns, this turns the airgun into a steamgun.

BUT, if you keep your calm and follow your ritual/process and do not let the rain distract you so that you are one turn out on your turret, you can shoot decently in the rain.

I posted the highest Piston score of the day, at 45. But the first day's disadvantage was too much to be overcome and I ended up third.

Jerry LaRocca posted an impressive 84, followed by Ray Apelles with a very good 82 and then me with an 81 overall.

The rest of the shooters in most classes were not too far away, either up or down. It is a tribute to a good course's design when all the top shooters in all divisions shoot within some points of each other.

I find it interesting to analyze not only the positions within a Division/Class, but also the relative positions of all Divisions/Classes.

This year, the three highest scores in the Match were posted by WFTF PCP shooters, then came an Open PCP and a Hunter PCP shooter. The 5th highest score was posted by a WFTF shooter and the 6th was shared by Hunter and Open PCP shooters. At seventh highest score comes the first Piston shooter, a Hunter. sharing the score with an Open PCP shooter. 

Notable that piston shooters are shooting now to between 80 and 85% of the PCP scores. Something that we could not have imagined a few years ago.

As with all good things (even rainy ones) it all must come to an end, and the end of the NERFTC's was, as always a very moving awards giving ceremony where we all shared the satisfaction of having completed one more cycle.

It was my pleasure and privilege to award the second place of The America's FT Challenge Cup to Team Canada composed of Tim McSweyn, Dennis Eden, Dave Bartlett and Tom Peretti.







But even more pleasure was the fact that the Cup stays in the USA. Team USA, composed of Greg Sauve, Ray Apelles, my wife Veronika Ruf and myself outscored Team Canada by 30 points (not too much in a 480 possible points competition!)

Of course we need to make special mention of all the winners and placers, so here go a ton of pictures:

Mark De Board and all his crew did a FANTASTIC job with the Match.

Now, all that remains is: planning the next one! THANKS; Crosman!






H Medina

NB.- for Chip Hunicutt's review of the shoot, go here. 

For Scott Hull's Pictorial, go here