We were fascinated when we went to Norway to shoot the 2012 WFTF World's Matches. We enjoyed the people, the landscape, the seascape, the boat cruise, the north pole, and even getting close to the Russian Military Atomic Submarine base in Murmansk was interesting so, when the WFTF WM (WeltMeisterSchaften) was announced for Ebern, Germany, we were ecstatic and just waiting to go.

Anticipation became a reality when the official invitations came in the post:

Of course the more important papers were the rifle permits, which I will not post for obvious reasons. We, in the US are not used to the fact that anything resembling a firearm is viewed with more or less distrust in most all other countries.  Just as a year before, SAS had given us the best price for the airfare once all the baggage fees and additional costs that airlines slap on you had been taken into account. Anyway, with the whole documents under hand (Passports, Tickets, Money, Invitations, Permits, Bookings, Maps, etc.) we started our trip at Newark.

We arrived into Berlin via Copenhagen without any hitch whatsoever, the authorities looked at the guns, the rifle permits, checked the serial numbers and we were on our merry way.
We spent a few days in Berlin with a friend that Veronika has known since her pre-school years. And I wanted to go back to Berlin because last time I was there, the Wall was still up and very much so.
After an extremely good weekend in Berlin, we took the overnight City Express to Karlsruhe, where we took delivery of a car and drove to Rastatt, where I had a business meeting with Mayer & Grammelspacher, the makers of Diana Airguns.

Where we had excellent meetings with the Engineering, Marketing and Sales Dept. 

From Left to right: Herr Michael Mayer (4th Generation Owner), Herr Marcus Glück , Herr Maurice Reinagel  , Herr Paul Kleinkopf and me. With the CCA WFTF D-54

After some initial discussions about the modifications made to the basic D54, we adjourned to the long distance testing range, which is located at the roof-rafters of the old factory,  where Herr Reinagel posted some impressive groups.

And this one at 40 meters:

For reference, each square is 5 mm's, so the circles measure 20 mm's edge to edge. Truly FT material.

After some more discussions about the P-1000 and other ideas, we agreed to meet at Ebern and we were on our merry way, not without some heartache at leaving a place that is bound in so much airgunning history.

We spent some wonderful days in Rothenburg and Würzburg and after a very agreeable drive we arrived at Ebern.
Clearly the whole town was in FT mode!
We found this welcome tree in the central plaza of the town.

We had our dinner (Pizza place was the only open place on a Wednesday night), and we went to bed.
Next morning we toured the town a little and met with the remainder of the team at the BDS range.
We used the time to warm up and to reconnoitre the surrounding areas.
A HUGE asset to the US Team were the two Americans that are living in Germany, Robert Brooks was wise and kind enough to get access to a private range where we could tinker with our guns.

Some of the Team members decided to join in the fun

On the inside, the shooting range is more like an old-school gentleman's Club:

Over the four very valuable hours we had at the private range, we managed to trajectory Veronika's gun, settle down mine and make sure that everything was where it was supposed to be. Robert had the chance to re-mount his scope and re-align his adjustable bases that had come loose.

We washed, changed and went to the big event of the evening, which was the welcome dinner!

The Town treated us as Royalty. they got out the Town Crier:

Who welcomed "all those that came from near and far, looking for the elusive perfection of the well released shot" clearly the guy knew what he was talking about!
Here we have to say that traditionally, in the German speaking countries, the traditional Matches are ONE shot matches. They shoot at very ornately painted targets and the target itself is the award plaque. Closest shot to the center is the winner. ONE shot.

Then, in clear reference to the long standing hunting tradition of the Bavarian mountains, we were treated to a beautiful, short, concert of JagdHorns:

For those that are musically oriented, I will say that these horns have no valves and no slides. All notes are obtained by the musician's control of the lips. Truly impressive.

As the festivities wore on, food and beer started to come out, the teams started to assemble, it was shocking to see how many teams had selected to use red as their team color:

Spaniards, Russians, English, a LOT!

Even us! ROFL!:

From Left:
Ron Carlson, Keith Knoblauch, Sonia Taylor, Alan Otsuka, Robert Brooks and John Estep

And even though we could not eat the food, we had a wonderful time!

But we had come to Germany to shoot! So we were off early and next day found us on the BDS Shooting Range, where we received the news that the spring-piston shooters would start on the Gold course.
To us, with the blissful ignorance of first timers, that told us nothing. When we got to the course we realized that it was the course with the most severly angled shots of the whole competition.

This is Roberto Caballero, from Spain, defending World Champion:

After a whole 7 hours of shooting without intermission or recess. The long times being a necessity of the 4 man squadding used, we ended up exhausted, but still in good humour.

Good enough humour to pose for a picture:

Isn't it funny when so many people are taking pictures that sometimes you find better pictures of yourselves in some other tourist pictures?

From the first day I was squadded with Michael Woodhead (President of EFTA), Jörgen Klockner (Design Engineer for Walther), and George Harde (Canadian National Champion).
I have to say that it was a terribly fun squad to be in. We were serious, but not dead serious. We had fun and talked just enough being careful not to bother our squad mates.
Jörgen was shooting, ¿what else? a Walther LGV with a Schmidt & Bender 10-50X60 FT scope. The scope was to prove his undoing over the three day event.
Michael was shooting a tried and trustworthy rig with a Simmons scope that served him well.
George Harde was shooting a TX-200 with a sophisticated tune that gave him problems from the start. He was having 30-45 fps difference between shots and he could not account for strange misses. His Sightron scope though, proved very reliable and perfectly suited to the dark forest lanes.

One of the impressive aspects of such a high level event is that "things" happen to everyone. And still, all the good shooters manage to overcome the small difficulties.

After some struggling I managed to post a respectable 35/50 which placed me between 4th and 7th.

For the second day we were to shoot in the black course. Theoretically, the "easy" course of the match.
It was not for me.
MOST of the shots were slightly angled, but long. And the problem presented itself that there was no position from which I was stable to take a good shot.
I lost some golden opportunities to rack up points and I ended up with a still solid 35/50

The third day was the most grueling of all.
We were all tired, shooting days had been long affairs with no way of developing a rhythm. Still, we were fired up by the idea that it was the decisive day.
And what a day it was!
The Team mates surged ahead and posted an excellent performance that catapulted the US Spring-Piston Team from 7th to 4th. John and Robert made a HUGE effort and Keith also posted a much better score, so we were able to end up in the 4th position as a Team.

As the competition was winding down I started receiving congratulations from a few well placed friends and so I started to realize that the seemingly poor performance of 31/50 for the third day had still placed me in the "Top Ten" .

I specifically appreciated the good will of the Steyr people, from left: Veronika, Myself, Karl Egger (CEO of Steyr Sport) and his son.

We gathered the Spring-Piston team for the picture, from left: Robert Brooks, John Estep, Veronika Ruf, Keith Knoblauch and me.

After some coaxing, we gathered almost the whole team and went to the sight-in range to take a picture of all, from left : Alan Otsuka, Veronika Ruf, Ray Apelles, Greg Sauve, me, Donovan Taylor, Neil Youngreen, Harold Rushton, Keith Knoblauch, Peter Brooks, John Estep, Robert Brooks and Ron Carlson. Only Mark Catlin is missing.

After a relatively tense wait, the results were posted and I was very happy at having sustained the position of the early days. I placed 7th, but the difference between the 4th and the 7th was not that big:

Yes, there is a lot of work to do and a lot of things to learn and to perfect. Some gear to change and some techniques to be mastered, but we are now in the running.

Over the three day event we had the opportunity to meet and become friends with wonderful people. Excellent shooters that are not only good shooters, but good persons.

We met the Chilean friends whom, we hope, will come to the next NorthEast Regional Field Target Championships (NERFTC's) in East Bloomfield, NY; to take part in the America's Challenge FT Cup that will be disputed between Canada, Chile, US and Venezuela in 2014:

And we also had the chance to joke and have fun with such great personalities as the President of the WFTF, Mr Andrew Idris Kays himself, who shot the courses without any ceremony and just like any other shooter:

Andy is visible and accessible all year round, he is attentive and generous with his time to a fault. He always has a smile and even when he gets mad, he finds a way to have fun.

And then, almost unexpectedly, came the end, the Town called in the Town Crier:

And this time a more sedate Brass band:

Speeches were made, and the awards started to flow.
First the Veteran PCP shooters, where Greg and Mark did the 1-2:

After a while, the springer Top Ten from left, top tier: Brian Samson (2nd) , Linas Burvys (Champ), Alexas Jaunas (3rd), from left bottom row: Andres Mikfelt (10th), Roberto Menichelli (9th), Istvan Fejes Toth (8th), me (7th), Meelis Kurvits (6th), Regina Burviene (5th), Roberto Caballero (4th).

A good picture of the "hardware" brought home by the team:

And a friendly and heartfelt farewell from Her Volker Blüm, wishing us good journeys home and hoping to meet us again at the next World's event.

Going to one of these events is a pleasure, a privilege and a huge burden. But the experience gained and the friendships formed are more than worth it. If you ever get a chance, go for it!

Un abrazo!







Héctor Medina

As promised in our previous article, we performed some more extensive tests. We had the support and help of the Eastern Field Target Competitors Club (EFTCC) in the person of Ray Apelles who, very kindly, opened the DCPA Range up for a Sunday fun session of testing, shooting the breeze and general airgun camaraderie. THANKS!

We arrived at the appointed time and found Ray in the process of opening Range 3 (the airgun range), so we took all our impedimenta up the hill and settled on some shooting positions, setup paper targets and quadrant spinners and called a hot line.

First thing was to test in a comparative manner how the well-used and trusted HW-95 was performing vis-à-vis the “new to Veronika” Diana 54. She decided she would shoot two targets at 20 yards and then two targets at 40 yards with both guns and then compare what was happening.
Here is the first target, the HW-95 with a Hawke Sidewinder scope at 24 X:

As the reader can see, the 2 groups shot at 25 yards (#6 & #10), show a reasonable performance, yes group #6 opens up, but that is normal when shooting a recoiling springer shot after shot after shot. Shooting springers does require some effort and physical tiredness is not to sneeze at when dealing with fine motor coordination tasks.

What raised a red flag for us was groups #13 and #14 at 40 yards. Not so much because the group opened, that was expected, but because the groups shifted dramatically from left to right of the target when there was no appreciable wind at the range. Hmmmmmm . . . .
So she settled down and tested a Diana 54, WFTF version with a Barska 12X scope, and these are the results:

As you can see, the groups at 20 yards (#10 & #6) were not too different from the groups shot with the HW95. In fact, careful measurement revealed that the difference between the two groups was 2 mm’s.

So next came the test groups at 40 yards, on targets #14 and #15. Again, not a large difference between one rifle and the other.

After some more practice and a little bit of further familiarization, I decided to test the HW95 because something was not working right in there, so we changed papers and while I was shooting targets #19 and #20 with the 95 first from the bench and then from the knee, Veronika was shooting targets #2 and #7 using the Diana 54 BUT with one important change: She was holding a sight picture. And that sight picture was, as per my suggestion, to cradle the center of the bullseye on the upper right corner of the reticule’s crosshairse. Some shooters believe that when using a scope, there is no sight picture. Yes there is. And the lower the magnification of the scope, the better the consistency of the sight picture has to be preserved.  

As you can see from targets #2 and #7, ALL of those hits would have meant a fallen target and a point added to the score, at 40 yards, in the hands of the shooter with a somewhat disadvantageous scope (only 12X).

The tests on the Hawke/HW-95 system did not go well and demonstrated that there was something amiss. The gun is perfectly capable of much better accuracy.

So, we decided to change the scopes. The scope my rifle was wearing, a Hawke Eclipse 6-24X50 got replaced for her much fancier Hawke Sidewinder 6-24X56.

After some messing around with the alllen wrenches and just getting things reasonably in order, Veronika allowed me to sight in the scope and then shoot some tests. We returned to 25 yards for expediency, as it was getting on with the day and hunger started to show its ugly teeth.

So, this is the final test, the 5 shot witness group on target #1 (with the flyer that I probably pulled) was just to make sure that the sight settings were not completely off; and target #7 was a consistency confirmation group with 20 pellets through that hole.

Veronika shot groups #15 and #16.

She being left handed and having completely different sight parameters was hitting a little left and high, but the main thing was established:

There is no real handicap shooting non-lead pellets in a WFTF environment because the KZ’s are not that small.

Wind does play a role and it is my honest opinion that in WFTF what is tested is more the shooter than the gear.

Due to some questions arising from our first little note, I am hereby addressing some of the issues:

Flight characteristics of the Barracuda Green are not that different. Compare the JSB 8.44 and a Barracuda Green shot at the same ENERGY level (sub-16 Joules); please note that the red curve is the Barracuda Green, the Blue curve is the JSB 8.44 .

NOT a lot of difference, ¿is there? 

Now see the windage curves, first the JSB; for a 10 kph wind and a 50 meter range, the deflection is a little over 2 miliradians:

And now the Barracuda Green for the same wind and the same range:

A little over 3.5 miliradians. Yes it takes some getting used to, but not Impossible.

On the energy side, calculations performed with actual, measured BC’s yield that at 50 meters (55 yards), the Barracuda Green still has 4 ft-lbs of energy. So, as long as the targets comply with AAFTA’s recommendations (page 31 of The 2013 Handbook), there should be no problems.

Transferring energy and momentum are two different things and, while silhouette is one game where momentum can take the field, FT is not. And the reason is simple: The PADDLE of the FT is a relatively light element that only needs to be taken over the dead-point and then the full weight of the FT plays a role in its fall. The paddle is captive, it cannot spin, nor can it “totter”, a properly set target will fall. Yes it is true that for MD’s the requirement for leveling and setting is a little more stringent. But as long as the targets fall with 4 ft-lbs, the Barracuda Green has no problem performing where it counts.

As for durability of the FT’s themselves, it has to be stressed that tin is not as hard as steel, a steel BB WILL damage the FT’s much more than a tin pellet and the use of BB’s is a risk to be avoided because of the potential for a ricochet with a faceplate hit.

Some other offerings out there use steel inserts, I do not think those are a good idea.

One should always bear in mind that the last shaping tool a pellet sees is the barrel, and therefore EACH gun will be different. How a specific barrel shapes each type of pellet is something that cannot be predicted.

That is why we all need to try different things in different guns.





Good shooting!

Many years ago, when I first introduced my (then) girlfriend Veronika to airgun shooting, little did I know that she would one day be shooting right alongside me and going to world-class events.

In all these years I've seen her evolve as a shooter and develop definite ideas, likes, needs and wants.

And it has been my pleasure and my privilege to try to come up with solutions to those requirements.

About two years ago, she decided she wanted to shoot non-lead pellets. Out of conviction to be doing the right thing, she has persevered and we have managed a decent accuracy from her standard (and only) airgun: an HW95.

Husbands being males and males not being able to leave a good working thing bloody well alone, I have been trying to get her to switch to a more stable platform, stable as springers go. So I got for her an older model Diana 54 , the one with the slim stock, lightened the action as much as possible, changed all the internals to my “WFTF” model, and then started to fulfill what was, in mind, the most important requisite: Shoot well with non-lead pellets.

For the last few years, Veronika (now my wife) has been shooting “green” pellets, made by Haendler & Natermann , in particular, the Barracuda Green.

But with the possibility of a new gun, the possibility of new pellets also opened up, so I decided to make a trial run between the available non-lead pellets. Here in the US, the only really available non-lead offerings are limited to the Dynamic line by Prometheus and the Green line offered by H&N.

Having learned some time ago that the trick in shooting non-lead pellets is to drive them fast and use a good lubricant between pellet and barrel, I settled down to do some test shooting wich yielded the following results:

The reader can appreciate at the top left two “witness” groups shot with JSB Exacts (8.44 in this case),  made by Schultz Diabolo in the Czech Republic they are arguably some of the best pellets for Field Target shooting. So we compared the performance of the Dynamic pellets to the JSB's. 5 shots at 22 yards (20 meters). Not bad. Quite good actually. All the groups would fit comfortably into a ½” kill zone. Perhaps a little re-zeroing between one and another of the different models of the pellets, but nothing too drastic.

But,: ¿How would the old stand-by's shoot?, well, here is the result of 4 consecutive 5 shot groups at the same distance:

We will be conducting more extensive tests with this pellet/rifle combination.

Non-Lead pellets can be driven a little faster than their lead counterparts, and this offers some advantage in the limited-power world of WFTF. Yes they are more susceptible to wind, but wind is something we all have to learn anyway. If you are a serious FT shooter, you owe it to yourself to test the Barracuda Green pellets by H&N.