All Matches are learning opportunities, but every now and then one Match stands out as THE learning experience of the season.
In our case, that ONE match was Matt Sawyer's Massachusetts State Championship.
Matt S. had laid out the course with the concept that a State Match is, well . . . a STATE Match, no one expects it to be easy with lots of gimme's.
But he did not count on the wind.
As you can see in his excellent report, he was surprised by how much wind there was at the range.
It made for a difficult sight-in and an even more difficult match. But, we are getting ahead of ourselves.
Let's start at the beginning:

Matt S. posted a reminder of the Match on Sept 16th, and that started for us a number of things:
Since my son is in Boston, it was a good chance to have some time with him, we rarely see him as his studies take a substantial portion of his life. So we sent an Email to him to let him know we would be in the area.
As days passed, the Maine State Championship came around.
I was still testing some ideas that had yielded good results at the Pyramyd Air Cup's second day and with Leo G., we drove to Maine.
It was a very nice shoot and the tests proved successful, so I was fairly happy to go to the Massachusetts State Championship with the rig as it was set:

Rifle.- CCA WFTF D54 Mk XIII
Scope.- Sightron SIII 10-50X60 FT MOA-H reticle, set at 27.9X
Mount.- CCA Accurized ZR mounts 30 mm's.
Pellets.- AA 8.44 grs. 4.52 mm's head size

To complicate matters a little bit, Veronika had to go to Dallas, TX; on business, so we agreed that she would fly back on Saturday to Boston and I would pick her up at Logan.

Friday came around and I departed New Canaan, hoping to be in Boston in around 3 hours, but it was not to be. Traffic jam after traffic jam and accident after accident, I arrived in Boston at 8:00 PM, 5 hours later. By the time we had had dinner and talked a little it was already midnight and I made my way to the Sheraton Commander, the only spot where I had found a good rate to stay; but it is in Cambridge and it is not the closest thing to the Range.

Next morning, at 06:00 AM I got up, got ready, had breakfast and started on my way to the Mass Rifle Association shooting range.

I was chatting with Len S. while he made the scorecards, and it became obvious that the "créme de la créme" of spring gunning in the northeast was going to be there: Matt Brackett (World's 2nd place 2015), Ray Apelles (World's 2nd place, 2014), Paul Bishop (Several States Champion at different times), I did not know if Matt S. was going to shoot springer or not, but still, the "field" seemed well populated with lots of talent in the WFTF Spring Piston class.

On the other classes: WFTF PCP could have Matt S. who is an outstanding offhand shooter and has his FTP well dialed in. Nathan Thomas has been doing very well and we knew that Leo G. also an excellent PCP shooter was going to have to skip this one.

Now, the Hunter PCP Class was a thing to behold: John Eroh who has been on fire for the last shoots including Crosman's All American Field Target Championship, Glenn Thomas that has also been shooting well and progressively better was also there. Bill Day said he would drive all the way from Maine just to shoot with all the gang, and he was also there.

It was a great surprise to see Todd Banks show up and a delight to see Sharon and Bob. We really missed Tim Caradona but he was not feeling too well. I always enjoy Tim's twisted humour, LOL!

Hans and Len rounded up the group and shot in the "Unlimited Class"  which has proven quite an interesting experience.

So, with 16 shooters, we all tackled the sight-in range:

As you can see, the sight-in is almost perpendicular to the general direction of the lanes, so unless you had your windage zero spot on, or you were VERY familiar with the wind drift of your pellet at that location, you would be hard pressed to set a proper lateral zero and then the whole match would be a guessing game.

After finishing the setting of the course, John and Matt S joined the zeroing in crowd and with just a few shots both declared themselves sighted in.

The shooters meeting was short and sweet because everyone had at least two matches worth of experience, so there were no absolute newbies, even Keth proved to take to FT like a duck to water.

I was squadded with Ray Apelles and Nathan Thomas, always a pleasure to shoot with those two. Even within the seriousness of a serious match we did manage to get more than a few laughs and exchanged some valuable information and opinions, especially about the WFTC's 2016 that will take place in Lisbon, Portugal.

We started in Lane 3 and it all seemed quite good! Little did we know that Lane 3 was, possibly, the easiest Lane in the whole Match! LOL!

Lane 4 was the Kneeling Lane, and I was afflicted by a severe case of SSS (Second Shot Syndrome), where I had no problems making the first shots, but missed miserably the second shots. Ah well . . . just smile and keep on truckin' !

Lane 5 presented a VERY steep target, which was a surprise for me because usually, Matt places his targets at inclinations that are more reasonable. This one was not! LOL

I estimated the angle at 45º. but Ray later measured it at 36º. Either way, shooting from my very low position, it was an impossible shot for me. Missed it twice.
There and then I decided that the bleeding had to stop and I got the next 4.
Lane 6 proved interesting because I missed two first shots accounting for a wind that the windflag at the end of my muzzle told me was there, my skin and ears told me it was there, but upon shooting, the pellet told me it was NOT there!
Lane 7 was the standing lane, got the first two, then missed the second two. Tough target peeking out from behind a huge slab of concrete or rock at 32 meters (35 yards), have not decided still what it is.
But, got one of the long shots (35 meters / 38 yards), so I was not completely unhappy.
At this stage I was thinking that my shooting was lousy and that surely Matt B. was doing much better.
Then came lane 8 that presented a long (39 meters / 43 yards) target where the paddle clearly moved sideways when hit but the FT refused to fall for some, we protested the long target to our own deep sadness.
After that I was able to clean lane 9 and then came lane 10.
The most horrible lane I have ever seen.
Something that looked like a Chipmunk with a 3/8" KZ at 18 meters/20 yards (missed both), then another chipmunk partially hid by some rocks where I got REALLY MAD at myself: From the outset, I thought that I would be better off shooting that target kneeling. It was only 21 meters and the KZ was about 3/4". It was a perfectly doable shot from the kneeling position. But as I sat there rangeing, I thought "PERHAPS I can get away shooting it seating down". Bad decision. I saw the pellet hit the rock, glance and hit the faceplate.
SO, after a heavy sigh, I changed my kneepad to the right leg, took the kneeling position and proceeded to bring the target down.
Ray thought that I had missed completely the first shot, as he commented that he had not heard the pellet strike the rocks, but I knew what I had seen through the scope and I never argue with reality: the second shot from the kneeling position brought the target down and that is what I should have done from the first shot.
At times it is hard to feel that the courses are harder for some shooters than for others just because of their shooting style or anatomical shape, but as I said at the top: This Match was a "Veritable Learning Experience".
I then proceeded to hit the long target the first time, but miss the second shot. SSS AGAIN!
We walked around to Lane 1 and proceeded to shoot, got the first two target twice, but the last one eluded me, twice. I did observe, though that the shots had landed low, but exactly where the crosshairs were sidewise. Hmmm  . . . . something interesting there!
Walked to Lane 2 and though I hit the first two shots, missed the first on the second target (38 meters / 42 yards), and missed my last two shots on the far target (41 meters /  45½ yards). Not the best way to finish a match.
If I count all the shots that I definitely should have made, I could have clearly matched the PCP's scores. I was not too happy overall.
After such an abysmal performance, I thought, I was quite resigned to the second place and so I went back to some of the missed targets and took the "Learning Experience" thing to heart and 'repeated the lessons'.
On the elevated target, there was no way I could bring it down. And I was seeing my pellets bounce off the top of the KZ hole. Clearly the angle was such that from the ground (where I shoot from on those inclined targets), there was no geometrical way that my pellet could pass through the KZ.
And then when I re-shot out of competition, the long target on lane 1, I realized that not only I had mis-ranged it (from 38 meters to 44 meters), but I also had not thought that the target was EXTREMELY LOW to the ground. ¿How low, is LOW,  you may ask?

When targets are at this height, they MAY benefit from the "ground effect" where the wind blowing at the shooter's wind flag height is non-existent at the target's height. Sometimes this is not so. It all depends on the ground cover and the direction where the wind is blowing.

I also noticed that there seemed to be TWO different winds blowing at the same time into our targets: on one hand was the wind that came from the open field that we use as sight-in range. On the other, there seems to be a wind that comes in from behind and slightly to the right of the lanes. Tricky situation indeed, ESPECIALLY for the elevated targets.

Suddenly, I received the news that I was going to be in a Shootoff! Paul Bishop I thought, as I new that Ray ended up a couple of points behind me, but no! I was on the shootoff for the First Place!

Wow! I thought, the range setup had treated everyone as bad as it had treated me.

Matt S. checked the scorecards and decided to use Lane 1 as a tie-breaker. GULP!

Matt S. moved the middle squirrel a little further out (because it was the one with the reducer), and we took our stations

Timer was started and we both took our ranges. Because I had no particular preference, Matt asked to shoot first and he did.
He missed.
I was having a little bit of trouble with the lane marker, as Matt had taken center spot and I was on the edge, but Matt S. quickly took the lane marker off and I prepared my shot

I didn't know it at the time, but Matt was observing intently through his scope while I took my shot.
I had ranged the target at 38 meters / 41 yards, so for that distance, the trajectory calculated by PP Calc showed a hold over of 0.56 of a division (0.28 mrads) and hold off for wind of 1.01 divs. (0.5 mrads.) for every 5 kph. Since the scope at that point has the center dot, then a space, and then a line that measures ½ of a division, I knew that the pellet would hit at the top of that "mini-post" formed by the section of crosshair and the first hash-mark. 
I watched my wind flag, that was indicating about 4.5 kph (3 MPH), but mostly form the rear, so I decided that the target was too low to need any real side adjustment for wind, and I took the shot dead on.
The learning experience of a few minutes before paid off, and the target fell.

PHEWWWWWWWWW!!!!!!!

Matt B. and I shook hands on the shootoff and I guess we were all relieved that it was over.

Matt S. confirmed all the scores, we had some Pizza and then proceeded to give out the awards.

A bunch of happy shooters!
From left starting from the third row in the rear:
Keth Comollo and John Eroh
Standing: Len Sawyer, Todd Banks, Glenn Thomas, Paul Bishop, Hans Apelles, Sharon and Bob.
Kneeling: Ray Apelles, Matt Bracket, Matt Sawyer, Glenn Thomas and Hector Medina

Our deepest gratitude to Len S. For making the scorecards. Matt S. and John E. for setting up a VERY challenging course that was fun, safe, and 'enlightening', to say the least. 

​And thanks to all shooters that attended because it is "We the People" what make this sport so special.

See you all sometime along the lanes!





HM

For some years now, our good friend Bill Day has dedicated at least 3, if not 4 weeks to singlehandedly prepare one of the toughest courses in the US.
He sets lots of small KZ's at the EDGE of what AAFTA guidelines allow. Sometimes, a perfectly understandable mistake takes the TDR of a specific target to the high 60's, but it is not too common (too being the operative word here LOL!).

It is, nonetheless, one of my favourite matches in a given season. Sometimes I do no good, sometimes the stars align and I do well. But it is ALWAYS full of fun, friendship, good food, good times, meeting long lost friends and friends I didn't know I had!  ;-)

I cherish the coming of autumn and the September / Pre-Nationals shoot that Bill sets up.

This year it was, officially, the Maine State Championship and the awards say so. SO it cannot be wrong.

Veronika and I agreed that we needed a little bit of extra time to get there and back, and given that the shoot was scheduled for Sunday, we decided to start our trek on Saturday, after spending Friday evening in Brooklyn with the family.

So, around 10:00 hrs. we started our trek towards the north-east and picked up Leo G on the way.

After a one or two stops to stretch the legs and re-fuel avoiding the Connecticut State Taxes on gas and fuels (about 20%), we arrived into Biddeford at a very good time.
Dropped our stuff and went into town to investigate because we are always in a hurry and we never have time to "slow down and smell the roses".
We discovered that there is an excellent pub/brewery/mill in the river that divides Biddeford from Saco, called "Run of the Mill", and once seated at our table, we started hearing about "FIreworks". Well, being what we are, we decided to stay and see for ourselves.

Food was good at the "Run of the Mill", we ordered a shared pizza and a lobster roll (what else in Maine, ¿right?) and some beer. 

Had a good time, ordered a Chocolate Lasagna for dessert, which proved to be a little too sweet (no problem for me because I had saved the last bit of beer for that), and we waited a little.

Suddenly, the explosions told us that the fireworks had started

All sorts of fireworks! from smiley faces and hearts to starbursts, bombs, whistling arrows and others I cannot even name.
It was a lot of fun!

And then the bands started to play, a full-blown concert was starting, but we did have to get early next morning, so we had to leave. Maybe some day we will plan for the "River Jam.- One river, two cities" event, seems like a lot of fun.

Early to bed and early to rise, and at 07:00 next morning we were already on the way to breakfast.
A chocochip pancake and a Benedictine egg later, we were on our way to Bill's.

When we arrived, we checked in, filled our forms, signed our releases, and started settling the guns (and ourselves) down.

It was VERY nice to see lots of new shooters, and also VERY nice to find long lost friends, like Tim Caradona of Haverhill Rod & Gun Club fame. Being the old curmudgeon he is, he did not bother to turn for the picture, LOL!

I shot enough to get the gun warmed up and then re/zeroed and re-trajectoried my rig and we were set!

A cold line was called on the sight-in range, and the customary and compulsory safety meeting was held with all shooters, even Bill's dog attended!

Squads were setup and I was squadded with Leo G. so as to have the two WFTF shooters paired up. It was nice shooting with Leo, he is a quiet, reserved guy that matches perfectly my quiet, reserved, personality . . . yeah, right! ROFL!

We started on lane 6, so that meant that the kneeling lane would be the next to the last for us. Ah, well, luck of the draw.

Each lane had three targets, and we were instructed to choose an order, Leo and I agreed on a left to right order and so we proceeded.

And the rest of the lanes were no easier. Some were quite imaginative!

And before any of our friends in the West Coast comments on our wooded, tree-defended from wind shoots out here in the East, let me show you lane 8, wide open at the EDGE of the forest, making for very interesting swirls and updrafts.

And so the lanes passed one by one, Leo was hitting most of his targets and I did not even want to count.
Till we reached the kneeling lane. Take a good look at it:

I found myself cursing the last lane. It consisted of a 3/8" chipmunk, then some intermediate target and a long distance owl (55 yards) up in a tree that made reading the wind a VERY hard proposition.
Still, I ended up 2 points behind John Eroh, which made me very happy.

Then the food and the awards came after a shootoff which was done on a very interesting, if unorthodox target.

Very nice shoot, in an incredible location, with some attractions to see/visit by people that are non-shooters, and spectacular weather!

I was very happy exceeding 80% of the possible points and we returned home with Leo. Though I would have gladly stayed another night in the area, duty called and because of the High Holidays, the week is short and complicated.

If you have the SLIGHTEST chance of making this shoot someday (there are two every year), DO! you will NOT be disappointed.

Thanks to Doreen Day for a fantastic lunch, to Bill for a challenging course, and to all the shooters that attended because it was a lot fun and we did not stop laughing for a while.

Keep well and shoot straight!






Héctor Medina

Last year's Pyramyd Air Cup was an "Epic event", it had tons of prizes, tons of good natured humour, good food, good shooting and, above all, excellent atmosphere of camaraderie and fellowship in airgunning.

I cannot use the same word twice, and I shouldn't, because this year's Pyramyd Air Cup CAN be described with ONE different word: INTENSE.

Not "tense" because there was the same good humour, the same good natured ribbing, joking and horseing around, BUT, everyone knew we were there to SHOOT.

As for many, Pyramyd Air Cup started for us MANY months in advance. For me, it all started in March when my calendar told me it was time to start looking for air fares to go to Ohio. So, after a little looking around, I found a return ticket for $80 each of us, and so it was decided to just get them. If, later, Veronika could not make it, we only lost $80, however, NOT buying the ticket could cost us well in excess of several hundred dollars if at the last minute she could. So we got them. SouthWest airlines offers TWO checked bags per passenger so the rifles, if we were to take two in separate hard cases, were no problem.
Close monitoring of TSA's policies and their changes revealed that we did not have to worry. Spring-Piston airguns are still classed as "Pellet Rifles" and therefore are exempt of the "hard case" requirement.

After the World's, we were almost packed, but given the failure of the "Muzzle Tamer" in Lithuania, I had to assemble my rifle and correct a few design flaws within the device.
Of course, taking it all apart and redoing a few aspects meant that it had to be tuned AGAIN.
And I did... or so I thought at the time of disassembling the rifle for packing again to fly to Canton-Akron.

The day of the flight came up and we were at LGA on time, complications arose because we realized that just after the Cup we would have to stay over in NYC for Rosh hashanah services, so an additional bag was packed and left in Brooklyn. All this added to the time. By the time we got to LGA, we were a little bit close for comfort.
Southwest in LGA is not the brightest candle in their chandelier. We declared the airgun but they refused to give us the form to fill until the Port Authority showed up.
After three calls and 25 minutes wait they decided it was time and showed up.
Once everything was explained and the serial number was taken, in addition to driving license number, we were on our way to the TSA checkpoint.
As usual (and, as we told the counter employees), the shape of the action triggers an alarm in the TSA shape/material recognition program in the X-Ray machines. And in we went to open the case and have it chemically checked for explosives, as well as visually checked to ascertain that it was not a firearm.
I find it peculiar that even though other airports of the area (notably Newark / EWR) does NOT require all this, LGA still thinks it does. No wonder Joe Biden labelled LGA as a "Third World airport".

And when we got to the gate, we were told that the plane had been delayed an hour! LOL!

You run all over the place just to find out that the other part is delayed. Funny. Yeah, right.

Our main concern was that the weather had not turned so bad that the shoot would be affected. I had my Field Target Team USA rain gear, but thunderstorms in Ohio are no easy matter. Still, on we went, waited the additional one hour and when the plane arrived, we prepared to board.
From there it was a pretty standard trip, less than an hour on the air and we were in Ohio, in 30 minutes more we already had a car in hand, had established our GPS position and programmed the GPS to take us to the Schönbrunn Inn.
Funny name, we thought, but then we started seeing towns named "Berlin", "Schönbrunn", etc, and we decided it was natural.

Hotel ended up being extremely nice, with a typically Teutonic breakfast (eggs, cold cuts, cheese, bread, oatmeal, juices, milk and waffles)! Well, that was a nice surprise. Served from 06:00 hrs. onwards, perfect for the working lad, or competing shooter.

Got up early Friday and headed to the range, Veronika stayed at the hotel doing some work. She was not shooting, so we were not in a hurry to get her sighted in or anything.

At the range, I noticed that the courses were set under the roofed shooting positions, so that solved part of the problem (getting wet), but it created another problem: It was going to be cramped.

TUSCO Rifle Club devotes two ranges to the Pyramyd Air Cup: the top range (that I will call the "Large Bowl") and the lower range (that I will call the "Little Bowl", even though the range is larger for reasons that will become obvious in a short while), and of course it offers the larger part of the lower range (between the mid berm and the end of the range) for sighting in and to set up the "test/Try Me" range.

This year there were no BIG bores in the Try Me range, but still a Sumatra in 0.25" cal. at full power made a mess of some of the spinners, and targets. I guess it is hard for people to understand the power, penetration and deformation potential of a well placed 0.25" 32 gr. pellet. By the end of the day some spinners were bent, down, torn, or badly abused. The 4 boars target was completely deformed and the reset did not appear to reset anything at all. Still it was fun and gave good feedback to shoot at little metal thingies.

After some 300 pellets downrange, I thought that the whole re-tuning process had been successful.

We adjourned to the PayDay challenge that played out nicely. For me, when I saw a perfectly well released shot from the D-34 hit the target 2" high at 12 O'Clock I remembered how VERY hard it is to sight in a gun for other persons to use, especially with scopes. Iron sights are easier. But it was all in the spirit of fun and I was happy and having fun.

We closed the day blocking three booths at the Texas Roadhouse with great steaks, good beers and incomparable company, as we were seated with Tyler's parents. We did not stop laughing all evening.

Off to bed and early to rise, I was at the range before sunup.

Testing the Sightron under those conditions was interesting. It was extremely dark and overcast, but the scope at 27.8X performed extremely well.

By the time the shooter's meeting was called, I thought I had everything under control.

The shooters meeting was followed by a few declarations from the Range Officers about eye protection. It was not at all funny to hear them, for the second year, insist that the projectiles "would come back at us", I thought that by now they would have learned that we do not shoot into the rocky backstops with high power centerfires. But no, they haven't. Anyway, shooting with glasses had been and would be the rule, under penalty of expulsion from school, LOL!

I started the Match squadded with Mr. Fitchum and Mr. Christensen on the "Little Bowl" on lane 6, the standing lane. No biggie, I thought. And it wasn't. But before getting into the shoot itself let me tell you why the names of the ranges is important:
The Little Bowl is a rather narrow range, with what seems to be about 35 yards of frontage. Between those 35 there are two berms. Rather steep sides, that end about 2 yards in front of the shooting line. The berms are not completely uniform, there are places that are higher and places that are lower.
So, when the winds blow across the berms at around 10 mph, all sorts of funny things start to happen. Swirls, rolls and opposing wind directions at different parts of the trajectory are not unthinkable.
And on top of that, the strings were soaking wet. No info there on a "snap".
When the air has more space to flow, wind is still a challenge, but the fact that it can settle eliminates at least some of the extreme rolls and swirls.
Wind in the upper range, the Big Bowl, is easier to read EXCEPT for lane 1 (the extreme right lane, we were changing lanes right to left, even when shooting near to far), where there is a "cut" and the wind funnels in all sort of crazy directions.

Ah, well the show had to go on and we soldiered as best we could.

I was having all sorts of strange misses, like those "Holland's Mystery Shots" that you simply do not know WHERE they came from. Ranging was good (I trusted it was good and published data differs from my range card by at most 2 yards, so I am confident that the scope is reading well),  besides, my range card was telling me that misses were all over the place so, misses left, right, above and below could only mean one thing: the Muzzle Tamer (MT) was not where it should have been.
I had tested and shot and adjusted and tested again till I THOUGHT it was, but clearly it was not.

I ended the day with a completely disheartening 25/48.

But, as Yogi Berra used to say: it is not over till it is over! Next day would be a different day.

By the time we had lunch, I discovered that everyone else was having trouble with the wind, but I really could not say the same. My problem was NOT the wind, it was dispersion, and I was fairly certain that the ZR Mounts, as modified, were pretty accurate in their return to battery after each shot. The ONLY untested variable was, again, the Muzzle Tamer (MT). So, I decided to come early on Sunday and re-tune the Muzzle Tamer. If I had learned one thing from our good friend Matt Brackett at Dubingiai was that, sometimes, drastic adjustments need to be made on the fly.

We still had to shoot the Gunslinger, so I adjourned to the sighting in range and made sure that I knew where the rifle was shooting and that, as far as Silhouettes go, I was on target.

I shot the first rounds of the Gunslinger and did well, missing only 3 shots for the 48 targets, and I was all prepped to go for the final, but then Tyler reminded me that this year we would be shooting the final on Sunday and so we left the range to change and prepare for the banquet.

And Banquet it was! LOL!

Salad, meat, chicken, fish, sides and a very economical bar made for some very merry times. We sat with Eric B., Sean McD, Kevin Yee and quickly the conversation turned to a long standing argument between East Coast shooters and West Coast shooters.
Kevin is one of our top shooters, he was until some months ago, one of the driving forces at Diablo FT Club in CA. He holds the opinion that the courses need to be different because terrains are different. We reminisced about the layout and topography of places like San Luis Obispo, Temecula, Heaven's Ranch, and CASA, and contrasted them with the terrain of places like SPARC, DIFTA, EFTCC, FTRPA; and then it hit me:
The SAD truth is that Californians do not have trees!
Well, they do have trees, I know at least one shooting Club that hosts Benchrest shoots in an old orchard, but I mean that not one of their courses is set in a forest. ALL the FT courses are set in open, rolling, grassland.
And wind CAN be a headache under those conditions.
It was interesting to talk these things face to face, because there is NO OTHER way to reach good agreements. No amount of phone calls, keyboard emoticons, or wordsmithing will relay ideas the same way as a good face to face conversation over a beer (or two).

After Josh Unger made us all laugh and the raffles were over; after Rossi, Ted and Josh had finished their "spiels" and after the food was gone, we returned to the hotel, tired, but primed and ready to go first thing in the morning.

Sunday found me at the range, allen wrenches in hand and a good position where I could command the 35, 45 and 55 yards targets.
And as soon as the range was hot, the process started: Shoot a group of five shots, then adjust the MT, another group of five, another adjustment, went past the sweet point, come back and do some more adjustment; once the thing was defined for 35 yards, go on to 45 and now start the fine tuning process. And then go to 55 and repeat.
Each distance yielding a slightly better shot cycle and closer and closer groups. All in all, between competitions and tests I shot well over 700 pellets during the weekend.

Once all that was done, tighten all the screws, and re-sight and re-trajectory the gun. That section was easy with PP Calc in hand.

And just in time, the shooters' meeting was called and off we went.

For Sunday, I was squadded with Kevin Yee and Tom Peretti, both good friends and excellent shooters. Kevin had a good score from Saturday at 35, so he was 10 points ahead of me, but Tom's score was an amazing 38/48. I was prepared for being served a good helping of humble pie the second day.

We started on lane 4, and let me tell you all in completely unequivocal terms: I HATE grey targets! LOL!
There is simply no way of telling where you are hitting! But as luck would have it I had a really good break on the long target on lane 5 at 45 meters, the clouds opened up, the sun shone from our backs and I CLEARLY saw the pellet entering the top left hand edge, so I knew I had to correct my zero. Three clicks down and three clicks right and everything clicked (pun intended) in place. From there on I cleaned quite a few lanes and was very happy with my second day final result of 41. Tying with Tom P. was as much as a surprise for me as it was for Kevin and Tom himself.
It is always a pleasure shooting with those two and here I want to make an important observation for those that are just starting on this terribly hard learning curve that top notch FT is:

The "Enemy" is not the other shooter. The "Enemy" is the course, the wind, the lighting conditions.
YOU are there to vanquish those unknowns. What other shooters do is their business; you are there to READ the environment and to send the pellet CLEANLY through the hole. ONE target at a time. Simple.

That is why all shooters are (or should be) supportive of all other shooters. A simple : "Good Shot" relayed to the shooting squadmate tells him you have noted the target fall and that you appreciate his knowledge and his "art".
If you note that one squadmate is getting nervous a short observation like: "Just Relax and Breathe" can tide him over the stomach butterflies of the next lane.
Smile to life and life will smile back at you.

I have never met a squadmate that did not respond well to enthusiasm, kindness, and smiles. Even among other, completely foreign, nations. A smile is a smile.

As much as I had a good performance on my second day, the damage of the first was hard to overcome with such good opponents and I ended up a distant fourth, 5 points behind Kevin.

No sweat! we'll back in 2016 for the next PAC FT event.

After all that, came the Gunslinger.

I had made some notes of my aimpoints the day before. Since I do not click, the aimpoints was everything I had for the Silhouette ranges that this year were a little different than last.

The third places were decided and then the shootoff came.

With all the excitement and all the good feelings about how the "system" had performed the second day, I forgot to check my trajectory and make another "cheat sheet" for the second day. BAD decision.

We started more or less in Sync. But then I missed three shots between the first 2 "balconies" (in Metallic Silhouette, each animal is a "balcony" from the old layout of silhouette shooting matches where the shooters were placed atop a raised platform), I lost my rhythm, and Ray finished with good four hits in front of me.

Again, there will always be next year!

Maybe next year I will bring along a DIFFERENT rifle to shoot the Gunslinger and avoid these pitfalls. I DO THINK that using two rifles is not right, but that is just me.

After the Gunslinger, the awards were given out:

From thereon, the FT awards came in by top scores in each class, as each top shooter got to choose from whatever was left on the table of prizes.

Special thanks go to my wife, Veronika, for taking all these pictures and supporting me all the way. She definitely is the best thing that ever happened to me.

I am sure next Year's PAC will be even better than ever. So, make sure you save the date as soon as it is posted. And make sure you prepare well. Shooting FT is always fun, but it is even more fun if bring down most of the FT's

;-)

Till next one, shoot straight!






HM