Let's look now at another lane:

I usually wait for the "official" report to come out, but since CoViD 19 has driven everything into a "limbo" (and not precisely of the dancing kind), there is precious little information about results, classes , equipment, etc.
In fact, there have been precious little matches going on.
SOME clubs, like Rochester Brooks, or Connecticut Airgunners never lost pace, except for the absolute lock-down phases, but others, like DIFTA, have been forced by range rulings to only re-open the season fairly recently, when "Stage 2" of the opening up had been achieved.
All this to say that few shooters have kept pace with activity, training, or match participation.

When the news came that the North Carolina State Match was going to be held at Will & Ginger Piatt's place at Ennice (right at the heart of the Blue Ridge Parkway), I told my wife and we decided to make a road trip out of it. It would not be the dream road trip we had imagined in 2015, but now we would have a lot more company, LOL!

Besides, my niece is now in the last stages of her driving practice, she'll be taking her final in-car exam soon, so what better opportunity to have her drive the highway and night time requirements?

We set out on Friday and arrived  late night, as we got stuck in traffic in two spots.

After a good night's sleep, I was packed and ready to go! Everything I needed was in the range bag, and with the appropriate rain gear (remember 2015? LOL!)

As is often the case, when you are best prepared, things are not too bad, or at least they do not LOOK too bad!

After an early morning breakfast (we were staying in Elkin, about 45 mins from the range), we got there on time, I got setup and started the process of shooting some pellets downrange to see how he trajectory had changed (notice it is NOT a question -if the trajectory had changed-,  that is a given when you go from 500 FASL to 2825 FASL), as my MV had probably gone down from 780 to about 745 fps.
It didn't occur to me to check a chrono, I thought there would be a chrono station, but there wasn't. Should have checked. Now I am dying of curiosity! LOL!
As the match developed and as the rain came and went, it was obvious there was something not quite right. Inexplicable misses, POI changing all over the place . . . not the usual quirky behaviour of a springer, more like a schizophrenia.

But, never argue with reality.

I had been testing reverting to the DIANA OEM style of bedding for my 54 and it was clearly not as stable as the CCA designed one. At home in the backyard, it had proven accurate, but once different inclinations and positions where thrown in, the POI changes proved too much for the OEM bedding.
Anyway, I have reverted to my own design and hopefully, this will cure some of that.

The Match, as all matches sponsored by THAGC, was a hard one. 40 T would barely start to describe the deviousness of the MD, LOL!
But still, if you do not shoot hard matches you never learn anything worthwhile, so after all was said and done, we did have a ball, we learned a lot, and I think we will convert those learnings into experiences.

Rain gear performed like it should, pellets performed as they should. The gunsmith . . . hmm so-so. And the shooter did its best to keep a stiff upper lip and go through lane after lane of complete surprises.
​
Apologies are in order on the quality of the pictures, but I had taken my waterproof camera and it is not as good a camera as the normal one. So that, added to my limited skills as photographer, will make you think that the things were rougher than they really were.
Now, Let's see some pictures!

Will Piatt delivered a succinct and precise shooters meeting:

There was a wooded section, an open section, and transitional lanes. This lane is peculiar because the lane is in the open, but the wooded section is right next to it, so any wind will "bounce" and create very interesting challenges to the WFTF shooter

Another example of the MD's crooked mind  ;-)  :

High score was something like 63/68, so that gives you an idea that the course was designed more with the 20 ft-lbs PCP shooter in mind.
It would be interesting to see the difficulty rating of the course.

In true FT fashion, and in the tradition of all "Southern Belles", Ginger Piatt served us a bountiful dinner with Shepherds' Pie, home baked rolls and an absolutely fantastic "Eclair pie".

My family arrived in time for desert (you can bet the 3 and 4 year olds were happy about that, LOL!

I love shooting with the THAGC crowd, they challenge you and they feed you well. LOL!

Hopefully, we'll meet again along some lanes.

Keep well and shoot straight!





​HM

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

I have to congratulate the Organizers of the 2019 WFTC's

The registration procedure was absolutely painless.

Greg Sauve (as AAFTA Rep for WFTF), got all the badges and meal tickets, and we met at the venue to receive them. With Lauren Parson's and Tyler Patner's help, it took less than a minute to get mine.

The whole team had all tickets and badges in less than 10 minutes. Great job and thanks!

We proceeded to the sight-in range.

​Due to WFTF's regulations, this time the sight-in range was paper. LOTS of paper.

Sighting in day is also the day when most strange things happen. We usually see a lot of tinkering with airguns during this first day.

And this year was no exception. Jay Hannon had problems with his gun but, in true "Team Spirit", Cameron Kerndt offered to help and using his own spares repaired Jay's gun and got the "engine" runnning.
Matt Brackett contributed some stock parts that had broken and in less than one hour Jay was shooting again.
With Matt's help, a new trajectory card was made and Jay feels better about his shooting.

Way to go, Team!

Now, some of you may wonder how 450 shooters look like, this photo of the procession to take the group picture should give you an idea:

And this is only a fraction of the whole lot.
I am sure you can find other pictures taken from the other side showing the whole group (that in itself is not ALL shooters because some simply don't care), but this photo is interesting, as it is the photographers photographed (at least some of them):

Welcome dinner was good, but a little short, by the time I got to the table, there was no food left in this one, had to wait a while and go to another table to get some more:

Actually, I don't much care for food, as I need to loose a few pounds, LOL!

Anyway, I'll try to post a few more pictures tonight / tomorrow.

What is important is that the atmosphere is much closer to what I like than the World's at Lisbon; much closer to what Poland's and Lithuania's were.
Whatever craziness drives us to shoot Field Target, one common denominator (and I say this all the time, so if you have heard it, or read it, before please excuse the redundancy):

The greatest part of this sport is the people that participate in it.

As an airgunner you owe it to yourself to at least try to meet the challenge that FT poses because you will meet a lot of nice and interesting people, you will travel places, and you will have your faith in humankind renewed.

Keep well and shoot straight (but always into the wind)  LOL !





​HM

With the Motto of "Field Target comes Home", the World's is this year being hosted by England in a venue called (quite appropriately) "The Heart of England.
It's near Birmingham, and there are enough airgunners here from all over the world that the customs agents at the airport just hear "pellet rifle" and they smile.

Coming here was an interesting trip, my new case is performing well, all items arrived in their proper place without a scratch.
I have to say that, even though they are expensive (as any custom case would be), MASCo, and Bel-Air cases came through with a very good case for our purposes:

Case was designed to conform to the maximum dimensions allowed by airlines (62" max when adding length, width and height).
It compares favourably with our old drop-down duffle bags that were made redundant when TSA demanded hard cases for airguns:

We like this style of case because it does not advertise to all in the baggage handling/service areas of airports that there is a rifle inside and therefore an item of considerable value/rarity.
I bought the case empty, and then used KaiZen foam to make the interiors:

After TWO three hour delays in Dublin, I was finally able to get to Birmingham, and rent a car.
It had been 40 years, almost to the date that I had not driven on the "M6"
Some things never change:

Works and bumper to bumper traffic in the section I would be doing most of my travelling! LOL.
A friend, 40 years ago, said that the M6 would be a fine road . . . when they finished it.
;-)
Obviously, it is a process that is still going on 40 years later.

Anyway, after settling in and finding all the friends, I decided to go shoot a little.

In this occasion, the organizers were good enough to establish a connection with a local FT club, Blackbrook Country Sports and they have done a fantastic job; a big shout out to Darron and Chris for their hospitality.

The setup range is an interestin aspect of how they do things here and something we should consider for the USA
It is basically blank metal plates set permanently at fixed distances in the ground.
You pick a spot, put a mark in it with a pellet, then a group, and then simply get setup by repeating at all distances.

Simple, economical and reliable. Truly something worth considering.

Yesterday we shot a practice course, that gave us a lesson or two of what the wind can do in these latitudes, but I am fairly confident in my pellets this time, and so, today, we go to the real venue.
Get the registration done and re-check the trajectory and data obtained at Blackbrook.

I'll try to post pictures as we go along the days.

Keep well and shoot straight!




HM