Day 1 of the 2019 World's

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.

One half of the range divided by Yards, the other half by Meters

Wide open field and with winds running in the 3 to 15 mph range, sometimes coming straight on at you, sometimes from the right, sometimes from the left, it was tricky.
We will not be shooting in this open field, but in a wooded area, so I hope that I can manage.

The woods reminded me somewhat of New Zealand, the ferns, the smell of humid, damp earth, the semi-shadows that pervade everything, it will be interesting, specially if I have the bad luck of shooting the black course in the rain:

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