The II Cross Catskills Challenge

One of our "new" traditions within the Minutemen Field Target League has become the teaming up between two different Clubs to make a Grand Prix event happen.

As most of you know, an AAFTA sanctioned GP event needs to fulfill some conditions, mainly:
More than 100 shots over two days
Be advertised well in advance
Have a minimum Average Troyer Difficulty Rating of 30
Each course must have at least 10 positional targets.
Have a minimum of 15 TWO-DAY shooters
Have a minimum of 20 shooters each day.

In reality, if a GP is put together, it is not at all difficult to exceed the attendance numbers. It IS almost impossible to keep all shooters happy when they see what a 30 Troyer course is REALLY like! LOL!

At these two legs we had 32 shooters on the first day and 26 shooters on the second day.

Airgunners are gluttons for punishment, we know that. And based on that knowledge, I will foist on you, dear reader, a little more punishment by writing this entry. Of course it is a secret that AAFTA will take this entry as the "Official Match Report", so I cannot be as colorful as I would like, but, we need to be multi-purpose.

;-)

Some stories truly start at the end, this one didn't. For days we had seen the weatherman (oopssss, sorry, not PC enough!!!!!!); weatherpersons go back and forth with predictions for the weekend that ranged from sunny and hot to deluges and thunderstorms to make Noah balk. It was SO bad, that it prompted one of our MD's to post a note in the forum:

"The match will be held no matter what the weather conditions are so all attending please check the weather forecast and prepare accordingly."

Luckily, our rabbit's foot proved as reliable as always (though not in my personal benefit) and the luck for good weather held. Varied and challenging, but no rain.

We started day one at Broome County's Sportsmen's Association's excellent High Power range to do our registration and sight-in:

LOTS of targets at correctly measured distances, to ensure that everyone is right on track.

The WV contingent.

From left: Larry Bowne, Paul Bishop, Jerry LaRocca and one half of the Canadian Contingent: Mr. David Bartlett One PCP among all springers!

Ray Apelles in his usual fine form.

A more general view, with one of the Deans of Airgunning in the US, Mr. Hans Apelles in his "Unlimited Class" rig (high chair, high bipod, high magnification scope). With a blue shirt, the other half of the Canadian contingent, Mr. Brian Milne

Can you hear their conversation: "Are ya sighted in?" "Well as much as I will ever be" "Let's get some bug juice on this arm" "Hmmmm. . . nice, but ¿can we get started, please?"

So, adjourn we did to the range, 11 lanes here under the tarp. 4 lanes outside.

The 4 outside lanes.

One of our Juniors, showing fine form and dedication.

The eldest of our Juniors. It has been nice to see Nick evolve as the years go by into a dedicated, serious shooter. I am sure we will see a LOT of him in a few more years.

The Man of the Day. Jerry LaRocca posted match high. Here he is displaying a fine style for kneeling shots.

Undoubtedly, one of the most interesting personalities in FT. Todd Banks is a champion Benchrest shooter, he VERY recently switched shooting sides for visual accuity reasons, he was being constantly jibed as "lefty". But he never lost his style nor his smile. A privilege for the League to have him with us!

Kevin Kunkle displaying a fine shooting style and using his new D54 rifle.

When they stop horseing around, the Canadians are quite serious! Not that they can stop for more than the 4 minutes, JUST what it is necessary to take the 4 shots!

My better half, Veronika Ruf

A talented shooter and stockmaker, Paul Bisho[ uses a minimalist approach. No jacket, no gloves, no special shoes, he and his trusty HW98 usually post very good scores.

Another of our Juniors. These are the seeds that will make FT grow, we are indebted to those that bring them to the shoots, that tutor them, that sponsor them, thanks to the parents, friends, uncles and everyone else. As my father in law says "it takes a village to raise a child", and shooting is no different.

Paul Manktelow seems to be thinking "Did anyone see me hit that?"

A very happy Glenn Thomas, he has nurtured and fostered his son Glenn into a good shooter (and amateur gunsmith who just might change the "amateur" part soon).

Our own Tom Wade, one of the staunchest supporters of the Crosman Discovery.

Whether you believe it or not, in this head is where the Minutemen League idea got started. ;-)

Mr. James Wilcox to the left and Mr. Thomas Holland to the right.

Sometimes we do take ourselves seriously, ¿no?

One of our brave Match Directors, Mr. Gregory Shirhall

It was a tough shoot. There was wind and then there was absence of wind. There were times when there was a wind in the back, but none at the firing line. In certain parts of the range, the wind entered from the left, in others from the right and in others still, it was in your face or at the back of your head.
A few very dark targets added to the challenge and when a dark target is placed at the extreme limits of the allowed distance under cover of trees and with an overcast sky, it was TOUGH.
But still, some shooters shot better than others and when all the points were counted, these were the standings:

And so, Day 2 started at the Eastern Field Target Competitor's Club with the normal sight-in. Because the airgun range is a self-contained affair, sighting-in is done with paper targets in the lanes. We try not to put paper target near the FT's and so far, we have observed a definite advantage to sighting in under the same conditions of the Match.

Another of our brave MD's, Mrs. Pat Shirhall

An up-and-coming shooter, Mr. Shawn Leonard. He has only been shooting FT a few months and he is already placing among the top.

The firing line.

In the early morning, the camera had needed the flash to take these pictures, by mid-day, it was dappled light all over the place!

Can you say "dappled light of the forest"?

You can almost hear James Wilcox thinking: "If I was William Tell, I would be reserving a pellet for the Match Director . . . "

It was a challenging shoot. The difference in light changed the scope rangeing marks more than 8 yards in my case. I had to revert to stadia-rangeing, or bracketing, to get some reasonable distances.
After loosing a few points that put me back on track.
It was not temperature oscillations, as the temperature had not changed that much. It was the amount and orientation of the incident light.
As usual, I experienced a few challenges, like having to take two shots kneeling because the target's KZ was not visible, from my very low shooting position:

But I nailed them, so no biggie. I lost two further points by shooting the elevated targets out of sequence, LOL!
My squad mate, Matt Brackett had bigger problems, he was simply not "in the groove" that day. He usually beats me, but more than a few things were not in their place.

Always a pleasure to be squadded with Matt Brackett, one of our future Spring-Piston values for the World's circuit.

My usual squad mate, Mr. Arthur Deuel, always a gentleman, he never looses his good temper and nice style.

In the end, the Match proved that good preparation, training and attention to detail will most surely take the day. 
The Match high score was posted by a WFTF PCP shooter, Mr. Thomas Holland, and the second best scores were posted by a Hunter PCP tied with an Open Piston shooter: Mr, Bill Day and Paul Bishop respectively.
Veronika posted a personal best, shooting 81% of the Match High. Overall, she would have posted the third highest score of the day.
Congratulations to all high shooters!

Last year, the awards ceremony was hurriedly conducted on pain of getting REAL wet! LOL! this year we had some time and we all enjoyed the banter.
The winners were:

The new members of the "75 yards Club" From left: Shawn Leonard, Harold Schaefer, Bill Day (twice), Larry Bowne (with a 0.22" springer shooting 13 ft-lbs), and Kevin Kunkle (with a springer shooting 12 ft-lbs).

From left: Paul Bishop, First Place Open Piston Larry Bowne, Second Place Open Piston Skip Teney, First Place Open PCP

From Left: Paul Manktelow, Third Place Hunter Piston Greg Shirhall, First Place Hunter Piston Kevin Kunkle.- Second Place Hunter Piston

From Left: David Bartlett (Canada) Second Place WFTF PCP Thomas Holland First Place, WFTF PCP Brian Milne (Canada) Third Place WFTF PCP

From Left: Jarry LaRocca First Place WFTF Piston Ray Apelles Second Place WFTF Piston Veronika Ruf Third Place WFTF Piston

And some more pictures:

For those interested in the stats, here is the sorted by difficulty layout of the whole 102 shots match:

And for those that are interested in who shot what:

ENORMOUS Thanks have to go to Pat and Greg Shirhall for all the effort to setup the BCSA leg and for the collation of all the targets' BTDR's. Also thanks to Hans and Ray Apelles for all the effort to setup the EFTCC leg.
Thanks to all the shooters for their continued support of the League and its events. Some drove considerable distances to attend and it is sincerely and greatly appreciated.

And thanks to the Love of my life, my wife, Veronika, without whom I could not do half of what I can do when she is around.

Now that the party is over, there is only one thing that we can possibly do: Start planning the next one!

Hope to see you all somewhere in some lane, sharing an FT course.

Un abrazo!







Hector Medina