The Maine State Championship

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.

Typical lane at AOM's Maine State Championship. Whether you see them or not, there are many targets here, but AAFTA shooters had to shoot the ones with the strings. See if you can find them!

OK, let me help you a little; this rat on the cheese is located on the left, towards the center of the depth of the lane and you can locate it in the picture above by looking for the crow resettable that in the whole view picture is a black vertical stripe. You can also see at the far end of the lane, a frog a little bit out of focus.

This frog.

And to the right, at the base of the large tree there is this weasel. Yup, that is a small KZ. But yes, it was within the extreme distances in the AAFTA guidelines.

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

This is lane 9, the standing lane. Let me give you all a little help to locate the targets.

You had to shoot the rat through a window! And the position was such that there was no way of ranging neither sitting, or kneeling, you HAD to range standing. Excellent challenge!

Can you say "Pucker Factor" LOL! ½" offhand at 10 yards. This is the porcupine that can be seen in the center of the lane.

This rockchuck was at 15 yards. It is to the right of the porcupine.

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.

Bunny target on the left. See the KZ?

A mink at the center of the lane.

A zombie at the far end. Hold off on this target was 2 mrads. ;-) indicating a 5 mph wind

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:

Yup! there are targets up in there them trees! LOL!

A skunk on the ground was the left target. With a reducer.

Then a squirrel in a tree.

And a crow in a tree was the right target. Set at an angle of around 35º.

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.

Leo G. picks up his WFTF PCP Blue Ribbon for first place.

John Eroh came out as Match High and Hunter PCP champ.

Fritz Hansen got First Place as Hunter Piston with an LGu that he has not shot much, so , clearly there is tons of room for improvement.

Tin Caradona gets First Place as Unlimited

Hector Medina places First in the WFTF Piston class.

Jeff Day garners first place among the Beginners

And Mia receives an honourable mention for tying with her uncle Jeff.

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