Friends,
You just thought the near-record hot temperatures that suppressed turn-out last weekend would save you enduring yet another long, rambling, bizarre match report by That Match Director From Hell. WRONG! Suffice to say Hell hasn’t frozen over (yet), despite Texas absorbing more than our share of the heat.
Once again my expected-attendance predictions, forced by multiple inquiries last week, proved UNCANNILY accurate. “My best educated guesstimate would be somewhere around roughly about approximately ten to fifteen shooters, give or take two or three.” Yes, I are a genuis!
Seven rifle shooters contested Saturdays AAFTA rifle field target competition; the EXACT NUMBER I predicted (“ten to fifteen shooters, give or take two or three”)! Five contested Hunter PCP Class, and two shot Sproinger Division.
Six shooters contested the AAFTA Pistol match on Sunday, all shooting Hunter Class. Thankfully high-temperature predictions of 108 degrees for both days proved woefully pessimistic, as the highs on both days weren’t a degree over 107.
The match director tried to blame target issues experienced in the matches on two weeks of setting up rifle and pistol field target courses in 107 to 135 degree temperatures
, but everybody knows what a liar and sissy he is! One problematic target in the rifle match was ultimately thrown out, thereby changing the 56 shot rifle match to 54 shots.
No stranger to capturing top spots in TEXtreme Bench-Rest Silhouette competitions, if I’m not mistaken, Saturday was the first time Jim Martin captured Match Winner prizes in a field target competition. BIG congratulations, Jim! Jim shot 10.3 grain pellets at some velocity in his 6-24X Arken scoped RAW HM1000X, to post a fine, adjusted-for-discarded-malfunctioning-target score of 43/54 in what could easily be construed as challenging wind and heat conditions. Great shooting, Jim!
There was a tie for second place in Hunter PCP, with two shooters posting 41/54 scores. As usual, the cowardly match director wanted to avoid shooting-off at all costs (perhaps because he would prevail based on the second tie breaker- high offhand lane score
). However with all other attendees demanding a shoot-off and using pressure tactics ranging from body shaming
to questioning my sexual perversions
… I mean, ‘preferences’, I acquiesced and agreed to a shoot-off after realizing “since I’m the MD, I can set a shoot-off stacked in MY favor”.
Unfortunately a 6’11” Assistant To The Match Director At Another FT Venue volunteered to direct and SET UP the shoot-off. DOH! Upon looking (up^) into his eyes, I decided it the better course of “valor” to delegate the shoot-off directing chores to Scott Cotton rather than challenge the little guy, or risk lynching at the hands of my shooters. Well known from Midlothian to Waxahachie as a fairly dangerous man, intolerant of gossip or talk behind his back, much less any other place where secrets are hard to keep, One would be remiss to utter a word of mockery about this Assistant To The Match Director of a man called Scott! So Y’all don’t let it get out that I might have teased him a little (in Cyberspace).
As I watched Scott pace off step after step carrying a miniscully-sized kill-zone target, each step three-times as long as an average man’s, I wondered how Jim Clarke and I would ever settle our tie. And when Scott stated “Each of you little guys will take two shots from sitting, and if that doesn’t settle the tie you’ll go offhand for two more shots”, I figured we’d be shooting-off till sometime after dark-thirty!
With my opponent obviously hanging back from the shooting line I figured I might as well shoot first; hopefully settling the tie before midnight.
To everyone’s surprise, especially my own, the target fell to my first shot… when my finger accidentally bumped the trigger upon closing the side-lever! Reasoning that my best chance of dropping the target again would be to replicate the first shot
, I pointed my Wolverine in as close to the same direction as I could recollect, closed my eyes, worked the side lever and purposely bumped the trigger again as similarly as I could replicate the first premature discharge. THE TARGET FELL AGAIN!
Unfortunately for my opponent, Jim is not as adept at pure, blind LUCK as I; so I prevailed for the shoot-off “win” for second place. A shoot-off for the ages; I screeched like a little school-girl!
Errr... I mean... I shook my opponent's hand; as would any real man. The spectators were “impressed” (but deafened for a half-hour).
After adjusting the score-cards to reflect the discarded malfunctioning target there was a tie in the two-man Sproinger Division field; both shooters posting excellent-for-conditions 29/54 scores. However with neither shooter agreeing to (the first tie-breaker option) shoot-off, the second tie-breaker also didn’t decide the winner since neither shooter had scored on the offhand lane. But virtue of his three points on the four-shot Kneeling/Standing-With-Bipod lane to Jon Wren’s two points, Scott Cotton captured the treasure-trove of Sproinger Division Match Winner bounty.
Temperature and wind conditions for Sunday’s pistol match were a carbon-copy of Saturday’s Rifle match; HOT, with tricky, swirling winds! Think “blast furnace”. Thankfully one or two malfunctioning targets were addressed quickly enough to not require discarding from the match totals, so the pistol match remained a 58-shot match.
Unfortunately (for him), there was a disqualification for cheating. The perpetrator offered a treasure trove of excuses… that the self-described Rules Nazi match director saw right through as exactly that; EXCUSES! The MD lowered the boom on the cheater for all to see, in order to make an example of him. The Cheater seemed to lack any semblance of remorse whatsoever, but hopefully learned a lesson nevertheless. Not likely; he ain't exactly the brightest bulb on the tree.
Despite experiencing point-of-impact issues, Derrick Wall adjusted to prevail for the Pistol Match Winner awards with a fine 49/58 score posted with his 3-12X West Hunter scoped PP700, shooting 10.34 grain JSB pellets 714 FPS. Fine pistol shooting Derrick!
Aforementioned treasure troves of Match Winner prizes for both PCP and Sproinger Rifle divisions and Hunter Pistol consisted of a 24-karat gold (colored) Match Winner hat-pin… inside a 2.5” diameter 99.9% silver (colored) TEXtreme Airgun Sports laser-etched pellet tin… inside a 3.25” diameter 99.9% silver (colored) TEXtreme Airgun Sports laser-etched pellet tin… all wrapped in braggin’ rights.
Newbie pistol shooter Jim Byrd shot an excellent 43/58 score for second place in his first ever pistol field target match! Matter of fact he did so with a borrowed pistol! Matter of fact a borrowed pistol converted from a 1950s-vintage Sears & Roebuck Co2 rifle that sold for $20 brand new! If I’m not mistaken, that’s Jim Byrd’s best field target result in his year-long FT experience. Jim’s SEVENTY YEAR-OLD .22 Sears & Roebuck… correction- MY seventy year-old .22 Sears & Roebuck wore a 4-12X Bushnell Legend riflescope, and shot 15.9 grain pellets at 585 FPS.
AWESOME shooting, J-Byrd! Maybe you should get your own SEVENTY YEAR-OLD 1950s-vintage Sears & Roebuck field target pistol. I’ve got a slightly used time machine I’ll make you a good deal on, Buddy. I converted it from a 1953 Montgomery Wards perpetual motion machine after that quit running…
The day after I bought it.
After completion of the awards ceremony on Sunday, Derrick Wall, with help from Jon Wren, gifted Carlos Garza a Derrick-tuned .25 Brocock Sniper XR rifle. All out of character for Carlos, he was left literally speechless. Well, virtually speechless. Okay… speechless for a few seconds. But that must be some kind of record! I repeat now how I broke the silence then. We love you, Carlos! Happy Shooting, Bud.
Despite scorching temperatures supressing the turn-out, it was a most-memorable weekend of great rifle and pistol field target shooting; and off-the-charts camaraderie! Hope Y'all enjoyed yourselves as much as I enjoyed myself and Y'all.
Happy Shooting,
Ron & Maggyy
You just thought the near-record hot temperatures that suppressed turn-out last weekend would save you enduring yet another long, rambling, bizarre match report by That Match Director From Hell. WRONG! Suffice to say Hell hasn’t frozen over (yet), despite Texas absorbing more than our share of the heat.
Once again my expected-attendance predictions, forced by multiple inquiries last week, proved UNCANNILY accurate. “My best educated guesstimate would be somewhere around roughly about approximately ten to fifteen shooters, give or take two or three.” Yes, I are a genuis!
Seven rifle shooters contested Saturdays AAFTA rifle field target competition; the EXACT NUMBER I predicted (“ten to fifteen shooters, give or take two or three”)! Five contested Hunter PCP Class, and two shot Sproinger Division.
Six shooters contested the AAFTA Pistol match on Sunday, all shooting Hunter Class. Thankfully high-temperature predictions of 108 degrees for both days proved woefully pessimistic, as the highs on both days weren’t a degree over 107.
The match director tried to blame target issues experienced in the matches on two weeks of setting up rifle and pistol field target courses in 107 to 135 degree temperatures
, but everybody knows what a liar and sissy he is! One problematic target in the rifle match was ultimately thrown out, thereby changing the 56 shot rifle match to 54 shots.No stranger to capturing top spots in TEXtreme Bench-Rest Silhouette competitions, if I’m not mistaken, Saturday was the first time Jim Martin captured Match Winner prizes in a field target competition. BIG congratulations, Jim! Jim shot 10.3 grain pellets at some velocity in his 6-24X Arken scoped RAW HM1000X, to post a fine, adjusted-for-discarded-malfunctioning-target score of 43/54 in what could easily be construed as challenging wind and heat conditions. Great shooting, Jim!
There was a tie for second place in Hunter PCP, with two shooters posting 41/54 scores. As usual, the cowardly match director wanted to avoid shooting-off at all costs (perhaps because he would prevail based on the second tie breaker- high offhand lane score
). However with all other attendees demanding a shoot-off and using pressure tactics ranging from body shaming to questioning my sexual perversions… I mean, ‘preferences’, I acquiesced and agreed to a shoot-off after realizing “since I’m the MD, I can set a shoot-off stacked in MY favor”.Unfortunately a 6’11” Assistant To The Match Director At Another FT Venue volunteered to direct and SET UP the shoot-off.
DOH! Upon looking (up^) into his eyes, I decided it the better course of “valor” to delegate the shoot-off directing chores to Scott Cotton rather than challenge the little guy, or risk lynching at the hands of my shooters. Well known from Midlothian to Waxahachie as a fairly dangerous man, intolerant of gossip or talk behind his back, much less any other place where secrets are hard to keep, One would be remiss to utter a word of mockery about this Assistant To The Match Director of a man called Scott! So Y’all don’t let it get out that I might have teased him a little (in Cyberspace).As I watched Scott pace off step after step carrying a miniscully-sized kill-zone target, each step three-times as long as an average man’s, I wondered how Jim Clarke and I would ever settle our tie.
And when Scott stated “Each of you little guys will take two shots from sitting, and if that doesn’t settle the tie you’ll go offhand for two more shots”, I figured we’d be shooting-off till sometime after dark-thirty! With my opponent obviously hanging back from the shooting line I figured I might as well shoot first; hopefully settling the tie before midnight.To everyone’s surprise, especially my own
, the target fell to my first shot… when my finger accidentally bumped the trigger upon closing the side-lever! Reasoning that my best chance of dropping the target again would be to replicate the first shot, I pointed my Wolverine in as close to the same direction as I could recollect, closed my eyes, worked the side lever and purposely bumped the trigger again as similarly as I could replicate the first premature discharge. THE TARGET FELL AGAIN!Unfortunately for my opponent, Jim is not as adept at pure, blind LUCK as I; so I prevailed for the shoot-off “win” for second place. A shoot-off for the ages; I screeched like a little school-girl!
Errr... I mean... I shook my opponent's hand; as would any real man. The spectators were “impressed” (but deafened for a half-hour).After adjusting the score-cards to reflect the discarded malfunctioning target there was a tie in the two-man Sproinger Division field; both shooters posting excellent-for-conditions 29/54 scores. However with neither shooter agreeing to (the first tie-breaker option) shoot-off, the second tie-breaker also didn’t decide the winner since neither shooter had scored on the offhand lane. But virtue of his three points on the four-shot Kneeling/Standing-With-Bipod lane to Jon Wren’s two points, Scott Cotton captured the treasure-trove of Sproinger Division Match Winner bounty.
Temperature and wind conditions for Sunday’s pistol match were a carbon-copy of Saturday’s Rifle match; HOT, with tricky, swirling winds! Think “blast furnace”. Thankfully one or two malfunctioning targets were addressed quickly enough to not require discarding from the match totals, so the pistol match remained a 58-shot match.
Unfortunately (for him), there was a disqualification for cheating. The perpetrator offered a treasure trove of excuses… that the self-described Rules Nazi match director saw right through as exactly that; EXCUSES! The MD lowered the boom on the cheater for all to see, in order to make an example of him. The Cheater seemed to lack any semblance of remorse whatsoever, but hopefully learned a lesson nevertheless. Not likely; he ain't exactly the brightest bulb on the tree.
Despite experiencing point-of-impact issues, Derrick Wall adjusted to prevail for the Pistol Match Winner awards with a fine 49/58 score posted with his 3-12X West Hunter scoped PP700, shooting 10.34 grain JSB pellets 714 FPS. Fine pistol shooting Derrick!
Aforementioned treasure troves of Match Winner prizes for both PCP and Sproinger Rifle divisions and Hunter Pistol consisted of a 24-karat gold (colored) Match Winner hat-pin… inside a 2.5” diameter 99.9% silver (colored) TEXtreme Airgun Sports laser-etched pellet tin… inside a 3.25” diameter 99.9% silver (colored) TEXtreme Airgun Sports laser-etched pellet tin… all wrapped in braggin’ rights.
Newbie pistol shooter Jim Byrd shot an excellent 43/58 score for second place in his first ever pistol field target match! Matter of fact he did so with a borrowed pistol! Matter of fact a borrowed pistol converted from a 1950s-vintage Sears & Roebuck Co2 rifle that sold for $20 brand new! If I’m not mistaken, that’s Jim Byrd’s best field target result in his year-long FT experience. Jim’s SEVENTY YEAR-OLD .22 Sears & Roebuck… correction- MY seventy year-old .22 Sears & Roebuck wore a 4-12X Bushnell Legend riflescope, and shot 15.9 grain pellets at 585 FPS.
AWESOME shooting, J-Byrd! Maybe you should get your own SEVENTY YEAR-OLD 1950s-vintage Sears & Roebuck field target pistol. I’ve got a slightly used time machine I’ll make you a good deal on, Buddy. I converted it from a 1953 Montgomery Wards perpetual motion machine after that quit running…
The day after I bought it.
After completion of the awards ceremony on Sunday, Derrick Wall, with help from Jon Wren, gifted Carlos Garza a Derrick-tuned .25 Brocock Sniper XR rifle. All out of character for Carlos, he was left literally speechless. Well, virtually speechless. Okay… speechless for a few seconds. But that must be some kind of record!
I repeat now how I broke the silence then. We love you, Carlos! Happy Shooting, Bud.Despite scorching temperatures supressing the turn-out, it was a most-memorable weekend of great rifle and pistol field target shooting; and off-the-charts camaraderie! Hope Y'all enjoyed yourselves as much as I enjoyed myself and Y'all.
Happy Shooting,
Ron & Maggyy
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