. The Crosman All American 2017 is behind now and it was a bit of an adventure for me and Mike Finchum a fellow club member who also attends some GPs.
I started out Thursday morn at 2;25 Am to meet Mike in Wilson NC at a friend of his, where he would park his vehicle. After transferring his gear to my truck we were on our way. The trip was uneventful, until in the mountains of New York, when a rain storm started with a heavy downpour. All of a sudden, it was like a white linen sheet was thrown over the windshield! I had a tractor trailer in front of me that I had given a wide berth, when the rain started. I slammed on the breaks, just in case he did the same, when we could not see anything.
After stopping, I crawled over to the shoulder only stopping when the color of the ground changed, signaling that I had arrived at the grass. We could not see the black bug deflector on the front of my white truck! No one passed me, and when the rain went back to being just heavy, we saw the tractor had indeed stopped right where he was, in the middle of our lane!! Whew! All the other cars were stacked up behind us.I should have taken that as a sign of things to come…!
The freak storm turned out to have produced two tornados near buffalo, about 70 miles to the west of us. Guess our winds and rain,were the leftovers.. Both of us remarked we never saw a complete whiteout except during snow.
When the Crosman All American ( listed on the web, I booked the Lexington Hotel in Rochester airport. Months before mind you. Well last Sunday, I get a notice from Hotels.com that my stay is coming up at the Ramada. The Ramada? There is a Ramada close to the Lexington so I thought I had double booked to be safe. Couldn’t remember… I called the Lexington and they answered… Ramada. For brevity, they were bought out and the Ramada did not have my months old reservation and could not give me a room. Great! 4 days before we leave.
.I already knew the Holiday inn Express in Victor was sold out so I tried the Microtel across the parking lot from HIE. I stayed at the HEI last year for the event.They only had a queen room/ Costing $40 more for Mike’s and my split, but at least we would not sleep in the truck! (I should have choose the truck)!
Now I go into the Microtel so that I may save you, the reader a situation like we had!I had asked for a roll-away bed for the room when booking, and was told it would be a fire hazard…??Well on arrival I asked the gentleman at the desk and he said he would see if one was available. The Boy Scout in me, had brought a queen size inflatable mattress and battery pump, just in case… After getting some gear, I saw the bed outside the room. Stepping inside the room, I go 4’ and the room begins. In the 4’ hall space, to my right is the bathroom. At the end of the 4” section, the room opens up. There is a wall mounted tiny desk, with a metal chair like found in a mall dining area. The bed took up the rest of the room!!! There was about 2 ‘ to each side of the bed, so the queen inflatable mattress could not be used. Neither would the roll-away fit anywhere. MICROTEL IS NOT JUST A NAME…LOL
I told mike take the bed, and I would sleep on the bench seat that covers the AC unit under the window. It was 2’ wide and had a It was a rough night where I could not stretch out, and waking by worrying about falling off.
We were out to dinner and returning down the hall, when I told Mike that men are stupid! He was puzzled and I said I would explain in the room. After we entered, I said this is why we are stupid. I grabbed the window seat 3” pad and pulled it dropping it on the floor….See ? Plenty of room to stretch out… we both did not even think of the simple solution!
The room appeared clean along with the bathroom. However, after I was in the shower, which was great, I turned to rinse my back. Looking down I saw on the back of the tub, a curly hair from someone’s nether region!. And it was not alone seeing one more. I decide to show Mike, and make a comment after brushing my teeth. Looking in the mirror, I notice 2 straight black hairs under the rim of the under counter sink.
I have not seen any color hair from my head, other than my distinguished silver gray mane, since I was in my late 20’s . Mike has gray salt and pepper hair, but not black pepper. So, I decided it was neither of ours and was a deposit from some previous guest ..We experienced this on Sat night after returning too, so we surmised that the cleaning crew were using the same cloth to clean each room, and transferring the hairs.
Well on Sat night after we took a shower, the bath backed up. I asked Mike if he was shedding, as the entire tub was full of nasty multi-color hairs! It was not there when I took my shower before him. So I can say with absurdness, I will never stay at another Microtel, ever.
Thursday night we met up with Keith “Knobs” A fellow Tar Heel club member staying at the same hotel, and ate dinner at Chili’s restaurant. I called friend Tom Holland, who was staying at the Microtel, to meet us in the lobby to go with us. After 10+ mins of waiting, I called him to see where he was. Seems there are 4 Microtel’s in the area. Unfortunately, we were in ones on opposite sides of the course waiting in their lobby’s…lol
Ok Day 1 Friday! Clear with clouds and no rain
After a disappointing breakfast at Denny’s, we drove to the Rochester Brooks Gun Club to ck guns and sight in. My Steyr started a little low but then came true. I then started to say hello to the familiar faces and friends.I hung around while Mike worked on his rifle issue. I did not watch the Quigley shoot or the Gunslynger. I can say the always entertaining Tom Holland took the Quigley with 2 shots on target.. I didn’t know that they were offing a several hundred dollar value prize for Crosman products this year or I would have dusted Tom’s butt since I own a Pedersoli 1874 Sharps 45-70 …..Oh not with the Challenger Tom, With my rifle. I guarantee if I went first, you would not have a target to shoot at..HAHAHa…
I found out Mike was having issues with his rifle. He was not hitting paper at his zero and more. When he came over to me later in the day he told he was going to DNF! He explained some of the issues and I told him he came too far to DNF…! We went back to the line to try again. I started my barrage of “did you do this? Did you do that? After exhausting my fixes, I relinquished to fellow long-distance Tar Heel Air Gun Club member, Kevin “The Legend” Kunkle. I am not that knowledgeable on springers, and Kevin is…I guess Kevin and Mike worked out something, as Mike said he had it close, when we drove back to the hotel.
I took this pic before walking away from them...Hey real time photos!
After getting back to the hotel Knobs, Mike , and I piled into the pelletmoblie and headed back to the club for the Banquet and greet. The club spread out a buffet and we broke up into groups of tables, with several hopping around to meet friends.
Sitting with Brian VanLiew, Mike, Rick Bassett, Knobs, I believe James Wilcox, and another who I did not know.. (sorry bud) Good conversation and good ribs. Check out Knobs’s pile of bones in front of him. Heck, look at his face! That will tell…
On the way, back to Victor and the hotel, we stopped at a little corner bar that has outdoor settees on the sidewalk. I wanted to stop last year as it is a quaint town and bar. Being alone I did not stop. But having these guys with me it was an easy choice. Once inside we sat at a tall bar table with the top, made of a piece of cedar stump. Keith had a Bourbon, Mike a mixed drink, and I had a Shock Top beer. Very cool place. Keith noted that he could live in there…….. What??
Day 2 Saturday Cloudy in the morn and patchy sun later in the day.
I first delivered Brian "Boomer"'s Vanderboom's target he ordered. A giant Marine Toad from my business.
Then we went to greet the new faces that arrived . Saturday had us checking rifles. Mine was a little right at the close ranges and needed 3 clicks left. Keith and I were satisfied with our guns, but mike was still struggling, working out issues (Funny how the guns are perfect when you leave, only to be crazy when you arrive)
It’s important to this post that I note that, Knobs and I were hitting every spinner out there we aimed at, in the offhand! REMEMBER THAT FACT!We had the meeting and off we went .. I was put in a squad with Fellow club member Mike Norris, and new to the game Gary La Rocca,( but he's from a NRA national shooting background)
We started on lane 10 in the woods course. I went first and cleared the first lane and the next 2 lanes. Then I dropped one, as I miss-ranged on lane 13 . Then I cleared 14 and 15. Dropped 1 on lane 1 Than cleared lane 2 when it happened!
Remember I said to make note of my hitting every off hand shot on the sight in range? I have stopped making targets, this past month, to concentrate on practicing, especially off hand. I have been hitting targets from 45 and 50 yards with few misses. Sooooooo….It was decided that we would only have 4 minutes a lane. With no 1 minute set up!
This was a first for me… As I walked up to the standing lane, I saw there was no rifle rest/stand to range off of. I expected to see one like at other GP’s. Well I sat down to range the long target then the close, and knew as I did the 4 minutes were started. After what seemed to be a long time to me getting the ranges, I stood up and got set. My heartbeat and breath were bad enough, but the mental thought of the time, threw me as I missed the first three shots by rushing them.
I was thinking that my time was about out when Gary said I had 1-minute left…Oh hell that was plenty of time! I then knew I did not take as long as it felt ranging. Damn!….So I just relaxed and dropped the last target. Hey one is better than none, I say.. But that was the beginning of the bad day!
I guess I got rattled and never really recovered my composure. I cleared the next lane but only got one on the kneeling. Best of all was the last lane. A kneeling shot at 11 yards up high in a tree. You could see daylight above the paddle. But it was a full KZ so no problem, right? Hah! I just watched Mike with his rifle issues stand and shoot it down. It was that much of a gimmie…. I put the knee riser to almost full held steady in the center of the KZ and Splat! Missed!
Now if I was composed and not rattled, I would have checked to see if I was out of rotation if it missed the metal. But it hit and I figured I was just a little off. Still should ck rotation.. did I do that? Noooooo I went ahead and shot the same spot again Splat! Of course, as stupid is, stupid does, so I shot the at the far target and missed twice.
I did not find out until starting to sight in on Sunday morn I WAS out of rotation!……Brilliant! The sad part is that I did not have a close shot on the lane before, I did not turn the knob as my shot was done, so how the hell did it get turned? I did go off and relieve myself on the field above. Now I don’t think anyone would purposely turn the knob while I was out of sight. Especially since at this point I was no threat to anyone. So how the hell did the damn knob get turned? I believe that the shot before was pretty close to my being out of rotation and when I ranged the 11 yard shot in the tree, I absent mindlessly turned the elev knob the wrong direction and put me out… Like I said above absent mindlessly , or otherwise known as Old Man poop!
Meanwhile, I spoke to Mike Finchum, and he told me he was around 1.5 mils off his settings. He was taking educated guess for most shots. At the end of the day he managed a 40, so he guesses pretty well…..! After a food delay for lunch with the crowd, the pistol match was pushed back to at 3:00 PM We headed to the woods course again to shoot the match. We found out that the match was to be a full 60 shot match!
It had 3 forced standing lanes as well. I have only attended GP matches with 30 shots including the one Bob Dye and I supplied at the Southern Open. It was a long day of shooting ending at 6:10 PM.
Now I am not the pistolero. I am working on it, so my best was a 31 and needed to beat that. I am working on my techniques, and improving.I was partnered with Robert Macintosh using a Crosman 1701 silhouette pistol with a red dot sight non-magnified. This a round a 5 FPE pistol folks. It ‘s like the saying, “bringing a knife to a gun fight” A butter knife, as Robert put it. Still he dropped 10 targets! Some went slow due to the low power hits.I watched several hit what we thought was the edge of the KZ but in turn was reducers on targets that were from the rifle match, and devoid of paint. Looked like a larger kill zone.
Kudos, to Robert. And I am not just saying that because he is a fellow retired Marine.
Mike is on the left of the pic with kevin Kunkle..
I did pretty well. I scored my all-time high of 46, and accomplished my goal of beating my old top score. It ended up a three-way tie with fellow club member Kevin Kunkle, and Fred Mannis.
Day Three Sunday Clear with partial sun...
I was partnered with Rick Basset and Glen Thomas. Rick and I were partnered last year at the Crosman and he is fun to shoot with. Always has a quick quip. Glenn and he shoot together and are familiar with each other. Rick has been in it for a long time. When I am partnered with guys like that I like to listen to all they offer.
Glenn started and cleared the lane.
The target was at around 12 yards and was outside my rotation. I rotated to the yardage, and I cover the elev knob with a stolen cap off my wife’s can of Pam cooking spray. SHHHH! she still doesn’t know. I have been cooking dinner for weeks! This reminds me I am out of rotation on the knob.
I steady and shoot. Splat!..What The Fudge! (Remember yesterdays last lane I mentioned above)? Yep, I was over rotated already and I just went out another… I rotate one back, and dropped the target.. So I was out of rotation twice on the first shot…LOL
Well I went on to do much better than the day before. I called all the shots I missed. I was the wind king this day, and hit all the windy shots through the course. Eeeeexcept on two shots! After dropping the target the first time, on the second attempt, the wind went limp and the pellet went true. Missing of course, as I was out of the kill zone on the wind doping. But at least it was me and not the gun. Oh, that dreaded standing lane is next!
I told you I have been practicing and getting 100% or missing one a session. Well I was smarter this time. I sat, ranged, stood up, put the gun in the cradle, and then took a breath. I loaded the gun, (having the cradle facing downrange) and picked it up. I Addressed the target, (usually saying "Good morning Sir") and then shot. Did this each time, and had just over a minute for the last shot on the far target. You guessed it! No! I cleaned the lane easy… If only I did that the day before..
After lunch, the shoot offs were set and Fred Mannis went first to decide our three way tie. The first target was, If my old *** memory is right, around 33 Yards out. The second was a couple yards closer, and would be a standing shot if we had to go on. Fred missed the KZ and it was my turn.
There was a fair wind blowing at my back so I aimed at the lower edge of the KZ , knowing the pellet would rise. It did, and the target went down solidly. Whew…
! Kevin was next and the shot just missed. 
So I took the third place spot. Then Kevin shot again for fourth place and he dropped the target. Fred shot after, and it was over, when the pellet did not find the mark. I took the 3rd place spot. Kevin and Fred 4th and 5th. Sorry Kevin the camera man taking the pics decided to take his own pic instead of yours...LOL 
There was a shoot off for top open spot with Tyler Patner and Bill Rabbitt . 
They ended up hitting the first target down and had to go to standing where it ended.
Since this is just all about me…with a few others (LOL) and not an official report, I will let you read that result on Tyler’s post on Pyramids website.or Shawn’s Crosman report.
Ray Appelles and Matt Brackett had a shoot off for top WFTF piston
shooter.
Who won?...you have to wait for the official report! There was a shoot off for a hunter position but I did not catch it as I was stowing my pistol and equipment and missed it. Sorry Guys!
My travel partner Mike Finchum, just did not have the best weekend with his rifle. Day 2 of the rifle match, had him leading the pack by around 4 shots, when the pellet Gods frowned on him. He was cocking his HW97 in his beautiful new LT Airguns stock for Argentina, and about 3/4 of the way down to locking up, the lever slipped out of his hand, slapping the stuffing out of his barrel.. It was a shame as he looked poised to take the top spot. With 6 lanes left and the rifle barrel bent or the scope knocked off, he could only manage 2 targets out of the 24 targets left…
He still placed a respectable 3rd with all that went on. On Saturday, he was 1.5 or so mils off on the scope and intelligently guessing the holdovers… He Made a 40 with shooting off hand at the kneeling lane, at that tree target I muffed on Saturday! Hell of a comeback in my book.
I personally want to congratulate the following: fellow Tar Heel Club member WILL PIATT, my mentor, WHO ONLY MISSED 1 TARGET ALL WEEKEND! HAVING THE TOP OVER-ALL SCORE IN RIFLE.
GREG SAUVE who only dropped 2 the whole weekend.
Greg and Will both completely cleared one course,Not to be too outdone, congrats to TYLER PATNER who Cleared the woods course as well.. 
Great Job guys
Friend, Brian VanLiew only dropped 1 on Saturday’s course and 3 the next course.
What a pleasure to shoot with guys of this caliber.
Shooting Field target for his first time, Anthony garland was shooting a NP trail pistol and another of the break barrel rifles in the same vein. He takes home the medal in the piston class.
I bet he looked hard at the rifles that are at the sale table… Since he lives in Rochester I’m sure he will be a new club member…
My end was 3rd place medal in pistol, 4th in Open, and 5th in overall points…
well there is always next year
For the Tar Heel Air Gun Club, we take home 5 medals, Thanks to Will Piatt, Far away members Kevin Kunkle, Mike Norris, and myself. Great showings from Mike Finchum and Keith “Knobs” for both coming in 3rd in their classes. Unfortunately, only 2 medals were awarded in their respective classes.
Finally, I want to thank the Crosman crew that made it a success. Mark DeBoard, Kim, Sonia, Nick and the rest. Along with Shaun Mcdaniel, Eric brewer, and the rest of the club members. . People have been emailing me for the results and that is not my job. But I am adding the board photo I took at the end of the post. Not all the winners are listed. But it is something to go on..
Remember, THIS IS MY ADVENTURE AND NOT THE OFFICAL REPORT.phone. I had to blow the photos up and crop. So the lighting was poor... I can’t be everywhere and get photos of everything. Also, I don’t want to take away from the official report. But I had someone feel slighted last year at an event, by my not mentioning another class competitors and results. He knows who he is. I just want to say congrats to him for a fine job in his class at the Crosman, and placing where he did. Sorry about last year as I was not on the same field…
If you have never gone to the Crosman All American before, you need to do so. You meet the Crosman employees, the air gun club members, and have a great time. Crosman gives away a goodie bag filled with useful stuff that this year included a really nice ceramic neck Knife w/the Crosman logo, A huge SS tumbler with the logo, A cool gaiter for you neck and head, Plastic clipboard for the score card, several bore whips and more!
Not to mention the super deals off guns, pellets, pistols, and other Crosman products at nearly half price. I bought a .22 Armada with a new barreling but that’s another story. It shot a 3.95 MM group at 30 yards when I scoped it back home.
Look forward to some exciting news and new guns from Crosman in the near future… just saying… They were taking names for those interested in building a new Marauder field target rifle. With choices of features it should top out with everything like regulator, stock, etc. Around the $700 mark…. If you endured this post to the end Thanks for reading. I hope you enjoyed the pics! Paul
I started out Thursday morn at 2;25 Am to meet Mike in Wilson NC at a friend of his, where he would park his vehicle. After transferring his gear to my truck we were on our way. The trip was uneventful, until in the mountains of New York, when a rain storm started with a heavy downpour. All of a sudden, it was like a white linen sheet was thrown over the windshield! I had a tractor trailer in front of me that I had given a wide berth, when the rain started. I slammed on the breaks, just in case he did the same, when we could not see anything.
After stopping, I crawled over to the shoulder only stopping when the color of the ground changed, signaling that I had arrived at the grass. We could not see the black bug deflector on the front of my white truck! No one passed me, and when the rain went back to being just heavy, we saw the tractor had indeed stopped right where he was, in the middle of our lane!! Whew! All the other cars were stacked up behind us.I should have taken that as a sign of things to come…!
The freak storm turned out to have produced two tornados near buffalo, about 70 miles to the west of us. Guess our winds and rain,were the leftovers.. Both of us remarked we never saw a complete whiteout except during snow.
When the Crosman All American ( listed on the web, I booked the Lexington Hotel in Rochester airport. Months before mind you. Well last Sunday, I get a notice from Hotels.com that my stay is coming up at the Ramada. The Ramada? There is a Ramada close to the Lexington so I thought I had double booked to be safe. Couldn’t remember… I called the Lexington and they answered… Ramada. For brevity, they were bought out and the Ramada did not have my months old reservation and could not give me a room. Great! 4 days before we leave.
.I already knew the Holiday inn Express in Victor was sold out so I tried the Microtel across the parking lot from HIE. I stayed at the HEI last year for the event.They only had a queen room/ Costing $40 more for Mike’s and my split, but at least we would not sleep in the truck! (I should have choose the truck)!
Now I go into the Microtel so that I may save you, the reader a situation like we had!I had asked for a roll-away bed for the room when booking, and was told it would be a fire hazard…??Well on arrival I asked the gentleman at the desk and he said he would see if one was available. The Boy Scout in me, had brought a queen size inflatable mattress and battery pump, just in case… After getting some gear, I saw the bed outside the room. Stepping inside the room, I go 4’ and the room begins. In the 4’ hall space, to my right is the bathroom. At the end of the 4” section, the room opens up. There is a wall mounted tiny desk, with a metal chair like found in a mall dining area. The bed took up the rest of the room!!! There was about 2 ‘ to each side of the bed, so the queen inflatable mattress could not be used. Neither would the roll-away fit anywhere. MICROTEL IS NOT JUST A NAME…LOL
I told mike take the bed, and I would sleep on the bench seat that covers the AC unit under the window. It was 2’ wide and had a It was a rough night where I could not stretch out, and waking by worrying about falling off.
We were out to dinner and returning down the hall, when I told Mike that men are stupid! He was puzzled and I said I would explain in the room. After we entered, I said this is why we are stupid. I grabbed the window seat 3” pad and pulled it dropping it on the floor….See ? Plenty of room to stretch out… we both did not even think of the simple solution!
The room appeared clean along with the bathroom. However, after I was in the shower, which was great, I turned to rinse my back. Looking down I saw on the back of the tub, a curly hair from someone’s nether region!. And it was not alone seeing one more. I decide to show Mike, and make a comment after brushing my teeth. Looking in the mirror, I notice 2 straight black hairs under the rim of the under counter sink.
I have not seen any color hair from my head, other than my distinguished silver gray mane, since I was in my late 20’s . Mike has gray salt and pepper hair, but not black pepper. So, I decided it was neither of ours and was a deposit from some previous guest ..We experienced this on Sat night after returning too, so we surmised that the cleaning crew were using the same cloth to clean each room, and transferring the hairs.
Well on Sat night after we took a shower, the bath backed up. I asked Mike if he was shedding, as the entire tub was full of nasty multi-color hairs! It was not there when I took my shower before him. So I can say with absurdness, I will never stay at another Microtel, ever.
Thursday night we met up with Keith “Knobs” A fellow Tar Heel club member staying at the same hotel, and ate dinner at Chili’s restaurant. I called friend Tom Holland, who was staying at the Microtel, to meet us in the lobby to go with us. After 10+ mins of waiting, I called him to see where he was. Seems there are 4 Microtel’s in the area. Unfortunately, we were in ones on opposite sides of the course waiting in their lobby’s…lol
Ok Day 1 Friday! Clear with clouds and no rain
After a disappointing breakfast at Denny’s, we drove to the Rochester Brooks Gun Club to ck guns and sight in. My Steyr started a little low but then came true. I then started to say hello to the familiar faces and friends.I hung around while Mike worked on his rifle issue. I did not watch the Quigley shoot or the Gunslynger. I can say the always entertaining Tom Holland took the Quigley with 2 shots on target.. I didn’t know that they were offing a several hundred dollar value prize for Crosman products this year or I would have dusted Tom’s butt since I own a Pedersoli 1874 Sharps 45-70 …..Oh not with the Challenger Tom, With my rifle. I guarantee if I went first, you would not have a target to shoot at..HAHAHa…
I found out Mike was having issues with his rifle. He was not hitting paper at his zero and more. When he came over to me later in the day he told he was going to DNF! He explained some of the issues and I told him he came too far to DNF…! We went back to the line to try again. I started my barrage of “did you do this? Did you do that? After exhausting my fixes, I relinquished to fellow long-distance Tar Heel Air Gun Club member, Kevin “The Legend” Kunkle. I am not that knowledgeable on springers, and Kevin is…I guess Kevin and Mike worked out something, as Mike said he had it close, when we drove back to the hotel.
I took this pic before walking away from them...Hey real time photos!
After getting back to the hotel Knobs, Mike , and I piled into the pelletmoblie and headed back to the club for the Banquet and greet. The club spread out a buffet and we broke up into groups of tables, with several hopping around to meet friends.
Sitting with Brian VanLiew, Mike, Rick Bassett, Knobs, I believe James Wilcox, and another who I did not know.. (sorry bud) Good conversation and good ribs. Check out Knobs’s pile of bones in front of him. Heck, look at his face! That will tell…
On the way, back to Victor and the hotel, we stopped at a little corner bar that has outdoor settees on the sidewalk. I wanted to stop last year as it is a quaint town and bar. Being alone I did not stop. But having these guys with me it was an easy choice. Once inside we sat at a tall bar table with the top, made of a piece of cedar stump. Keith had a Bourbon, Mike a mixed drink, and I had a Shock Top beer. Very cool place. Keith noted that he could live in there…….. What??
Day 2 Saturday Cloudy in the morn and patchy sun later in the day.
I first delivered Brian "Boomer"'s Vanderboom's target he ordered. A giant Marine Toad from my business.
Then we went to greet the new faces that arrived . Saturday had us checking rifles. Mine was a little right at the close ranges and needed 3 clicks left. Keith and I were satisfied with our guns, but mike was still struggling, working out issues (Funny how the guns are perfect when you leave, only to be crazy when you arrive)
It’s important to this post that I note that, Knobs and I were hitting every spinner out there we aimed at, in the offhand! REMEMBER THAT FACT!We had the meeting and off we went .. I was put in a squad with Fellow club member Mike Norris, and new to the game Gary La Rocca,( but he's from a NRA national shooting background)
We started on lane 10 in the woods course. I went first and cleared the first lane and the next 2 lanes. Then I dropped one, as I miss-ranged on lane 13 . Then I cleared 14 and 15. Dropped 1 on lane 1 Than cleared lane 2 when it happened!
Remember I said to make note of my hitting every off hand shot on the sight in range? I have stopped making targets, this past month, to concentrate on practicing, especially off hand. I have been hitting targets from 45 and 50 yards with few misses. Sooooooo….It was decided that we would only have 4 minutes a lane. With no 1 minute set up!
This was a first for me… As I walked up to the standing lane, I saw there was no rifle rest/stand to range off of. I expected to see one like at other GP’s. Well I sat down to range the long target then the close, and knew as I did the 4 minutes were started. After what seemed to be a long time to me getting the ranges, I stood up and got set. My heartbeat and breath were bad enough, but the mental thought of the time, threw me as I missed the first three shots by rushing them.
I was thinking that my time was about out when Gary said I had 1-minute left…Oh hell that was plenty of time! I then knew I did not take as long as it felt ranging. Damn!….So I just relaxed and dropped the last target. Hey one is better than none, I say.. But that was the beginning of the bad day!
I guess I got rattled and never really recovered my composure. I cleared the next lane but only got one on the kneeling. Best of all was the last lane. A kneeling shot at 11 yards up high in a tree. You could see daylight above the paddle. But it was a full KZ so no problem, right? Hah! I just watched Mike with his rifle issues stand and shoot it down. It was that much of a gimmie…. I put the knee riser to almost full held steady in the center of the KZ and Splat! Missed!
Now if I was composed and not rattled, I would have checked to see if I was out of rotation if it missed the metal. But it hit and I figured I was just a little off. Still should ck rotation.. did I do that? Noooooo I went ahead and shot the same spot again Splat! Of course, as stupid is, stupid does, so I shot the at the far target and missed twice.
I did not find out until starting to sight in on Sunday morn I WAS out of rotation!……Brilliant! The sad part is that I did not have a close shot on the lane before, I did not turn the knob as my shot was done, so how the hell did it get turned? I did go off and relieve myself on the field above. Now I don’t think anyone would purposely turn the knob while I was out of sight. Especially since at this point I was no threat to anyone. So how the hell did the damn knob get turned? I believe that the shot before was pretty close to my being out of rotation and when I ranged the 11 yard shot in the tree, I absent mindlessly turned the elev knob the wrong direction and put me out… Like I said above absent mindlessly , or otherwise known as Old Man poop!
Meanwhile, I spoke to Mike Finchum, and he told me he was around 1.5 mils off his settings. He was taking educated guess for most shots. At the end of the day he managed a 40, so he guesses pretty well…..! After a food delay for lunch with the crowd, the pistol match was pushed back to at 3:00 PM We headed to the woods course again to shoot the match. We found out that the match was to be a full 60 shot match!
It had 3 forced standing lanes as well. I have only attended GP matches with 30 shots including the one Bob Dye and I supplied at the Southern Open. It was a long day of shooting ending at 6:10 PM.
Now I am not the pistolero. I am working on it, so my best was a 31 and needed to beat that. I am working on my techniques, and improving.I was partnered with Robert Macintosh using a Crosman 1701 silhouette pistol with a red dot sight non-magnified. This a round a 5 FPE pistol folks. It ‘s like the saying, “bringing a knife to a gun fight” A butter knife, as Robert put it. Still he dropped 10 targets! Some went slow due to the low power hits.I watched several hit what we thought was the edge of the KZ but in turn was reducers on targets that were from the rifle match, and devoid of paint. Looked like a larger kill zone.
Kudos, to Robert. And I am not just saying that because he is a fellow retired Marine.
I did pretty well. I scored my all-time high of 46, and accomplished my goal of beating my old top score. It ended up a three-way tie with fellow club member Kevin Kunkle, and Fred Mannis.
Day Three Sunday Clear with partial sun...
I was partnered with Rick Basset and Glen Thomas. Rick and I were partnered last year at the Crosman and he is fun to shoot with. Always has a quick quip. Glenn and he shoot together and are familiar with each other. Rick has been in it for a long time. When I am partnered with guys like that I like to listen to all they offer.
Glenn started and cleared the lane.
I steady and shoot. Splat!..What The Fudge! (Remember yesterdays last lane I mentioned above)? Yep, I was over rotated already and I just went out another… I rotate one back, and dropped the target.. So I was out of rotation twice on the first shot…LOL
Well I went on to do much better than the day before. I called all the shots I missed. I was the wind king this day, and hit all the windy shots through the course. Eeeeexcept on two shots! After dropping the target the first time, on the second attempt, the wind went limp and the pellet went true. Missing of course, as I was out of the kill zone on the wind doping. But at least it was me and not the gun. Oh, that dreaded standing lane is next!
I told you I have been practicing and getting 100% or missing one a session. Well I was smarter this time. I sat, ranged, stood up, put the gun in the cradle, and then took a breath. I loaded the gun, (having the cradle facing downrange) and picked it up. I Addressed the target, (usually saying "Good morning Sir") and then shot. Did this each time, and had just over a minute for the last shot on the far target. You guessed it! No! I cleaned the lane easy… If only I did that the day before..
After lunch, the shoot offs were set and Fred Mannis went first to decide our three way tie. The first target was, If my old *** memory is right, around 33 Yards out. The second was a couple yards closer, and would be a standing shot if we had to go on. Fred missed the KZ and it was my turn.
Since this is just all about me…with a few others (LOL) and not an official report, I will let you read that result on Tyler’s post on Pyramids website.or Shawn’s Crosman report.
Ray Appelles and Matt Brackett had a shoot off for top WFTF piston
Who won?...you have to wait for the official report! There was a shoot off for a hunter position but I did not catch it as I was stowing my pistol and equipment and missed it. Sorry Guys!
My travel partner Mike Finchum, just did not have the best weekend with his rifle. Day 2 of the rifle match, had him leading the pack by around 4 shots, when the pellet Gods frowned on him. He was cocking his HW97 in his beautiful new LT Airguns stock for Argentina, and about 3/4 of the way down to locking up, the lever slipped out of his hand, slapping the stuffing out of his barrel.. It was a shame as he looked poised to take the top spot. With 6 lanes left and the rifle barrel bent or the scope knocked off, he could only manage 2 targets out of the 24 targets left…
He still placed a respectable 3rd with all that went on. On Saturday, he was 1.5 or so mils off on the scope and intelligently guessing the holdovers… He Made a 40 with shooting off hand at the kneeling lane, at that tree target I muffed on Saturday! Hell of a comeback in my book.
I personally want to congratulate the following: fellow Tar Heel Club member WILL PIATT, my mentor, WHO ONLY MISSED 1 TARGET ALL WEEKEND! HAVING THE TOP OVER-ALL SCORE IN RIFLE.
GREG SAUVE who only dropped 2 the whole weekend.
Friend, Brian VanLiew only dropped 1 on Saturday’s course and 3 the next course.
What a pleasure to shoot with guys of this caliber.
Shooting Field target for his first time, Anthony garland was shooting a NP trail pistol and another of the break barrel rifles in the same vein. He takes home the medal in the piston class.
My end was 3rd place medal in pistol, 4th in Open, and 5th in overall points…
For the Tar Heel Air Gun Club, we take home 5 medals, Thanks to Will Piatt, Far away members Kevin Kunkle, Mike Norris, and myself. Great showings from Mike Finchum and Keith “Knobs” for both coming in 3rd in their classes. Unfortunately, only 2 medals were awarded in their respective classes.
Finally, I want to thank the Crosman crew that made it a success. Mark DeBoard, Kim, Sonia, Nick and the rest. Along with Shaun Mcdaniel, Eric brewer, and the rest of the club members. . People have been emailing me for the results and that is not my job. But I am adding the board photo I took at the end of the post. Not all the winners are listed. But it is something to go on..
Remember, THIS IS MY ADVENTURE AND NOT THE OFFICAL REPORT.phone. I had to blow the photos up and crop. So the lighting was poor... I can’t be everywhere and get photos of everything. Also, I don’t want to take away from the official report. But I had someone feel slighted last year at an event, by my not mentioning another class competitors and results. He knows who he is. I just want to say congrats to him for a fine job in his class at the Crosman, and placing where he did. Sorry about last year as I was not on the same field…
If you have never gone to the Crosman All American before, you need to do so. You meet the Crosman employees, the air gun club members, and have a great time. Crosman gives away a goodie bag filled with useful stuff that this year included a really nice ceramic neck Knife w/the Crosman logo, A huge SS tumbler with the logo, A cool gaiter for you neck and head, Plastic clipboard for the score card, several bore whips and more!
Not to mention the super deals off guns, pellets, pistols, and other Crosman products at nearly half price. I bought a .22 Armada with a new barreling but that’s another story. It shot a 3.95 MM group at 30 yards when I scoped it back home.
Look forward to some exciting news and new guns from Crosman in the near future… just saying… They were taking names for those interested in building a new Marauder field target rifle. With choices of features it should top out with everything like regulator, stock, etc. Around the $700 mark…. If you endured this post to the end Thanks for reading. I hope you enjoyed the pics! Paul
