The Veterans Day field target match at DIFTA was notable for several reasons. It was cold, 20° at the start of the match, warming up to a balmy 30° at the conclusion of business, but at least we were spared wind, so hold offs were minimal. The cold weather seemed to attract both visitors and regulars who had not shot at DIFTA in a while. For unknown reasons the cold especially appealed to the Hunter Division; in our previous match, held under much nicer weather, Vince was on his own, but for this match hunter and open were equally well represented. Piston shooters were also out in force, with Rex, Hector and Eric competing. Eric seems to be a bit uncertain where his heart lies, because he shot the course twice, the second time using a PCP, but with a lower score! Finally, Joe McDaniel a former DIFTA match director, returned to his alma mater. There was a lot of catching up with old and new friends, followed by BBQ with spicy Merguez sausages at the match end. Paolo designed the course, but was in Italy for the match, and Jan acted as match director. After the match Vince and Jan kindly helped Mark on a treasure hunt in the FT lanes while he tested the ‘find my iphone’ feature of icloud – the phone was eventually found in one of the storage containers!
We shot a 60 target match, with two off hand lanes and two fast lanes, with three targets shot once, with the remaining 8 lanes our standard three targets per lane shot twice. Multiple shooters ran out of time on the fast lanes, perhaps because due to the cold they suffered brain freeze or other difficulties such as numb fingers, not to mention shivering in the off hand lanes making it hard to aim. During the sight in, several shooters noted changes in POI perhaps due to temperamental equipment, so both equipment and shooters were impacted by conditions, and nobody came close to clearing the course.
Dean skipped the off hand lanes, but even without his SIII which is back at Sightron for an upgrade he managed to take the match high score with his tripod mounted TM1000 in the Unlimited Division. Rex and Mark were squadded together and took the high scores in Open piston and Open PCP, closely followed by Hector; of note, Rex dropped three points when his windage setting suddenly changed, but rapidly recovered. Sean McDaniel took the high score in Hunter, shooting an FX Streamline that attracted a lot of attention. Indeed, the spread of rifles used in the match was impressive, with two BSA R-10s, and an AA Pro Sport making an appearance, alongside the usual RAW, Daystate, Marauder and Steyrs we usually see at DIFTA.
Our next match is on Sunday December 10 – hopefully it will be warmer.
We shot a 60 target match, with two off hand lanes and two fast lanes, with three targets shot once, with the remaining 8 lanes our standard three targets per lane shot twice. Multiple shooters ran out of time on the fast lanes, perhaps because due to the cold they suffered brain freeze or other difficulties such as numb fingers, not to mention shivering in the off hand lanes making it hard to aim. During the sight in, several shooters noted changes in POI perhaps due to temperamental equipment, so both equipment and shooters were impacted by conditions, and nobody came close to clearing the course.
Dean skipped the off hand lanes, but even without his SIII which is back at Sightron for an upgrade he managed to take the match high score with his tripod mounted TM1000 in the Unlimited Division. Rex and Mark were squadded together and took the high scores in Open piston and Open PCP, closely followed by Hector; of note, Rex dropped three points when his windage setting suddenly changed, but rapidly recovered. Sean McDaniel took the high score in Hunter, shooting an FX Streamline that attracted a lot of attention. Indeed, the spread of rifles used in the match was impressive, with two BSA R-10s, and an AA Pro Sport making an appearance, alongside the usual RAW, Daystate, Marauder and Steyrs we usually see at DIFTA.
Our next match is on Sunday December 10 – hopefully it will be warmer.