Results Southwest Airgunners Silhouette and FT Match Report 03/09/24, Duncan, AZ

[Franklink]

(two part match report, general and silhouettes in part 1, field target in part 2)

"A picture is worth a thousand words." Since I didn't personally attend this one, and they sent me a big pile of photos....I'm (mostly) going with that for this match report.

Arizona is a land of extremes. Tom owns a beautiful little slice of the Gila River bottom in Duncan Arizona. The north end of his property is bone dry desert scrub, the south end, the river bottom, and off further to the north, the high country where most of Arizona's precipitation falls. Dan L took this awesome photo showing some of those extremes. Far off to the north the rain can be seen falling in the mountains, much nearer is that bone dry desert, and behind Dan in the photo, is the Gila River bottom where we have these matches.

With it only being March, winter still has it's hold on even the river bottom, but some of the hardier plants are starting to poke out.

The earliest arrivals on Thursday and Friday got the course all set.....

Typical for these matches, Friday evening was the silhouette match. Simple rules, 40 points possible. Ram, turkey, pig, chicken, chicken at four distances, usually 40, 50, 60, 70 yards. 1 shot per animal, miss = 0 points, knock it off the stand = 1 point. Shoot through twice. Use your field target position, and field target gun. They told me they ran out of daylight and had to turn some headlights on for the last round of shooters. (three can shoot in each "heat" and targets are color coded for each shooter of that heat-yellow, blue, and orange).

Silhouette scores....
Rex J 39
Marcy H 35
Steve Q 30
Franz D 28
Larry F 25
Andrew S 23
Tom H 17
Weston S 14
Dan L DNF
Chance H DNF

 

[Franklink]

Field Target on Sat AM.

Property owner Tom treated everybody to breakfast. Looks like pancakes and sausage. What a guy! Lets us shoot on his property, AND cooks breakfast!!! Thanks Tom.

60 point match. 10 lanes, 3 targets per lane, 2 shots per target.

Feel free to verify, but I'm calculating an overall Troyer of 36.92 prior to any wind factored in, and the wind multiplier of 1.25 would make it a 46.15T!!! The hardest target of the course was the 3/4" @ 39 yard target on the middle lane of 8, a Troyer of 52. Officially in AAFTA, a T higher than 50 is illegal and a course Troyer over 36 is illegal. This was a 36+ without accounting for the wind. All in all, sounds like a very difficult course, which is just how the Southwest Airgunners like em. Although no offhand or kneeling shots, everything from "free" position (shooting sticks and a stool).

I was told weather for the match was mid 30s at night, and mid 60s during the day. "Wind was so tricky. Blew from every direction possible and switching multiple times while shooting six shots." (hence the 1.25 multiplier for "windy")

12 shooters in the ft match, all 12 choosing to shoot in the Hunter PCP class.

Here are some of the squads and shooters.

And finally, the results....

I included a column for that 52 T target on lane 8.

I'm not sure how the ties were broken.

Some standouts and observations.....

• I was told this is Marcy's first ever FT match, and she did amazingly well. Looks like she shared a gun with Dan, and beat him with it! Dan's a heck of a shooter and I suspect was more interested in helping Marcy than taking top place this month. Way to got Marcy!!!
  • sidenote....Marcy's tie for high score was with a .20/13.73.....windy match and the .20 did well.....yep.
• The BSA R10 made it's debut for the Skinner family. They're just getting into field target and did quite respectably with a brand new gun.
• There are some duplicates due to instances where the gun was shared....but overall the Southwest Airgunner's gang sure likes them RAW TM1000s. lol.

Thanks to Rex and Dan and Larry for sharing the photos they took above. And thanks to Rex for organizing this into a viable club and doing all the behind the scenes work to make it happen. Thanks to the early campers for helping Rex get the course laid out. And I can't express appreciation enough to Tom for sharing his property with us for these matches.

I'll be present at the April match!!! Same venue, same format, the weekend of April 26/27. Come join in the fun.

 

[XSUltimate]

If you don't mind I would like to share a little of my journey with some pictures I took on my way home from the Duncan shoot. I'm usually just blasting when I leave home to get over there as fast as possible but I thought I would take my time returning home and expand on Coles always great reports. Arizona is such a beautiful state most anywhere you travel. Especially in the spring when the desert is so colorful. I live about a 4 hour drive from my home in NW Phoenix to Duncan. I have spent a significant amount of time over near Duncan as I have some close friends that I regularly hunt with in AZ, NM. CO, and Wyo. and they live about 7 miles from where Rex selected to hold these Duncan events. The wife of these friends is none other than Marcy that shot so well at the match. It is no surprise that she shot FT and Silhouettes so well as she is an excellent shot hunting with rifle and bow and arrow. In fact as much as I wanted to camp with my FT friends, I absolutely had to spend time with these friends. They are the folks that introduced me to Rex, so there are so many terrific people in that part on the state! Plus when I left after being treated like a king, Marcy sent me home with a couple dozen farm fresh eggs, some mountain lion backstraps from the lion she killed in Dec. and some homemade elk bacon that she made from elk hamburger. What a wonderful person both her and her husband are. He actually helped me carry one of my barbary sheep out of a real nasty canyon in NM a few years back. Actually quite a few years back as I am nearing the end of my hunting career. But I am digressing and will try not to ramble but no promises. I was going to add narrative for each picture but this post is already getting so long. SO, I hope you enjoy the journey as much as I had living it!
The pics include a bunch of scenery, some cotton fields, a cotton gin, desert flora and mtns. where I got lunch and a snap of the dinner. A picture from their porch that they get to wake up to every morning, A small copper mine and copper in transit. I gave up on trying sequence the pics from start to finish so I do apologize for not giving you the full trip. So much for no rambling but I DID say no promises, ENJOY these 1st sets.

 

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[Franklink]

Some awesome photos Dan!

Really interesting state to drive through. More than a couple hours and we pass through all kinds of varying biomes and elevations. From ski resorts to farmland to desert to pine forests and on and on and on.

 

[XSUltimate]

I shared a couple of my air rifles with Marcy and both are old timers( much like myself). A RAW TM1000 in 20 cal which we used for the FT course ( it took 3rd place at the Sonoran GP last weekend at Rio Salado) and an old Daystate CR-X .177 in a custom stock where she kicked some but in silhouettes! She was just spankin those little chickens at 70 yards!!!!! Tremendous shooting there Marcy and congrats!!
Thx
Dan

 

[XSUltimate]

Sorry for being so winded but I did decide to not post a bunch more! Thought I would save you from my rambling!
Thx
Dan

 

[XSUltimate]

I lied, what's a trip without stopping for lunch!!

 

[XSUltimate]

I needed a view to eat this wonderful lunch so I pulled off the highway and enjoyed the view sittin on my tailgate munchin down on some grundage. Hope you enjoyed as much as I did!
Thx
Dan

 

[SAZ]

Is that from the fried chicken place @Arzrover told you about???
Looks tasty !

Cole,
We missed you guys this month. Hope you and the young guns can make it in April !
Your write up's are the best! I enjoy reading them every time you pen one. Keep up the good work.
It was a little chilly () at night and some breeze (lol) to deal with but I think we all had a great time like usual.

 

[XSUltimate]

Yes it is Larry, Cudos to Arzrover for turning me onto them!
Thx
Dan

 

[Mark.in.AZ]

Rex, you set a rather tricky course.
Coles guesstimation of the difficulty factor was close, but using the AAFTA software, your course was 37.05 Troyer (difficulty factor) A 30T is considered a hard course.
You had 3 targets in the moderate range with the easiest at 24T
You had 8 targets in the expert range, the hardest at 52T
The rest of the course was well above 30T.
.....and that is not taking into consideration the light/dark targets, any elevated targets, or the wind factor!
Anyone shooting above 50% would have been phenomenal, and there were a few of those. And there is no factor to determine the difficulty involved with lower (chilly/cold) ambient air temperatures.
Last time I shot with you guys, I guess I was lucky to shoot barely above 50% with a springer!

Kudo's to everyone who shot the match and didn't end up talking to themselves afterwards.

 

[Franklink]

Thanks for checking my #s Mark. I need to look into this AAFTA software. I've always done it the hard way, by referencing the Troyer chart for each target. I then calculate the overall T the old school way by adding up the total and dividing by the # of targets. I spend enough time on a keyboard from my job that I can be pretty fast with the ten key area . The difference between 36.92 and 37.05 is likely due to how I rounded.

And yes, I agree, we can always count on a Rex course to be a tough one. He is one himself, and also has some talented shooters attend and so he seems to like to make it a challenge. A Rex course is a dang hard one for most PCP shooters, and that makes it even harder for a springer shooter, even a very good springer shooter such as yourself.

 

[Garrettkq]

These guys put on a great match. I wish I could have made it. I keep bugging them to do a GP. Perhaps one day! I bet that will draw a crowd.