Ben and Phoenix Rod and Gun club hosted an Ultimate Field Target match this morning, and it was the first of the new format. This new format is exciting to me, for various reasons. One of which is that it makes it possible to come play and have fun and compete with a much broader range of airguns. And THAT has the possibility of allowing many more people to come enjoy the addicting nature of field target.
The biggest change in course format was that Ben added a third target to each lane, resulting in a near, middle, and far target.
Anybody that is under 50fpe can shoot at the nearest lane, as well as middle and far. If you're past 50fpe, only the middle and far targets can be shot. And if you're only 20fpe, you can opt to shoot at the near and middle, and not the far target. Or if you REALLY want a challenge, a 20fpe gun could be used to shoot the Full Monty.
So here's the course layout, including Troyer factors...
To aid in helping shooters interact at the correct targets for their chosen classes, Ben had the score cards, lane markers, and even the kill zones of near and middle lanes color coded. (Color coding the far lane is the next step, he simply ran out of time.)
So here's a sample of the score cards....
And the lane markers.....
And an example of the color coding on the face plate.....
A total of 9 shooters made it to the match to compete. Many of the "regulars" had prior commitments and simply couldn't make it today.
Of those 9...
- 2 chose to shoot with slugs in the "Full Monty," two shots at each of all three targets, for a 72 shot match.
- 3 of the shooters chose to use pellets for the Full Monty.
- 1 Long range slugger (middle and far lanes for a48 shot match).
- 1 Long Range pellet flinger (48 shot match)
- 2 short range pellet shooters (near and middle lanes for a 48 shot match).
From the scores, it sure looks like the course lived up to the "Ultimate" moniker. Many of us are accustomed to seeing the winner of AAFTA type matches here in AZ have zero, 1 or MAYBE 2 misses. So I feel that we're sort of conditioned to think that anything less than a 95% hit rate isn't doing great. Well, I think we're going to have to change our thinking for Ultimate Field Target! Cuz if this month is any indicator, high overall score might be an 80-85% knockdown rate for a UFT match. One cool thing to point out there, is that in an AAFTA type match, it's easy to get down on oneself after missing a shot or two, knowing that you just might be out of the running for high score. BUT, with UFT, it ain't over til the fat lady sings. It's looking like we won't know we won the match til all the scorecards are turned in. SO, on top of changing our thinking about what constitutes a "good score" we may also have to realize not to let a couple misses get into our heads during the match, cuz we might very well still be in the hunt for the top score, even with multiple misses.
I'm pretty excited to get down to Phoenix Rod and Gun club and shoot one of these matches! I've been pondering what gun/projectile to use and still can't settle on one. And that's cuz the new format opens up the possibilities so much that many more of my guns are potentially competitive than have been in the past for long range/ high power field target matches. I also love that it's putting an emphasis back on true airgun-level fpes. I enjoy airguns specifically because of the power levels they put out, for lots of reasons. And I feel a 50FPE cap for the Full Monty will agree with many other airgunners thoughts. UFT is less about, "well I gotta buy a new gun cuz everybody else is shooting the new .30s with BCs better than my .22s." and more about, "you got an airgun?!?!? come shoot that thing at the next UFT match!"
Congrats to the winners!
Thanks to Ben for putting in the work. (He texted me when he left the match site on Thursday night and it was 10:50pm. He puts in a lot of hours towards our enjoyment of airguns. THANK YOU BEN!
For anybody that shot today, please chime in and tell us what you thought. And even if you didn't shoot today, please let us know how you feel about the new format and the possibilities that this opens up.
Also, if you were at the match today, feel free to add any photos you took. I was only sent a few and for whatever reason the Android/Apple mismatch makes them come through really blurry.
