I gotta start this match report with a couple of my favorite pics from today.
First off, the mustachio gang (these two silver soup-strainers some-how ended up squadded together, Kent on the left, and newcomer Chris from Colorado on the right, hope to see more of Chris as he fit right in with the rest of us airgun addicts)
The look on Van's face here somehow suggests at the same time that he's either up to no good, or just got fooled by the wind. Peykan also in this one, smiling like he's in on the joke.
And Gabe seems to be contemplating life choices here.
We were once again at the Phoenix Rod and Gun Club for our monthly Extreme FT match. The National Weather Service reported temps were in the low 60s with a mostly overcast sky. We dealt with winds in the 6-8mph range (also, per NWS), which doesn't sound bad unless you were there and saw how erratic it was, not in direction, but in intensity. Most of the wind was coming from the south (shooter's right in this case) sometimes quartering in, and sometimes quartering out, and sometimes completely dying and being dead still. It was quite the guessing game and we all got fooled plenty of times, holding off when unnecessary and not holding off when we really needed to.
We had 17 shooters participate today, 10 in the pellet class and 7 in the slug class. I believe there were 2 first-timers (Colorado Chris and Phil) and our typical couple of participants from the San Diego area. Robert Buchanan and Airguns of Arizona donated a crisp $100 bill as prize money. Shooters voted on whether or not overall high score should get the moolah or if it should go to high pellet score. The vote swung in favor of money to high pellet shooter and I'm sure that the majority of voters being pellet shooters had nothing to do with that. Thanks to Robert/AOA for the prize money. The potential to get my gas money and lunch paid for with winnings is always sweet to contemplate, although I've not yet been in that position.
The course difficulty was pretty similar to what we've seen in the past, with the overall Extreme Factor (EF) working out to just a hair under 40. It was a 40 shot match today. The highest EF was a 50.4 (1.25 inch kz at 56 yards) and that doesn't account for any wind difficulty. Factoring in the wind, most of the shooters (stats tell the same story) would tell you that anything past about 75 yards was a tough shot. There were 4 offhand shots and the rest were taken from the seated position, using shooting sticks/bipods. The timers were used, 3 minutes beginning as soon as shooter takes a seat.
Ben and Mike have been working on getting some new targets made and there were a bunch of cool new characters to shoot at. Some of those were: Barney, Pillsbury Dough Boy, Elmo, Nemo, and the Energizer bunny. These new targets have the ability to swap out killzone sizes and can be set very lightly. My understanding is that all the reducers are threaded and held on by two pretty decent sized bolts from behind. Ben says that in their testing they hooked a trigger gauge on some of the paddles from behind and were able to trip them with as little as 5ounces of force, with initial testing suggesting that they won't fall down with faceplate hits when set that light. The first thing that comes to mind from that is that these new targets have the potential to be used for both regular sub 20fpe field target, but are also robust enough to take 100fpe hits without getting busted up. Cool! The seemingly collective impression from these new targets was that they are much easier to reset, requiring much less effort. Although, that big energizer bunny still took a bit of oomph. Mike said it's all the steel in the ears adding the weight.
Here's what the puck/kill zone reducers look like. As well as some of the new design faceplates and some of the painting as it was being done.
Elmo is a little diabolical, with his skinny little midsection. It sure doesn't give much faceplate in the width area to try to see where a wind-pushed hit went.
Here's some close ups of the clown fish, pre and post match. Nemo was wearing the 3/4 inch kz today, and was set at 30 yards.
Here's the standings and equipment list
That dang Bobby guy, I do believe he's won the pellet class each and every time he has attended. I'm not sure if he's a better shooter or all around individual, but he's a damn good one on both accounts. The quote of the day has to go to Bobby here, his general adjective about Extreme FT and the course today? "Doable." From a guy who wins as much as he does, I suppose that's a fair assessment. But I'm not sure the majority of shooters would come to the same conclusion.
Carl and I were tied for second in pellet class so it went to longest streak. We were tied there also so it went to who did better on the offhand lane. I was 2/4 and he was 1/4 on the offhand lane and that became the tiebreaker. I really got lucky cuz Carl typically shoots much better than 25% on his offhand shots, regular field target as well as Extreme FT.
High score in pellet and slug classes were a 22. We still haven't really seen the massive improvement in long range accuracy that the higher BCs of the slugs suggest should be happening.
Stole this pic from Vans Insta but 1st, 2nd, 3rd in slug class
Lots of factors have to line up for winning scores in these competitions. The general difficulty of reading the wind was already noted, but I also heard comments of a certain trigger getting lighter throughout the match, a caliber mismatched hammer weight, forgetting to reset or click scope turrets, etc. Sure don't hear anybody saying these are easy courses. The fun is in the challenge. Some disagree, but it's refreshing to be part of a competition that is difficult enough that nobody is getting perfect or near-perfect scores.
I personally felt like a good portion of my misses were the "far" shots so I compiled this as well, simply out of curiosity.
Fun to note that Carl and I had the same score, but he hit 3 more far ones than I did, and I hit 3 more close ones than him. We are both shooting the .22 MRDs but he's spitting them out at 980fps while mine are leaving the muzzle at 850fps.
Much thanks to Ben for running the show and both Mike and Ben for getting us some really cool new targets. I also saw Dennis and Barry and Mike (and some others) helping keep the match running smoothly. I personally had a lot of fun and felt like I wasn't the only one who enjoyed it. Thank you to all those responsible.
Just a bunch of random pics.....
Barney and the fox
Carl getting lined up on Nemo and the Pillsbury Dough Boy
Downtown Phoenix off in the northern distance (something about those Saguaros and the palm trees is stereotypical Phx Metro area for me)
zoomed in pic of Nemo and dough boy
First timer Phil shooting here while Ben and Robert Buchanan spectate. didn't have a chance to talk to them to confirm but I believe this is a Phil and his dad.
Left to right there is a doughboy, shark, elmo and the fox in this pic. Feels like a where's waldo.
FX Crown
Mike and Gene
Post match meeting (left to right: Barry, Peykan, Robert, Sandy, Van, Gabe, Kent, Carl, Dennis, Chris, Mike, Mike, Steve, Bobby, Phil's dad, Phil, Gene, Ben)
RTI Prophet
Sandy and Bobby
Tools of the trade
Targets waaayyyy out there
Gabe and Dennis
My wife took this one out the front windshield after we topped out up on the rim driving home. Quite the contrast to that barren desert down south were the match happened.
First off, the mustachio gang (these two silver soup-strainers some-how ended up squadded together, Kent on the left, and newcomer Chris from Colorado on the right, hope to see more of Chris as he fit right in with the rest of us airgun addicts)
The look on Van's face here somehow suggests at the same time that he's either up to no good, or just got fooled by the wind. Peykan also in this one, smiling like he's in on the joke.
And Gabe seems to be contemplating life choices here.
We were once again at the Phoenix Rod and Gun Club for our monthly Extreme FT match. The National Weather Service reported temps were in the low 60s with a mostly overcast sky. We dealt with winds in the 6-8mph range (also, per NWS), which doesn't sound bad unless you were there and saw how erratic it was, not in direction, but in intensity. Most of the wind was coming from the south (shooter's right in this case) sometimes quartering in, and sometimes quartering out, and sometimes completely dying and being dead still. It was quite the guessing game and we all got fooled plenty of times, holding off when unnecessary and not holding off when we really needed to.
We had 17 shooters participate today, 10 in the pellet class and 7 in the slug class. I believe there were 2 first-timers (Colorado Chris and Phil) and our typical couple of participants from the San Diego area. Robert Buchanan and Airguns of Arizona donated a crisp $100 bill as prize money. Shooters voted on whether or not overall high score should get the moolah or if it should go to high pellet score. The vote swung in favor of money to high pellet shooter and I'm sure that the majority of voters being pellet shooters had nothing to do with that. Thanks to Robert/AOA for the prize money. The potential to get my gas money and lunch paid for with winnings is always sweet to contemplate, although I've not yet been in that position.
The course difficulty was pretty similar to what we've seen in the past, with the overall Extreme Factor (EF) working out to just a hair under 40. It was a 40 shot match today. The highest EF was a 50.4 (1.25 inch kz at 56 yards) and that doesn't account for any wind difficulty. Factoring in the wind, most of the shooters (stats tell the same story) would tell you that anything past about 75 yards was a tough shot. There were 4 offhand shots and the rest were taken from the seated position, using shooting sticks/bipods. The timers were used, 3 minutes beginning as soon as shooter takes a seat.
Ben and Mike have been working on getting some new targets made and there were a bunch of cool new characters to shoot at. Some of those were: Barney, Pillsbury Dough Boy, Elmo, Nemo, and the Energizer bunny. These new targets have the ability to swap out killzone sizes and can be set very lightly. My understanding is that all the reducers are threaded and held on by two pretty decent sized bolts from behind. Ben says that in their testing they hooked a trigger gauge on some of the paddles from behind and were able to trip them with as little as 5ounces of force, with initial testing suggesting that they won't fall down with faceplate hits when set that light. The first thing that comes to mind from that is that these new targets have the potential to be used for both regular sub 20fpe field target, but are also robust enough to take 100fpe hits without getting busted up. Cool! The seemingly collective impression from these new targets was that they are much easier to reset, requiring much less effort. Although, that big energizer bunny still took a bit of oomph. Mike said it's all the steel in the ears adding the weight.
Here's what the puck/kill zone reducers look like. As well as some of the new design faceplates and some of the painting as it was being done.
Elmo is a little diabolical, with his skinny little midsection. It sure doesn't give much faceplate in the width area to try to see where a wind-pushed hit went.
Here's some close ups of the clown fish, pre and post match. Nemo was wearing the 3/4 inch kz today, and was set at 30 yards.
Here's the standings and equipment list
That dang Bobby guy, I do believe he's won the pellet class each and every time he has attended. I'm not sure if he's a better shooter or all around individual, but he's a damn good one on both accounts. The quote of the day has to go to Bobby here, his general adjective about Extreme FT and the course today? "Doable." From a guy who wins as much as he does, I suppose that's a fair assessment. But I'm not sure the majority of shooters would come to the same conclusion.
Carl and I were tied for second in pellet class so it went to longest streak. We were tied there also so it went to who did better on the offhand lane. I was 2/4 and he was 1/4 on the offhand lane and that became the tiebreaker. I really got lucky cuz Carl typically shoots much better than 25% on his offhand shots, regular field target as well as Extreme FT.
High score in pellet and slug classes were a 22. We still haven't really seen the massive improvement in long range accuracy that the higher BCs of the slugs suggest should be happening.
Stole this pic from Vans Insta but 1st, 2nd, 3rd in slug class
Lots of factors have to line up for winning scores in these competitions. The general difficulty of reading the wind was already noted, but I also heard comments of a certain trigger getting lighter throughout the match, a caliber mismatched hammer weight, forgetting to reset or click scope turrets, etc. Sure don't hear anybody saying these are easy courses. The fun is in the challenge. Some disagree, but it's refreshing to be part of a competition that is difficult enough that nobody is getting perfect or near-perfect scores.
I personally felt like a good portion of my misses were the "far" shots so I compiled this as well, simply out of curiosity.
Fun to note that Carl and I had the same score, but he hit 3 more far ones than I did, and I hit 3 more close ones than him. We are both shooting the .22 MRDs but he's spitting them out at 980fps while mine are leaving the muzzle at 850fps.
Much thanks to Ben for running the show and both Mike and Ben for getting us some really cool new targets. I also saw Dennis and Barry and Mike (and some others) helping keep the match running smoothly. I personally had a lot of fun and felt like I wasn't the only one who enjoyed it. Thank you to all those responsible.
Just a bunch of random pics.....
Barney and the fox
Carl getting lined up on Nemo and the Pillsbury Dough Boy
Downtown Phoenix off in the northern distance (something about those Saguaros and the palm trees is stereotypical Phx Metro area for me)
zoomed in pic of Nemo and dough boy
First timer Phil shooting here while Ben and Robert Buchanan spectate. didn't have a chance to talk to them to confirm but I believe this is a Phil and his dad.
Left to right there is a doughboy, shark, elmo and the fox in this pic. Feels like a where's waldo.
FX Crown
Mike and Gene
Post match meeting (left to right: Barry, Peykan, Robert, Sandy, Van, Gabe, Kent, Carl, Dennis, Chris, Mike, Mike, Steve, Bobby, Phil's dad, Phil, Gene, Ben)
RTI Prophet
Sandy and Bobby
Tools of the trade
Targets waaayyyy out there
Gabe and Dennis
My wife took this one out the front windshield after we topped out up on the rim driving home. Quite the contrast to that barren desert down south were the match happened.
Well, not really but it would have been appropriate. Lots of high 5s all the way around after both his and Robert’s shots. 
Poor guy; probably never suspected a thing.
Although someone once said “sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do.” When we come out for your Textreme maybe we can shoot together 
. 
