Field Target Club

Airgunners of Arizona Feb 17, 2024 match report

Small bore range / BASF / Phoenix, AZ

Larry Piercy, match director


We were assigned to the small-bore range at BASF today.  The “End of Trail” cowboy action shoot is going to be taking up the entire west side of the range complex, preventing us from using our usual pistol silhouette range venue.  The small-bore range is on the east side of the range complex, is considerably larger and more open, and has vastly different wind patterns, which we experienced today.

The winds were only between 3 and 6 mph, fortunately, but kept shifting, coming at us initially from the north, then shifting to the south and SSW, before shifting yet again from the north.  With the openness, it was hard to discern much of a felt difference until you looked at the target strings and the barrel mounted wind indicators.  Very subtle, but enough to move pellets about on their down-range journey.

Today, the sky displayed isolated patches of high, wispy clouds, blocking the sun and causing some shadow and dullness early on, but then as the clouds burned off, the sun presented a VERY bright appearance, with a lot of glare.  Temps rose from 59° up to 66° with humidity averaging in the low 40% range.  Quite a nice day for shooting for mid-February while the rest of the country is socked in with winter weather.

We had 17 shooters today competing in 6 classes.  Henry was the only junior, shooting very well in freestyle class, with a 36/48 while using grandpa’s gun.  It should also be noted that in Hunter PCP, Van shot almost the entire course standing.  Good job!

Here are the scores and equipment stats;

Our next monthly match will be Saturday, March 16.  We are trying something different.  We are going to host the Arizona State spring piston championships as a one-day match this year to see if it can gain some traction.  Next year, we would have it as a two-day match, possibly in April.  The PCP state shoot will be in September at Mormon Lake.

This will give more folks an opportunity to shoot twice, but with different powerplants and be able to enjoy spring conditions in the desert and fall conditions in the mountains.  Nothing like this has been attempted before, so we decided to give it a try.  So far, there appears to be a LOT of interest.  For more information, please refer to the AAFTA website, or the Airgun Warriors and Airgun Nation forums, or email Larry Piercy, club president and match director at lpiercy@cox.net for more information.

Respectfully submitted,

Mark Kauffman

Secretary, Airgunners of Arizona, Inc.