Airgunners of Arizona May 16, 2026 monthly match report
Ben Avery Shooting Facility, Phoenix, AZ – Pistol Silhouette Range
Mark Kauffman, match director
It is springtime. For us, it feels as if it is summer. Everyone is off doing outdoors
stuff, visiting family, traveling, vacationing, and enjoying the outdoors……including
the 9 guys who showed up today to shoot our monthly match; the last monthly
match before relocating up to Mormon Lake for the summer. We could not have
asked for a better day to shoot.
The sky was cloudless, sunny, and bright. The temps ranged from a low of 82° to
a high of 91° and the humidity was in the low teens. It was darn near perfect.
The only challenge was the wind. For those unfamiliar with BASF, the wind here is
fickle; it can do darn near anything. Today was no exception. The NWS forecast
was for 5 to 15 mph out of the northeast with possible gusts to 20. That was
possibly close to what we experienced, too. We had winds from 6 to 15 mph, and
frequent gust ranging from 17 to 21 mph, recorded……but they came from
everywhere. Initially, out of the east. That quickly changed to SSE followed by a
period of SSW, then shifting to the south. If it was consistent, it could have been
accounted for, but this shifted all over the place.
We set out a 12-lane course, with 2 targets per lane, and even had a dedicated
off-hand lane. With the wind, the best any of the shooters did was 50%. The 48-
shot course had a good mix of near and far targets in the low 30 Troyer category.
We also had a good mix of shooters as well. There were only 9 of us, but that
encompassed 2 piston shooters, 1 WFTF shooter, 4 Hunter PCP shooters and 2
freestyle shooters, both of whom were using range-finding scopes. They were
getting ready for some kind of hunt; I thought I heard the word “bats” mentioned,
but cannot be sure. Both stated afterwards the scopes were not well suited for
this kind of shoot. They could have both easily used a scope side wheel for the
same results.
Anyway, here are the scores and equipment stats….
After the match, the pit crew made short work of collecting everything, getting
back together, and scores were announced. Note also that there were no
pictures today. I brought my camera, but with the quick pace of shooting, I did
not get a chance to take any photos……sorry!
As noted previously, this will be the last match at BASF until November. From
June thru October the matches will be held the 3 rd Saturday of each month up in
the cool pines above Mormon Lake, which is located about 20 miles southeast of
Flagstaff. This is a good way to escape the heat from the valley and give all the
shooters a different point of view.
Our weekly TRAC matches (Tuesday Retired Airgun Challenge) will continue
unabated. These shoots tend to get a larger patronage than the monthly shoots,
for some reason, but are just as much fun. Today’s merriment was no exception;
just the usual banter and ribbing.
Respectfully submitted,
Mark Kauffman
Secretary, Airgunners of Arizona
Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference!