Field Target Club

After lunch, the scores were tallied and awards were handed out.  A few items of club business were discussed, then some folks bid their goodbyes, while others hung out for a few hours longer.  It is so gratifying and relaxing to hang out with this group of friends every month, and we get to do this EVERY month, year round.

Next month’s match will be at Ben Avery range on Saturday, December 16.  Why not plan on joining us?  Until then, have a very safe and happy Thanksgiving.

Respectfully submitted,

Mark Kauffman
Secretary, Airgunners of Arizona

We had a few ties that were settled by counting the most numbers of hits in a row, as opposed to actually having a shoot off.  This happened in Open PCP class between Scott and Sandy for second place, and between Steve and Mike for first place in Freestyle class.  Great shooting was displayed by everyone and everyone had fun.

This month’s match was originally scheduled for Ben Avery shooting range, but with the notice from BASF that they were having a big 4-day sporting clays tournament, where we may have gotten showered with lead shot on parts of our course from one of the shooting stations, we jointly decided to cancel the match due to safety issues.  Meanwhile, galloping in to the rescue, Bobby and Sandy graciously offered their land where we could conduct our monthly match.


So, on Thursday, Wayne and I met with Bobby and set up 10 lanes of two targets per lane, with one of the targets being one of Bobby’s bell targets.  It rings pretty good when hit.  It was not an overly difficult course and we only had a few targets beyond 40 yards.  The rest were set at comfortable distances, with some having darn small kill zones.

We also had some new shooters join us this month as well.  Bill H is wintering in nearby Anthem, but is from Chicago.  Steve D drove up from Tucson to observe, and ended up joining the club.  Terry M brought along his son, Adam, to watch.  We welcome these guys and anyone else who would like to come shoot with us

After the match, everyone was drawn to the patio where Sandy had a big pot of chili, hot dogs, chips, salsa, guacamole, etc, etc, etc, and supplemented by a big tray of cornbread made up by our club vice president, Wayne S.  Wayne was doing a great job for the first couple of lanes at the beginning of the match until a seal went in his gun and dumped all of the air.  Not sure that much mattered knowing that all of these goodies awaited us.  A big thank you to Sandy and Wayne for providing lunch.

Views from either side of the sight in range

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There were a lot of good scores posted by quite a few of the shooters, but every once in while the sun shines down on one shooter, the planets all align, the pellets fly straight and true.  This happened today for Wayne R who shot a perfect score and thus joined the ranks of the few club members who have accomplished this feat over the past years.  Wayne has been busy this past year fighting wildland fires all over the western states from up above.  He is a pilot and as such we only get to see him for a few months out of the year, but when he does come to shoot, he is a force to be reckoned with.  Great shooting, Wayne!

We had 4 classes represented at this month’s match with freestyle attaining the biggest attendance with 8 shooters.  Open PCP had 7 shooters, Hunter PCP had 3 shooters, and Open piston had only one shooter; me.  With almost 25% of the field at nationals shooting piston guns, I was hopeful a few more of our members would get the urge, but alas no takers this month.  Soon, I hope.

Correction on the above score total.  The match was 40 shots, not 48 as noted.

Note the color of the sky and the leaves on the Cottonwood trees ready to fall.  Just a beautiful autumn day.

Saturday morning dawned and the wind in both Phoenix and in Flagstaff was howling.  From each direction, as shooters converged on Camp Verde, the winds died down to manageable levels.  The skies were clear blue and the temps were in the low 40’s that would warm up to the low 70’s.  It turned out to be a wonderfully nice fall day with 19 shooters gathering to enjoy each other’s company and relax in the shaded undergrowth of the firing line while lobbing pellets down range.

Airgunners of Arizona Monthly Match Report

Saturday, November 18, 2017 - Camp Verde, AZ

There were some great scores shot despite the tricky, squirrelly wind conditions.  It caught me a few times, but my squad mates, Ben and John, were talking to themselves on a few occasions as well.  What was deceiving was that it felt fairly calm on the shooting line, which is protected by thick vegetation.  Downrange there were open areas where the wind swirled through and played tricks on you.  Some of the leaves in the cottonwood trees had turned and had fallen, and with the wind, they were blown loose and drifted down.  Leaves were falling on one side of the course up high in the trees, but calm at the other end, whereas the lower elevation winds moved through without detection.  It was calm one moment and sudden little gusts the next.  Mother nature likes to play with airgunners heads.  There was also the aroma of the resident skunk in the air somewhere close by.  The smell lingered and we noticed it while setting up for the match, but it wasn’t enough to disturb us.  We still had a good time.

Wayne S continues to score for his squadmate after his gun blew a seal and dumped all of his air.

Wayne R shooting with Bobby C scoring.  Wayne shot a perfect score today!