Field Target Club

Airgunners of Arizona Match Report
Tuesday, December 22, 2020 - Ben Avery Shooting range - Phoenix, AZ

Secretary Mark K. took the day off from being the Match Director today so I (Gene Crist) was the Acting Director in his place. The weather this morning was extremely nice. When we began the match the temperature was in the mid 50’s but gradually warmed up to the mid to upper 60’s. It was clear and the sun warmed up enough that we all ended up in t-shirts. Winds were extremely calm at the beginning but then picked up to about 5 mph out of the SSE and shifting from the south.

We had five shooters in attendance today for a 40-shot course consisting of two classes, Hunter PCP and Open Spring Piston. The course consisted of the usual setup of five lanes behind the berms of the rifle silhouette range. We shot through once and then moved the firing positions back anywhere from about 15’-25’ and then shot through again. Lane one was our only forced position (standing) and the remaining lanes were open. All targets were within the ranges specified by AAFTA based on the sizes of their kill zones.

Secretary Mark was the only Spring Piston Open shooter, and he shot a 28/40. Mark recently mounted a new scope on his rifle and was still in the process of determining his zero. Mark was also the only competitor shooting a 12 fpe rifle so between those two factors he shot an excellent score. Another factor that some may not consider but I would, is the fact that Mark was shooting Open division. I shot Open division once at Rio Salado’s Phoenix Airgun Club match back in October and I found it much more difficult than shooting Hunter division. As a result I take my hat off to all Open division and WFTF competitors since a lot of marksmanship skill is required to shoot those divisions.

Of the Hunter PCP competitors we had Barry D, Wayne M, Mike S, and me. We all shot excellent scores in my opinion and were only within two points between the high score and low score. Barry shot a 35/40 and came in 4th place. Wayne shot a 36/40 for third place. As a side note this was only Wayne’s 6th time shooting a match since he began shooting last month, so hats off to Wayne for progressing so rapidly. He is an incredible shot with his Brocock for the short time he’s been shooting with us. Mike and I were tied with a 37 each, but Mike came in 2d place since he missed his 4th shot and my first miss didn’t occur until my 26th shot. Mike appeared to be feeling poorly after the match so I asked him if he was ok and he assured me that it was just his allergies acting up.

All in all it was an extremely fun morning and another opportunity to practice and improve our skills. One thing we’ve noticed over the past couple of weeks was the average scores among the usual Tuesday participants have been increasing steadily which supports the theory that we all know which is the more “match” practice you get, the faster your scores will improve. I say “match” practice because when you’re shooting with other competitors it adds an element of pressure which you cannot duplicate when you’re practicing solo at home. As a result I encourage everyone to participate in as many matches as you reasonably can since it will only help your scores. On top of that it’s a great deal of fun shooting with the good people of the club. I’ve belonged to many shooting clubs over the years but few come close to Airgunner’s of Arizona when it comes to people willing to share information and camaraderie. Until next week, I hope everyone has a very merry Christmas.

Thanks, Gene