Field Target Club

TRAC match – April 27, 2021

I’ve heard it said in the past, that if you don’t like the weather, wait 15 minutes.  It’ll change.  Well, that wasn’t far from the truth today.  I got rained on while driving to the range and found standing puddles in the parking lot upon arriving.  The sky was covered with dark clouds, the air temp was 57 degrees, and the decision was made to shoot from under the canopy.  Smart choice.

The temps would warm to 66 degrees by the end of the match and the skies gradually brightened up, and the cloud cover was gradually blown out to the north and east of the range, and left us with clear blue skies.

The wind was consistent out of the SSW at 8 mph and stayed that way until almost the end of the match where it began gusting from 16 to 18 mph.  The fact that the direction and intensity was consistent gave us something to work with, concerning hold off.

We set up 6 lanes / 2 targets per / shoot thru once / move targets / shoot again / 48-shot match.  We also used the full range of distances, so it was still a challenging match.  The smallest KZ target was ½” and not those silly little 3/8” KZ torture devices.  It is hard enough to hold on target with the wind, let alone try to thread the needle into one of those tiny things.

Seven shooters were present today!!!  We were still socially distanced, but close enough that lively discussions ensued.  With the cloud cover and not-so-bright conditions, it was easier on the eyes as well, and some good scores were posted.

Old man Mike has some witch / voodoo crap working for him because he used his Thomas to shoot a 48/48.  He carries a small bag with cut-off chicken’s feet, animal bones, goofy looking rocks and the like, but won’t let us take a good look at it.  We think there is elk droppings in there as well.

Gene shot 46/48 using his Redwolf.

Barry shot 45/48 using his Redwolf.

Larry shot 44/48 using his Daystate CR-X .20 cal

Mark and Wayne were tied with 41/48.  Mark used his TX200 springer and Wayne used his Brocock Sniper.

Joe shot 28/48 with his HW97K springer and tripled his score from his last shoot!  Good shooting!

During the match, we noticed a bunch of birds feeding on all the insects out in the center of the course, totally oblivious to pellets flying overhead and targets clanking down in the vicinity.  Guess the rain drove the bugs out from below ground. We also had a very impressive dust devil kick up on the right-hand side of the range near the 100-yard berm.  The wind was doing strange things down there.  Interesting diversions that were equally interesting to watch develop.

This was the last TRAC match for April.  Because the range has been reserved by others for the first and third Tuesday of May, we can only get it for the second and fourth Tuesdays.  That’s OK; it will give us a little break.

Afterwards, all seven of us reconvened at Wild Horse West.  The burgers were calling our name!

Respectfully submitted,

Mark Kauffman

Secretary, Airgunners of Arizona, Inc.