Idaho Airgun Field Target Club
November 15, 2008 Match Report
By Ron Gill
This November shoot kicked off our first winter airgun shooting season. We held two events indoors as well as an outdoor field target match for pistols. After a week of rain and snow, the weather was nice enough to shoot FT outdoors even through the temperature was low enough to put a crimp in our CO2 performance. We can’t expect balmy high altitude temps in the 40s to come to our rescue of our CO2 powered guns over the next four months, but the Idaho Airgun Field Target Club started its first indoor season with this match.
INDOORS
We shot ten meter international pistol on regulation (B-40) targets. This sport is a departure for most of our shooters, since it requires open sights and a one handed hold. Everyone was up to try it. After the match, Ash Covey said that he liked the match, “It is very Olympic and very traditional”.
George Gardner shot a Smith and Wesson model 78. In the 1970s, before the current wave of lookalike CO2 pistols, this gun was made in the United States, and resembles the S&W model 41 automatic.
Our ten meter scores were.
Ron Gill, 122/150, TAU-7, Misterklugen pistol
Ray
Carter, 101/150, Daisy 777,
Ash
Covey, 80/150, Crosman 1377 Crosman wad cutters
Ron
Roberts, 78/150, Daisy 1377, Crosman wad cutters
George
Gardner, 77/150, Smith and Wesson 78,
Scoring targets behind the firing line
We also shot bell target. This sport goes back over a century in England, and is still shot in pubs in England and Wales. We used traditional scoring rings for our target, but we allowed scopes as well as iron sights to be used. Some folks only have scopes on their rifles and many scopes will focus no closer than 10 yards. The only hitch is that our steel bell targets are not yet made, so we used paper targets. What a rush that is going to be when the bell rings with each bull’s-eye! In Bell Target competition there are 6 shots at a target with scoring rings valued at 1 thru 5.
Since bell target is traditionally shot with iron sights, I brought my Hanel 311 ten meter target rifle. Back in the early 1960s this rifle, made in East Germany, was the hot ticket on the other side of the Iron Curtain. This rifle has a leather compression washer that needs to be oiled to maintain its performance. The 311 has to smoke with each shot to shoot its best. It is always a favorite with other airgun shooters.
Ash shooting bell target
The bell target scores were:
Ash
Covey, 25/30, Daystate X2, JSBH
George
Gardner, Crosman Custom Shop, JSBL
Ron
Gill, 21/30, Hanel 311,
Ray
Carter, 16/30 Hanel 311
Ron
Roberts, Hanel 311, 16/30
OUTDOORS
Ray Carter, our pistol director, laid out a pistol FT match. We were going to do this indoors, but the weather turned out nice so we went back out to the sagebrush, where FT belongs, and shot a 27 shot match. The cold weather, high 30s, really played havoc with our CO2 powered guns, but it was good to be out in the sunshine.
Pistol
field target scores were:
Magnifying (Scopes)
Ron
Roberts, 1/27, Crosman 1377, Crosman wad cutters, 4X
Ray
Carter, 6/27 Crosman 1740, Beeman Laser
Ash
Covey, 3/27, Crosman 1377, Crosman wad cutters
Officers for next year are President/Treasurer Ron Gill, Rifle Match Director Ash Covey. Pistol Match Director Ray Carter.