GOB April 11 Results

Yesterday the Good Ole Boy's Field Target Club held it's April match at Roz Sumpter's place in Pulaski, Tennessee. Roz invited us all to take part in a 60 shot match. The weather was forecast to be in the low 60's and sunny. Unfortunately, the clouds hung around all day and our temperature didn't seem to get above about 50 degrees during the match. We had a great turn out for the match with several new shooters. We ended up with a total of 16 shooters and several other family members observing the match. Everyone seemed to have a fantastic day and we certainly hope that the new guys will come back to our next match.

Our sight in range was open by 8:00 AM and everyone was there to sight in by 9:00 AM. After a good amount of sight in, Roz held a shooters meeting. Everyone was assigned a shooting partner or two and we were all off to the course by 10:15 AM.

The course of the day was very diversely set up with a good number of close, medium and long range targets. The course was set up with 10 lanes, 3 targets per lane, 2 shots per target. I can't say enough about how nice that Roz keeps the course maintained, much less the nice placement of the targets that he always has ready for us when we show up to shoot. (Thanks again for everything that you do to keep up the course Roz!)

My son, Matthew, was home on leave from the Army and he brought his girlfriend, Whitney. Whitney had never shot anything other than her daddy's shotgun. As it turned out, she took to airguns very quickly. Matthew gave her a quick beginners course before the match and she decided to shoot a few targets during the match. Although she elected not to shoot the whole match, she did very well knocking down 19 targets on only 6 lanes. She was trying it out for fun and didn't even shoot on four of the lanes... It's probably better that she didn't shoot at all of the targets because Matthew was looking pretty concerned that he was going to get beat up on by his beginner. Matthew really enjoys teaching shooting skills and I think Whitney really lifted his enthusiasm with her success.

It seemed that this was a match that Shane had determined to be a personal battle with his TX200. Shane had some problems with his rig last week loosing power and it had finally settled in at about 10.5 fpe. As it turned out, I think Shane may have won and got the performance out of his rig that he was looking for. I checked in with him during the match and he was smiling pretty big. His score card reflected a much better score than last time and he was really knocking over the metal critters as the match moved along.

I started on lane #1 with Matthew and Whitney. I was shooting my USFT #19 in preparation for the Cajun Match that is coming up next weekend in Baton Rouge. For some reason, lane #1 always has some weird winds that can cause problems with the longer of the three targets, but it also has an uphill angle that puts the shooter in an un-natural shooting position as well. I think the position is what gives me the most problems with the lane. Last match I missed one shot and it was on Lane 1. Unfortunately, at this match I also missed another shot on lane #1 again! The remainder of the steep uphill shots didn't give me any problems and I didn't miss another until the long shot on our kneeling lane. It was about 44 yards and I managed to sway a little just when I was releasing the shot. It split on the left side of kz. Oh well, at least I got the first shot...

One of our new shooters was Neil O. He was shooting a Crosman Discovery with a custom made stock. It was great to see Neil shooting his first match and doing well with his equipment. When the match was over, Neil had managed to knock over 30 field targets! That is a very respectable score for a new shooter and we certainly hope that he will come back to shoot with us again soon.

John B. also brought his friend Tom O. for his first FT match. Tom used John's Gamo Shadow and also seemed to enjoy his first match. We also had Tom Haworth attend that was new to the GOB's club. Tom Haworth brought out his Theoben SLR98. Tom's rifle is a beautiful springer and I hope he will also be back before long. Once again, it was great to see all of the new faces at the GOB club and we always welcome more to attend our matches.

When it was all done, Cliff Smith was our Piston winner. Cliff shot a 43/60 with his TX200. Shane Iceberg was our International winner shooting his TX200 at 10.5 fpe and ended the day with a 34/60. Way to go Shane! I knew you'd get it worked out... The Hunter Division winner of the day was Charles Garvey with a 47/60. I was the PCP winner of the day with a 58/60.

When the match was over, Steve Vines fired up the grill and made us all a great burger and Italian sausage. We had a great time socializing and checking out some new toys. David Slade brought out a couple of new Whiscombes that were ordered long ago. One was my JW-75 MKII. It was good to get it after the long wait. Doug Vinson was also there to pick up his JW-70. These were two of the last that John Whiscome will be making. No doubt it has been worth the wait as both rifles are truly beautiful!

Once again, thanks to Roz for inviting us all over to shoot at his place. Our next regularly scheduled match in Pulaski will be held the second Saturday of May. We also have the Good Ole Boy's Championship match coming up in June. Now's the time to make plans to attend. It will be a great two day event with matches held on both the White and Red Courses at Roz's Hollow. You can find the registration form at: www.aafta.org


See you all next time!

Harold Rushton

Match Results
PCP
Name Score Rifle
Harold Rushton 58/60 USFT #19
Roz Sumpter 55/60 Theoben MFR
David Brown 50/60 Walther Domminator
Doug Vinson 35/60 (Borrowed Pat's USFT)
Pat O'Brein 34/60 USFT
Neil O. 30/60 Discovery

PISTON
Cliff Smith 43/60 TX200
Steve Vines 30/60 TX200
Anden Houben 28/60 TX200SR
Tom Haworth 16/60 Theoben SLR
John Blount 13/60 RWS 48
Tom Orr 4/60 Gamo Shadow

INTERNATIONAL
Shane Iceberg 34/60 TX200
Matthew Rushton 29/60 Air Arms EV2
Whitney Slayter 19/60 (DNF) Air Arms EV2