NWFT June 6 Match Report

The weather finally got turned warm and dried out Buckley, WA, for the scheduled FT Match. We had some very warm and dry weather for the last couple weeks and parts of the course were still pretty muddy, so it must have been bad. Ron Price, Buckley MD had told us he had over a foot of water on most of the course- the rest had 2 feet. We were not too sure how the match would go with the temps a few days before in the mid 90s. But the day before the temps dropped more then 20 degrees and the course setup was pretty comfortable.

We didn't have to weed-wack too much; since it had been under water all spring. We were shooting some new/old targets; Ron bought them from former FT MD Craig Taylor from Woodland FT. They had been refurbished by long time MD Jim Benson so looking good as usual. It was good seeing some different targets -- they were all in pretty good shape -- maybe some tuning to help the low power rifles knock down the paddles, we'll look at that next match.

The course had a kneeling and a standing lane. We talked about a prone, had a lane with a big shooting area; but the KZ was pretty small and would need to change targets, so we left it stay. For Match day we had clouds, some light sprinkles a couple times in the morning and a little during the match -- just a dozen small drops spotted on the scope body. Temps were in the 60s so pretty comfortable with the extra shooting clothes. With the mixed weather and several people needing to do other stuff we only had 9 shooters.

We had a good mix of pre charged and spring powered rifles, spread out in several classes, well if you can count a single rifle as a class. The Hunter FT class was lead by JD Dodge until it was noticed that he had signed up for FT Hunter Class -- so was penalized one spot and finished second.

John was having a pretty good day of shooting his AA S400ERB with a new AA MPR FT stock, looks nice and shoots nice too. I think it was a special stock that he some how got a hold of -- nice grains. There was a lot of pre match talk over who would try to claim his rifle for the $400 as suggested in the FT Forum; but no claimers ;-).

The Spring Class was won by Dominic Lee, HW 97 with a score of 20. He was shooting good as the score notes, missed a couple easy shots and took some hard ones to compensate. Next place was John Mickle a few shots down, his Grand Daughter was at her sisters High School Graduation so missed the match. The next two places were: Jim Pooh and Andre Tiffany. I didn't get much of a chance to talk to them; but as usual they were smiling -- so had a good day.

This was Andres first time shooting Spring FT- knocking them down was just as fun as the Hunter class; but hitting the metal plate didn't sound as good. Andre was also using a FT Harness for the first time -- so getting adjusted to the new shooting equipment.

The PCP Class was led by the lone World(?) FT shooter, Rick Knowles, shoot his EV2 for a 28. Not sure how Rick got the extra points; but has been shooting the other 3 FT Positions and getting pretty comfortable with kneeling and standing. He hasn't shot as much prone -- something about getting his body up and down too much work???? Next place was Brent Saunders with his HW100, a couple points down; but shooting as steady as ever. Brent has the parts and is talking about tuning his rifle down to 12 fpe -- so another WFT shooter(?). Another point down was Michael Hull, EV2, didn't see him on the whole course; but he was hitting the .25 KZs- the ones the rest of us trying to no avail. Michael hadn't been shooting since the last match -- so having some problems with reading the wind. The next place was MD Ron Price and his Korick-tuned P70. Ron got his P70 back, a couple months ago, about the same time had had some vision problems. I guess he got some drops and new glasses and shooting again. We heard a rumor of Glaucoma and requiring special medication; but just drops and new glasses WE had to keep looking to see what Ron was shooting- it sounded like a small-bore rifle instead of an Air Rifle. He had taken the LDC off and it has a real firearm crack now. There was a rumor that another EV2 would be showing up; but had some family stuff to do -- or was it that the other EV2s had been shooting and ready for him????

It was a good day and to those that missed the match they also missed the BBQ -- Ron really puts on a good match and grub!