This was our regularly scheduled FT Match- last week's was a filler from a
match that was cancelled.
We had the usually poor weather; but no real wind- a slight breeze; but hardly
noticeable- the constant rain was noticeable. The weather forecast was
for the light rain overnight, clear in a.m. then a front coming in later; but it
rained more then predicted- especially in the Olympia, WA, area.
John Mickel, Howard Lee and Rick Knowles showed up early to set up- we stayed
under the shelter- well except for Howard. He is ex-Navy stationed around Alaska
so used to extreme weather. We weren't really expecting anyone to show up; but
to our surprise we had 10 shooters and a few coaches. Most had rain gear and or
umbrellas- it was a light rain; but pretty consistent.
I was not expecting to shoot; but people showed up- a couple people, mostly
Adreee Tiffany, were shooting, so I decided to at least sight in. I got wet and
then the rain slowed down enough to sucker me and everyone else in.
John teamed us up in small, fast, groups. I was teamed up with local hot shot
Brent Saunders- we both shoot without a harness. There were a few old familiar
faces and some that have been around but don't shoot as often. Dominic Lee
brought some family, in town from California- shoot rifles; but not FT- all 3 of
them shared a RX2- so unlimited air power.
Like I said winds were light so Brents HW100 didn't have much advantage over
Ricks EV2- so a pretty even match. Rick missed a couple on the across the valley
shot (bad clicking), Brent didn't, then Brent missed something and Rick didn't.
It was pretty even till Brents PCP started shooting low- somehow he was running
low on air. The EV2 gets enough shots for a couple/3 matches- so maybe an
advantage to having a low power PCP???
Last week John Mickel tried making a sheet with the published distances- this
weekend we also had the Troyer numbers listed. Sort of levels the scope wars.
Some looked at the distances, some didn't. I trust my scope and click values and
my numbers didn't match the published distances; but didn't worry and still
knocked down the target.
The PCP/Open class was won by Rick Knowles, 35/40 points, with an EV2 @ 12 FPE,
no harness and a Nikko scope- so shooting International Class too- the only one.
Second place was Brent Saunders, HW100/Nikko, shooting a 33.
The Spring Piston Class was won by Howard Lee, shooting his ProSport/Leapers for
a 28- he said he was a little under the weather- or maybe it was from over
training- several people noted seeing Howard at the Tacoma Air Rifle Range.
Second place was Terry Cook, shooting his FWB 300/Hawke for a 26- pretty good
shooting and even hitting the 54 yard target with a 10 Meter Match Rifle. Terry
and his 300 were doing pretty good last winter during the indoor BR Matches- a
pretty resourceful rifle- at leat till he gets his regular regular FT rifle
repaired.
Jim Poh was on their heals with a 21 with his TX200/Bush combo.
A new Air gun shooter Tom Krugman showed up with a TX200/Hawke and somehow ended
up in the Springer class- it took him a few lanes to get going; but got things
figured out for next match.
The Hunter Class was for the most part a Dominic Lee family group, with Dominic
taking the high score with a RX2/Bush- they all used the same rifle. The Lee
family group didn't get to shoot one lane- so we pro-rated(?) their scores to
about what they would have expected to get for the last lane.
So Dominic scored a 49, Vincent Yan, 47, and Victor Yan scored a 40.
The other Hunter class shooter was Andree Tiffany, 39, with a RWS 34/Leapers
combo. Andree was the go getter of the Match- the rest of us was huddled under
cover while he was out sighting in the rain- so I guess we all owe the match to
Andree for making us feel guilty- thanks for guilting us into another fun match.
We are getting pretty good about bringing all the rain gear to the rifle
matches- mixtures of jackets, pants, ponchos and umbrellas- even a couple rifle
rain jackets and scope covers. And of course the buddy to hold the umbrella over
you while your shooting!
It's rained at 3 of 3 of the Capital City Matches- so we should be due a dry
match; but they were all fun- thanks John another fun day on the FT Range. Sure
beats waiting for the Match reports online!