Newsletter Archive

2019 California State FT Championship and AAFTA Grand Prix

Morro Bay, California (September 13 - 15, 2019) -- What a week / weekend it was.

A few of us from the Sacramento Valley FT club who made the commitment to HOST this event made the 325 mile trek from the Sacramento area to Morro Bay on the Tuesday before the weekend match. This being the second Gran Prix to use the San Luis small bore facility, AAFTA rules dictate all new range lanes needed to be established, cut in, measured and put into compliance to AAFTA Gran Prix guidelines.

By Thursday we had 21 new lanes established for the 2 days of rifle along with 10 lanes for the pistol shoot to happen late afternoon on Saturday. Lanes and distances were measured making sure the required 40+ yard shots were correct entering all the data to a laptop and set up spread sheet. Figured what kill zones would go where, got our Troyer difficulty sorted and had the Saturday rifle course ready to go by Thursday afternoon, Pistol course too.

By late Friday morning most of registered participants were on site willing and wanting to get some practice done. Squads for Saturday were set up, notes made so we could get all the required things done that such a match demands.

Now lets review some of the goings on behind the scenes .... FOOD! Wholly molly what a treat the entire week was! Even before the weekend's meals, those there shared what they had brought to eat ... abalone, venison, smoked salmon and miscellaneous game meats along with many other items that really tasted great.

Libations were plentiful having each evening relaxed and reflected on the hard work all were doing in pulling this off. THANK GOODNESS we had some food prep help from a non-shooter who slaved all week in the kitchen/club house. That special lady was Dawn Schneider who is the wife of the match director. THANK YOU!

Friday night the SVFTC provided a light dinner for all. Once again what a mixed bag of exotic that foods that were generously added to the clubs provided fare making for some great eats!! Saturday night was no different though highlighted with smoked pheasant, speckle belly goose breasts, duck sausages, venison, spaghetti, garlic bread and salad. Wine & beer / soda / water, too.

Around every table or group of folks in their comfy lawn chairs, the anticipation and chatter about the coming two days shooting, course configuration, difficulty and all the stuff we FT shooters fret over ... along with looking forward at what was looking to be a challenging and attention-demanding course.

LETS SHOOT .....

Come Saturday morning we had practice open from 7:30 until 9:00 when we started the shooters meeting being vague yet telling of the course's perils and things to watch out for .. new course after all. We're at 29 shooters on 14 lanes of fire .... Full house with one 3-man squad. Within 3 lanes shot sadly we're down 2 shooters and continue with 27 who finish the mornings match. Troyer value low 29's.

We had a single target get its welded-on reinforcement ring break off, it was changed out by a SVFTC member and we were moving on once again without further lane issues. Match got started about 9:20 and by about 1:15 all the squads were coming in for lunch.

Around 3:00 p.m. we gathered up the PISTOL FT shooters, had a quick meeting and converged on the Pistol course which was set up on the fringe of the brush line. It consisted of varied angles and distances out in the full exposure of the afternoon's modest breeze / wind, making for a somewhat difficult to read course.

Sunday we get MORE SERIOUS with the course shot Saturday being changed up, many lanes eliminated with those remaining lanes cut in (used 14 of 21 on Saturday) getting put into play also changing some distances and sizes on reused lanes. The Troyer value also went up to just shy of 33 with the changes, 2 more offhand targets added having everyone needing to shoot a total of 8 offhand shots on Sunday alone ... Just Spreading the love!! Squads were done placing shooters together based on Saturday's scores, trying to stay in the same classes as best we could.

Shooters meeting told of the changes made and they were off and shooting shortly after 9:00. The match director spent the morning walking up and down the course making sure no issues were left unaddressed, watching shooters enjoying themselves and taking photographs. A very pleasant day with much cooler temperatures, everyone seemed more relaxed and found it easier to concentrate on the task at hand ... KNOCK DOWN those little steel targets !!

** Speaking of TARGETS ..... Well let's just say many in attendance had no idea what a CRAZY bunch the SVFTC crew is. The sometimes Lifelike to Zany Psychedelic paint jobs had some thinking drugs were involved, ya know sort of Alice in Wonderland kinda thing ? LOL! In some instances, the targets were so lifelike they blended into the surroundings giving fits to some who had trouble range finding on them, yet other times IN YOUR FACE bright and loud you can SEE ME!! Some did not like NOT being able to see where there shot were landing on the speckled or natural targets if missed while other others just chuckled over the creative change in what is typical for targets ... White or Black plain Jane.

AWARDS .....

Thanks to John Berquist and his creative mind and fabrication skills we got some VERY UNIQUE target trophies. Top place finishers were awarded functional California Golden Bear field targets made from Plexiglas on marble bases, lower positions a Plexiglas bear on a marble base ... Very Nice !

Afterwards a few hung around providing assistance in tearing it all back down, loaded all the gear, parts and pieces into the trailer and helped put it away for another event. There were a few who stayed over Sunday night and helped Monday a.m. cleaning and making sure the facility was in better shape than we had found it.

A special thanks to Scott Hull director of the SLSBA Airgun Club who coordinated the use of the facility and obtained the permission of the the other shooting clubs to use their ranges and the camping area for the match. Scott was also out in the field working with us every day during course set up and his club provided all the brick bases and lane markers needed for the match.

Finally a big THANK YOU to those SVFTC members who also helped make this a successful match. Those shooters who contributed their time and efforts to help, though not required, was very much appreciated!

Best regards,

Scott Schneider

Match Director

Oregon State FT Championships

The passing of our friend Mike Culbertson

Schneider earns crown as 2018 AAFTA Grand Prix Hunter PCP Rifle Champion

For a first-person recap of Nationals weekend, follow the link below to enjoy a story from Tyler Patner.

Tyler's Tale

Sac Valley shooters earn AAFTA GP points at California State FT Championship

Angeles Shooting Range, California (Sept. 29-30, 2018) -- A few familiar Sacramento Valley shooters did right well for themselves during the State Field Target Championship hosted by CASA down south in LA LA Land. These are semi-unofficial results, pending the match director's full report.

Jim Cyran won Hunter PCP with 88 hits out of 104 for the two-day Grand Prix.

Cameron "Team USA" Kerndt won WFTF Spring-PIston with 87! (Are we SURE there's really a spring in his rifle??)

And Riz Marquez brought home second place in WFTF PCP with 82.

Below are all the scores, as posted on the CASA forum:

OPEN PCP

Kelly Hawe 96/102 1st

Hector Alfaro 95/102 2nd

Terry Eannetta 64/102 3rd

Carlos Lglesias 53/102

Daniel Barroso 37/102

Perry Haberman 21/102

OPEN PISTON

Scott Hull 56/102 1st

Rick Rogers 48/102 2nd

HUNTER PCP

Jim Cyran 88/102 1st shootoff

John Knapp 88/102 2nd

Chris Lovitt 85/102 3rd

Russ Cronk 79/102

Al Padilla 78/102

JUNIOR

Mark Barroso 37/102 1st

WFTF PISTON

Cameron Kerndt 87/102

Jim Poh 27/102

FREESTYLE

Larry Durham 84/102 1st

Art Burciga 74/102 2nd

Jim Ziegler 70/102 3rd

WFTF PCP

George Doganis 84/102 1st

Riz Marquez 82/102 2nd

Randy Ebersole 80/102 3rd

Wayne Burns 69/102

HUNTER PISTOL

Randy Ebersole 37/40 1st

Wayne Burns 35/40 2nd

John Knapp 28/102 3rd

LIMITED PISTOL

Riz Marquez 37/40 1st

Scott Hull 37/40

Cameron Kerndt 33/40

Submitted by Ron Jobbes

Jim Cyran medals at 2018 Pyramyd Air Cup

New Philadelphia, Ohio (Sept. 21-23, 2018) -- Jim Cyran, our SVFTC co-match director, earned second place in the hotly-contested PCP Hunter division of the 2018 Pyramyd Air Cup. The PA Cup continues to grow in popularity with this fifth annual event attracting the best shooters from around the country.

How tight were the finishing scores? Well ... here's how the top five finished in PCP Hunter.

Thanks to a Donation / Contribution by our own Dave C who is now manufacturing the RHINO type targets.

* Rhino is no more, BTW. (Actually, Rhino were copied too.)

These are 100% steel construction with 3/16" face plates, bolts/lock-nuts having no clips or pins holding them together ... they are MONDO ROBUST!

These came in the RAW without paint so the backs got painted first in HIGH REFLECTION Chrome Silver ( you can see the Orange paddle reflection on back side view). This helps bounce light onto the paddle when viewed from the front.

Rattle can paint job with a bit of hand painting has them ready to be assaulted by the SVFTC gang.

* On the back NOTE made on Kill Zone size and range to be used at for a "Moderate" to "Expert" while not going past "illegal" .... this info sure helps when setting up future matches.

The Sacramento club * SVFTC just keeps growing and getting better gear for our matches every year .... Thanks in large to our selfless membership.

Thank You, David, on behalf of ALL who will be shooting at them in the near future !

Scott S & Jim C

SVFTC Match directors

"Are You Tough Enough?"

The Nevada Grand Prix experience

Battle Mountain, Nevada (June 3, 2018) -- Match Director Lonnie Smith promised to bring the "field" back to field target. He delivered in spades for the 2018 Nevada Grand Prix with incredible high desert scenery, targets mounted high up on sage-covered canyon walls and swirling twirling afternoon winds.

If there was a shooter who was NOT highly challenged by the event ... we didn't meet them. If you didn't go this year, you need to put this one on your calendar for 2019.

Lonnie's full match report is posted HERE.

"Humility Hill Challenge" proves to be accurate name

or

A Grand Prix that was definitely on a decline ... and incline!

Ashland, Oregon (May 20, 2018) -- A posse from SVFTC headed up for The Humility Hill Challenge, an AAFTA Grand Prix at Wayne Burns' field target compound on May 18-20, 2018. We enjoyed warm hospitality, beautiful green mountain scenery and CHALLENGES!

This same lovely course, minus the green leaves on the trees, is described in Cameron Kerndt's article on the WFTF bootcamp from December 2017, posted down below on this same page.

Riz Marquez won First Place in WFTF PCP and posted High Match Score with 84 out of a possible 104. Jim Cyran won Hunter PCP with 83 kills. Mike Culbertson placed third in Hunter PCP with a score of 68. Chris Merritt won Open Class with 82. Bob Kidd took home second place in the Combined Piston classes with a two-day score of 56.

Son Lu and Jim Poh also shot, but left before the group photo, those scamps. The full contest report is available HERE.

Sac Valley Shooters Earn Medals in Arizona

Phoenix, Ariz. (April 15, 2018) -- Sacramento Valley Field Target Club shooters brought back three medals from the Sonoran Grand Prix, April 14 & 15, hosted by the Phoenix Airgun Club.

Riz Marquez won first place in WFTF PCP with a two-day score of 88 out of a possible 104, beating second-place Mike Niksch by just ONE POINT!

Cameron Kerndt earned second place in WFTF Spring-Piston with a score of 73. He was bested by our buddy from San Luis Obispo, Scott Hull, who won with 77 hits. And Lonnie Smith, a longtime regular at SVFTC events, won third in the division with a two-day score of 65.

Great shooting, men! Here's a link to the score sheet.

WFTF Training Event: Firsthand Impressions and Lessons Learned

Hey all! I'm Cameron Kerndt, a second-year student of the game.

About a month ago I read online that Keith "Knobs" Knoblauch and Mike Niksch were hosting a WFTF training event in Ashland, Oregon. Not really knowing what I was getting into, I jumped on the opportunity to get together with some experienced shooters and try to learn as much as I could.

Course descriptions:

Day 1: Beautiful open field, slight upward angle 4-10mph winds. 44 shots.

Day one and blue skies

Day 2: Hilltop, light winds with some extreme angles. 50 shots.

My partner for day two and three, Lonnie Smith

Day 3: Same course as day 2, but 8-14 mph switching winds with gusts even higher. 50 shots.

Day three, Lonnie and me on The Hill

Equipment:

Synthetic HW97K .177 785fps with 8.5gr

VORTEK 12fpe kit

Hawke 6-24x56 sidewinder

BKL High Doublestrap Rings

H&N FTT 4.52mm Pellets

Here are a few lessons I learned from my personal experiences at this event.

Lesson One:

When your rifle is shooting well, don't make any major changes unless absolutely necessary.

I learned this the week before the match when deciding to swap Scopes on my HW97K. Bad choice. Didn't have time to run all the numbers and test them in the field. Ultimately had to reswap Scopes two days before the match and thankfully everything worked perfectly.

Lesson Two:

Set aside plenty of time for practice once at the match location.

I try to get to the location of a match at least the day before to check my zero and run my gun over a chronograph to make sure I'm close to my base settings. This gives you time to build confidence in your gun and make adjustments.

Lesson Three:

Practice shooting in every position you might encounter at your upcoming match.

Standing shots and kneeling are a given, but sometimes shots will require a higher or lower position to clear objects in the line of fire. Experiment with all positions; you never know when you will be out of your comfort level on a difficult course trying to achieve a clear view of your target.

Lesson Four:

Don't be a fair-weather shooter.

Learn your gun in windy and less desirable conditions, not only open field wind. Try to find a place to shoot where the wind is blowing from different angles both uphill and downhill. Day 3 was very windy and there were many steep shooting angles on a hillside. All of us were affected by it.

It took me way too long to see how much the wind was lifting my pellet at long range. This leads to the next lesson learned.

Lesson Five:

Memorize the faceplate / paddle.

If you can master this you will be able to compensate a lot more accurately for a similar shot in the future. This information is very useful to see if you held just enough for wind, too little or if you ranged it correctly. Read the faceplates to see where most of the hits are on the paddle and the trending misses on the faceplate. This can very useful information you can use for your shot.

Lesson Six:

Consider wasting a shot.

If you can't seem to hit a target and you're getting confused and frustrated (me on day three) take a breath and try to figure out what's happening. Find a clean part of the faceplate and aim for it. Most of the time you will see where you need to compensate. Yes it's a miss, but it is better to miss one or two shots trying to rezero or learn the hold for wind than to miss a majority of the targets ahead.

Lesson Seven:

Check your gun's POI / velocity in various temperatures.

Hot or cold. This match was held in Southern Oregon. Although the afternoon temperatures were great, the mornings were frosty. Luckily, I have a range at my home and can test my guns at different temperatures. I try to zero my guns at around 70 degrees, then test the gun at the lowest and highest temps I'd expect to encounter at a match.

A big thanks goes to Mike N and Keith K. The course was a challenge, to say the least. Also, a shout-out goes to Wayne Burns and the Ashland Crew for allowing this event to be staged on some very difficult yet beautiful terrain.

Schneider wins Hunter PCP and High Match Score! Kerndt is Top Female Shooter!

Marquez wins Pistol Limited! And even more medals for SVFTC shooters!

Results from the 2017 AAFTA National Championships

Rio Salado Sportsman's Club, Ariz. (Nov. 5, 2017) -- It was a big weekend for SVFTC shooters in Phoenix.

Scott Schneider won top honors in Hunter PCP division with a two-day score of 106, and that was also High Match Score!

Cameron Kerndt, earned fourth place in Pistol Limited with a 46.

Jim Cyran won fifth place in Hunter PCP with a total score of 94, after winning a tie-breaker round!

CONGRATULATIONS ALL!

For all the scores, including several other SVFTC regulars, click below

http://www.phoenixairgun.net/aafta-nats-results