09-2017-September

Following what appears to be a trend for September field target matches, the Sacramento Valley FT Club held our match with beautiful fall-like conditions. After enduring one of the hottest summers I can remember, the day started with cool temps in the 50s and gradually warmed into the upper 70s by the end of the match. As the temperatures rose so did the winds and by mid match we were treated to steady 5-8 mph crossing winds that caused a grumbling among the ranks. We had 16 shooters who came out and enjoyed the lovely day.

Several of our club members will be participating in the Nationals at Phoenix, so we decided to up the difficulty factor for our last two matches before November. We ended up with an unadjusted Troyer of 31.7 with 10 targets over 43 yards including an illegal 1" KZ at 46 yards that somehow sneaked by and 6 forced position shots. Adding the wind conditions made for a very challenging match. Over the last couple of matches we have been adding a third target to 3-4 lanes designated as Piston only targets.

These targets are typically placed on lanes where the far targets are 50+ yards, and are somewhat less challenging shots, usually shorter distance (45 vs 55yds) or larget KZ (2" vs 1.5"). Piston shooters have the option of shooting the long target of their choice, the PCP shooters must engage the most difficult long target. This seems to be working well as the Piston shooters are knocking down a few more targets and seem to be enjoying themselves more.

Our club is predominantly a Hunter Division club with typically 60-75% of the shooters being Hunter class. This always leads to some hotly contested battles for the top honors and Sunday was no different. JimC managed to squeeze in a 1 point win (49 to 48) against his airgun tuner and assistant match director ScottS with MikeC hot on their heels with a fine score of 46. DaveC kept up the reputation of the Open Division shooting a great score of 45. FredB shot the high Piston score of the day with an excellent 42. Another fine performance was turned in by JessicaK shooting a 44 to beat her airgun tuner as well, he happens to be her husband Cameron. Like the shoemaker's children, Cameron ended up going through 3 guns before he found one that worked, and finished the match shooting his pistol.

After the match we enjoyed a lunch of Chili Dogs and hashed out the joy of shooting in the wind. I think every one had a great time. As always a special thanks to everyone who pitched in and helped with set up and take down. A special thanks to ScottS our assistant match director. Scott has taken on the responsibility for managing our targets and he does an incredible job. Not only does he make sure they arrive early at every match, but he maintains them as well, keeping them freshly painted and in top working condition. I think we have had a total of 1 target issue in our last 3 matches, a broken string if I remember correctly. Thank you Scott for a job well done.

JimC

The results of a 54 shot match

Hunter PCP

JimC.....49

ScottS...48

MikeC....46

JessicaK.44

MartinO..42

JackC....36

BillC......33

NoelS....29

CameronK.28