Its March, and in Northern California, that usually means some sunshine with a chance of showers. This year it has been more like showers with a chance of sunshine but after several years of falling short on rainfall totals most residents in our area have welcomed the wet weather and looked forward to the beautiful landscapes the spring showers bring. However, in our neck of the woods and in our circle of friends, March also means... Field target time !! Another chance to test ourselves against the challenges and thrills of sending those carefully chosen pellets down range and hopefully knocking the paint of those sorely beaten paddles and watch those pretty little targets fall down... "ka-klink".
At our club we open our FT season with some pre-match catching up, previous years awards, and a little after match BBQ with some possible plinking on the side. Of course there is a Field target Match somewhere in the mix. :))
Once again, we had pretty good turn out with a few newer Field targeteers and the usual suspects filing in for the days fun. 17 participants in all. 8 shooting in the Piston class and 9 shooting Precharged. The Sunday morning weather was a little crisp but quite nice and the day just seemed to get better as it went on. During the shooters meeting we discussed the normal protocol and then got to the seasonal awards from 2009. This year the club handed out some pretty nice looking trophies with cool spinners on the top. It was quickly in discussion and debate that we should try those out on the range later after the match. We were just as quickly advised that being made of plastic, those spinners may not hold up to our Field target guns. (::dag-nab-it::) Although a couple of us were tempted to try, in the end each of the winners elected to take their awards home with their glory and glitter intact. (hmmmm... maybe an airsoft gun would be ok... )
Our 2009 seasonal awards went as follows: (best 4 matches totaled... 192 posssible)
2009 Piston
1st Paul Booker 143
2nd Jonathon Reyes 112
3rd Erick Ko 105
2009 Precharged
1st Guy Omictin 169
2nd Lonnie Smith 162
3rd Tony Innocentes 153
Some honorable mentions:
Jonathon Reyes was awarded the "Rookie of the year award" He went from a match score of 19 and improved it to a 40 in 1 year. He also has become one of our clubs leading contributors by becoming a range officer and an assistant Match director.
Maneeva, one of our junior shooters, finished with a season score of 101. She improved from a single match score of 18 to a single match score of 36. She did this while woring with a new gun and scope to.
Rizaldi took his single match score of 25 and imroved it with a 15 point swing to a match score of 40.
Helder Santiago, went from a match score of 30 and improved it to 42. A 12 point swing but he was most noted for being the first member to clean the course at our club!!
After our awards ceremonies, we got started into the match at hand and commenced the lead slinging. The match went smoothly and I believe everyone enjoyed the day. Paul Booker and Guy Omictin stayed in form with last years standings and showed everyone why they made it to the top of the list in 2009. However, we have a number of improved shooters in our club and judging from the first match showings I anticipate that the competition will be at its best ever for 2010. Scores were as follows:
Piston scores
Paul Booker 42/48 HW97
Jonathon reyes 38 R9
Douge Burke 35 TX200
Steve Ting 34
Erik Ko 33
Lonnie Smith 33 R9
Tim B 27
Roger reynolds 20
Precharged scores
Guy Omictin 46/48 STEYR
Kevin Yee 46 USFT
John Lindsay 43 USFT
Ronnie Easton 42 AA EV2
Tony Innocentes 41 USFT
Rizalde M. 40
Bob Harper 27
Greg T. DNF Walther
Bill H. DNF Steyer
After the match some of us stuck around for a little BBQ and some plinking fun. Of course, out of the pickups, trunks, and cases surfaced some new pistol field target toys. Tony surfaced one of his Crosman pistols sporting a nice grip set and open sights and let whomever wished to try it out do so. Rizalde broke out a beautiful and nicely scoped HPA Pistol with a custom forestock. Everybody was drooling and waiting for a turn to shoot that beauty. I don't want to give to much away so I'll just say it was worth waiting my turn!
Myself, despite not having any sights whatsoever, I brought my newly purchased Steve Corcoran wood-TKO Crosman 1760 co2 pistol and a box of Co2 cartridges. Not having any sights was a little humbling at first but I set up a little metal table and used the box it came in as a bench top and tried some "instinctive sighting". What is instinctive sighting? Basicically, it's aligning the naked breech and barrel at your target and shooting.... and to my elated surprise, it was remarkably effective! I ended up hitting several targets regularly. A couple at 40 and 45 yards! Each time standing up in amazement holding my hands up like it was a touchdown ::grins:: After a little practice there wasnt a target on the corrider that didnt fall to the new "no-sights" class pistol. I was having so much fun!!
All in all it was a nice beginning to what I expect to be a very good year for Field target. I sure appreciate the friendship and contributing participants that make it so enjoyable come out and play with our airguns. Here's looking forward to the fun in the sun in 2010!!