This particular Airgun Funday has been a long time coming. Our first one this year, and the day couldn't have been better: clear and sunny skies, just a calm breeze here and there to cool us down and the opportunity to meet up with old friends and make new ones as well.

My day began with grabbing my gear, but today there was something special riding shotgun: a bucketful of Lonnie Smith's resettable SteelPlinker's targets! Lonnie made the drive up to our Concord based range from Santa Cruz on Friday to get some shooting in, and brought along these awesome targets for us to break. He was kind enough to leave the targets with me for us to use for our FunDay, unfortunately he wouldn't be able to make it but he wanted to make sure we had plenty of stuff to shoot at. That's just how Lonnie rolls, ya see.

I got my breakfast and coffee, now it's off to the range. I run into some of the usual suspects, here's Eric along with Cesar and Bob who made the drive down from Sacramento. Targets are up, so let's shoot the breeze:



We love to see our friends come down from Sacramento, they really do contribute in a way that makes our Fun Shoots successful- just ask the kids! Bob usually comes up with some reactive target frames, one Christmas he made a wooden Christmas tree with holes drilled for paintball 'ornaments'. Today he came through with some cool stuff as always, this shooting gallery where the enemy is identified with a bright orange paintball head:



He even made up a 3 foot tall SUPER GUMBY target filled with paintballs in all the important places. Some ducks too (pics below). The kids loved them, and of course us big kids got a kick out of them too

John is one of our FunDay regulars (in Battle Dress Uniform), at 10years old he is dangerous with his Crosman pistols, the Gingerbread men (from Shrek) and all the other toys he's gotten over were promptly flattened at 25 yards, only to be ressurected at the next ceasefire to take some more lead. Here's our little friend taking the time to explain the course of fire to Mathew and Evan, two brothers who are having their first airgun experience today.



 



Ya know, I could have explained to them how ya hit the toys and stuff, but John did a much better job.

Lonnie's resettables are staked in, so I head back for some shade. Long time Diablo FT shooter John Lindsey, avid airgun hunter/collector Doug Owen and our FT Committee Chairman Greg Tobler are catching up on something airgunning related. (note the box of magic pellets in John Lindsey's hands)



Time to shoot:

Mathew on his first attempt to shoot a bullseye (3" Shoot-N-See) with an FX Logun hit the 10ring at 25yards. How ya like them apples? His little brother Evan is wondering "why did the bullseys turn yellow?"



Our young Ambassador of Fun, John, taking out the Shrek Gingerbread Man at 25yards:



Pat Jacobs came by with some tricked out pistols and his .25 cal Air Force Condor. He had some steel targets set up at 100yds that when hit, gave off a nice audible 'GONGGG'. His cousin was visiting from Louisiana and good thing Pat brought him, he enjoys shooting as much as we do!





Stacey is a fellow who came out for his first time, he recently bought a TX200 MK3. He was sampling a few different pellets at 50 and 25yds. Now I love me a TX so we were talking for a while! I'm looking forward to seeing him at our next FT match.



Paul Booker is our club's current Spring Piston champ, and here he is squeezing out the last droplet of accuracy from his HW97K. Check out that Jan Kraner set-back trigger.





Greg Tobler wanted a break from shooting bench, so Creedmore it is. IIRC this pistol was a Falcon. Gotta love that eye-relief.






I had Mathew take a couple shots with my R9, and whattya know, them spinners were a-spinnin' at 25yds!



Mike Aber rolls in armed with a slew of airguns: A custom shop Crosman pistol that I had the joy of sighting in at 25yds, a very nice FX Ranchero in .177cal with the mother of all scope risers, and two Air Arms S410s, one in each caliber. I was especially impressed with his mobile shooting station, very useful and serves a number of functions:





Here's the FX, with Maneeva at the left. Her sitting practive consisted of shooting a 1" resettable at 55yds



John L. made lunch a reality, he came through with various types of processed and cured meat in cylindrical form, along with some quality International Seeded rolls and all the fixins. Of course there were chips to complement, and what informal airgun shoot would be complete without some cole-slaw? Enter Mike and Maneeva, the Father and Daughter shooting team that loves the slaw. They brought it, we ate it. Here's John L. telling them where to find the slaw:


Mike's got the slaw now.






The Man with the sharp stuff is one of our club's most prolific directors/chairmen: John L.



If it involves promoting the shooting sports, he's got a pulse on it. Lately he has spear-headed a new sport for Diablo Rod & Gun Club: Impalement Arts. Fascinating stuff, at 11feet I could throw a meat cleaver and get 1 full revolution, at 18 two. Tomahawks, knives, Russian entrenchment tools. If it's got a sharp edge, it gets impaled. Eric, Maneeva and myself all tried it out, it was a lot of fun.

So there you have it, the day was a success thanks to the contributions of many. We had some new shooters, young & old, and an enjoyable, safe time was had by all. The youngters did an especially good job of exercising muzzle control and keeping the finger off the trigger until ready to fire. We're already looking forward to our next Fun Shoot, as events like these help promote our airgunning sport.

We thank United Sportsmen Inc. and Diablo Rod & Gun Club for hosting these airgun friendly events!

Thanks for letting me share,
Jonathan R