NOA is on fire! Literally!! On Friday the 15th, I was greeted by a late-night text from the owner of our shooting grounds that his garage was on fire! We arrived Saturday morning to find the garage still smoldering, but pretty much burnt to the ground. Sadly, we stored most of our signage, clamps and target winders/strings in the garage. Jeff and I had both raced around to get replacement clamps for the targets and scraped together our own extra strings and winders so we would not have to cancel the match. Upon inspection, we found our clamps and string winders unharmed! It was a bit of a miracle considering the plastic tubs they were stored in were melted about as much as they could be. We washed everything off and got to setting up the course with the smell of smoke in the air.
On the 17th, we were greeted by a new record for our club, 33 shooters! An amazing turn out for what was to be one of the hottest days of the summer thus far. Temps rose steadily into the 90s with the heat index somewhere around 100. Many of the new shooters were brought along by our existing members, as we were running a Father’s Day raffle and new shooters and those who brought them were given free entry. The raffle items consisted of a 2240 with pellets donated by Baker Airguns and a $50 Gift Card courtesy of Pyramyd Air. We are very fortunate to have such great airgun companies close by!
After making the long trek to the lanes from the clubhouse, the match began. Thankfully, the shadowy woods that our course is nestled in, was about 10 degrees cooler than the uncovered areas outside of the course. We shot in squads of three which made the day run a little longer than normal, but there was plenty of water to go around, and I saw nothing but smiles from the shooters around the course. We made a few small tweaks from our first match, but the course remained very long with 14 of 30 targets over 40 yards. We also added some reducers to closer targets, bumping the troyer to a 31T before light and wind factors were added. There was a light wind in the air for most of the match that only the 12 FPE shooters really had to pay attention to. It was enough to blow our WFTF shooters out of a few kills at 50+ yards, when they aimed for the center.
We saw really impressive performances from many experienced shooters and newcomers alike! In Hunter PCP, Dennis Himes and Jeff Little were neck and neck, with Dennis edging out Jeff by one shot with an impressive 57/60. Also near the top, Dan Putz and Chad Kentner shooting 51 and 50 respectively. Well done guys! Dan brought new shooter Dimitri along and he posted an impressive 38 in his first match, fantastic shooting for a first timer. Also in his first match, Donnie Reed posted a 31, which is made more impressive by the fact that his BKL mounts weren’t actually screwed onto his Gamo Urban dovetail!
In Hunter Piston, Eric Jones put in a very impressive 43/60, leaving his competition in the dust with his Diana 54. In Open PCP, Roger Barker posted a very respectable 47/60 with his Air Arms Pro Target. In WFTF Piston, Bruce Scott turned in a 36/60 with his HW97. And in WFTF PCP, Tyler Patner put up a 52/60 to take the class for the day.
We want to thank all who attended and beared the heat. We enjoyed having you and hope to see you all again next month for our match on July 15th. And a special thanks to Baker Airguns and Pyramyd Air for their support of both our club, and the sport. It is greatly appreciated.
