(Match Report by Jeff Paddock)
Shooters found themselves back in the woods for this month’s match. The weather was perfect with sunny skies and highs in the mid-eighties with very little wind. The temperature was several degrees cooler under the tree canopy making for a very pleasant afternoon.
The course had similar kill zones selections as our last match in the field with a greater number of smaller sized targets at closer ranges. As usual on our woods course, some of the targets were a bit tricky to get a good read with your scope as they were tucked into darker shaded areas on the lanes. The overall Troyer for this course was approximately 32.05. The overall Troyer for this course was approximately 32.05. We had 11 targets over 40 yards with and average target distance of 35.27. The off-hand and kneeling lanes were challenging with elevated targets in tree stands making shooters alter their normal positions addressing these targets.
We did have an unusual number of cold lines this match, mainly due to a target mounted on one of our tallest tree-stands. The “screen door squirrel”, as it is fondly referred to, had its reset string eye bolt shear off. After tearing down the stand on more than one occasion and using a little field engineering, we finally swapped out the target with one on another lane, as the squirrel would be easier to deal with on the ground if we had any other problems with it. Eventually we finished the match without too much delay.
We had 22 shooters for the match. Attendance was lower this time as we were without some of our regulars including the Himes brothers, Bill Rabbitt and Tyler Partner. Tyler helped out in the morning with sign-in and shooter’s meeting, but then he had to take off as he was headed to the World Field Target Championships in England as one member of the team USA. Bill Rabbitt surprised us late in the match with a visit and he brought along Lindsey and their twin girls. It was nice to see them.
Gary Palinkus made it back to Ohio from Florida for his first match with us this season. Gary took top score in Open PCP with a 51, followed by Keith Walters with a 49. Roger Barker returned to shooting his Marauder and recorded a 24.
With the Himes brothers and Bill Rabbitt not in attendance it was going to be interesting who was going to come out on top in Hunter PCP. In the end, Jeff Little turned in the top score of 51 although he had a few shooters nipping at his heals. Tim Baylor had a 48 while Dennis Baker scored a 47. Jeff Paddock had a 54 in WFTF PCP and Larry Justinus had a great day shooting his highest score ever with a 42.
Two shooters shot Hunter Piston and they ended up being evenly matched. Dan Putz took the honors with a 40 while Alan Barker, testing out his freshly tuned TX200, ended up with a 36. We also had a couple of Junior shooters this time. Maddex Bellmont put in an impressive effort with a score of 46 and Robby Lewandowski did well with a score of 26.
At the end, we were treated to a nice lunch of croissant sandwiches and baked beans kindly provided by Kristen Coss. Following lunch we presented our awards and a few of the shooters stuck around to help clear the course. Thanks again to everyone that came out and participated and helped during set up as well as after the match.
The next match will be our Grand Prix event, the Burning River 120, taking place September 20-22. We hope to see many of you there and possibly some others from around the country. The Pyramyd Air Cup takes place in a couple of weeks and we will surely have a showing from Northeast Ohio Airgunners and Central Ohio Airgunners there I suspect.
