Scott – AAFTA National Championships – October 9-11, 2015

I don’t care for the whole airport scene. But a field target match at the other side of the country requires either that, or a long road trip. Sometime back I had broached the idea of joining in road trip with a couple other California shooters, Chris Merrit and Jim Whittlesey. The Nationals was fast approaching and as of three weeks ago, I had not finalized any travel plans. It turns out that they were still up for it. It would include some stops and visits with family members back East. They would be coming from Northern California and I from the Central Coast. I arranged to meet them in the Central Valley on the Saturday before the Nationals. We left from Lemoore, California at around midnight on Saturday.

The plan was to drive straight through to Kentucky and visit with some of Chris’s family. We would alternate driving, navigating, and sleeping. Chris’s club cab truck provided just enough room to get a little sleep when we were off duty. Jim was taking a turn at the wheel of Chris’s truck when he realized that he was low on gas. Chris had been sleeping. It was 5am in the middle of the Mojave desert. We found the only gas station within 50 miles and gladly paid the $5/gallon for just enough to make it to the town of Needles on the California-Arizona border. A major inconvenience of running out of gas was avoided. I’m happy to say that was about the only stressful event of the whole trip. After that, I slept through most of Arizona.

The first real stop was at Chris’s sister’s home in Kentucky. We spent a couple of days and nights visiting and recuperating from the trip.

We arrived at the range early Friday afternoon. The layout was well done. First order of business was to chronograph my piston gun. The elevation was only 2800 feet so I expected velocity to be down a little and it was, but only a little. My PCP pistol was right on with no change from the trip. I had been watching the weather reports and there was only a small chance of rain for that afternoon. I was looking forward to the afternoon pistol match after spending most of the week traveling.

I had been shooting Open Pistol up till that point. I signed up for Hunter Pistol at this match. When shooting pistol, I don’t click, or use a bucket or bipod, so I can shoot either Division. The high seat allowed in Hunter can come in handy for some of the obscured shots. And I did not know what to expect ahead of time on this course. As it turned out, all of the pistol targets were shootable even from a low position, so I never needed the bipod or bucket while shooting. I ended up 5th in Hunter Pistol and was OK with that.

The pistol match was on Friday afternoon

Saturday brought the expected rain and then some. I spent more time then usual sighting in my gun. I did it in the rain so the gun and I were well acclimated for the match. The Diana 54 was clicked significantly off it’s normal zero but seemed to be hitting consistently. Most of us struggled throughout the day with the dark, wet, cold conditions. For me, the biggest challenge was seeing some of the targets. I keep my gun cased between lanes, so I quit using scope caps a couple years ago. After this match, I’ll put them back on. After running out of rags and tissues, I was using my shirt to wipe off the lenses. I didn’t really envy those big scopes with clear glass, until this match. I wear boots for stability in the offhand lanes. My boots got soaked through. I need something that is waterproof. Some mucks would probably work well. Most of the shooters were just trying to survive the day and salvage a few point. I finished the day on the verge of hypothermia. My score for the day was decent considering the conditions.

Back at the hotel, I removed the action from the stock and I wiped the rust off as best I could. During the match, when cocking it, it felt like it was lubed with clay. I was a little worried then but it made it through the match fine. In the warm hotel room, it felt better. My boots were not drying out so I would shoot in my “toner” shoes on Sunday. Oh well – the offhand shots are the least of my worries at this point.

Sunday brought near perfect weather, good spirits, and much improved scores – at least for most. I struggled with a changing POI (point of impact) throughout the day. I wasted a number of shots on intentional misses in order to ascertain the new POI. And then I would rezero my scope, and then have a good lane, only to have the shifting continue on subsequent lanes. I have lived with the small but expected POI changes on my Diana 54 but this was beyond that. By the end of the day, my clicks were almost back to where they were before Saturday’s rain. I’ll speculate that the shift (and un-shift?) throughout the weekend was related to the soaking on Saturday and the drying out on Sunday. I managed to win Open Piston among a small field of shooters in that class.

In the end, Ken Hughes shot solid for both days to emerge with the overall high score for the match by two points. Brad Troyer shot a blow out piston score on day two, leaving the rest of us springers far behind. It was a memorable National match with some of the worst and some of the best weather. A great venue with a dedicated crew that did a great job on running the match. My highest compliments to Scott Allen of the THAGC for his work as match director.

After a 6000 mile round trip, and eleven days on the road for myself and my traveling buddies, I was ready to be home.

Back through the Mojave desert