Scott – Arizona State Field Target Championships – September 19-20, 2015

I drove down the California Coast to Pasadena on Thursday and joined up with Vince Pacheco for the trip to Arizona the next day. Another California competitor, Ron Jobbes, did a caravan with us for most of the way. We arrived at the range on Friday afternoon. The weather was very nice and a lot of the competitors were camping at the range in motor homes. The facilities at the forest range are almost non-existent. Lacking a motor home, we had decided early on that we would stay 20 miles north in Flagstaff.

The Arizona State FT match is held near Mormon Lake, outside of Flagstaff, AZ. I have been shooting Open/Piston for most of the year and I knew that the high altitude (7200ft) would be a consideration. Piston guns are not normally used at that location. Just in case the piston gun did not work out, I also brought my PCP pistol/carbine along as a backup.

I was anxious to try my 18fpe Diana 54 in the thin air, so I headed over to the sight-in range. Velocity was down about 70fps but it was still shooting accurate enough. However after about 20 shots, the poi started to fall even more. I chronied it again and was now down about 90fps. I plan on going to the Nationals in a couple of weeks. And I plan on shooting this piston gun. I was worried about damaging the gun so decided not to shoot in the Open/Piston class. I would have been the only piston shooter at the AZ match. So I took the opportunity to shoot my pistol/carbine. I would shoot it as a pistol on day one, and then as a carbine on day two. This gun is mostly setup for pistol field target (11.5fpe and 12x scope). It does not range well past 35 yards. I would use a range finder on the far targets and shoot Freestyle against the big guns. The thin air causes problems for piston guns but it has some benefits for pre-charged guns. The BC is higher and I was seeing significantly less drop on the far targets. I used the new poi to adjust the BC on my Iphone Chairgun. Garret K. had setup a Labradar on the sight-in range and I was able to check the down range velocity and confirm the BC. I was getting a BC of around .038 with the JSB https://www.pyramydair.com/PAFT/wp-admin/post.php?post=627&action=edit 8.4gr pellets. I could use original close shot dope but adjusted most of my far shots.

The sight in range:

I was squaded with Tom McNally from Flagstaff. He was shooting Open/PCP using an Air Arms 400. We were both hitting some and missing some. The two lanes down and over the old quarry were interesting. A couple of targets at the bottom of the quarry had some angles to deal with. The far targets required a pellet flight over wide open air so any wind was going to have full affect. I decided to forego the rangefinder for the far shot that was set out in the middle of the quarry. I ranged it using just the 12x scope. A spectator with binoculars told me that I was hitting low and a little right. I had mis-ranged by 5 yards and a quick check on Chairgun showed that would put me .8″ low. Just enough to put me outside the 1.5″ KZ. Even with a 5 yard ranging error, my Diana 54 (at sea level) would have still been inside the KZ. The next far target was across the top of the quarry. I think it ranged at 53 yards. The breeze let up, so I used no hold-off and got it both times. I gave myself a cheer as those type of shots make my day. I think the target was a tuxedo penguin. The AZ crew likes to include a lot of detail on their painted face plates.

Day 1:

I shot both targets out of order on one lane, and I forgot to load a pellet on another target. I missed all four shots on a difficult kneeling lane. I had gotten in some good pistol FT practice and my score for the day was just OK with me. In preparation for day two, I attached the butt-stock to turn the pistol into a carbine. I intended to see how much better a rifle configuration would be on day two.

We enjoyed lunch served at the range and then shot some silhouette using open sight, 10m rifles. Anyone could throw 25 cents into the kitty and shoot until the victor got to claim the pot. We shot several rounds. I got $1.25 on my one win.

Day two I was squaded with Nathan Benson shooting a USFT in Open/PCP. We both did better the second day. Some of my additional points came from eliminating mistakes. The rest came from the slightly more stable hold provided by the buttstock. I finished up the last lane by hitting all four kneeling shots. That’s how I like to finish a match.

Day 2: