Hosted by the Broome County Sportsmen's Association, Krikwood NY

July 20, 2008

The weather forecast was bleak and the sky looked rather ominous early on but conditions gradually improved throughout the day. The result was a hot and sultry summer day with a stiff breeze kicking up late in the match. We had a total of 19 competitors from 3 states including a 5 man contingent from Crosman Corporation who sponsored the event. Turnout was solid for Hunter Division but the PCP Division was light with 4 shooters on the line and Piston Division was very light with only 2 shooters. Due to the limited number of entries the team competition was cancelled.

The layout of the course featured lanes set out "bowling alley style" with all 10 lanes adjacent to one another and one contiguous firing line. There were 2 targets per lane and the course of fire called for 2 shots per target. This made for a total of 40 shots in both rounds 1 and 2 for a match total of 80 shots. Each scoresheet clearly identified both targets in a lane so there was no confusion as to which targets were in which lane.

Several lanes featured unique challenges with elevated targets in lanes 1, 5, 6, and 10 and targets set in rather dark areas in lanes 1, 3, and 8. We also had 3 novelty lanes with a functional windmill in lane 6, a floating frog target on a small pond in lane 7, and a bird target gently swinging from the bucket of a wishing well in lane 9. There was a break for lunch at the conclusion of round 1 and adjustments were made to a selection of targets in various lanes to give round 2 a different look. Target functionality was good throughout the match. A cold line was called on 3 occasions to verify individual targets but only one mechanical malfunction was noted and repaired. And on 2 occasions a reset cord became entangled in the windmill but this too was repaired in short order.

At the conclusion of round 2 the scores were tallied and the first place finishers were Ray Apelles in the PCP Division with a score of 70, Mike Miller in the Piston Division with a score of 38, and Mike Flickman in the Hunter Division with a score of 57. Scores for the entire field of shooters were as follows:

Competitors received a gold medal for first place, a silver medal for second place, and a bronze medal or third place. Crosman was also generous enough to provide several door prizes that were raffled off (the pocket knife being the most popular item!) as well as 4 items that were awarded on a competitive raffle basis where shooters earned raffle tickets based on their score on a particular target. The blue jay in lane 5 and mouse in lane 6 determined ticket count for one cases of Crosman Premier pellets each, the black squirrel in lane 1 determined ticket count for a Centerpoint scope, and the can in lane 4 determined ticket count for the special edition Discovery PCP air rifle which featured the Northeast Regional Field Target Championship logo laser etched on the stock. Hans Apelles and Mike Miller each won a case of pellets, Harold Schaeffer won the Centerpoint scope, and piston shooter Mike Miller won the Discovery PCP air rifle.

A special thank you goes out to Crosman Corporation for sponsoring the match, all of the local BCSA volunteers who helped with match preparation and operations, and all of the shooters who came out to the range for the match.

See you in 2009!