Broome County Sportsmens Association Air Rifle Field Target  

What a FANTASTIC day for a Field Target Match! The weather started out foggy with temperatures in the upper 40's as we were doing the final prep work for the days festivities. Art D. and his wife Issy beat my wife and I to the range and were waiting to give us a hand when we pulled in. We all jumped in and started pulling strings and set up the sight in range as we waited for the rest of the days competitors to arrive.

During sight in, the temperatures rose to the mid to upper 50's. 15 shooters were on hand for the days match. As usual during sight in, a lot of how are you's and how have you been's were exchanged as well as the testing of some new products/design ideas brought up by a couple of the competitors. Jerry LaRocca brought along a big batch of cookies to share. I really think he was hoping to give the competition a sugar rush and was hoping they would all start crashing by the time the match started!

After sight in and registration, we headed over to the range to start the match! The only class that wasn't represented this month for the rifle match was Open Piston. The hunter class was the largest again, with 3 shooters shooting Hunter Piston and 6 Shooters shooting Hunter PCP. After a brief shooters meeting the match was underway. For the first part of the match, there was just a light breeze here and there with temperatures in the mid to upper 60's. As the match wore on, the temperatures rose to the upper 70's and the tricky winds decided to start playing with everyone's hold off. The course was a not too bad 28.6T, but the wind brought it up just a touch. There were plenty of dark targets in the shadows that also added to the difficulty.

We used our normal 10 lanes, 3 targets per each lane and 6 minutes per lane format. Shooters were squadded 2 per lane and things moved along rather quickly. Justin Gibbs made a return trip to the range. He shot his first match with us last year and was finally able to break free from his busy hobby schedule and rejoin us. Nic Gregoris (our lone junior shooter for this match) decided to drop the sticks and strap up and give open class a try. I don't think he regretted his decision to give that class a try. Also returning after a brief hiatus was George Frazier. His retirement and grand kids have kept him busy, but he was finally able to attend a match. All of the rest of settled in to our normal routines.

At the conclusion of the rifle match, it was discovered that Paul Manktelow and Justin Gibbs were tied for 2nd place in Hunter Piston. We had a shoot off to determine the victor. The target that was used for the shoot off was 48 yards with a 1 ¼" KZ. Paul went first and missed, Justin gave it a try and he too missed. On the second time through, Paul was able to connect, but Justin was unable to match Paul's knockdown, so second place went to Paul.

After the rifle match was over, we presented the awards and reset some targets for the pistol match. A bunch of people had to hit the road, so before the match started, all the goodbyes were said. We had 6 diehards stay to shoot the pistol match and 5 of us that decided to just sit back and spectate. Jerry LaRocca was the lone open pistol shooter while the other 5 shot hunter pistol. By the time the pistol match started, the temperature had risen into the lower 80's.

For the pistol match we had 10 lanes with 2 targets per lane. A 4 minute time limit was used and the course difficulty was a 16.4T. With 2 people per lane and only 3 squads, this match too moved along quickly!

After the match, we presented awards and the remaining shooters jumped in to help do the tear down! It seems like within minutes we had all the targets in the back of my truck and the canopies down and put away! Thanks to all for their help!

Thanks to everyone that attended! It was a great day and we're glad you came out to enjoy it. Our next match will be the Cross Catskills Challenge match in August! Hope to see you all there!

Now on to the results!