This past Sunday, October 6^th was the last Field Target Match of the 2019 season. 

Here’s a quick run-down of the day.

Under the threat of rain and cooler temperature a few hearty souls ventured to the FT course on the archery range at the Grenville Fish & Game Club.

To all our pleasant surprise the day turned out rather well.  There was a brief smattering or rain about halfway through the course.  Otherwise the overcast conditions kept the light nice and flat which greatly aided range finding.  There was definitely some wind high up in the trees though little of it filtered down to the shooting level. 

Competition was close with the PCP guys keeping a close eye on how each other were doing.  John Birch pulled it out at the end Denis edging Denis by a single point.  Dave continue his solid progress this season with a respectable 43.  Great to see the hard work paying off!  Tim took the hard road for the day, using is 8 ft/lb FWB300 to challenge the course.  Great result Tim!  Highlight light of the day was Dave Nix joining us in Hunter Piston.  Great result and even better to see you out on the course!

Now for a bit of down time and prepping for next season.  Look forward to seeing everyone in 2020. 

Highlights

m the Canadian Springer FT team!  We’ve just got back from one of our most successful adventures at the world level.

The highlights include Joel Goodwin finishing 5^th overall after a very suspenseful and exciting three way shoot out and the team finishing only 18 points off third place and 25 points out of second.  We’re feeling like good progress has been made as this was the toughest competition and the largest WFTC ever!

Getting There

Diving deeper into the experience, we all had a heck of a time.  It started with a

Figure 1 Departing Pearson at 6 AM – Zach, Tim, Heather, Joel and George

smooth flight from Pearson to Heathrow on August 2^nd.  We landed about 9:00 PM London time and prepared ourselves for the ordeal of customs.  We were pleasantly surprised by new electronic entry points, so our planned 1.5 to 2-hour line was reduced to 15 minutes!  Wonderful!  We had a quick pint and hit the beds.

The next morning Heather Blain and Jeff Hemming headed over to the car rental outlet and picked up our transport – a Hyundai i800.  It was big, long and, mostly importantly, able to fit six of us and all our gear – just!  After a few practice loops around the airport Jeff got the hang of the roads and only managed three horn blasts, two middle fingers and one near miss with a bus – a solid start 😊

We arrived in Balsall Commons at the Premier Inn early Saturday afternoon.  We spent the day catching up with the time change and connecting with some of the Welsh, Norwegian and US teams that had already arrived.

Sunday started with some site seeing in nearby Birmingham followed by a practice session at the Blackbrook range.  It was an outstanding venue with three separate FT ranges and a 200 yard ‘plinking range’!  The craziest part was they had worked out the hold over for hitting golf balls – 16’ 2” with a 11.5 f/lb rifle… wow!

Air Arms

Monday was a special day for us – we took a bus down to the AirArms factory where we got the full run of the production and assembly areas!  It was fascinating to see the CNC machines they used.  Even more amazing was their attention to details, details that most of us never realized were considered.   One of the most unique things was each assembly station has its own chronograph.  Every gun that goes out is tested to ensure it shoots the speeds that it is rated to shoot.  AirArms really does go above and beyond in their quality and commitment to making excellent air guns.

Figure 2  AirArms Group Shot – Brazil, Canada, Estonia, Norway, South Africa with Claire, Shelagh and Little Al

Marshal Course

Tuesday Jeff, Joel and Tim attended the WFTF Marshaling and Course design sessions where we got to see how the rules are being interpreted by other countries.  It was great to participate in the conversation and share our enthusiasm for helping build global consistency in the FT rules.  The biggest take away is that the rules are designed to have gaps and that the core ideas are FT must be fair, consistent and promote sportsmanship for everyone at a match.

The Match

Wednesday things kicked up a notch as we went through registration and gear check.  It was all quite straight forward.  Once done we got to see the practice range for the first time.  It was huge!  A full 200 m long by over a 100 m across.  Lots of room and very open… meaning we got to experience the wind!  It generally was blowing at 20 kph though by Saturday in had cranked up to over 60 kph!

Thursday dawned and we were all keen to get out on the course.  Then is started to rain… fortunately it stopped before the first session and the wind died down.  So much so that we saw some outstanding scores – there were two cleared courses on the PCP side and Joel came away with the high springer score – 45/50.  Amazing shooting Joel!  Tim shot a very respectable 33/50 in the same session.  George, Zach and Jeff shot in the afternoon session and help up some descent scores with George having the second highest Canadian score at 35/50.  It was a quiet evening as everyone was focused on the next day

Friday arrived dark and rainy.  By rainy it was teaming down until about 30 minutes before the first session.  Fortunately it stopped.  Still, it was slick and dark all day.  Made from some challenging shooting, particularly on the ‘black’ lanes.  After the first few shooters the hit zones had lost their yellow colouring, so the shooters were looking at dark grey on black… definitely a workout for the scopes.  Joel finished with a strong score followed by George, Tim and Zach.  The wheels fell off for Jeff.  He experienced a huge zero shift and spend the day chasing.  Good news is it was sorted after some time on the practice range though it was game over by then.  The evening was even quieter as everyone was focusing for the final day.

Saturday dawned with light drizzle and high winds.  The drizzle stopped though the winds ramped up to over 60 kph.  It made for some wild sound and visual effects as the treetops in the forest where dancing like puppets on strings!  Made for some wickedly fun shooting too!  Joel continued to the lead the team followed by Tim, Zach, George and Jeff.

The match wrapped up at 6:30 and then the real fun began.  The scores were hurriedly tallied, and a number of shoot offs were held.  The most significant for Team Canada being Joel’s shoot out – a three-way battle for 3^rd.  It was intense – the winds were strong and the course challenging as it funneled the wind around the targets… ugh.  The fun – for those not shooting – is how evenly match the shooters were.  They went through multiple rounds of shooting.  In short, it was a sight to see.  Big shout out to Joel for handling the entire thing with skill and grace!

Figure 3 Joel several rounds into shoot off for 3rd place in WFTF Piston

After wards we enjoyed a pig roast sponsored by AirArms and a round of comradery to celebrate the past three days.

Sunday dawned clear and we participated in the closing ceremonies.  Here South Africa presented their information about next year’s worlds.  It was an open, frank and beautiful pitch.  Got many rethinking their initial assumptions about attending!  Jeff and Joel are definitely looking at going!!

Figure 4 WFTC Springer Awards – Joel is 5th!

A big shout out to Heather Blain.  She’s new to FT and came to England to learn what all the excitement is about.  She was a great member of the group – spending each day on the line, cheering for Joel, talking to folks and generally absorbing the FT vibe.  Kudos Heather, thanks for all that you did!

Another year is in the books with Team Canada having made a big and positive impact.  Thanks to all who attended for Canada – George Harde, Heather Blain, Jeff Hemming, Joel Goodwin, Robbie Stewart, Tim MacSweyn and Zach Harde!

Figure 5 Team Canada – George, Tim, Jeff, Robbie, John C (honorary), Zach, Joel, Heather.

Ontario Provincial Championship

At

Grenville F&G FT Club

The third match of the season at Grenville drew a very good contingent of shooters for the Provincial Championship.  We had shooters in Open PCP, Hunter Piston, Hunter PCP, WFTF Piston and WFTF PCP, for a total of 17 competitors.  They came in from Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, Mississauga, Niagara, as far west as New Dundee, just west of Waterloo and areas between.  The match was 72 shots, on 18 lanes with two targets per lane.  There were some targets without reducers, but they were in the minority.  We do not presently have a lot of long shots on the course; so the difficulty is achieved through the use of reduced hit zones.

We started with some hardships, due to a misunderstanding of the location of the key for the equipment barn.  So the guys got together and created a sight-in range with the paper targets, cardboard, firewood and some tape.  We started a little late, which delayed the Gunslinger Challenge, but without the guys quick work, it could have been much worse.  Since I now have my own key to the barn, we will not run into that problem again.

The Gunslinger is a fun event and we had to adapt it a bit due to the fact that we only had seven targets to work with.  Dean happened to have those seven targets in his van and volunteered them for the match, since all the other targets were in the locked barn.  Thanks very much, Dean.  So we set up two lanes of three targets, side by side and then placed the seventh target in the centre.  They were set at 10, 20, 30 and 40 yards.  The one who cleared their three targets and then took the fourth one down first was the winner of that round.  There were some very close races, with one shooter watching as the final target fell just before they released the trigger.  In the end, Tom won the piston and Vitally the PCP in the final showdowns.  Great shooting guys.

The match started about a half hour late, so that was not too bad.  The only negative during the match was the Gamo targets having the paddle separate from the faceplate when the rivets loosened and fell out.  It is easy to fix, but when it happens too often, it slows things down.  There was some great shooting and socializing during the match and delays from target malfunctions became a bit of a natural event that prompted some visiting down the line and some laughs.  All targets will have the rivets replaced with stainless screws and lock bolts, so that problem should never reoccur.

The winners of the five classes were Dean in Open PCP, Ryan in Hunter PCP, Tony in Hunter Piston, Zach in WFTF Piston and yours truly (Tim) in WFTF PCP.

There was a shoot off between James and Vitally for second and third in WFTF PCP, since they tied with 58/72.  We used a paper target with each shooting at their own bullseye and the closest shot to the centre would be the winner.  In spite of the odds, a second shot was required to decide the winner.  On the second shot, which was over 30 yards on the open range, James placed his shot dead on the centre to win the shootout and in my opinion; under stressful circumstances, he made the shot of the day.

It was quite late at that point and unfortunately about half of the group, due to their circumstances, had to leave.  We cut the order of pizza in half and those that stayed enjoyed some really good pizza and conversation.

Many thanks to all that attended, those that pitched in to get the range up and running, those that cleaned up afterward and especially Ryan who ran the Gunslinger event and collected all my gear for me while I was running about.  Thanks to John Bradley and Deb for taking lots of pictures, which we all enjoy looking at over and over.  Thanks to the GF&GC for the use of their excellent facility.  Lastly, thanks to all that attended and made the day the success that it was.

The next match at Grenville is scheduled for Sunday, September 17^th and it will be a regular 60 shot match.  We will be thinking of the Canadian FT Team over in Wales and wishing for them a safe, fun and successful trip.

Tim MacSweyn

Grenville Fish & Game Field Target Club

Ontario Provincial Championship

August 20, 2017

Results Chart

* Shoot off

Post by pirellip » Thu Jun 29, 2017 11:59 am