Port Colborne Pistol Field Target

Results for September 17, 2011

It was just a great late summer day for our outdoor pistol field target match. Between six of us, we were able to come up with thirty targets that would fall with a two ft/lb hit, so we were able to have a full sixty shot match with no malfunctioning targets. The temperature hovered in the upper sixties and the wind was not enough to affect things with the maximum target range of 25 yards. The kill zones on the targets ranged from the majority at 1.5” up to one at 2”.
We had one shooter in the open sight class, four in the unmagnified optics class and six in the scope class. We had a fair number that had work or family commitments, both planned and sprung on them at the last minute, resulting in the somewhat reduced number of participants.

Slav shot his first pistol FT match and did very well with his beautiful FWB 102. Lots of folks wanted to give that pistol a try on the sight-in range after the match.

In the unmagnified optics class, Don, except for the mystery lane five, was knocking them down regularly. He still managed a great score and took first place. Greg and Ted ended in a tie for second place, forcing a shoot-off. Greg calmly knocked down the target on his first shot, while Ted put one on the edge, leaving Greg in second and Ted third. Ivo shot his Alecto well and seemed to have a great time paired up with Slav for the match.

We had a little more drama in the scope class when Joel and Len both came in with identical scores at the top of the class. This shoot-off took a little more time with both finding a the rim a couple of times before Joel knocked one down and Len just clipped the rim enough to lock the target up. So Joel took home the first place medal and Len claimed second place. I tried a little different gun-scope configuration this time and could not keep up with the Crosman guys this time, but did manage to place third, followed by Tony in fourth. Chris brought Sandi along and shared his gun and advice with her for her first FT match. She must be a good student and his gun and advice must have been pretty good as she was able to shoot a couple points higher than he managed.

As always, we had a fun time, with lots of laughs and good-natured ribbing going on. A group of six of headed out and made short work of pulling the targets, followed by some more shooting on the sight-in range. Even with the extra shooting and final clean up of the sight in range, four of us were heading out for supper at our favourite fish and chips spot in Port by 4:44 PM. By 5:30 we were all on our way home, with some having a little further to go than others.

Thanks go to all who brought out targets to the match and helped to set things up. Thanks to all who attended the match and enjoyed a great day with us. The next pistol FT match will most likely be indoors at Burlington when the weather turns too cool to shoot outdoors.

The next match at Port is a rifle FT match on October 1st. Many of those setting up targets will be heading to the US Nationals two weeks later, so expect some very challenging targets set out for this one. We will try for a balance in difficulty, but the tough ones will be really tough. It should be a fun time, so try to make it out if you can.

See you soon.

Tim MacSweyn