Canadian National Field Target Association Championship
Hosted by the Grenville Fish & Game Club on September 11th & 12th, 2021
Match Report by Tim MacSweyn
We had a great group of shooters show up and enjoy a super weekend of socializing and shooting. I was very impressed and grateful for the help provided by so many of the competitors. Setting up the gazebos, the sight in range and the prize table was all made easier when folks chipped in. It was the same at the end of the day Sunday; people rolled up their sleeves and helped with anything that needed to be done. Many thanks to all that helped in so many ways. Thanks to all for showing up.
A huge thank you goes out to the Grenville Fish & Game Club for the excellent facilities and for the use of the Kawasaki Mule. The mule was a life saver for a couple of folks for whom the walk would have proved very painful. The Clubhouse was a great spot for our Marshalling Course on Saturday afternoon. Thanks to Tom for cutting the grass; that made things much easier. Many thanks to Lynn who has provided help and advice ever since FT restarted at Grenville. Thanks, Lynn, from all of us.
Our prize table was once again a great success due to the generosity of air gun businesses. Airgun Source provided items for much less than 50% of the purchase price and also donated a Elements scope that made a relatively new young shooter very happy. Raman of Canada Shooting Supplies sent us three underlever spring guns that will provide great fun. Wes, of Airgun Archery Fun donated a Discovery Scope that will be put to good use. Thanks for supporting field target in Canada.
Friday was a day to get everything set up and ready for Saturday morning. The sight in range was marked out and set up ready for any shooters that wanted to do some shooting Friday afternoon and early evening. Targets were checked and painted in the hope of reducing cold lines. It does not always work exactly as you plan. Then again sometimes a plan works well, such as the garlic spray on the course that reduced the mosquitos in a big way.
Saturday rolled around nice and sunny with some significant breeze. After all the registering, getting your partner and lane assignment and chronying the guns, it was off to the sight in range. Thanks to Blane for volunteering to man the chrony station both days.
After sight in, the shooter’s meeting took place and soon we were off to the woods. The wind did pick up and did cause more than a few shots on the edges of the hit zones. The gusts were unpredictable and were surprisingly strong in spite of the vegetation.
The Hunter shooters were assigned the yellow course for Saturday and some good rivalries were evident by the end of the shooting. In Hunter Piston, only two points separated Richard T. and Marc S. and Blane was very close as well. Some good matchups were set for Sunday.
The Open and WFTF classes shot the white course and some nice scores were posted. Ryan and James were separated by one point at the top of the WFTF PCP class. Joel jumped out to a good lead in the WFTF Piston class, but Brian and Tim were close.
Both courses features some tough long shots in the wind and those close, very small hit zone targets that Denis likes so much. Sunday’s squads were based on your score on Saturday. In each class, starting at the top, shooters were put in a squad with their closest rival. No pressure at all.
On Saturday afternoon, Joel and Jeff conducted the first ever marshalling course in Canada. Joel put it together based on his experience taking marshalling courses at the world matches a number of times and with input from the BoG. From all reports it was a great success and something that will continue to be offered in the future. Thanks to Joel and Jeff for their efforts.
Sunday started out cloudy, but the Sun pushed through and provided another great day for FT. The wind was a bit weaker than Saturday, but still moved the pellet enough to cause a few groans throughout the match when the pellets clipped the edge.
In Hunter Piston, the largest group at the match, things stayed close right to the end. Richard T., who was up by a few points after Saturday, had another great day and ended up as Canadian Champion in the class. Both Marc S. and Blane had good days as well and finished second and third respectively. Eric was close behind the top three and Tony R, who shot with us for the first time at Grenville rounded out the top five. Jeff had a good match as did Jacob who was only able to shoot with us on Sunday due to work.
Tony L. was able to put together another good day to win the class. Larry made a good run on Sunday to secure second. Marc C. had a good match placing third followed by Richard O.
In Open PCP, Dennis improved his score from Saturday and won the class, followed by Pete.
In WFTF PCP, Ryan had an exceptional day scoring 57/60 and won the class with an overall score of 108/120. James stayed consistent and placed second, followed by John B. and Denis.
In WFTF Piston, Joel put on a show; no other way to describe it. After an impressive 56/60 on day one, he went on to post a 58/60 on day two, for a total of 114/120. This is a new spring gun record for our Nationals and was also the high score for the match. Tim and Brian both managed to pull up their scores from Saturday, with Tim placing second and Brian third. Jon placed fourth followed by Bob. Both of these shooters are relatively new to WFTF Piston class and are both improving fast. Look out next year.
The medals were handed out after the scores were tallied and then came the prize draw, which is well known throughout the FT world. This year was no exception with some great prizes up for grabs, based on nothing more than the luck of having your name pulled out of a hat. You choose a prize and then draw the next name. All competitors took home at least one prize a few took home two.
Cleanup was quick and quite easy due to all the help we had and that was greatly appreciated by the match organizers after a very busy three days. Thanks to all that helped.
The 2021 CAFTA Nationals is in the books and will go down as a great match and a very enjoyable weekend of shooting. Ewe are hoping that the COVID situation continues to improve and the Nationals can begin the grow even larger as new shooters enter the sport.
A reminder that there are matches at Port and HAHA this month and matches at all three clubs in October. HAHA has a match scheduled for November, weather permitting. I encourage you to keep supporting your local club and know you are always welcome at Port Colborne, HAHA and Grenville. Thanks to all and I look forward to sitting down with you on a lane soon.
Tim
CAFTA Nationals 2021 Results Chart
| Rank | Name Class | yellow | White | Total | Rifle | Scope | Pellet | Prov. State |
| Difficulty rating | 31.2 | 30.9T | Ave 31.0T | |||||
| WFTF Piston | /60 | /60 | /120 | |||||
| 1 | Joel Goodwin | 58 | 56 | 114 | TX200 Mk3 | Sightron 10-50 | AA 8.44 | ON |
| 2 | Tim MacSweyn** | 52 | 48 | 100 | TX200HC & SR | Pr Leupold 35X | JSB 8.44 | ON |
| 3 | Brian Wernham | 51 | 44 | 95 | HW97 | Sightron 10-50 | .AA 7.87 | ON |
| 4 | Jon Miller | 46 | 39 | 85 | TX200 | Falcon 10-50 | JSB 8.44 | ON |
| 5 | Bob Wall | 38 | 34 | 72 | TX200 | Sightron 10-50 | JSB 8.44 | ON |
| WFTF PCP | ||||||||
| 1 | Ryan Landry | 57 | 51 | 108 | Steyr LG110 | Sightron 10-50 | JSB 8.44 | QC |
| 2 | James Liu | 51 | 50 | 101 | Steyr LG110 | Sightron 10-50 | JSB 7.87 | ON |
| 3 | John Birch | 49 | 40 | 89 | FTP900 | Falcon 50X | JSB 8.44 | ON |
| 4 | Denis StJean | 36 | 30 | 66 | AA S400F | Hawke 10-50 | JSB 8.44 | ON |
| Open PCP | ||||||||
| 1 | Dennis Eden ** | 51 | 46 | 97 | Steyr LG100 | S&B FT | JSB 8.4 | ON |
| 2 | Pete Elsby | 36 | 30 | 66 | FX Crown | Elements Nexus | Cr. 10.5 | ON |
| Hunter Division | /120 | /120 | /240 | |||||
| PCP | ||||||||
| 1 | Tony Lau | 90 | 87 | 177 | Diana Outlaw | CZ 5-25 | JSBH | ON |
| 2 | Larry Young | 76 | 87 | 163 | Kral Puncher | Centre Pointe 3-9 | Crosman | ON |
| 3 | Marc Charlebois | 68 | 77 | 145 | D.S. Wolverine | Tasco 3-10 | JSBH | QC |
| 4 | Richard Oszpar | 60 | 60 | 120 | Diana Storm R. | West H. 4-16 | JSBH | ON |
| Piston | ||||||||
| 1 | Richard Tatasciore | 103 | 99 | 202 | AA Pro Sport | Hawke 4-16 | JSB 8.44 | ON |
| 2 | Mark Shelleau | 101 | 95 | 196 | TX200 | Hawke 6-24 | Cr. 7.9 | ON |
| 3 | Blane Larone | 98 | 91 | 189 | TX200 | Hawke | JSB 8.44 | ON |
| 4 | Eric Clarke-Daws | 93 | 93 | 186 | HW97K | Vector 10X | FTT | ON |
| 5 | Tony Raposo | 82 | 83 | 165 | TX200 | Bushnell 5-15 | Sto 8.56 | ON |
| 7 | Jacob Charlebois | 79 | DNS | 79 | Walther Terrus | Discovery VT-R | JSB | QC |