By Jeff Hemming, Match Director
Well, the 2022 Field Target Nationals are in the books! So, let’s dive in and hear about what a two-day match is all about.
Thank you and Acknowledgements!
First, we’ll start with thank you to all those that helped make this possible. With deep gratitude I’d like to thank:
Port Colborne & District Conservation Club! your club and range are an excellent venue for an FT shoot with the forest course offering a range of conditions and options. Thank you!
The organizing committee – Bob W, Brian W, Geoff M, Joel G, Rob W and Tim M. Without you the event would not have happened. We met every week starting in late June to plan, coordinate and generally make sure things were ready.
Bob W lead the donation effort, continuing the strong relationships that we have and adding two brand new supporters – awesome effort Bob!
Brian W lead the AGM and vote planning. Working with Bob W, he put together all that was needed to be ready for the AGM including the voting process. Great work on the unsung important stuff. Thank you, Brian!
Rob W brought you the amazing course. His planning was incredible – taking pictures at matches during the season, researching other courses, building out a target inventory and bringing it all together in spreadsheet that calculated the Troyer factor. Outstanding job Rob. You took design to the next level and set a benchmark for the future!
Joel G designed the t-shirts and ran the marshal course. As always, a stellar job. Thank you, Joel!
Geoff M / Tim M – served as the conscience and soul of the team. They pushed, challenged and generally kept everyone, and, especially me, on track. Thank you both for your guidance and wisdom!
Prize table contributors – with out these businesses and individuals, we would not be able to put on the event or have such an incredible prize table. A hearty thank you for over $4,500 worth of FT gear:
Airgun Source https://www.airgunsource.ca/us/ – Travis has been a long-time supporter of the community and source for many of the rigs that we shoot. This year was no exception! We had over $2,000 worth of prises including 3 rifles, a sleeve of sought after JSB 8.44g 4.52 pellets and a $200 gift certificate!!! Thank you, Travis and the team at Airgun Source!
Airgun Archery, https://airgunarcheryfun.ca/ – Wes at Airgun Archery is another long-time field target supporter. We had over $600 worth of prizes including two scopes for Hunter FT and pellets. Thank you, Wes and the team at Airgun Archery!
Canada Shooting Supply, https://canadashootingsupply.ca/ – Ramen has also been a great supporter of the Nationals and field target in general. This year he provided over $600 worth of donations and prize including 3 side lever piston guns, PCP connectors and targets. Thank you, Ramen and the team at Canada Shooting Supply!
Airgun Forum Store, https://www.airgunforum.ca/store – Another long-time supporter, Sniper Dan provided a range of pellets. Thank you, Dan!
Cabela’s, Canadahttps://www.cabelas.ca (Vaughan Location) – a new sponsor this year, Bob W secured their support in the form of several day packs, a shoot gun shooting vest and several other pieces of gear. Thank you, Cabela’s we look, forward to continuing the new relationship!
Windswept Forge – another new sponsor this year, Jon Miller from Windswept Forge. Jon provided two hand made knives, each valued at over $400 and one with a handle made from bog-oak certified to be over 4,000 years old. Thank you, Jon, for the beautiful, functional works of art!!
Individual contributions from Tim MacSweyn, Rob Gastle, Bob Wall and Chris Holmes included knock down targets, a chronograph, torque wrenches, 60m measuring tape, paper targets and Know-Your-Limit swingers.
Event Volunteers
These are the people that showed up for the workdays before the match and helped with setup and tear down. This is another group that was critical to everything working. They literally cleared the lanes including cutting the widow maker trees and windfalls. Special shout outs to:
- “Chainsaw” Lanny H who removed the widow makers on Lane 4 and cut through deadfalls over 1 meter in diameter. Thank you, Lanny!
- “Wacker” Larry Y who ran the weed cutter, clearing 20 lanes each over 50 meters in length… that’s over 1 km of weed clearing!!! Thank you, Larry!
- “Legend” Dennis E who tirelessly and with no hesitation kept the course in great condition through out the year. Dennis, your efforts made the setup days go smoothly. Thank you!
- “Target-man” Tim M, for bringing three lanes worth of targets. Thank you, Tim!
- “GMac” Geoff M, for bringing three lanes worth of targets. Thank you, GMac!
- “Printer” Brian W for providing a printer during the event. Truly one of the moments where I went, why did we never do this before. Event life is so much easier with a printer! Thank you, Brian!
- HAHA FT Club, the Hamilton Angling and Hunting FT club for providing 14 lanes worth of targets. Thank you, HAHA!
All of you that came out to setup and take down targets – Bob W, Rob G, Rob W (designer), Geoff M, Gary C, Harold S, Joel G, Jacob C, Mike D, Daniel D, Tim Mac, Dennis E and anyone else that I may have missed.
Special Thank You
A special thank you goes out to Chris H who provided two fully, setup rigs for shooters. One for a brand new FT shooter (Harold S) and an out-of-town shooter (Jacob C) who ran into transport issues. Chris, your generosity of time and gear made a difference. More, it embodies the spirit of FT. Thank you!
Now, on to the event!
Thursday
Things actually started up on Thursday when we did the last prep day. We met at noon and went through the all 20 lanes – clearing dangerous widow makers, clearing the lanes, moving the lane 19 shooting box back and recreating lane 20. Lane 20 turned into quite a special lane as we moved it to the right and back about 3 metres. This made it easier to access and increased the available distance to beyond 50 metres!
We were wrapped by 4:00 PM and retired to Miner’s Fish and Chips shortly after for some well-earned eats!
Friday
Friday started up about 9:00 AM when the target setup group arrived. We spent the next 5 and a half hours building out the fabulous course that Rob W had designed. Generally everything went well with a few inevitable switches as the theoretical world met the real world.
The work included setting targets out, staking them in, running lines, putting out the Red/White lane markers, painting targets and, something not seen for a long time, putting up tree stands for elevated shots. It was a big effort that paid off during the event… we had minimal cold lines and only had to pull one target during two days of shooting… amazing, simply amazing and a testament to the design as well as the quality of targets everyone provided.
We stopped at 2:30 PM for the Marshal Course that Joel put on. We had a great turn out with 8 people participating and becoming Level 1 certified Marshals. This is a big step forward for FT in Canada as we continue to increase the number of people with formal knowledge on marshalling a FT match. The main theme was (is) ‘Safe + Fair = Fun’. To all those that participated, thank you. Joel, you ran an outstanding presentation that engaged everyone.
We wrapped up about 4:30 PM and went out to finish setting up the last couple of lanes and run strings.
Saturday – Day 1 Shooting
Saturday came fast, with folks starting to arrive at 8:00 AM. The day was perfect – blue sky, no wind and cool temps. That quickly changed as the sun rose and we had ideal shooting conditions.
The sight in line was open until 10:00 AM and was well attended. Everyone was keen to get the pre-match jitters sorted and do last-minute checks of their rigs. During practice session, everyone went through the chronograph station, and all successfully passed!
We kicked off the shooters meeting off at 10:00 AM and did a deep dive into what the match was going to look like and the expectations for everyone on the course. We started with safety briefing and followed up with a range of topics including how to use times, kneeling position, etiquette, scoring and questions that came from the group.
The course was split into 2 sets of 10 lanes with three targets per lane and two shots per target – White course for the open modified shooters and Red for the Hunter and WFTF shooters. The difference was the White course had no positional lanes. Both were challenging courses that no one cleared. Well done Rob W, you kept everyone honest.
We were off the course by 2:45 PM. Score cards were collected and readied for tabulation that evening.
We had the CAFTA annual general meeting at 3:00 PM. It was a quick event, taking about 20 minutes. We reviewed three questions around rules:
- Slugs which are not allowed in Field Target due to their ballistic characteristics exceeding the design of FT ranges.
- Modified Open class to continue being at the match director’s discretion. This is done for flexibility and with the stipulation that match announcement state it is being used.
- Standardizing target kill-zone sizes. We talked about moving to 10mm, 15mm, 25mm and 40 mm targets. It will be reviewed again next year to confirm.
We concluded the meeting by reviewing the open Board positions. No one came forward so the two open spots remained with the incumbents – Jeff H and Brian W.
Of note, there will be two open Board position in 2023. If you are interested in one, please contact the CAFTA Board for more information.
Everyone adjourned to the Reeb House by 4:00 PM to enjoy a well earned eat and swapping stories from the day!
Scores were tallied and posted (awesome having a printer) by 7:00 PM. The posting included the squads and starting lanes for Sunday.
We wrapped the day by changing over the lanes for the next day and painting the targets.
Sunday
Sunday dawned much the same as Saturday except for some crazy winds on the sight in range. They were gusting over 40 kph. Made things super interesting and tested a few shooters belief in their setup! In other words, a great start!
Once again, everyone did a chronograph check on their rigs. And, once again, everyone passed without issue. Thought, we did have one rig that was exactly on the mark – 20.0 ft/lbs! That was a first!!
The shooters meeting started at 9:00 AM and finished by 9:30 AM. It was a bit shorter for the second day and carried the same emphasis on safety and fairness. As Joel taught in the Marshal course, ‘Safe + Fair = Fun’.
The main difference for the shooters was they switched courses. Open Modified class shot the Red course and the Hunter/WFTF groups shot the White course.
The match got underway by 10:00 AM and ran smoothly for the duration. There was one cold line about an hour in that required a target beginning replaced. Otherwise, everything worked as expected.
The courses were once again challenging with no one clearing them. We did see some movement in the positions too with the biggest one being from Tom P who improved by 11 shots to nip ahead of James L by 1! There was some fine shooting all the way around.
Everyone was off the course by 1:30 PM and tucked into the platters of Subway sandwiches.
While folks were eating the scores were tallied and posted. There were not ties! So, we jumped into the awards and prize table. See the results sheet below for how everyone did!
For those that haven’t been to the Nationals, we do things a bit differently for prizes. Instead of the top shooters getting their pick, we pull names from a hat. That’s right, the prizes are random! It’s great fun and everyone is always keen to see their name pulled first. This year was a bonanza with over $4,500 worth of gear up for grabs!
We went over three rounds deep in drawing names! That means everyone got at least three trips to the table. A special shout out to our only junior shooter, Daniel D. He scored both a rifle (thank you Canada Shooting Supply), a scope (thank you Airgun Archery) and a $200 gift certificate to Airgun Source (thank you AGS).
Once the prizes were sorted many of us rushed out and pulled the course down. The timing was perfect as we literally got back to the club house and the sky opened and poured rain for about 20 minutes.
It was a fitting end to an awesome 2 days of shooting!
One last thank you to everyone involved. Look forward to seeing you all again next year and at one of the remaining matches this year.
Remember, Safe + Fair = Fun
JeffH
2022 Nationals Match Director
CAFTA Governor & President
Match Results
| First Name | Last Name | Division | Class | Day 1 Score | Day 2 Score | Total |
| Open PCP | ||||||
| Richard | Stephens | Open | PCP | 56 | 57 | 113 |
| Magdy | Hassouna | Open | PCP | 52 | 51 | 103 |
| Lanny | Hann | Open | PCP | 48 | 53 | 101 |
| Denis | Eden | Open | PCP | 51 | 48 | 99 |
| Tony | Moosie | Open | PCP | 49 | 43 | 92 |
| Harry | Holmes | Open | PCP | 43 | 44 | 87 |
| Peter | Elsby | Open | PCP | 24 | 30 | 54 |
| Open Springer | ||||||
| Marc | Shelleau | Open | Springer | 39 | 40 | 79 |
| Geoffrey | MacGregor | Open | Springer | 32 | 27 | 59 |
| WFTF PCP | ||||||
| Tim | MacSweyn | WFTF | PCP | 50 | 49 | 99 |
| Tom | Peretti | WFTF | PCP | 37 | 52 | 89 |
| Jian (James) | Liu | WFTF | PCP | 45 | 43 | 88 |
| WFTF Springer | ||||||
| Joel | Goodwin | WFTF | Springer | 42 | 53 | 95 |
| Robert | Wall | WFTF | Springer | 31 | 38 | 69 |
| Jonathan | Miller | WFTF | Springer | 22 | 34 | 56 |
| Hunter PCP | ||||||
| Rob | Gastle | Hunter | PCP | 102 | 99 | 201 |
| Mike | Pitkanen | Hunter | PCP | 98 | 96 | 194 |
| Larry | Young | Hunter | PCP | 84 | 82 | 166 |
| Harold | Saunders | Hunter | PCP | 82 | 78 | 160 |
| Hunter Spring | ||||||
| Tony | Lau | Hunter | Springer | 102 | 99 | 201 |
| Gary | Cassidy | Hunter | Springer | 87 | 90 | 177 |
| Mike | Dzugan | Hunter | Springer | 83 | 85 | 168 |
| Antonio | Raposo | Hunter | Springer | 77 | 82 | 159 |
| Jacob | Charlebois | Hunter | Springer | 64 | 69 | 133 |
| Daniel * | Dzugan | Hunter | Springer | 37 | 44 | 81 |
| Rob | Wright | Hunter | Springer | 81 | DNS | 81 |
| * Junior |
Equipment List
| Division | Class | Name | Rifle Make | Rifle Model | Scope Make | Scope Model | Pellet Make | Pellet Weight |
| Hunter | PCP | Harold S | Artemis | M16A | Vector Optics | 4-16×44 FFPIR | JSB | 10.4 |
| Hunter | PCP | Rob G | Daystate | Red Wolf | Hawke | Sidewinder 6-24 | AA | 10.3 |
| Hunter | PCP | Larry Y | Kral | Jumbo | Discovery | VT-R 4-16×44 SF sidewinder | H&N sport Baracuda Match | 10.65 |
| Hunter | PCP | Mike P | Brocock | Sniper XR | Discovery | 6-24 x50 | JSB | 13.43 |
| Hunter | Springer | Rob W | Air Arms | Tx200 Mk3 | Tourex | 6-24 | JSB | 8.44 |
| Hunter | Springer | Jacob C | Walther | Lerrus | Element Helix | 6-24 | JSB Heavy | 10.34 |
| Hunter | Springer | Daniel D | Stoeger | S4000L | Hawke | Vantage 3×9-40 | JSB | 8.44 |
| Hunter | Springer | Tony R | Air Arms | TX200 | Bushnell | Legend 4-14x40mm | Stoeger | 8.6 g |
| Hunter | Springer | Mike D | Weihrauch | HW97K | Hawke | AirMax 4X12-40 | JSB | 8.44 |
| Hunter | Springer | Gary C | Air Arms | Tx200 HC | Hawke | Airmax 30 SF 4-16×50 | JSB | 8.44 |
| Hunter | Springer | Tony L | HW | 97KT | JSB | 8.44 | ||
| Open | PCP | Magdy H | Daystate | GP | March | 10-60X60 | JSB heavy | 10.8 |
| Open | PCP | Richard S | Daystate | Red Wolf | Hawk | 4.5 x 14 x 42 | JSB | 10.34 |
| Open | PCP | Denis E | LD | JSB | 10.8 | |||
| Open | PCP | Tony M | Air Arms | FTP900 | Falcon | T50FT | JSB Diabolo | 8.44 |
| Open | PCP | Lanny H | Daystate | Revere | Hawke | Sidewinder | Air Arms | 10.3 |
| Open | PCP | Chris H | Kral | Super Jumbo | Discovery | 6-24×50 | FX | 16 gr |
| Open | PCP | Peter E | FX | IMACT | Hawke | AirMax 6-24X50 | Crosman | 10.4 |
| Open | Springer | Geoff M | Air Arms | TX200 | Falcon T50 | 10-50 x60 | Crossman | 7.9 |
| WFTF | PCP | Tom P | Steyr | AZ LG100 | Leupold | Competition 45x | JSB | 7.33 |
| WFTF | PCP | James L | steyr | lg110 ft | sightron | siii-10-50x60ft | jsb | 7.88 |
| WFTF | PCP | Tim M | Steyr | LG100 | Leupold | Competition 40X | JSB | 7.97 |
| WFTF | Springer | Joel G | Air Arms | TX200 MKIII | Sightron | 10-50×60 | Air Arms Diabolo | 8.4 |
| WFTF | Springer | Jon M | Air Arms | TX200 | Falcon x50 | 10-50×60 | JSB exact | 8.44 |
| WFTF | Springer | Bob W | AirArms | TX200 | Sightron | SIIISS 10-50×60 | JSB | 8.44 |