January 2nd, 2016

 

ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS 

 

Usually this time of year we are never sure of what the showing will be like around the holidays. Surprisingly it rarely disappoints.  This match was no exception!  Again we are seeing our numbers inch up. For our 25m match we saw 33 shooters, and for our 100m we had 12. This brought our total for the day to 45. Now of course, some of our 100m shooters did participate in the 25, so don’t be misled by the number.  There was a good showing of springers today, 5 in total. HV saw 8 shooters. 
Setup started early. we had participants starting to roll in at 0630.  All the early-birds helped move the benches.  We had Paul, Andy and Garrett get the registration and the targets prepped, and scoring done. The match started just a little after 9 am. Paul has been orientating to the scoring system for benchrest, however he has been doing it quite a bit for the pistol matches. He is doing really well.  In between the matches, we scored the match targets.  We timed ourselves to see how long it really took us.  The scanning for the match took less than ten minutes, and verifying missed and double punched targets took about seven minutes. So we turned over a 33-participant match around in about 17 minutes.  Not bad.  A well oiled machine, I'd say!  Now mind you, this is with laying eyes on every bull as well, not skimping in any way on accuracy, of course!   We are still trying to figure what to do to our shooters that leave staples in the targets. Tar and feathering hasn’t been ruled out. 
Que the weather part…   Ok here it goes: Windy (again).  Arizona has seen its share of unusually cold weather over the last several weeks.  Sometimes colder than Buffalo NY, on some days! (Yes, really!) This weekend was reported to be a lot warmer.  It was a bit chilly in the morning. The bite of chill smoothed over to warm up nicely by noon.  The conditions were wi-i-i-i-nnnn-dy.  Constant at least around 8-10 mph and gusts from 11-15mph, with most Windicators and Windmiesters pegged.  This made for some great competitive challenges!!!   Yup that means holding off in the 6 ring, and floatin' ‘em on in.  We had one target come off the stand, but luckily that was just before we commenced fire.  Can we say “optimum learning conditions”?!
We had some guests come from out of state to join us.  Mike Niksch, the builder of the Thomas made a road trip all the way from Montrose, Colorado to join us.  I believe he said it was a ten hour drive in the snow, up hill, both ways, barefoot.  His family was reportedly enjoying the sun poolside at the hotel, as we wore our mukluks and tukes freezing our butts off.  
A big thanks goes out to Robert, and Larry from Airguns of Arizona for bringing out the PAD Van! As always it’s great to see all the new equipment, be graced with a toolbox on wheels, and most importantly, the kind fill-up of air after the match to our shooters.  We genuinely appreciate your support. 

Kind Regards, 

Garrett

 

 

A good turnout of 12 shooters participated in the 100 meter Big Bore Bench-rest match on Jan. 2, 2016. Ran one round of 60 shots in a 60 minute limit. The wind was a bit challenging with wind gust up to 10 mph. Temperature was luke warm by time we started. Much improved considering the morning's cold. Congratulations to all who participated. Please see attached match scores.   Also, as a reminder next match will be on Sunday Feb. 7, 2016. Our Saturday match is preempted by a different major match. Thanks to all who helped set up and cleaned up. 

 

Dave Litt