April 1st, 2015

 

ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS

 

The event was many weeks in the planning and finally came to be on this gorgeous Saturday morning.  With 35 shooters signed up, it was sure to be a great match.

Volunteer crews began arriving at the range at 0550 to get things ready.  Despite the late spring weather, we actually had our jackets on, with the crisp spring air.  As crews came in, the first thing on the task was to get the benches aligned to the 25m line.  Some needed to be relocated from the other ranges.  Target backers were acquired and distributed on the target line.  Dave rolled in with the magic mike and got that set up.  Bob Taylor arrived and set up a new computer he custom built for this event.  After testing servers, and other processors, the new scoring computer was ready for blistering speeds.  He got that all set up and ready for the day's events.  Airguns of Arizona brought donuts, and chilled water in large ice chests for the group.  the announcement was made that the medals were stuck in transit due to severe weather in the east coast, and wouldn't arrive in time for the event.

Once we got everything set up, we opened the range for practice.  We saw some very familiar faces come in from out of town.  Sigh in went smothly, due to the on-line registration and payment.  Since registration  closed two days before, we were able to pre-make all the targets and get the Orion system all set up and ready.  Targets were handed out for the first Relay.

The day's event were set up in a tournament style format.  Ywo relays in the morning, and the finals after lunch in the afternoon.  the top shooters from each relay were eligible to shoot in the finals in the class they shot in.  Shooters were able to shoot twice in one class, or once in two classes.  If they scored in the top three in two different classes, they had to choose which one class thsy wanted to compete in, in the finals.  There was quite a few that had to make the tough choice.  The matches started about 30 min. behind schedule, giving folks extra time to sight-in.  

The first relay ended after three matches.  We opened up the range again for sight-in, so folks who switched rifles could get some trigger time.  The scond relay ended around noon, just in time for lunch.

John Lenio set up the lunch, for delivery from Subway with 6" sandwiches, chips and soda.  It was a nice break after some intensive shooting in the morning hours.  During the lunch break we opened the Silent Auction with three coveted items.  The first, was an Omega air compressor donated from Airguns of Arizona.  The second item was a Windicator wind flag custom built by Dave Litt.  The third item was an Aeon scope donated by Wild West Airguns.  As lunch progressed, the wolves hovered and drooled over the items for auction.  Bids kept coming as folks would walk away, and others would sneak in to put their name down.  The bidding remained open until the end of the day.  Brian Miller took the compressor home for a smoking deal of $1200.  Larry Nelson swooped in and took the Windicator for $270. And the Aeon scope went for $185 to Paul Biedler.

As lunch was finishing, the announcements were made for the top three in each class, and who moved on to the finals.  

Scoring went at a blistering fast rate, with the results of all the shooters completed before the end of the next match.   Again, many thanks to Bob Taylor who spent all day for us scoring well over 6,500 bulls!

Some of the time delay before the finals was determining who qualifed to move on with so many who became eligible shooting two different classes.  Once the names were announced, the preparation and sight-in began.  

The air was thick with tension as the best shooters came to an end, and the final tallying began.

Immediately after the end of the last match, the shooters from LV, HV, Hybird, and Open were required to test their rifles.  

Testing turned up one unfortunate shooter that was shooting too hot, and was disqualified.  Even after extreme care was taken to perform multiple testing with multiple pellets and scales, it was determined the rifle was just too far over the limit.

Thanks to Mark Bouchard and Ray Perron for the officiating that difficult task.

After all the scores were tabulated, we announced the winners.  Since this was a dual event.  (the Grand Canyon State Games and USARB Regionals) we had medals to pass out from GCSG.

The first place winners won an Aeon scope of their choice from Wild West Airguns, and a $100 gift certificate to any airgun retailer of their choice which was donated by Airguns of Arizona.  Second place winners, earned a $50 gift cert. to any airgun retailer, and third received a $25 gift cert. to any airgun retailor, again donated by AoA.

Photos were made.  Friends were made.  And winners were made.  A few folks stuck around to help clean up and police the aera, and watch the sun begin to set.  Billy, the Rio Range manager finally kicked us out just before he said the Swedish bikini team was reported to show up.

 

Another great event, and more to come.

 

Respectfully,

 

Garrett