(Match Report by Tyler Patner)
An odd Saturday match for the Northeast Ohio Airgunners kicked off the 2022 season at the Twin Oaks Air Rifle Range in Chagrin Falls, Ohio. After a last minute schedule change due to some gloomy weather on Sunday, 27 shooters made the trip to test their skills at NOA's first match of the year. They were greeted with beautiful weather in the high 60s and clear skies.
The course was set in the woods, which has historically been too muddy this time of year, but a relatively dry week allowed for some newly cut lanes to be used in conjunction with the existing woods course. Since the leaves are just starting to pop, the normal protection from the wind that shooters enjoy on our woods course was all but gone. Coupled with a nearly 34T difficulty on the course, well over half of the targets being over 40 yards, and some tricky winds, this was no cake walk for the shooters.
We had a few new shooters join us, Joe Edwards and Ken Santo. Joe was running a .22 FX Maverick, tuned down to sub 20 FPE and Ken was running a .22 Benjamin Armada tuned down as well. Both shooters did quite well for their first times out, and are looking to change up their equipment to better suit their FT needs. Looking forward to seeing them both again as the season progresses.
Coming off of the course, there were a number of shooters left puzzled by the wind. In some cases (I can personally attest to this), winds were far more significant than they appeared to be down the lanes. On a few occasions, what looked to be a left edge of the kill zone hold, turned out to require holding 1" out of the kill. Or, what appeared to be enough wind to require holding outside of the kill zone, turned into a dead-on faceplate strike right on your crosshairs. Tricky, tough, challenging, frustrating are all words I heard used to describe it.
In Hunter PCP, Dennis Himes and Bill Rabbitt both posted match high scores of 54/60 to tie for the top spot. They decided to let a coin flip settle things, and Dennis came away the victor. Just one shot behind with a 53 was Keith Walters in Open PCP shooting his new Thomas. In WFTF PCP, Chris Oldfield came up from Kentucky and shot a solid 47, matched by Tyler Patner in WFTF Piston and his TX200. In Hunter Piston, Dan Putz took top honors with his own TX200 shooting a 41. And our lone Unlimited shooter, Tim Baylor knocked down 51 targets on the day. Very solid scores across the board.
Thanks to everyone that came out despite the schedule change, we hope to see everyone at our next match, on June 12th. Between now and then, make sure you are attending as many matches here in Ohio as possible. Baker Airguns and Pyramyd Air have teamed up to sponsor the 2022 Buckeye Field Target Series with some amazing gift card prizes that will extend beyond just the division winners if there are enough shooters that participate. Post a score at four of the five Ohio clubs during the year in as many divisions as you want to qualify for your chance to earn some gift cards! It's going to be an awesome year! Thanks to both Pyramyd Air and Baker Airguns for their continued support of Field Target in Ohio.
See you all next month, until then, stay safe and shoot straight!