American Airguns Blog
Friday, April 08, 2005
Garage Shooting Range
Over the winter I setup an indoor range in my garage. I mounted an old pellet trap I made many moons ago in one corner of the garage and I shoot from the opposite corner which allows me a 6.5 meter range. I didn't think I would use it that much but I needed somewhere to practice in the winter time with both my 10 meter rifle and my field target rig. I surprised myself in that I used the range a lot and found that shooting at a 10 meter target reduced to 6.5 meters was very challenging and a lot of fun to shoot.
After some pratice and study of "The Way of the Rifle" book I decided to put up one of my 3/8" field targets up on top of my trap and see how I did with that. I thought the 3/8" hole would be easy after shooting at a dot of a 10 ring, but I was wrong. Knocking the field target over became quite a challenge. I took my FT rig out to practice sitting too when I had the time. I turn downed the power down to 6x to give the perception of distance and so I could see the target at 6 meters. It was definitely easier to hit with my FT rig but it still wasn't a gimme.
My old trap was a pretty poor design since it doesn't have a bottom on it, the pellets would hit and slide down the rear plate into a smal reservoir at the bottom. Without a bottom plate, some of the pellet splatter ends up on the floor. I finally broke down and bought an Outers bullet trap from Champion Shooters Supply to help keep the garage clean and so I can shoot my .22 rimfire rifles as well. It came in yesterday and it is a heavy duty unit. I tried it a little bit last night and it worked great. It is a bit loud but a bit of caulk on the back side will dampen the sound some.
I am glad I developed my little indoor range, it has allowed me to shoot and relax during the winter months. My standing shooting has improved tremendously as well since I have had more time to practice in the garage. I would like to make another pellet trap that isn't as deep as the Outers trap, I have an idea for one and I think I will try to develop it as an upgrade to my indoor range.
After some pratice and study of "The Way of the Rifle" book I decided to put up one of my 3/8" field targets up on top of my trap and see how I did with that. I thought the 3/8" hole would be easy after shooting at a dot of a 10 ring, but I was wrong. Knocking the field target over became quite a challenge. I took my FT rig out to practice sitting too when I had the time. I turn downed the power down to 6x to give the perception of distance and so I could see the target at 6 meters. It was definitely easier to hit with my FT rig but it still wasn't a gimme.
My old trap was a pretty poor design since it doesn't have a bottom on it, the pellets would hit and slide down the rear plate into a smal reservoir at the bottom. Without a bottom plate, some of the pellet splatter ends up on the floor. I finally broke down and bought an Outers bullet trap from Champion Shooters Supply to help keep the garage clean and so I can shoot my .22 rimfire rifles as well. It came in yesterday and it is a heavy duty unit. I tried it a little bit last night and it worked great. It is a bit loud but a bit of caulk on the back side will dampen the sound some.
I am glad I developed my little indoor range, it has allowed me to shoot and relax during the winter months. My standing shooting has improved tremendously as well since I have had more time to practice in the garage. I would like to make another pellet trap that isn't as deep as the Outers trap, I have an idea for one and I think I will try to develop it as an upgrade to my indoor range.
Monday, April 04, 2005
The Godfather
I heard over the weekend that the man who I call the Godfather of American Field Target, Rodney Boyce, is retiring from field target. I was saddened by the news but knew that this would happen one day. His retirement was officially announced at the Cajun Classic in Baton Rouge on Sunday. Jack Kirkendoll announced it to the crowd of airgunners before the awards ceremony and reviewed with us some of the things that Rodney had done over the years for field target here in the US.
I know I won’t remember everything from Jack’s speech but here are some the highlights of what Rodney did for the FT sport: he pioneered the use of high magnification scopes used to rangefind targets, was one of the first airgunners to use PCP rifles in competition, he came up with the squadding system we use at our matches, he pioneered and then eliminated the chair class, he helped write the bylaws and shoot rules that we currently use, he helped to form the world FT organization, he help in the development of the Crosman premier pellet, (if memory serves me right) his club held the first US Nationals in 1987, he was an AAFTA governor for a lot of years, he also help bring gentlemanly conduct into the sport.
On top of all that, he was a huge promoter of the game. He brought a lot of us airgunners into the sport of Field Target and now we are forever hooked on it. It was Rodney that encouraged Jack and Terry Kirkendoll to start a club in Baton Rouge that is now one of the best clubs in the country. Over the years he has persuaded and encouraged many more guys to shoot FT and to start their own clubs. I was just one of them.
Rodney was my mentor as a match director and a shooter. I lived just two hours north of him when I lived in Florida. I bought my first real adult air rifle (an HW97) in September of ’94 so that I could shoot in the back yard and hopefully to shoot Silhouette. I bought it from Bob Koschler in the Tampa area and he gave me Rodney number to talk to about field target. I called him and he talked me into attending the upcoming state match in December. I read a bit about it and decided to give it a try. I went to the match with a Bushnell 9x airgun scope on my rifle and shot a dismal 24 of 60 but after I hit my first target, a blue bird in a tree, I was hooked.
It was Rodney that suggested I should go to Baton Rouge the following April and shoot the US Nationals there. I decided to upgrade to a Bushnell 6-18x scope for the match and shot another dismal 60 of 100 but took second place in Standard piston class. It was after that match that I decided to start my own club and a local gun club and Rodney took me under his wing to help me get things organized and get the club running.
Over the years Rodney helped me prepare and run a lot of matches including my first Nationals in 1999. He encouraged some of my own new ideas for that match like the use of timers on all lanes and it was him that put my name in the hat for AAFTA governor. He has had a pronounced affect on my shooting career and much of what I do as a match director and shooter is because of his influence.
On top of all of that, Rodney was a heck of a shooter. He won the national championship three times and many other matches that he shot in. He was always looking for an edge and constantly tinkering with his equipment and coming up with all kinds of innovations to help him shoot better. On top of all that he was a friend and a just a nice guy. Our game will miss him and I doubt that it will ever be quite the same again.
I know I won’t remember everything from Jack’s speech but here are some the highlights of what Rodney did for the FT sport: he pioneered the use of high magnification scopes used to rangefind targets, was one of the first airgunners to use PCP rifles in competition, he came up with the squadding system we use at our matches, he pioneered and then eliminated the chair class, he helped write the bylaws and shoot rules that we currently use, he helped to form the world FT organization, he help in the development of the Crosman premier pellet, (if memory serves me right) his club held the first US Nationals in 1987, he was an AAFTA governor for a lot of years, he also help bring gentlemanly conduct into the sport.
On top of all that, he was a huge promoter of the game. He brought a lot of us airgunners into the sport of Field Target and now we are forever hooked on it. It was Rodney that encouraged Jack and Terry Kirkendoll to start a club in Baton Rouge that is now one of the best clubs in the country. Over the years he has persuaded and encouraged many more guys to shoot FT and to start their own clubs. I was just one of them.
Rodney was my mentor as a match director and a shooter. I lived just two hours north of him when I lived in Florida. I bought my first real adult air rifle (an HW97) in September of ’94 so that I could shoot in the back yard and hopefully to shoot Silhouette. I bought it from Bob Koschler in the Tampa area and he gave me Rodney number to talk to about field target. I called him and he talked me into attending the upcoming state match in December. I read a bit about it and decided to give it a try. I went to the match with a Bushnell 9x airgun scope on my rifle and shot a dismal 24 of 60 but after I hit my first target, a blue bird in a tree, I was hooked.
It was Rodney that suggested I should go to Baton Rouge the following April and shoot the US Nationals there. I decided to upgrade to a Bushnell 6-18x scope for the match and shot another dismal 60 of 100 but took second place in Standard piston class. It was after that match that I decided to start my own club and a local gun club and Rodney took me under his wing to help me get things organized and get the club running.
Over the years Rodney helped me prepare and run a lot of matches including my first Nationals in 1999. He encouraged some of my own new ideas for that match like the use of timers on all lanes and it was him that put my name in the hat for AAFTA governor. He has had a pronounced affect on my shooting career and much of what I do as a match director and shooter is because of his influence.
On top of all of that, Rodney was a heck of a shooter. He won the national championship three times and many other matches that he shot in. He was always looking for an edge and constantly tinkering with his equipment and coming up with all kinds of innovations to help him shoot better. On top of all that he was a friend and a just a nice guy. Our game will miss him and I doubt that it will ever be quite the same again.
The Cajun Classic
I made it back from Baton Rouge safe and sound last night after shooting my 10th Cajun Classic field target match. This was probably one of the most enjoyable matches I have been to in a very long time. The weather was just perfect on the both match days and most of the practice day and of course, the food was fabulous.
It always seems to happen on vacation! I stopped for gas on Thursday on my drive to Baton Rouge and after fueling up I got into my car, stuck the key in the ignition and gave it a turn. Nothing. I tried again, still nothing. Great. I checked the battery terminals and tried cleaning them a bit but still no power. The battery was dead. The last time I had replaced it was when I was on vacation in Florida three years ago and it died in a similar manner in a Circuit City loading dock. After a jump start I was on my way again.
Friday started out with a chance of severe weather as I headed over to Walmart (at 7:00 am) to get a new battery. I had an hour to blow so I went looking for some fun targets to take out to the range. I knew that the BAC guys had the green army figures to put out so I didn't bother with them. I went over to the candy isle to see if they had any chalky type candy that might be fun to shoot. I didn't want anything that might be sticky or gummy since the course was right behind the 50 yard target holders.
Not finding anything there I headed over to the pharmacy area to look at pills that might work. Years ago in West Palm Beach we used to shoot aspirin at 50 yards and that was a real challenge but they are a bit small for a day predicted to have heavy wind. I found a cheap bottle of Walmart brand antacid tablets that I thought would work. They were chalky so they should explode somewhat when hit. I needed someway of setting them on the target holders and thought of Playdough or modeling clay. I checked the kiddie isles and found a cheap set of off brand Playdough for a buck and I was set. For under $3 I had some fun targets! I set them up at the range and they worked great, they would be a little cloud of "smoke" when they were hit and both the playdough and tablets will disolve in the elements.
Practice day was interesting, the wind wasn't too bad in the morning and I managed to get a pretty good zero, but boy was my rifle vibrating a lot. It was shooting pretty good, I had it tuned by Paul Watts originally but late last summer it was starting to vibrate a bit so I opened it up to take a look. That was a big mistake, I couldn't help myself and put some spring tar on the spring which messed up Pauls tune. By this spring it started shooting rather harshly and that is how it was shooting this weekend. It made it very difficult to follow through properly and get good groups. The action is coming out tonight and getting shipped back to Paul tomorrow to get fixed. Pauls new trigger blade and the upgrades I made to the stock over the past few weeks made a big difference though. I found it much easier get into position and to relax. I also found that I didn't near as fatigued towards the end of the match which helped my score.
It was really nice to see all of my field target family again. This year Alan Otsuka brought his brother and a buddy of his and they were a riot! Richard Shimuzu was living up to his new name of "Field Target Paparazzi" taking photos of everyone at the range and then handing out the photographs to them the next day. The Atlanta crew was there as was a contingent from the Washington clubs and a big showing from Texas. A big group of us made our yearly trip to Pocorillos for lunch on Friday and enjoyed one of the best Muffalettas on the planet. Hmmmmm, Muffaletta. I had a chance to really catch up with some of my old friends too like David Slade, Jack Kirkendoll, and Wade Sutherland. I hadn't seen Wade in over a year so it was really nice to have some time to catchup on Saturday after the match.
The course setup this year wasn't overyly difficult this year, I didn't hear what the difficulty factor was but I would guess that it was around 29-31 average. There were some really difficult shots like a 5/8" at 38 yards on lane 13 of Belle Terre but there were a lot of really easy shots too. It was kind of fun to shoot some easy shots again especially since I didn't have much time this spring to practice. It definitely helped my score! I am not the kind of shooter that can just pick up a gun and shoot great like some of the other shooters, I have to practice and get into a groove before I shoot well.
I had been practicing my standing shots over the winter and was counting on my standing shooting to give me an edge at this match. That didn't happen. Many of you know Rodney Boyce, one of the Godfathers of Amercan field target, and this was supposed to be his last match before retiring from FT. Rodny who is in his mid 70's hated standing shots so as a tribute to him the course was setup without any standing shots! This was probably the first match that I have been to that didn't have any standers. Too bad, they might have helped my score!
I didn't win this years match, I only shot an 87 on a pretty easy course, but I had more fun this year than I think I ever did before. I think a lot of it for me was that I wasn't focused on winning as much as I was on enjoying myself and trying to shoot my best. That took a lot of the pressure off and allowed me to have more fun. I had accomplished my goal of winning the Cajun's so that monkey was off my back. I was able to go in and have more fun and enjoy the shooting more and that is really how I want it to be. Besides, I would have to have been shooting out of my butt to have beat Rod Bradley and Roz Sumpter, both of these guys were on fire and on my best day I don't know if I would have beat them. Rod shot a 91 and had an 88 or 89 1/2 on two windy courses. The other guy to look out for in piston class is Ken Hughes. He is shooting piston gun this year and he is learning fast. He was hot on everyones tail until late in the match on Sunday when his scope shifted. He managed to keep things going but not until after it cost him a few points.
With all the close scores most everyone thought for sure that there would be a bunch of ties at the top of the leader boards but when the dust settled there wasn't a single tie. We all ate lunch and the awards were handed out with 1st place pcp going to Bill Howarth having only dropped 1 shot over the entire weekend and the piston award going to Rod Bradley. We all said our good byes and headed our ways. The 2005 Cajun Classic was a great match and I will always have fond memories of this weekend.
It always seems to happen on vacation! I stopped for gas on Thursday on my drive to Baton Rouge and after fueling up I got into my car, stuck the key in the ignition and gave it a turn. Nothing. I tried again, still nothing. Great. I checked the battery terminals and tried cleaning them a bit but still no power. The battery was dead. The last time I had replaced it was when I was on vacation in Florida three years ago and it died in a similar manner in a Circuit City loading dock. After a jump start I was on my way again.
Friday started out with a chance of severe weather as I headed over to Walmart (at 7:00 am) to get a new battery. I had an hour to blow so I went looking for some fun targets to take out to the range. I knew that the BAC guys had the green army figures to put out so I didn't bother with them. I went over to the candy isle to see if they had any chalky type candy that might be fun to shoot. I didn't want anything that might be sticky or gummy since the course was right behind the 50 yard target holders.
Not finding anything there I headed over to the pharmacy area to look at pills that might work. Years ago in West Palm Beach we used to shoot aspirin at 50 yards and that was a real challenge but they are a bit small for a day predicted to have heavy wind. I found a cheap bottle of Walmart brand antacid tablets that I thought would work. They were chalky so they should explode somewhat when hit. I needed someway of setting them on the target holders and thought of Playdough or modeling clay. I checked the kiddie isles and found a cheap set of off brand Playdough for a buck and I was set. For under $3 I had some fun targets! I set them up at the range and they worked great, they would be a little cloud of "smoke" when they were hit and both the playdough and tablets will disolve in the elements.
Practice day was interesting, the wind wasn't too bad in the morning and I managed to get a pretty good zero, but boy was my rifle vibrating a lot. It was shooting pretty good, I had it tuned by Paul Watts originally but late last summer it was starting to vibrate a bit so I opened it up to take a look. That was a big mistake, I couldn't help myself and put some spring tar on the spring which messed up Pauls tune. By this spring it started shooting rather harshly and that is how it was shooting this weekend. It made it very difficult to follow through properly and get good groups. The action is coming out tonight and getting shipped back to Paul tomorrow to get fixed. Pauls new trigger blade and the upgrades I made to the stock over the past few weeks made a big difference though. I found it much easier get into position and to relax. I also found that I didn't near as fatigued towards the end of the match which helped my score.
It was really nice to see all of my field target family again. This year Alan Otsuka brought his brother and a buddy of his and they were a riot! Richard Shimuzu was living up to his new name of "Field Target Paparazzi" taking photos of everyone at the range and then handing out the photographs to them the next day. The Atlanta crew was there as was a contingent from the Washington clubs and a big showing from Texas. A big group of us made our yearly trip to Pocorillos for lunch on Friday and enjoyed one of the best Muffalettas on the planet. Hmmmmm, Muffaletta. I had a chance to really catch up with some of my old friends too like David Slade, Jack Kirkendoll, and Wade Sutherland. I hadn't seen Wade in over a year so it was really nice to have some time to catchup on Saturday after the match.
The course setup this year wasn't overyly difficult this year, I didn't hear what the difficulty factor was but I would guess that it was around 29-31 average. There were some really difficult shots like a 5/8" at 38 yards on lane 13 of Belle Terre but there were a lot of really easy shots too. It was kind of fun to shoot some easy shots again especially since I didn't have much time this spring to practice. It definitely helped my score! I am not the kind of shooter that can just pick up a gun and shoot great like some of the other shooters, I have to practice and get into a groove before I shoot well.
I had been practicing my standing shots over the winter and was counting on my standing shooting to give me an edge at this match. That didn't happen. Many of you know Rodney Boyce, one of the Godfathers of Amercan field target, and this was supposed to be his last match before retiring from FT. Rodny who is in his mid 70's hated standing shots so as a tribute to him the course was setup without any standing shots! This was probably the first match that I have been to that didn't have any standers. Too bad, they might have helped my score!
I didn't win this years match, I only shot an 87 on a pretty easy course, but I had more fun this year than I think I ever did before. I think a lot of it for me was that I wasn't focused on winning as much as I was on enjoying myself and trying to shoot my best. That took a lot of the pressure off and allowed me to have more fun. I had accomplished my goal of winning the Cajun's so that monkey was off my back. I was able to go in and have more fun and enjoy the shooting more and that is really how I want it to be. Besides, I would have to have been shooting out of my butt to have beat Rod Bradley and Roz Sumpter, both of these guys were on fire and on my best day I don't know if I would have beat them. Rod shot a 91 and had an 88 or 89 1/2 on two windy courses. The other guy to look out for in piston class is Ken Hughes. He is shooting piston gun this year and he is learning fast. He was hot on everyones tail until late in the match on Sunday when his scope shifted. He managed to keep things going but not until after it cost him a few points.
With all the close scores most everyone thought for sure that there would be a bunch of ties at the top of the leader boards but when the dust settled there wasn't a single tie. We all ate lunch and the awards were handed out with 1st place pcp going to Bill Howarth having only dropped 1 shot over the entire weekend and the piston award going to Rod Bradley. We all said our good byes and headed our ways. The 2005 Cajun Classic was a great match and I will always have fond memories of this weekend.
