American Airguns Blog
Friday, April 07, 2006
Cajun Match Review & Pictures
I got an email last night from Ron Juneau letting me know of a nice review of the Cajun Classic FT match this past weekend. The review is written by Robert Fischer form the Kermit Airgun Club in Texas. There are a boatload of pictures from the match on the site (there is even one of me with my ProSport) and I thought I would share it everyone. The link is: http://www.kermitairgunclub.com/meetings/cajunspring-06.htm. Enjoy!
Thursday, April 06, 2006
Hunter Class
We have been shooting Hunter FT at our club (Tennessee Valley Airgunners ) now for about three years. Since we started shooting Hunter I have always wanted to try shooting Hunter at a major match. Every year I go to Baton Rouge for the Cajun Spring Classic and the past three years I have toyed with the Idea of shooting Hunter class there. Jack Kirkendoll has been shooting it for years with his ProSport and Leupold 3-9x combo and I thought it would be fun to shoot with him. Well, this year I decided that I might think about possibly really shooting Hunter style at the match.
As it turned out, there was enough questions about offering a Hunter Class that the Bayou Airgun Club decided to offer it as a formal class. That sealed the deal for me. I had decided on the way down to the match that I would finally put my beloved HW97 aside for at least one match and give Hunter a go. That lasted well into the first 5 minutes on the sight in range after I had a chance to shoot my HW97. Oh, man, it was shooting so sweet and it kept begging me to shoot it. Now I was torn, I wanted to shoot my HW97 but I also wanted to shoot Hunter. Well, I got my ProSport and sighted it in. It wasn’t shooting as well. The zero seemed to shift around a bit and I kept having an occasional flyer. On top of that the cocking handle started to fall down when I shot it standing. This was a bit troubling and made me lean even more to shooting my match rifle.
Saturday morning I woke up resolved, I was going to shoot Hunter and that was that. That lasted for about a half hour this time once I found out that the loose cocking lever could be a real problem. That only left me with my match rifle. I was still resolved to shoot Hunter. Luckily, I was able to borrow a TX200 from my buddy Wade and off I went with 5 minutes of sight in time to shoot the course.
I knew that shooting Hunter was going to be a completely different experience for me but I didn’t think it would be too bad since we shoot the hunter course at my home club. However trying to hit the smaller kill zones at longer distances was a real challenge. I was very surprised though at well I did even with the smaller kill zones. On Saturday I really struggled with the TX’s trigger for about half the match, I had to adjust it on the fly to more of my liking. Once I got that figured out, I was surprised at how well I did. The closer targets were fairly easy to guess the approximate range and correct hold over/under. I got most all of the distances close enough to hit most of the close targets. The longer targets gave me fits and I totally missed the distances by 5-7 yards which on some of the smaller kills were enough to miss. I had the shooting part down pretty well it was the range estimation and hold over/under that was the hard part to guess.
Before heading out to the course, Jack had given me a little trick in estimating the ranges. The trick was to estimate the range while standing at the lane rather than while sitting. This give a better angle to look at the target and triangulate the distance. Hmm, made sense to my engineering mind so that is what I did. After a few lanes I could see that it worked.
I ended up with a 32 on Saturday with Wade’s TX. I managed to fix my ProSport, as I wrote in my last blog, so I was very happy to shoot it on Sunday. With a day’s experience and my own rifle I felt confident that I would be able to shoot a better score. My ProSport was tuned by Paul Watts and shoots smoothly at 950 fps with a spread under 10 fps. It is a wonderful airgun and I totally enjoy shooting it. At that velocity I am not ½” high or low from 10 yards to 50 and only 1” low at 55. That makes the range estimation a lot easier!
Sunday was a day of ups and downs. I made some incredible shots only to miss some really easy shots. I had a string of about 5-6 lanes where I cleaned the lane except for my last shot. It was me, I just seemed to flinch or move just as I release my shot. I probably wasn’t on my natural point of aim but didn’t relax enough to know realize that. I still did a lot better overall. Most of my misses were from guessing the range wrong, there were errors in my shooting mechanics. I ended up with a 37 of 50. Over all I shot a 69 which I didn’t think too bad for my first try at Hunter.
There were a total of four of us shooting Hunter class, I was second overall to my arch springgun nemesis Rod Bradley. Rod shot an incredible 80 of 100 on the weekend! That was really impressive especially considering he was shooting a .20 HW97. He is a hunter at heart and his shooting and range skills really shown through at that match.
I totally enjoyed shooting Hunter class. It was challenging in new ways and more challenging than the traditional field target. The shooting skill was still critical but so was ranging accurately. The whole idea of guess and shoot with out rangefinding and dialing was very refreshing. I was able to sit down, shoot and get up within two minutes. The only times I went over that was if I was talking or goofing around. Hunter class was a real breath of fresh air and I think I am going to have to give it a try again in the future.
As it turned out, there was enough questions about offering a Hunter Class that the Bayou Airgun Club decided to offer it as a formal class. That sealed the deal for me. I had decided on the way down to the match that I would finally put my beloved HW97 aside for at least one match and give Hunter a go. That lasted well into the first 5 minutes on the sight in range after I had a chance to shoot my HW97. Oh, man, it was shooting so sweet and it kept begging me to shoot it. Now I was torn, I wanted to shoot my HW97 but I also wanted to shoot Hunter. Well, I got my ProSport and sighted it in. It wasn’t shooting as well. The zero seemed to shift around a bit and I kept having an occasional flyer. On top of that the cocking handle started to fall down when I shot it standing. This was a bit troubling and made me lean even more to shooting my match rifle.
Saturday morning I woke up resolved, I was going to shoot Hunter and that was that. That lasted for about a half hour this time once I found out that the loose cocking lever could be a real problem. That only left me with my match rifle. I was still resolved to shoot Hunter. Luckily, I was able to borrow a TX200 from my buddy Wade and off I went with 5 minutes of sight in time to shoot the course.
I knew that shooting Hunter was going to be a completely different experience for me but I didn’t think it would be too bad since we shoot the hunter course at my home club. However trying to hit the smaller kill zones at longer distances was a real challenge. I was very surprised though at well I did even with the smaller kill zones. On Saturday I really struggled with the TX’s trigger for about half the match, I had to adjust it on the fly to more of my liking. Once I got that figured out, I was surprised at how well I did. The closer targets were fairly easy to guess the approximate range and correct hold over/under. I got most all of the distances close enough to hit most of the close targets. The longer targets gave me fits and I totally missed the distances by 5-7 yards which on some of the smaller kills were enough to miss. I had the shooting part down pretty well it was the range estimation and hold over/under that was the hard part to guess.
Before heading out to the course, Jack had given me a little trick in estimating the ranges. The trick was to estimate the range while standing at the lane rather than while sitting. This give a better angle to look at the target and triangulate the distance. Hmm, made sense to my engineering mind so that is what I did. After a few lanes I could see that it worked.
I ended up with a 32 on Saturday with Wade’s TX. I managed to fix my ProSport, as I wrote in my last blog, so I was very happy to shoot it on Sunday. With a day’s experience and my own rifle I felt confident that I would be able to shoot a better score. My ProSport was tuned by Paul Watts and shoots smoothly at 950 fps with a spread under 10 fps. It is a wonderful airgun and I totally enjoy shooting it. At that velocity I am not ½” high or low from 10 yards to 50 and only 1” low at 55. That makes the range estimation a lot easier!
Sunday was a day of ups and downs. I made some incredible shots only to miss some really easy shots. I had a string of about 5-6 lanes where I cleaned the lane except for my last shot. It was me, I just seemed to flinch or move just as I release my shot. I probably wasn’t on my natural point of aim but didn’t relax enough to know realize that. I still did a lot better overall. Most of my misses were from guessing the range wrong, there were errors in my shooting mechanics. I ended up with a 37 of 50. Over all I shot a 69 which I didn’t think too bad for my first try at Hunter.
There were a total of four of us shooting Hunter class, I was second overall to my arch springgun nemesis Rod Bradley. Rod shot an incredible 80 of 100 on the weekend! That was really impressive especially considering he was shooting a .20 HW97. He is a hunter at heart and his shooting and range skills really shown through at that match.
I totally enjoyed shooting Hunter class. It was challenging in new ways and more challenging than the traditional field target. The shooting skill was still critical but so was ranging accurately. The whole idea of guess and shoot with out rangefinding and dialing was very refreshing. I was able to sit down, shoot and get up within two minutes. The only times I went over that was if I was talking or goofing around. Hunter class was a real breath of fresh air and I think I am going to have to give it a try again in the future.
Tuesday, April 04, 2006
Springtime in Baton Rouge
I made it back from my annual pilgrimage to Baton Rouge where I shot my 11th Cajun Spring Classic field target match. I shot my first match there in April of 1995 and I have been back every year since. It is truly a first class event and one every field target shooter should experience at least once in their life. The club is a classic and one that I thoroughly enjoy every year.
This year my beautiful wife came along with me to celebrate our 2nd anniversary. We had a great time in Baton Rouge. Friday I went to the range to sight in and chit-chat and then in the afternoon Deb and I went into downtown Baton Rouge to check out some local sites. We visited the LSU campus as well, which was very pretty. We had a great dinner and wrapped up the day in the hotel hot tub. It was a fun and relaxing day all the way around.
Going to Baton Rouge, I was trying to decide if I was going to shoot Piston division or the Hunter division that they were offering for the first time. I have wanted to shoot Hunter style for a couple of years but each year I would decide to shoot my HW97 once I got there. This year I had my .177 ProSport pretty good and I thought that I might have a go at Hunter class for the first time. Well, after a while Friday morning I was leaning towards my HW97 again, it was so well and I was feeling so comfortable with it. I woke up Saturday morning resolved to shoot Hunter class.
I got to the range and began to notice that the ing handle on my ProSport would fall down from under the stock every time I would shoot it. The groups weren’t looking too good either, I was getting a lot of flyers. I talked to Paul Watts about it and he told me that I shouldn’t shoot the ProSport as this condition could be a problem with the seal on the compression chamber. He also mentioned that the front stock screws can sometimes be tightened down to the point where they hit a bushing inside the gun and that may cause an accuracy problem and possibly the ing lever problem. I thought at this point that I would have to shoot my HW97, but luckily Wade Sutherland had a backup TX200 that I could use and I went ahead and shot Hunter class.
Saturdays match was one of the most relaxed matches I have shot in a long time. I was with David Slade and Alan Otsuka (old friends) and we had a great time. I had about 5 minutes of sight-in time with the TX before we had to head into the woods so I was trying to get used to the gun as we went along. We were cutting up and having a lot of fun and that made a lot of my misses a lot easier to take. After about four lanes, I decided I had to re-adjust the trigger since it was a heavy single stage and I prefer a light two stage. After about three or four more lanes, I got it about right, but it was still a bit heavy. I managed to hit 32 targets out of 50, which I thought was pretty good considering my goal was to hit 50% or better. The most interesting thing during this match was that all three of us cleaned our last lane, which was the standing lane. It wasn’t an easy lane either but we all managed to get them all.
Saturday afternoon I had time to take a little nap before supper and I awoke from my nap with a start. I had a realization as I was waking up, my ProSport ing lever had just started acting up on Friday, it had to be a loose screw! I got the rifle out and removed the action from the stock and sure enough, the bolt that connects the ing arm linkage to the compression tube was loose. I tightened it up and also checked the bushing near the front stock screw. Sure enough, the screws were digging into the bushing. I decided to file down the aluminum bushing where the screw touched it. It appeared to me that the bushing was only used to stop the ing arm so I didn’t think it would hurt the operation of the rifle. Deb and I went out to eat with our friends Harold and Cindy Rushton and Donnie Ross who are TVA club members. We had a wonderful dinner and then we went to see the movie “Inside Man”. It was a good movie but boy there was a lot of unnecessary use of the F word.
Sunday morning practice time proved that my smithing work paid off. The rifle was right on target and grouping very well. I shot the Sunday match with my ProSport and did better. I shot with Richard Shimizu, another old friend, and we had a great time again. We only had the two of us in our squad so we had a lot of time to talk and fellowship with other airgunners. I ended up with a 37 and an overall total of 69 for the weekend. I was happy with that for my first time Hunter class at a major match.
One of the best parts of the Cajun Classics is after the match when we get to eat! Saturday we had Jambalaya and Sunday we had Shrimp Etouffee. Both were excellent.
After eating, we watched some shoot-offs and the awards. Boy, there was some excellent going on. Warren Williamson only dropped two shots all weekend and cleaned the Belle Terre course on Sunday to win the PCP division. Ray Appelles shot a 94 ½ with his TX200SR to win Piston division and Rod Bradley shot 80 with his .20 HW97 to win the Hunter class award. That was some good .
After all was done, those of us who were still around went out for Pizza at the Original Italian Pie. This was a lot of fun and I have done this in the past. It is a time where all of us shooters really relax and talk about the match, , equipment, and just about everything else. This night was no different. We had a great time of food and fellowship. This was one of the best Cajun’s I have been to and a lot of it was because my wife accompanied me and because I got to see my family and because I got to shoot! I am already looking forward to next year.
This year my beautiful wife came along with me to celebrate our 2nd anniversary. We had a great time in Baton Rouge. Friday I went to the range to sight in and chit-chat and then in the afternoon Deb and I went into downtown Baton Rouge to check out some local sites. We visited the LSU campus as well, which was very pretty. We had a great dinner and wrapped up the day in the hotel hot tub. It was a fun and relaxing day all the way around.
Going to Baton Rouge, I was trying to decide if I was going to shoot Piston division or the Hunter division that they were offering for the first time. I have wanted to shoot Hunter style for a couple of years but each year I would decide to shoot my HW97 once I got there. This year I had my .177 ProSport pretty good and I thought that I might have a go at Hunter class for the first time. Well, after a while Friday morning I was leaning towards my HW97 again, it was so well and I was feeling so comfortable with it. I woke up Saturday morning resolved to shoot Hunter class.
I got to the range and began to notice that the ing handle on my ProSport would fall down from under the stock every time I would shoot it. The groups weren’t looking too good either, I was getting a lot of flyers. I talked to Paul Watts about it and he told me that I shouldn’t shoot the ProSport as this condition could be a problem with the seal on the compression chamber. He also mentioned that the front stock screws can sometimes be tightened down to the point where they hit a bushing inside the gun and that may cause an accuracy problem and possibly the ing lever problem. I thought at this point that I would have to shoot my HW97, but luckily Wade Sutherland had a backup TX200 that I could use and I went ahead and shot Hunter class.
Saturdays match was one of the most relaxed matches I have shot in a long time. I was with David Slade and Alan Otsuka (old friends) and we had a great time. I had about 5 minutes of sight-in time with the TX before we had to head into the woods so I was trying to get used to the gun as we went along. We were cutting up and having a lot of fun and that made a lot of my misses a lot easier to take. After about four lanes, I decided I had to re-adjust the trigger since it was a heavy single stage and I prefer a light two stage. After about three or four more lanes, I got it about right, but it was still a bit heavy. I managed to hit 32 targets out of 50, which I thought was pretty good considering my goal was to hit 50% or better. The most interesting thing during this match was that all three of us cleaned our last lane, which was the standing lane. It wasn’t an easy lane either but we all managed to get them all.
Saturday afternoon I had time to take a little nap before supper and I awoke from my nap with a start. I had a realization as I was waking up, my ProSport ing lever had just started acting up on Friday, it had to be a loose screw! I got the rifle out and removed the action from the stock and sure enough, the bolt that connects the ing arm linkage to the compression tube was loose. I tightened it up and also checked the bushing near the front stock screw. Sure enough, the screws were digging into the bushing. I decided to file down the aluminum bushing where the screw touched it. It appeared to me that the bushing was only used to stop the ing arm so I didn’t think it would hurt the operation of the rifle. Deb and I went out to eat with our friends Harold and Cindy Rushton and Donnie Ross who are TVA club members. We had a wonderful dinner and then we went to see the movie “Inside Man”. It was a good movie but boy there was a lot of unnecessary use of the F word.
Sunday morning practice time proved that my smithing work paid off. The rifle was right on target and grouping very well. I shot the Sunday match with my ProSport and did better. I shot with Richard Shimizu, another old friend, and we had a great time again. We only had the two of us in our squad so we had a lot of time to talk and fellowship with other airgunners. I ended up with a 37 and an overall total of 69 for the weekend. I was happy with that for my first time Hunter class at a major match.
One of the best parts of the Cajun Classics is after the match when we get to eat! Saturday we had Jambalaya and Sunday we had Shrimp Etouffee. Both were excellent.
After eating, we watched some shoot-offs and the awards. Boy, there was some excellent going on. Warren Williamson only dropped two shots all weekend and cleaned the Belle Terre course on Sunday to win the PCP division. Ray Appelles shot a 94 ½ with his TX200SR to win Piston division and Rod Bradley shot 80 with his .20 HW97 to win the Hunter class award. That was some good .
After all was done, those of us who were still around went out for Pizza at the Original Italian Pie. This was a lot of fun and I have done this in the past. It is a time where all of us shooters really relax and talk about the match, , equipment, and just about everything else. This night was no different. We had a great time of food and fellowship. This was one of the best Cajun’s I have been to and a lot of it was because my wife accompanied me and because I got to see my family and because I got to shoot! I am already looking forward to next year.
