Burning River 120, September 2019
Northeast Ohio Airgun Club (N.O.A.) sponsored a two day AAFTA Grand Prix Field Target match on September 20-22. The N.O.A. held matches for both rife and pistol. The match was held in beautiful Chagrin Falls. This place is really cool but that’s another story. The match was held on the grounds of a former winery…. amazing. They had two courses, one in the rows of the old vineyard, and one in the woods on the other side of the lane. Tyler Patner, Bill Rabbitt, Jeff Paddock, Rick Smeltzer, Ted Andro, Tim Baylor, Dave Hitchcock and the entire NOA crew is to be commended for hosting this great event. I’m sure there are others whose names I have failed mention. To those I’m sorry, thank you for your hard work.
The event was perfect. We ate a ton of Mexican food and had a ton of fun.
There were lots of nice folks. If you are thinking about trying airgun field target you will find a very casual atmosphere and folks that are more than willing to help new shooters. You can learn some of our excuses for missing shots. The wind, the heat, the food, the rifle, the scope. Mostly though, it’s the the dope behind the scope.
Great fun, great folks great event.
Dave Hitchcock and his Daystate Red Wolf. The experienced shooter, got his hat and looks pretty serious.
This was the young man shown in the picture with his father. He’s giving it a good look.
We went, we shot, we ate and we made excuses. There were two courses. One was in the woods, out of the wind and in the shade…and one in the open field more exposed to sun and wind. Not bad weather though mostly sunny with some intermittent clouds. About 85 on Sunday. The wind was gusting up to 18 mph on Sunday. With some targets elevated 16 feet in an open field, the wind was an issue. Hey, that’s what excuses are made for…..
I shot about 12 matches this year. The Pyramyd Air Cup, COA Columbus OH, Northeast Ohio Airgunners in the Cleveland area, Wyandot County Airgunners in Upper Sandusky Ohio and Southern Michigan Airgun Club in Kalamazoo Michigan. They were all great fun. I didn’t win any. I came tied in second once but I lost the coin toss. There is no agony of defeat. Just lots of shooting fun.
I am shooting a Daystate Red Wolf with a Hawke ED Sidewinder 10 – 50 x 60 Scope. Here is my score card for the woods course. I scored 46 of of 60. On the field course I scored 42 for an overall for the two days of 88. This is a pretty consistent score for me, I am improving slow. Hey I’m old and decrepit and I got excuses. I have risen to a certain level of mediocrity. It’s good. I was 13th out a field of 28 in Hunter PCP Class.
Baker Airgun’s own Donnie Reed scored 100 over the two day course for a 6th place finish. Donnie was shooting the Daystate Wolverine R with an Aztec Emerald FFP 5.5-25×50 scope.
We both felt like we had performed up to our level of expectation. We felt pretty good about our scores. Hey, think it looks easy. Come out and give it a try. It’s harder than it looks….and it’s a blast.
While we felt pretty good about our scores… we didn’t get a sniff of these…
I know that Bill Rabbit and Tim Baylor helped to design and hand craft these eye popping, totally excellent trophies….but WOW these were really nice.
Daystate airguns were seen in increasing numbers. 2 of the top three contenders shot the Daystate Red Wolf. and 5 of the top 10 shooters shot the Daystate Red Wolf or Wolverine R.
Results were displayed on the big screen TV. I know the pictures not great so I’ll list a few of the scores below.
Hunter PCP
Bill Rabbitt 109 Thomas FT Carbine
Dennis Himes 108 Daystate Red Wolf
Jeff Little 106 Daystate Red Wolf
Sean McDaniel 102 Ataman M2 Sport
Thomas Himes 101 Daystate Red Wolf
Donnie Reed 100 Daystate Wolverine R
Dan Baum 99 FX Crown
Robert Lewanddowski 93 Steyr LG110
Jeff Schwartz 91 FX Crown
David Hitchcock 90 Daystate Red Wolf
Hunter Piston
Dan Putz 91
Eric Brewer 83
Keith Walters 80
Open PCP
Gary Painkes 106
Brian Van Liew 98
Roger Barker 74
WFTF PCP
Tyler Patner 112
With a 12 fpe rifle. Sitting. He scored 59 out of 60 in the woods. Yea, yea, yea, home field advantage. Still it is an amazing feat of consistency and accuracy. Finesse. It’s a beautiful thing….
WFTF Piston
Jeff Henning 71
Field Target. What a blast.
Dennis Baker
Baker Airguns