The only problem… The warm weather also brought lots of wind, from manageable 5-10mph breezes, to 20-35mph gusts, seemingly at random. With winter foliage (read no foliage) on the trees, the wind was free to cause havoc at the most unexpected times.
Bare trees let the wind influence the match…

Still, we were pleased to see 23 shooters appear to have fun. For the first time in memory, we had more piston shooters (7-WFTF and 4-Hunter) than Hunter PCP participants. Kevin Enzian did an excellent job running the proceedings as Match Director. Thanks, Kevin.
The course of fire was 60 shots, spread among 10 lanes (3 per lane), including 6 kneeling and 6 standing shots. The course was designed to increase the Standard Deviation overall, to 10.8. This meant that no KZ was smaller than 3/4”, the average KZ being 1-1/4” over an average distance of 30.5 yards. The resulting course difficulty was an AAFTA minimum 28 Troyer (before wind).
Welcome back to four friends who made long trips… Matt Sawyer, Leo Duran, Robert Droege and Jim Clarke. And welcome aboard to some new shooters trying out the game… Jack Judd, Jonathan Rebmann, William Quiles, and his son Alexander.
Bob Pacatte brought two new shooters, Jonathan Rebmann (L) and Jack Judd…

Alexander Quiles, being coached by dad, William Quiles…

The scores were not as good as a 28 Troyer would have predicted, certainly due to the wind. Match High score was only 80%, a 48/60, shot by Bob Dye in Hunter PCP. Matt Sawyer won the WFTF Piston Class with a 42. Mike Vredenburg shot the high score in Open PCP with a 39. And newcomer Jack Judd shot a fine 27 to win Hunter Piston, matching Curtis Eskind’s 27 in Open Piston. William Quiles led three Fun Rifle shooters with an 81/120 score.
Matt Sawyer shooting the Standing lane…

There were two target malfunctions, so these were credited to all. However, not all scorecards reflected this. So in double checking scores after the match, I made several adjustments to add points to half a dozen scores. The scoreboard below reflects the revised match scores.
All in all, a great start to the 2017 Field Target season!
