Despite superhuman skills developed through decades of
poorfessional writing, butchering every rule of English composition under cover of poetic license, and forsaking proven keyboarding techniques in the pursuit of ‘hunt and peck’ perfection, this will be the most challenging to compose match report in human history. Good thing I are a genuis!
The TEXtreme Airgun Sports leg of the 2023 Extreme Field Target national Grand Prix competition, anticipated to be the richest prize-listed airgun competition in Texas history, in that regard lived up to expectations. In some other regards, “not so much”.
You’d think a match director with decades experience could at least get the basics right for a competition weekend of such magnitude. You’d be mistaken.
Now in my third decade of hosting, staging and directing field target events, and third year of hosting, staging and directing
extreme field target events, this ancient MD thought he had overcome the challenges of monkeying extreme field targets to a dependable level of functionality. However this past weekend proved that belief delusional.
From the get-go of Friday’s pistol match I was deluged with calls to investigate perceived and actual target malfunctions; truly Match Director HELL! Though the calls kept a-coming through mid-match, the match was eventually completed.
Once the necessary score-card adjustments were made Derrick Wall became the 2023 EFT Grand Prix Pistol Champion virtue of his perfect 60/60 score. Mind you, this was on a course thought humanly impossible to clean in the best of conditions; yet Derrick cleaned in it gusty winds. Using a .20 caliber Brocock pistol, DW won a $300 Airguns Of Arizona gift certificate, an Athlon spotting scope, and the 2023 GP
Pistol Champion award plaque. Phenomenal shooting Derrick!
Tony Pellegrino captured second place with a fine 56/60, taking a $200 Airguns Of Arizona gift certificate back home to Arizona for his attempt to beat Derrick with his own pistol. Don’t spend it all in one place Tony. Correction- “Shop local”.
Steve Govedich used a borrowed .177 Thomas to capture the last podium place in the twelve shooter pistol match with an excellent 52/60. Good shooting, Steve. Reckon Jerry will accept the $100 Airguns Of Arizona gift certificate as partial rent payment on that Thomas?
Hopes that Saturday’s Rifle Match #1 might be less problematic than Friday’s pistol match proved misguided, as target issues recurred with a vengeance. By the end of Rifle Match 1 the issues weren’t confined to target-related.
As issues accrued
Match Director mistakes WERE MADE that could have proven disastrous. Thankfully one decision carrying potentials for serious consequences, rendered by necessity on the spur of the moment, ultimately proved to have no effect whatsoever on placement results; some consolation after the fact for the frazzled MD. So having lost much of whatever credibility I might have had before rendering that bad decision, I hereby coin the term ‘self-inflicted Match Director wounds’.
By then in a fog-of-war trance, thankfully another decision with potentials for great damage could be postponed for logical reasons. It was.
“Postponed” proved to be until after Rifle Match 2 protested targets were investigated, two dysfunctional targets thrown out, scorecards duly credited, and Match 1 cards compared to Match 2 cards for clues to help make the postponed decision
a correct one. That postponement proved not only uncharacteristically wise, but resulted in a decision to throw out one target in question for Rifle Match #1, but not throw it out in Match 2. That decision proved absolutely correct.
Not one to avoid accountability, I accept full responsibility for one MD decision being plain
WRONG. Some consolation that error made no difference in any placement results; however it RIGHTLY damaged my credibility. Some issues requiring MD decisions could have been avoided; others couldn’t have. The avoidable issues fall squarely ON ME ALONE. I neither ask nor deserve forgiveness.
I’ll now repeat something I often say. Experience is not the best teacher; BAD experience is a much better teacher. Thankfully I ain’t yet too old to learn.
Trust me, I learned a
LOT last weekend!
With the benefit of hindsight and for what(ever) it’s worth, other than the admittedly wrong decision I believe the best decisions possible were rendered given all considerations, evidence and information available at the moment each decision was required.
On a lighter note, with all the shooting, investigations and scoring completed, we finally had Rifle Match #1, #2, and aggregate results.
Tony Pellegrino’s 109/120 aggregate Rifle score nabbed him $1000 cash, a $250 Airguns Of Arizona gift certificate, an Athlon Heras scope, and the 2023 TEXtreme Grand Prix
Rifle Champion award plaque. Tony used an Athlon scoped .30 Brocock Ghost shooting 44 grain Rangemaster pellets.
Fantastic shooting, Tony! BTW, who said Barb is a better shot than you?
Carey Hymel shot 25 grain .22 Redesign pellets in his Nightforce-scoped Thomas to post a 106/120 aggregate score for second place in the rifle competition. Carey is $500 cash, a $250 AoA gift certificate, and an Athlon spotting scope richer for his fine efforts. Great shooting, Carey!
Third in the rifle competition with a 105/120 was Jeff Cloud, shooting 25.4 grain Rangemaster pellets in his Sightron-scoped RAW HM1000X. Jeff won $250 in cash and a $250 AoA gift certificate. Excellent shooting, JC.
Derrick Wall posted a 104/120 for fourth place, shooting 56 grain Zan pellets 875 FPS in his Athlon-topped .30 Daystate Delta Wolf. He added a $250 AoA gift certificate to the $300 certificate associated with his Pistol Champion award. Good shooting, Derrick.
Caleb Dickinson’s 102/120 got him the last Rifle podium place, and a $200 AoA gift certificate. Caleb shot 33.95 grain pellets in his .25 Daystate Red Wolf equipped with an Athlon scope. Congratulations Caleb.
All podium placers in the Pistol and Rifle competitions also won insulated aluminum award tumblers courtesy of Morrill’s Country Store, Casie Morrill, and Billy Davison. Billy also rustled up all the Athlon Optics donations.
A huge thank you to Airguns Of Arizona for all your sponsorship support of TEXtreme Airgun Sports events, the cash and gift certificate prizes, and the group dinner Saturday evening.
Also many thanks to Athlon Optics for donations of the Heras BTR rifle scope and two spotting scopes. As you can see in the results, Athlons were used to win more Athlons!
Thanks to Art Womack for assembling insightful spreadsheets detailing hit-percentage and Difficulty Factor information broken down by shooters, targets and lanes. Great work, Art!
Jerry Cupples donated PelletGage notebooks schwag. Thank you Jerry.
TEXtreme Airgun Sports donated TEXtreme insulated tumblers and a personal blender (incapable of producing frozen margaritas) to the schwag cause.
Thanks to everyone else that contributed to the TEXtreme 2023 EFT Grand Prix competition weekend.
Lastly,
my sincerest apologies for the Match Director bobbles. Happy Shooting,
Ron Robinson (Match Director)
Or on my chainsaws, etc. The woodchuck that’s been popping out behind the barn?
It’s on the hit list, very next opportunity? I’m sending…
