Phoenix Airgun Club Field Target Match Report

April 12, 2025

We had a great day for the April FT match of the Phoenix Airgun Club at Rio Salado Sportsman's Club in Phoenix. Garrett K, the normal match director, had a grand prix match in California, so Wes filled in (with a bunch of help).

Friday was setup, which started early due to higher temps. Barb and Tony Pellegrino, Carl Forrey, Lauren Parsons and Wes set up the course as a 13 lane, two targets per lane course on the upper half of the Rio Salado FT course. It was a tale of two courses, with the first 6 lanes mild to moderate on the spicy scale, and the last few lanes more like that Thai food you swore you would never eat again. 11 free lanes, one kneeling, one standing. We didn’t calculate the Troyer, but the scores would suggest it was a reasonably challenging course. On the way back in, we disturbed a 4 foot nope rope from underneath the little wooden bridge, who was none to happy to have us disturbing his shade! He cruised off smooth as butter and we let him be.



Saturday started with traffic woes getting to the range from two different directions, but Sir Ronnie Tanner beat everyone out and managed to pull pretty much all the strings first thing. There were a couple lanes with crossing targets that bamboozled a bit, but that was an easy fix. With a few other folks helping, the course was ready.

Larry S and Don S covered sign in and registration as always, thanks!

The sight in range opened on time, of course with the wind at 90 degrees to the actual course, always fun to figure out!

Peykan B and Van T ended up with an unexpected free Saturday at the last minute, so they made it out in time to do a quick sight in and then meet everyone for the briefing. There were three new shooters, so we did a full safety brief and FT rules summary, then squadded up and headed to the course a few minutes early since it was warming up later in the morning.

The new shooters were paired up with experienced folks. Thanks to Kent G, Ed B, and Lauren P for being such great mentors, as the three new shooters all seemed to have a great time!

Just before starting, another friendly snake, a 3 foot rattlesnake, decided he did not want to shoot the match (he also did not pre-register), and crawled sloooooowly across the walking path to the other side of the course.

Winds were ESE swinging to SW through the match, essentially quartering in your face, ranging from 5-12 mph. Air rifle shooters know this combo makes for, shall we say, somewhat unpredictable pellet flights (and it did) based on the faceplates afterwards. There was one target where with the wind directly in my face and the 12 ft-lb WFTF rig, (which is a teensy bit wind sensitive), I held right edge of the face plate, then left, then back to the right, then back to the left of the faceplate for a single shot before pulling the trigger! Fortunately, it seemed there were as many laughs as there were frustrations. Ronnie T and I shot next to the masochists, I mean springer shooters (Carl and Tony), and they laughed a bunch at some of the crazy shots they made.

The match went smoothly with only one hiccup, a frog target on lane ten that decided he would not go down without a fight. This was identified about halfway through the match, so the match director decided to exclude this target from the scoring, resulting in a total shot count of 50. We finished in a great time, and the whole field helped break down the course and pull in targets, etc.

The switching winds and small kill zones in the back half of the course, as well as a challenging far target on each of the positional lanes all made for a fun and challenging match. There were three 39/50 as top scores for the day, Peykan B and Paul W in Hunter, and Wes in WFTF. Peykan pulled out first over Paul in Hunter based on a longest streak tiebreaker. The top 5 in Hunter PCP were separated by 3 hits!

After the awards were presented, we straightened up, and then headed out to enjoy the rest of the weekend!

-Wes C

Postscript: As a first time match director, I would like to express appreciation to all those who put on matches of all kinds. It is a labor of love, brings us together in friendship and competition, and keeps the sport vibrant and active. It is also a lot of work if you do it by yourself, and I can’t say enough thanks for the help with setup, prep, and tear down both Friday and Saturday. It’s hard to communicate how much it is appreciated, so thank you all. And I would be remiss if I did not say how great the Rio FT course is, a testament to Garrett K and the Phoenix Airgun Club's efforts. Thanks, -WC



Van and Peykan working the standing lane



Sir Ronnie T, steady on it



'Effin springer' shooters Tony and Carl



Paul and Barb looking for sneks



Lauren and Erick

Could these tariffs be a blessing in disguise for American airgun manufacturers and a few other nations .and is it possible for these companies to say ,drop all guns 10% off retail .could a company corner the market and still make nice profit while satisfying consumers?? I know probably a pipe dream.