The Baystate Challenge Match Report 2025
Day 1 Friday
The Baystate Challenge started on Friday, June 6th ended on Sunday, June 8th, Friday was a sight-in and registration day. The weather forecast for the day was looking like we would be free from the rain. We had a few people show up in the afternoon to Sight-in and get the official shirt for the event. Other than that most of the day was spent doing some final repairs to some of the targets and making sure that everything was completely visible.
Day 2 Saturday
I pulled into the club at 7 am the weather was cool and damp with not much wind. With Leo and John showing up shortly behind. The previous evening’s rain managed to soak the Sight-in Targets, which were quickly changed out in about 15 minutes. As the competitors showed up I got everyone registered and gave them a shirt and had them fill out a scorecard. Once everyone was registered I had a chance to sight-in. I started the shooters meeting at 9:15 am and we started shooting by 9:30. The weather called for some intense rain starting around 1:00 pm. We had a flawless match with no cold lines and ended up finishing around 12-12:30 pm. The course was structured as one course with every other lane being shot, Lane 1 Yellow and Lane 1 Blue so on and so forth. We shot 2 shots per target for 15 lanes with a maximum score of 60 for the day. This was only the second time we have used the course set up like this, the last time being the 2024 AAFTA Nationals. These were the Hunter Shooters lanes and comprised solely of Flop Over Targets from the UK. As the match went on there was just enough wind to make you miss, it was very unstable and incredibly switchy which made it hard to decide what side of the kill zone to hold off on. Overall it was a nice shoot and the rain made its appearance as predicted we only had one squad get caught up in it. We did not hold the pistol match and we went into the clubhouse to enjoy some food and discuss the day’s events.
Day 3 Sunday
Sunday’s weather forecast called for much better and indeed it was, the rain stopped in the early morning hours leaving us with cooler morning temperatures leading to a very nice afternoon. I got to the range around 6:50 am, got the sight-in set up replaced some targets having everything ready by 7 am. After sighting in we had a shooters meeting and got to lanes by 9:15 am. We shot the Blue course which had one change to it from the previous year’s arrangement. The first standing target was moved from 10 to 27 yards. We had also replaced all of the target strings with a steel fishing cable which is holding up quite well, before we were constantly repairing the line due to critters biting the string. There were a few areas where the light and dark factors created rangefinding issues, making the course much more difficult on Sunny days. The match started with a few cold lines due to some soaked branches and flopping cat tails which were quickly remedied. The last cold line was a target that I protested, it was a 1/2” inch Grenade at 17 yards. I checked it with the target tester and it failed, the paddle was almost shot through and the push anchors had rusted up from getting soaked by the previous evening’s storm. I quickly changed the target to a ½” Halftrack target and we were up and running again. At the end of the day, everyone seemed to have enjoyed themselves and we all gathered and went to the clubhouse for some food and cold drinks. After the food was enjoyed, I handed out the medals and congratulated the top shots in their respective classes. All in all, I would say the 2025 Baystate Challenge was a success! So that's another one in the books, I just want to say a massive thank you to all the people who helpled me pull this together, you know who you are, again thank you very much!!
Day 1 Friday
The Baystate Challenge started on Friday, June 6th ended on Sunday, June 8th, Friday was a sight-in and registration day. The weather forecast for the day was looking like we would be free from the rain. We had a few people show up in the afternoon to Sight-in and get the official shirt for the event. Other than that most of the day was spent doing some final repairs to some of the targets and making sure that everything was completely visible.
Day 2 Saturday
I pulled into the club at 7 am the weather was cool and damp with not much wind. With Leo and John showing up shortly behind. The previous evening’s rain managed to soak the Sight-in Targets, which were quickly changed out in about 15 minutes. As the competitors showed up I got everyone registered and gave them a shirt and had them fill out a scorecard. Once everyone was registered I had a chance to sight-in. I started the shooters meeting at 9:15 am and we started shooting by 9:30. The weather called for some intense rain starting around 1:00 pm. We had a flawless match with no cold lines and ended up finishing around 12-12:30 pm. The course was structured as one course with every other lane being shot, Lane 1 Yellow and Lane 1 Blue so on and so forth. We shot 2 shots per target for 15 lanes with a maximum score of 60 for the day. This was only the second time we have used the course set up like this, the last time being the 2024 AAFTA Nationals. These were the Hunter Shooters lanes and comprised solely of Flop Over Targets from the UK. As the match went on there was just enough wind to make you miss, it was very unstable and incredibly switchy which made it hard to decide what side of the kill zone to hold off on. Overall it was a nice shoot and the rain made its appearance as predicted we only had one squad get caught up in it. We did not hold the pistol match and we went into the clubhouse to enjoy some food and discuss the day’s events.
Day 3 Sunday
Sunday’s weather forecast called for much better and indeed it was, the rain stopped in the early morning hours leaving us with cooler morning temperatures leading to a very nice afternoon. I got to the range around 6:50 am, got the sight-in set up replaced some targets having everything ready by 7 am. After sighting in we had a shooters meeting and got to lanes by 9:15 am. We shot the Blue course which had one change to it from the previous year’s arrangement. The first standing target was moved from 10 to 27 yards. We had also replaced all of the target strings with a steel fishing cable which is holding up quite well, before we were constantly repairing the line due to critters biting the string. There were a few areas where the light and dark factors created rangefinding issues, making the course much more difficult on Sunny days. The match started with a few cold lines due to some soaked branches and flopping cat tails which were quickly remedied. The last cold line was a target that I protested, it was a 1/2” inch Grenade at 17 yards. I checked it with the target tester and it failed, the paddle was almost shot through and the push anchors had rusted up from getting soaked by the previous evening’s storm. I quickly changed the target to a ½” Halftrack target and we were up and running again. At the end of the day, everyone seemed to have enjoyed themselves and we all gathered and went to the clubhouse for some food and cold drinks. After the food was enjoyed, I handed out the medals and congratulated the top shots in their respective classes. All in all, I would say the 2025 Baystate Challenge was a success! So that's another one in the books, I just want to say a massive thank you to all the people who helpled me pull this together, you know who you are, again thank you very much!!
| First Name | Last Name | Full Name | Shooting Class | # Days Shooting | Rifle | Scope | Pellet | Day 1 Scores | Day 2 Scores | TOTAL |
| Calvin | Cieslak | Calvin Cieslak | Open Piston | 2 | HW 97K | Sightron S3 10-50x60 | JSB 10.5 | 35 | 39 | 74 |
| Khoa | Tran | Khoa Tran | Hunter PCP | 2 | FX Impact | JSB 10.3 | 41 | 35 | 76 | |
| Lan | Nguyen | Lan Nguyen | Hunter PCP | 2 | Styer Challenger | Night Force 4-32X56 | JSB 10.3 | 40 | 45 | 85 |
| Geoffrey | Sugarman | Geoffrey Sugarman | Hunter PCP | 1 | Daystate Huntsman | Hawke Sidewinder | JSB 10.5 | 40 | DNF | 40 |
| Ed | Griffin | Ed Griffin | Hunter PCP | 2 | Daystate Red Wolf | Sightron S3 10-50x60 | JSB 10.5 | 37 | 40 | 77 |
| Karen | Reis | Karen Reis | Hunter PCP | 2 | Thomas FT | Sightron S3 10-50x60 | JSB 13.4 | 53 | 43 | 2nd 96 |
| Stephan | Hottenrott | Stephan Hottenrott | Hunter PCP | 2 | Thomas FT | March X High Master | JSB 13.4 | 51 | 43 | 94 |
| Mark | Marini | Mark Marini | Hunter PCP | 2 | TM 1000 | Sightron S3 10-50x60 | JSB 10.5 | 51 | 46 | 1st 97 |
| Koha JR | Tran | Koha JR Tran | Hunter PCP | 2 | FX | JSB 10.5 | 25 | 51 | 76 | |
| Douglas | Rogers | Douglas Rogers | Hunter PCP | 2 | FX 10.3 | 48 | 47 | 3rd 95 | ||
| Eric | Brewer | Eric Brewer | Hunter Piston | 2 | Walther LGU | Sightron S3 10-50X60 | JSB 10.3 | 33 | 29 | 2nd 62 |
| Thomas | Wade | Thomas Wade | Hunter Piston | 2 | HW97K | Hawke Airmax 4-16 scope | JSB 10.5 | 24 | 13 | 37 |
| Greg | Shirhall | Greg Shirhall | Hunter Piston | 2 | Walther LGU | Bushnell 4200 6-24X40 | AA 8.44 | 43 | 31 | 1st 74 |
| Jim | Wheeler | Jim Wheeler | Hunter Piston | 2 | TX200 HC | Sightron S - Tac 4-20X50 | JSB 8.44 | 23 | 33 | 3rd 57 |
| Matthew | Sawyer | Matthew Sawyer | WFTF PCP | 2 | Daystate Red Wolf LPR | Night Force 7-35X56 | JSB 8.44 | 47 | 54 | 1st 10 |
| Peter | Sweeney | Peter Sweeney | WFTF PCP | 2 | Styer Challenger | Sightron S6 10-6-X56 | JSB 8.44 | 44 | 43 | 2nd 87 |
| Virgilio | Gonzales | Virgilio Gonzales | WFTF Piston | 2 | Walther LGU | Sightron S3 10-50X60 | JSB 8.44 | 46 | 50 | 1st 96 |
| John | Eroh | John Eroh | WFTF Piston | 1 | TX200 | Sightron S3 10-50X60 | AA 8.44 | 22 | 27 | 2nd 49 |
