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Some pictures from todays shoot at Falls Township

It was my first time shooting at the venue. There were 10mph+ winds with gust to 20mph. It certainly made things interesting for a woods course. I hope you enjoy the pictures.
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Haha, yeah torture...that's a good name for it. I feel so bad for taking Frank a new shooter to our match here in NC. I hope to god it hasn't scared him off? I know it has me. Anytime a match has "Euro" in front of it, I'll stay home! LOL
And I understand the 40 shot vs 50 shot venues also.
It took us around 4 hrs to finish our match and if it wasn't timed we would have been there till dark.
I figured it up ...........3 minutes per shooter. You have 2 shooters per lane. Add another 3 minutes per lane getting gear to the next lane and to account for cold lanes etc. and you have 9 minutes times 25 lanes equals 225 minutes divided by 60 minutes equals 3.75 hours! And it actually took us that long or longer just to shoot the match.

Now on a standard 15 lane/ 60 shot course with 2 shots per target. I applied the math and came up with roughly 3 hours to shoot the match. And mind you this doesn't count the hour for sight in and then awards, that's just the shooting of the lanes. My hat's off to the match directors who pull all of this off.

It's a days work and this ol' fat boy is tired afterwards! LOL
 
I thought all shoots were 60 shots ( well except for the 100 shot's and naturally 2 day 120 shot matchs). 
In Tn we did often have 3 target each on 10 lanes & 2 shots at each, not too much walking/carrying that way. Then again Roz did leave the World's course up an extra year ( 3 different course) and that Could involve a bit of walking.


Thanks for the pictures! Looks to be a very nice place, I've always felt sorry for some on the west coast that seemingly shoot uin parking lot's ( I know it's a range but ....), being out in nature with friend shooting airguns is just about as good as it gets.


Interesting one off unit on that tri-pod, another benefit of shooting FT, seeing what most don't.


Jojn
 
The minimum for an AAFTA sanctioned local match is 40 shots. We have been in contact with the BOG and they will allow one of our worlds style matches to count as the qualifying match for club membership.

Also 60 shot matches seem to take too long these days with all the equipment carried by Open and Hunter shooters. At the match yesterday my squad was held up by the squad ahead(tripod gun pictured). This lead to us finishing almost an hour after the first squad had finished. Most Euro matches are 40-50 shots, one shot per target two targets per lane and they can get things done in 3-4 hours with 30+ shooters per match. With our usual attendance of 10 time won't be an issue.
 
The joys of being a Torturer...oh I mean Match Director.. Nice pics John. I want to get up to Falls one day for a match. Just hard to do when they're on a Sunday & I have to work the next day. I liked setting the course up to WFTF rules. Actually made it easier on me by not have to be factoring in Troyer ratings while I'm setting up. Three target sizes & know your max distances(sitting / positional) for each. Nice & simple. I went back and converted all of the distances for the Euro match from meters to yards. Then I inputted the numbers to calculate the Troyer rating. It worked out to a 33.96 Troyer with a SD of 6.49 without wind. 

​I think y'all will enjoy the European format. If you have a short course with straight lanes, it really allows you to stretch your distances and / or offers a lot more target placements. Just let your imagination take over. We had a few lanes that both targets were pretty much in a straight line from the shooter but the majority of the lanes the targets were angled. Not all angled targets crossed other lanes. That's just an option that you have. I used the angles to try an change how the wind would affect each shot. Also putting one target in a tree & one on the ground will change how the wind affects a shot. Plus at TCRC there is a gully that curves through the woods & really causes some interesting wind patterns. 

​Jimmy / Frank, I hate that for your 1st time @ the TCRC course, you didn't like it. I agree that it is a long day shooting 25 lanes. I can tell you as a MD, I DO NOT want to do that many lanes on a regular basis. I had over 40 man/hrs. in setting up that match. I felt like I lived out on the course. LOL!!! As far as cleared "bowling alley" lanes, you want see that at TCRC. The type of woods won't support it. I'd have to cut down a lot of large trees that are TCRC property. But I will say that I will always make sure that you have a clear line of sight to the target to take the shot. So come on back before it gets to hot & shoot a regular club match with us & see what you think.
 
Chris , you're far from being a torturer brother. LOL
I'm in no position to judge a match no more than I attend, but a match like that was no place for a beginner and if I had known I would have never encouraged Frank to drive all the way from Florida for his first match.
It's just that we spent more time locating targets and then re positioning for the second shot than we did shooting. You've got 3 minutes to shoot the lane but then you have to move your bucket or pad almost every time to get a bead on the second target. As for the clear line of sight. The problem was finding it? Yes there was a clear line of sight but it took lots of time and moving around to find it?
Also each shooting box was extremely unlevel. I couldn't get my elbows on my knees properly because of the unlevel terrain. I felt like I was gonna tip over with the bucket on many shots. I guess I need a seat with adjustable legs for that type of terrain? Was not sure how far back I could go from the shooting line to find level ground and still be legal? Many times the shooting line would be in a low area with my bucket sitting elevated on a slope and my short bipod wasn't tall enough to use, and would have to back away from the firing line to find middle ground, which was another time consumption. 
I understand that all of these obstacles are what makes it competitive for the seasoned shooter who prefers raising the difficulty level. As for me, I would prefer smaller killzones to raise the difficulty level with cleared lanes and level shooting areas so I could spend more time shooting instead of more time trying to set up for the shot?

I know you guys spent many man hours on that course and I appreciate all your hard work, and yes I'll give it a go to see what a regular match is like when you have one. Just trying to be honest.

As for the comradery and hospitality you just can't beat THAGC leaders and members. Hands down the best group of people and that's what keeps me coming back.

Jimmy


 
Yes, the match on 11/19 was our last FT match of this year. Within the next few days Larry will be posting a complete match report on the green Ft forum. If you or anyone has any questions,comments, or observations feel free to let us know after his report is posted. We try to answer all questions and consider all comments. We will post our match programs for next year on both forums by the end of this year. Generally speaking we run four AAFTA FT matches and four NRA approved outdoor silhouette matches a year. We start in April and end in November.

Just as a point of information Delaware County Field and Stream Assn. (south of Phila.) will be running a FT match on 12/3. Mike has lots of new lanes and targets.

Rick Bassett
Falls Twsp. R & P Assn.
 
I must say that I like torture! I found the Euro course we shot at TCRC very challenging and skill testing. Was it a beginners course?..Definitely not. That was not the match to try to learn the ropes. The 3 min time limit bit me 3 times with rushing tow shots and running out on one. Still I prefer and appreciate the difficult courses. For his first time shooting Ft and this course, Frank did an excellent job. The time was what killed him on his score, not shooting ability....

Having been squadded with Rick Bassett at the Crosman Challenge two years in a row, I can tell he puts on a good match! He has been at it for many years and it shows. I wish I lived closer to my old home state of Pennsylvania. I would be there each match to joke and shoot with Rick and the other buds form the GP circuit.....

Nice photos John.... Hint! Ask someone to get your mug in a photo...! LOL
Nice job on your win! 
 
I want to thank Jimmy for voicing up about the match - I don’t hold any ill will toward Paul or Cory or anybody else for that matter - but it would have been great to have been told about the difficulty of this course -I probably would have sat this one out .... between weather and the nature of the course tied to the 3 minute time periods - uge! 
I think I missed getting off at least 12 shots where I just couldn’t acquire, range and and get off a shot in the 3 minute time window - plus the darker tree canopy tied to a difficult topography made it extremely difficult to set the bucket and bipod due to cross positional targets and then there was the 15 to 20 mile an hour winds! This most definitely wasn’t a course for newbies ! Hell it was an extreme test of the best as well - Will Piatt had said this was the most difficult match he’d ever shot —-

But I’ve gotta say you couldn’t ask for a better friend than Jimmy Fussell as proven out by these threads -
Jimmy also took the time to help me set up my parallax wheel and get all the numbers set on the wheel - and he and Renae were the best hosts a person could want - just 
fantastic people !! 
in all meeting Jimmy and Renae -plus the guys at the club -was worth the trip up! 
and Paul as well ! it’s all Good ! 
Im Ready FOR THAT NEW SHARK TARGET AND MAYBE THE MONKEY AS WELL 😬
TAKE CARE GUYS 
CK