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Events Southwest Airgunners Duncan Arizona Silhouette and FT Match, last weekend in April of 2023

I'm really excited to make this announcement!

April 28th and 29th.

Rex found a spot for us to have a spring match! He's got a friend (Tom) that owns land along the Gila River in Duncan, Arizona and Tom is willing to share it with us for a match. And even better, Tom agreed to let us camp out for the weekend! (boondocking, no hookups or facilities). This is typical desert southwest riverbottom, mostly cottonwood trees, both live and fallen. If you've ever been privileged to shoot a match at Bobbies C's house it looks like a similar setting (read AWESOME). It should make for some very interesting target placement.

Google is telling me that Duncan is 3hrs and 22 minutes from Mesa, Arizona for those living in the PHX Metro area.

The plan is very similar to the summer time matches we've done up in the Gila National Forest near Luna, NM for the past two summers.
  • Silhouettes with your ft rig, from any legal ft position, target banks at 50, 60, 70, 80 yards, shoot through twice.
    • Silhouette match will be Friday evening at 4pm on the 28th
  • 13 lane field target course in and amongst the riverbottom foliage
    • ft match will take place at 930AM on the 29th
Here is a link to one of our matches last summer up at the other location. Should give a pretty good idea of the general format, as well as the fun and challenging target placement we try to do, and also the best painted targets I've ever seen. In the past, our matches have been grand prix level, in length (one of the two days), difficulty, and fun. https://www.airgunnation.com/thread...spen-mtn-match-results-from-may-2022.1255479/

Sounds like we've got 10-12 confirmed shooters at this point, but with the 13 lane course we can accommodate quite a few more than those that have already expressed interest.

The address to Tom's property is: 1129 Stevens Loop, Duncan, Arizona.
Here is a macro view of the Duncan Area. Follow my red line to get to Tom's place.
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And another photo zoomed in a bit more.
Tom's house is circled in red here. Shooting and camping area in blue oval. Note the distance in the upper right. That's referencing the yellow marker. So we've got a semi-timbered area roughly 461 yards wide. Should be plenty of room for the planned activities.

Rex says he'll get some signage along the dirt road from Stevens Loop to the back of the property where we'll be having our fun. On that note, pavement goes to the property line (not much offroad travel).

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Since this is private property, we ask that you be considerate of Tom's willingness to share his place with us, "pack it in, pack it out."

They're telling me that campers, rvs, and tent's are all fine but some of us may be in the sun so maybe bring pop ups or your awnings for shade (remember, boondocking type camping).

From what I can find online, looks like normal temps for Duncan for the end of April should be highs of 75-80 and lows around 50. Sounds pretty nice in the temperature department.

If this initial match is successful this could turn into an annual match. Consider it a destination match, come camp, shoot, hang out, make new friends, enjoy time with old friends, and generally just enjoy airguns with a bunch of people that also enjoy airguns. And don't be shy if you've never shot field target, we'll lend or share a gun with ya and talk you through the process if new to it, but interested.

Some photos Rex took when walking it a few weeks ago (should be much greener by the end of April)
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Match fee = $10 per event. Don't worry about prepay, just pay at the match. Cash only please. (Between the silhouette and field target match, that's a lot of shooting and a lot of fun for $20.)

PM me here on AGN with any questions and I'll be glad to answer them and/or get you in contact with Rex if you'd like.

Edit: for those not wanting to camp, there are a couple hotels in Duncan, or even Safford, which is only 55minutes away.
 
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I heard from Rex this afternoon and he asked that I add the following:

Tom (property owner) wants to do a pit barbecue on Friday (28th) night of this match. All you can eat for a $5 donation towards the food. Now THAT is pretty awesome. Those of us camping won't have to worry about dinner that night!

I've not met this Tom character yet but I'm excited to get to know him. Lots of generosity here, between hosting a match on his property AND now the pit bbq...

It would sure be helpful to Tom and the planning of the food for the bbq if we could have an approximate idea of turnout so please either respond here or send me a PM if you're considering attending this match.
 
Some of those semi-local guys had a little informal get-together this weekend on the back of Tom's property.
The goals:
  • dry run for the upcoming official match
  • expose some of these field target newbies to what it entails
  • have fun
They've been sending me photos for the last 2 days and it looks like all the goals were met!

From what I can tell, they set up 4 lanes, 2 targets per lane, as well as ran a silhouette match. Typical interesting target placement that we see from the Southwest Airgunners (targets on the sides of trees, shooting through gaps, minor elevation changes, etc).

Rex says it's going well, plenty of room for a full 13 lane course. And Rex likes to stretch out the shooting lanes on his courses to give everybody elbow room.

These photos should give an idea of what to expect on the last weekend of April.
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I can't wait. Me and my sons were just talking about this yesterday. I'll have some combination of a 5 and a 9 year old boy tagging along.

If I can find some time to get good 10-55 yard dope in the next few weeks, the .20 BRK Ghost will get its competition debut at this Duncan match.
Hot damn .20 ghost!?! Whole lotta riff raft in that crowd😆
 
Hi, heard about this awesome event thru my brother-in-law Kent Gladden. My son Andrew and I are from Tucson and would like to sign up, how do we go about this?
Hey, we've met, as you and your son, and myself have been at Xtreme FT matches together.

We'd love to have you and Andrew (and anybody else reading this) at the Duncan match. We're pretty laid-back, no preregistration or anything like that. Just show up and shoot. Silhouettes on Friday evening around 4pm, pit BBQ that evening, and then regular (sub20fpe and max distance of 55 yards) field target match on Saturday morning. Can camp out on Tom's property there if you'd like. I'll be tent camping, some others are in camper shells or trailers.

We've got a couple other shooters from Tucson area that are going to attend.

If you're planning on making it, just let me know so we can pass that on to Tom to plan for another couple guys to feed.

If you've got any questions, post em up and we'll get them answered.
 
Hey, we've met, as you and your son, and myself have been at Xtreme FT matches together.

We'd love to have you and Andrew (and anybody else reading this) at the Duncan match. We're pretty laid-back, no preregistration or anything like that. Just show up and shoot. Silhouettes on Friday evening around 4pm, pit BBQ that evening, and then regular (sub20fpe and max distance of 55 yards) field target match on Saturday morning. Can camp out on Tom's property there if you'd like. I'll be tent camping, some others are in camper shells or trailers.

We've got a couple other shooters from Tucson area that are going to attend.

If you're planning on making it, just let me know so we can pass that on to Tom to plan for another couple guys to feed.

If you've got any questions, post em up and we'll get them answered.
Yes, Andrew and I will be there both days, so mark us down for the BBQ dinner. Looking forward to this. Thanks Cole, see ya there!

John
 
@Franklink,
I know you've been in contact with him too, but I talked to Rex last night (while he was painting targets) and he said that he and Tom have Tom's new gun dialed in and he's eager and ready to go for his first match.
He said that he's got a few more first time shooters that will be showing up as well so it's sounding like we're going to have a great time!
I told him I'd bring the Anschutz along and that I'd shoot it if we need an extra gun for another group.
If that's the case I'll let a squad use my Red Wolf.
More likely scenario is that the various groups will take a new shooter or two along and share the "primary" shooters gun and the new guys will have someone along to give them some helpful "tips". ;)
If you need anything, text me and let me know.......