17 pellet shooters and 6 slug contenders combined for a total turn-out of 23 shooters for the night match on October 5th. We had contestants from as far away as Florida. The match started at dark and the weather was perfect, temps around 90 degrees with minimal wind to fight.
A lot of well-known industry players and elite shooters. I enjoyed getting to know a bunch of them and just talking generally talking airguns.
The prize and raffle pool totaled out to over $2500 and is the biggest we've seen for a long range/higher power field target match at Phoenix Rod and Gun Club. We've got many very generous sponsors to thank for that.
Sponsors include...
Here's a look at the course from the service road up above, pardon the blurry image, but I'm including this because it gives a sense of the unique atmosphere of shooting in the dark. The pinpoints of light strewn across the desert are each a target or a lane/trail marker.
Field Target is such a challenge because no sighters are allowed. A shooter has to know and understand the trajectory of their chosen projectile and how to account for changes in elevation and wind speed and direction. A shooter has essentially got to know their equipment well enough to have a pretty dang good idea of where the pellet or slug (accounting for distance and wind) is going to go prior to even taking the shot. They have to be able to repeatedly attain a stable position, moving from lane to lane, seated on a stool or bucket and using sticks/bipod. And all of that is on a timer, 4 shots in 4 minutes. For some the 4 minutes is more than enough, others would have liked more time I think. Lots of things to mentally assess and process in a limited amount of time to do it. Shooters that can pull that all together for a winning score definitely earn their points.
This was the course layout for the match, but doesn't fully represent all the intricacies of what shooters dealt with. There are elevation changes from target to target, as well as geological features that funnel wind in strange ways.
Those new to field target may be unfamiliar with the term "Troyer" in the above data table. Brad Troyer created a difficulty factor for sub 20fpe field target 20+ years ago. I consulted with him a few years ago and extrapolated his chart (that stopped at 55 yards) out to 100 yards, using bigger kill zones. The Troyer Factor is essentially the distance in yards divided by the size of the kill zones, in inches. However, a few difficulty factors are applied for further distances, as well as for standing shots or windy conditions. Those interested can find more info here: https://www.airgunnation.com/threads/extreme-troyer-factor.868700/
The Ultimate FT course on 10/05 had an overall Troyer of 41.35. That makes it one of the harder courses that Ben has set for us in the last 24 or so months. So, if you didn't do as well as you'd have liked, be comforted in the fact that this was a rather difficult course.
The following data table shows equipment lists as well as how each shooter did. The columns to the far right show performance on some notable lanes: the standing bipod lane, as well as the three hardest targets (highest Troyer #) of the course. I included the far on Lane 10 b/c the wind seemed the most tricky there for me and I was curious if anyone else struggled on it like I did.
Since we've been doing slug and pellet classes for the last few years here it has been interesting to compare scores. Typically there isn't as large of a difference between them as one would expect, but for this night match we had the one and only Thayne Simmons. I held the previous slug record at one of these matches, a 36/40. Thayne took care of that quite nicely. Thayne now holds the record for slug and overall high scores, also prevented Steve M from being the new slug and overall high score record holder with his 37/40. In the pellet class, Van Tucker was up ahead of the rest of the pellet shooters by a cool 3 points. Great shooting Thayne and Van, and on a VERY hard course (relative to past matches).
High score pellet and High score slug (Van and Thayne).
I believe pellet class paid out 5 spots and slug paid out three, but there were so many gift cards and raffle prizes and door prizes that I had a hard time keeping track of who ended up with what. Again, thanks to VERY generous sponsors.
Here are the rest of the top placing shooters.
Thank you to all of the competitors. We're glad you came and hope you had fun and return to shoot in the future. We've joked for a couple years now about how this high power/long range game of field target is the most fun somebody can have, while simultaneously being extremely frustrated, makes a shooter want to come back and do better next time. Thanks to Ben and his crew (Scott H, Stephen K. Mike S, Dan J, etc etc etc) for putting in all the behind the scenes work, setting the course, managing lights and painting targets and etc. And finally, thanks to Phoenix Rod and Gun Club for hosting us and sharing your range.
Hope to see you all at future matches.
(there was also an Oct 7th match, very similar to the above, I'll get the data compiled for that and post another match report in the next day or two).
A lot of well-known industry players and elite shooters. I enjoyed getting to know a bunch of them and just talking generally talking airguns.
The prize and raffle pool totaled out to over $2500 and is the biggest we've seen for a long range/higher power field target match at Phoenix Rod and Gun Club. We've got many very generous sponsors to thank for that.
Sponsors include...
- Utah Airguns
- Element Optics
- DonnyFL/Saber Tactical
- Texasfieldtarget.com
- S&S Targets
- JD’s Custom Designs
- Captain O-Ring
- Stud Loader
Here's a look at the course from the service road up above, pardon the blurry image, but I'm including this because it gives a sense of the unique atmosphere of shooting in the dark. The pinpoints of light strewn across the desert are each a target or a lane/trail marker.
Field Target is such a challenge because no sighters are allowed. A shooter has to know and understand the trajectory of their chosen projectile and how to account for changes in elevation and wind speed and direction. A shooter has essentially got to know their equipment well enough to have a pretty dang good idea of where the pellet or slug (accounting for distance and wind) is going to go prior to even taking the shot. They have to be able to repeatedly attain a stable position, moving from lane to lane, seated on a stool or bucket and using sticks/bipod. And all of that is on a timer, 4 shots in 4 minutes. For some the 4 minutes is more than enough, others would have liked more time I think. Lots of things to mentally assess and process in a limited amount of time to do it. Shooters that can pull that all together for a winning score definitely earn their points.
This was the course layout for the match, but doesn't fully represent all the intricacies of what shooters dealt with. There are elevation changes from target to target, as well as geological features that funnel wind in strange ways.
Those new to field target may be unfamiliar with the term "Troyer" in the above data table. Brad Troyer created a difficulty factor for sub 20fpe field target 20+ years ago. I consulted with him a few years ago and extrapolated his chart (that stopped at 55 yards) out to 100 yards, using bigger kill zones. The Troyer Factor is essentially the distance in yards divided by the size of the kill zones, in inches. However, a few difficulty factors are applied for further distances, as well as for standing shots or windy conditions. Those interested can find more info here: https://www.airgunnation.com/threads/extreme-troyer-factor.868700/
The Ultimate FT course on 10/05 had an overall Troyer of 41.35. That makes it one of the harder courses that Ben has set for us in the last 24 or so months. So, if you didn't do as well as you'd have liked, be comforted in the fact that this was a rather difficult course.
The following data table shows equipment lists as well as how each shooter did. The columns to the far right show performance on some notable lanes: the standing bipod lane, as well as the three hardest targets (highest Troyer #) of the course. I included the far on Lane 10 b/c the wind seemed the most tricky there for me and I was curious if anyone else struggled on it like I did.
Since we've been doing slug and pellet classes for the last few years here it has been interesting to compare scores. Typically there isn't as large of a difference between them as one would expect, but for this night match we had the one and only Thayne Simmons. I held the previous slug record at one of these matches, a 36/40. Thayne took care of that quite nicely. Thayne now holds the record for slug and overall high scores, also prevented Steve M from being the new slug and overall high score record holder with his 37/40. In the pellet class, Van Tucker was up ahead of the rest of the pellet shooters by a cool 3 points. Great shooting Thayne and Van, and on a VERY hard course (relative to past matches).
High score pellet and High score slug (Van and Thayne).
I believe pellet class paid out 5 spots and slug paid out three, but there were so many gift cards and raffle prizes and door prizes that I had a hard time keeping track of who ended up with what. Again, thanks to VERY generous sponsors.
Here are the rest of the top placing shooters.
Thank you to all of the competitors. We're glad you came and hope you had fun and return to shoot in the future. We've joked for a couple years now about how this high power/long range game of field target is the most fun somebody can have, while simultaneously being extremely frustrated, makes a shooter want to come back and do better next time. Thanks to Ben and his crew (Scott H, Stephen K. Mike S, Dan J, etc etc etc) for putting in all the behind the scenes work, setting the course, managing lights and painting targets and etc. And finally, thanks to Phoenix Rod and Gun Club for hosting us and sharing your range.
Hope to see you all at future matches.
(there was also an Oct 7th match, very similar to the above, I'll get the data compiled for that and post another match report in the next day or two).
