2024 AAFTA Nationals at Mass Rifle Association

Done and paid!

THANKS!

HM

N\A

We at MRA FT have been preparing to host the AAFTA 2024 Nationals and there has been some pushback from the Hunter class shooters wanting to shoot 2 shots per target as it has always been done. So I have a solution, the hunter shooters will be shooting one course while the remaining classes will shoot the other which is often the case. There will still be 25 lanes on each course with 2 targets per lane,  We will have a separate scorecard for the Hunter class, the card will be for a 15 lane, 60 shot match. For instance, the Hunter shooters will be assigned the Yellow course lanes 10 -25 day one, then the Blue course lanes 1-15 for day 2 making a 120 points total for the weekend. The WFTF and Open Class Shooters will be shooting 1 shot per target 25 lanes per day for a total of 100 points for the duration of the weekend. Please respond and let me know what you think I hope that this resolves any issues.  

@msawyer I will gladly shoot either format. Makes no difference to me.

Thank you for all your hard work!

I opened a Poll on AGN, if you plan on shooting Hunter Division then please respond. 

https://www.airgunnation.com/threads/nationals-hunter-div-poll-1-shot-or-two-shot-fromat.1314438/

Poll link is dead 

Good afternoon,

Due to recent discussions and concerns regarding the shooting format for the 2024 AAFTA Nationals, we, the AAFTA BOG, would like to offer some clarification. The 2024 AAFTA Grand Prix Rules, specifically Rules E and F, allow for shooting targets twice before readjusting the course, even if those shots span two days. As a result, it is legal for a match to be held with one shot per target per day instead of the usual two shots per target. Matt Sawyer, the Match Director for the Nationals, has chosen to embrace this format as permitted by the rules.

We understand that changes like this can cause confusion and concern among some of our shooters. Before making any decisions, we carefully consider all suggestions for rule changes and their potential impacts on matches and participants. This thorough process is designed to ensure that our decisions are in the best interest of our shooting sport and its participants.

After discussing the current rule and hearing Matt's preferences, we have decided to allow the use of a hybrid shooting format for the 2024 Nationals. The shooting format will have two 25-lane courses, named Yellow and Blue, with both courses being used on both days by different classes. The Blue and Yellow courses are intertwined, and so the lane numbers will be set up in the following format: Lane 1 Blue Course and the next lane will be Lane 1 Yellow Course, then Lane 2 Blue Course, then Lane 2 Yellow course, and so on until lane 25.  The Open and WFTF competitors will shoot 1 shot per target, 2 targets per lane on all 25 lanes each day, totaling 100 shots overall.  Hunter shooters will follow the traditional AAFTA format of 2 shots per target, 2 targets per lane, for 15 lanes each day on the course not being used by the WFTF and Open classes, totaling 120 shots overall. For example, Hunter shooters will be assigned the Yellow course lanes 10-25 on Day One and the Blue course lanes 1-15 on Day Two. The WFTF and Open shooters will use the other course on all 25 lanes. In this way, all classes can be accommodated with the hybrid format.  Course planning, Troyer rating, and scoring will be kept separate for the different classes, so that the match will conform to the current GP Scoring rules for the GP Championship.

We fully support Matt’s decision to accommodate the shooters who have expressed challenges following the single-shot concept by introducing this hybrid format. 

If you have any questions or concerns, please send an email to the BOG at BOG@AAFTA.org.  

Regards,

The AAFTA BOG

​​

@cloud9ag 

THANKS!

HM

@cloud9ag 

Jeff, the Question below was sent to the Bog as requested.

Please respond here to the question to enlighten all concerned about this new rule.

Jeff, I guess I don’t understand who is considered the Hybrid class. Is it the Hunter Class that will be shooting our usual rules or the WFTF and Open who will be shooting WFTF World rules?

Thanks, Bill Day

@bill_day Hi Bill,

@cloud9ag 

Jeff, Thank you for the clarification.

Full Name                    Shooting  Class

Philip Hepler                  Hunter PCP
Lynda Hepler                 Hunter PCP
Thomas Wade                Hunter PCP
Greg White                    Hunter PCP
Charles Senkus               Hunter PCP
John Hauser                   Hunter PCP
John Dearcangelis           Hunter PCP
Geoffrey  Sugarman        Hunter PCP
Barbara Pellegrino           Hunter PCP
Greg Vaughan                 Hunter PCP
Rudy Smith                     Hunter PCP
Brian Wagner                  Hunter PCP
Karen Reis                      Hunter PCP
Stephan Hottenrott          Hunter PCP
Paul Varney                     Hunter PCP
Bill Day                           Hunter PCP
Glenn Thomas                 Hunter PCP
Ed Griffin                         Hunter PCP
Gerard O'Toole                  Hunter PCP
Khoa Tran                         Hunter PCP
Lan Nguyen                      Hunter PCP
Khoa Tran Sr                    Hunter PCP
Rich Gauvin                      Hunter PCP
Calvin Cieslak                    Hunter PCP
David Ferro                       Hunter PCP
Greg Shirhall                     Hunter Piston
Paul Manktelow                  Hunter Piston
Jim Wheeler                       Hunter Piston
Ethan Butterfield                 Hunter Piston
Kieran Pierce                       Hunter Piston
Bill Milewski                        Hunter Piston
Cindy Milewski                    Hunter Piston
Al Duster                            Hunter Piston
Brian Van Liew                    Open PCP
Scott Verch                        Open PCP
Rick Vaeth                         Open PCP
Jeff Cloud                          WFTF PCP
Garrett  Kwakkestein          WFTF PCP
Peter Sweeney                   WFTF PCP
Mark King                          WFTF PCP
Chas DiCapua                    WFTF PCP
Keith Walters                      WFTF PCP
Tyler Patner                        WFTF PCP
Lukas Richter                      WFTF PCP
DAVID ALSUP                      WFTF PCP
Wes Crisp                            WFTF PCP
Hector Medina                     WFTF Piston
Son Lu                                WFTF Piston
Jim Poh                               WFTF Piston
John Cerne                           WFTF Piston
Virgilio Gonzales                   WFTF Piston
Matthew Sawyer                   WFTF Piston
Nathan Thomas                     WFTF Piston
David D'Agostino                   WFTF Piston
Ken Hughes                          WFTF Piston
Matt Brackett                        WFTF Piston

@msawyer Thanks Matt for the attendance list. The quality of the national list is excellent! Their are some very talented names on that list in all classes so it will be competitive for sure. I see names on the list from a far that is great to see. My biggest surprise is all the names on that WFTF Piston class. They are equal to the WFTF PCP which is very unusual for those numbers to balance. 

All fly and drive safely and Dress for cooler temps.

Cheers for a great weekend! 

@bill_day 

That's right, Bill!

A LOT of talent in the WFTF Piston Class.

Over the last decade and a half, the USA has developed a whole generation of piston shooters that have made us proud in the World's Matches.

Both Matt's, Leo, Nathan, Ken (that returned to spring some years ago), John C is coming along strong. I am sure it will make for a very interesting World's at Phoenix.

We may not have the "stars" that other countries have, but we sure field (pun intended) a strong team.

See you there!

HM

Here is a link to the 2024 AAFTA Nationals Results Spreadsheet - Registered Shooters.

2024-MRA-AAFTA-Nationals-Results-Shooters-List.xlsx

It will be updated every day.

HEY THIS IS VERY COOL!

GREAT idea to have it online to see updated live!

ALSO-
Please take pics this weekend and Nationals and post on social media. Use the tag #aaftanationals2024

This will help share the event and field target to the public!

Hey Leo, nice spreadsheet, but I am registered as shooting open. Rick 

@rick_vaeth Ok. I will make the correction. See you Friday.

Thank you 

@gonzav 

Thank you Leo!

Would you, please be so kind as to update the pellet I will be shooting? I have switched to the 9.56 grs. QYS.

See you Friday, THANKS!

HM

2024 AAFTA Nationals Report

                                2024 AAFTA Nationals at Massachusetts Rifle Association 

                                                         Official Match Report

We had a total of 51 competitors for this year's AAFTA National Championships, despite the lower number of participants we had a lot of talent out there on the lanes. The weather was perfect, having warmer than usual temperatures for Fall in New England. The days started out with cold dry mornings and by 10 am things started to warm up and by noon it was officially very warm in the direct sunlight. This year we shot a hybrid format using two 25 lane courses RED and BLUE. Hunter shooters all shot in the traditional AAFTA format with 2 targets per lane taking 2 shots per target on a 15 lane section of each of the courses over Saturday and Sunday for a maximum total of 120 points. The WFTF and Open classes shot 1 shot per target with 2 targets per lane over 25 lanes making it a 50 shot match each day for a maximum total of 100 points. The Pistol match took place on Friday at 2 pm using 10 lanes, 2 shots per target and 2 targets per lane for a total of 40 point maximum. 

Friday was the first day of the event, it was an early morning of shuffling around a few last minute things and making sure the sight-in range was ready with fresh paper. Leo Gonzales was an essential part of the registration process which opened at 8 am, while Matt Brackett and I got the sight in range ready, as well as some final target setting for the Pistol match. The Pistol match was set up and waiting for a 2 pm start, during this time the sight in range was closed until the pistol match ended. We had 30% of the competitors registered on Friday with the remaining competitors checking in the following Morning. Throughout the morning and early afternoon all the pistol competitors equipment was checked and chronographed by Leo Gonzales, overall things went smoothly. The Pistol match was a difficult course, set at 35.79 on the Troyer scale, of which the first place winner of Hunter Pistol was Jeff Cloud with an amazing 35/40 followed up by Nathan Thomas with an impressive 33/40 on very challenging course and Brian Van Leiw securing 3rd place with a 29/40. Overall it was a fun match and it was amusing to listen to the comments that followed. After the match Leo, Matt and I went and painted the targets once again in preparation for the following day’s rifle match.  

Saturday morning I arrived early around 6:45 am and watched people as they came in to register if they had not already done so. Leo Gonzales was staying about 5 minutes away and met me there shortly thereafter with a coffee in hand which was a wonderful surprise. Matt Brackett arrived not too long after and started helping me with some alterations to the sight in range. Friday we had many targets flipping over we decided to stake down the feet, lucky for us Saturday was not as windy. During the shooters meeting I assigned a few extra match directors to help out over the long stretch of the course. These were some of the competitors I know well, such as Jeff Cloud, Hector Medina, Matt Brackett and Leo Gonzales. I definitely know this adds another level of stress to the match and I greatly appreciate their help, thank you guys again. The Hunter shooters were assigned the Blue course, lanes 11 - 25, the WFTF and Open classes shooters were assigned Red course, lanes 1-25. We had one 3 man squad on each course. We had a late start and competitors were at the lanes by 10:30 am. Things started off a little rough with a handful of cold lines called within the first 40 minutes. There was a critter bitten string, shockingly a pair of 4” screws managed to break on a tree target, then some more standard things such as a hung-up target leader and one string on lane 24 Blue that was never unwound it had too much tension and the target could not fall over. Other than that there were a few protests and I’m happy to report that none of the targets were found to be malfunctioning. Once everyone got into the groove things seemed to move along at a decent pace. It was still a long day with the last groups of shooters finishing around 3:15 pm. The food was delivered to the club house where we set up shop in the club kitchen. For lunch we had Lester’s BBQ and it was delicious. After everyone had their fill, we held AAFTA BOG voting and the new BOG members were placed. Then we had the AAFTA auction with a lot of cool stuff donated by our sponsors. We had 2 FX AirKings in .177 we had 2 TX200's, one HC and one standard both in nice Walnut stocks with adjustable cheek pieces. We had a Air Force Texan in .475 cal as well as 2 Umerex Helos in .22 cal in addition to a number of scopes and other accessories. Our very own host of the 2024 WFTF Championships Mr. Garret Kawkkestein was an extremely entertaining auctioneer making the auction very fun to attend even if you didn’t have a dime to spend. After the auction wrapped up I ran around, did some cleaning and general clean up went home to get ready for the following day. 

Sunday, the final day of the 2024 AAFTA Nationals was here and all the hard work leading up to this event becoming a reality set in and I definitely was feeling a little less pressure once the match started. The sight-in range was open for 7 am and the match set to start was for 9 am which was more like 9:15. Once the match started we were an hour or so into the course before any cold lines were called and overall the second day of the rifle match seemed to be going much more smoothly. I believe the last squad finished shooting around 2:30 but most of the shooters seemed to finish up between 1:30 and 2:00. After the match had been completed and score cards were all tallied we had ourselves a few ties, which meant shoot off time. For the shoot off we had a set of 1” targets at 45 yards and a set of  ½” targets set at 25yards with 2 back up 1 ½”  for kneeling at 45 yards if needed. The shoot off for WFTF Piston was between Matt Brackett and Leo Gonzales to decide the 2nd and 3rd place awards. The second shoot off was between Paul Cray and Rich Gauvin for WFTF PCP 2nd and 3rd place with Paul Cray coming out on top. With the final shoot off for Hunter PCP between Barbra Pelligrino and Greg Vaughan and Greg Vaughan securing the win for 2nd place. After the shoot offs were over we had lunch waiting for us. It was Italian food this time, Chicken Parm and Chicken Broccoli Ziti as well as Pepperoni Pizzas and Cheese Pizzas. Once everyone had time to eat and enjoy chatting about the match and relaxing we handed out the Medals for this year's winners. After the awards ceremony we hung out for a while and then started to put stuff away, collect coolers and air tanks and anything else left behind and stored it in the shotgun house. After all the guests had left it was a pretty easy clean up in the clubhouse and just like that the event was over and it’s time to start thinking about next year's 2025 AAFTA Nationals in Connecticut at Rockville Fish and Game. I am very happy and proud to have had the confidence of the BOG and fellow competitors to have made this year's event a success. Below are the results and the competitors list as well as some photos that I have collected from myself and some of the competitors.

Thanks to YOU, Matt! for having "championed' the cause.

And thanks to ALL that helped in any way or form.

In the end, FT is what we ALL make of it.

As an old Maths teacher I cannot help but analyze things as "objectively" (and that means "numerically", LOL!) as I can. And I do have to say that this is one of the best designed courses I have ever shot at a Nationals.

And why do I say that?

Well, let's look at the results, and to do that, we need to "normalize" the different Divisions to their max possible score; the Hunters to 120 shots, the rest to 100 shots:

a) how close was the design to the "skill level" of participants?

I would say, EXCELLENT! the TOP score was 94% of the total possible points. That means that the skill level of the participants was assessed with an excellent perception as to what the skill level is in the population.
This is equivalent to say that the teacher set a test where EVERYONE was capable of reaching the top grade. Often school teachers, and even University "Profs" think that putting a test that "only God can score 100%" is good teaching, that is a fallacy. IMHE, it usually comes from some complex or other.

We have said that the test correctly evaluated the "students" but, just as in teaching, it has also evaluated the "testers" because how close they know their alumni IS a measure of a teacher's capabilities and qualities.

b) how "even" was the test for the different skill levels and different 'aptitudes and styles of learning'?

I would also rate it excellent because if you analyze the normalized totals, the top 3 scores of each Division were pretty close WIHIN powerplants, and let's look in detail into that:

Out of the PCP classes:
WFTF's top three scores were in the upper 80%'s to lower 90%'s
Hunter's top three scores were in the upper 80%'s
Open's top score was in the upper 70%'s

So, a difference of 10 Basis points between divisions tells us that the challenges posed by the targets were more or less evenly distributed between : range, situation, light, and wind.
Some of those factors challenge one division more than another, but the closeness of the results tells us that the courses were reasonably "even / fair".

Now, going to the Piston Classes:
WFT's top scores were Upper 70%'s to mid 80%'s
Hunter's scores were in the 50%'s to upper 60%'s
Again, relatively little difference between them.

NOW; while the Divisions and Classes do NOT compete with each other, we need to admit that we are all human, and that the challenge that AAFTA has had for the last 2-3 decades has been to keep ALL of FT under one "roof". And, whatever we say, AAFTA has been successful about that. We may bicker and discuss, and sometimes our "malaise" gets reflected in lapsing the membership to AAFTA, IMHO this is not the best way. That is JMHO, nothing more, nothing less.
I believe we need a civilized discussion among all the voices, the assenting and the dissenting. And that discussion can only happen if all the parties actually WANT it.
AND, IMHO, that discussion cannot be public.

The above numbers ALSO show that there is no "fair" way to assimilate Divisions across Classes.
Assimilating, for example: WFTF's together (PCP and Piston)  is not the best way, and the same applies to Hunter; Open (because only the PCP Class is active at present) is closer to WFTF and Hunter.
It makes, therefore, more statistical sense to assimilate across Powerplants.

Hopefully, the new BoG's will take these two points under advisement.

Again, thanks to everyone that helped and to everyone that attended, with the World's shoot so close, I am sure it posed numerous challenges to all.
But, then, we ARE airgunners, and we all thrive on challenges.

😉

Keep well and shoot straight!

HM