A 72 shot match for the MD State Championship will be held on Saturday May 17 at DIFTA at the IWLAWAC chapter, 26430 Mullinix Mill Road, Mt Airy MD 21771.
The course is 12 lanes, with one kneeling and one offhand lane, with three targets per lane shot twice. The Troyer value for the course is 28.62 (Moderate Difficulty AAFTA 2025 handbook); with eight targets >= 40T, eight targets with 0.375”or 0.5” kill zones and eleven targets set out at > 40 yards.
WE NEED A FEW HELPERS AT 8:30 AM TO SET OUT STRINGS. The sight in range will be open from 9:00 – 9:50. Mandatory shooters and safety meeting and squad assignments at 9:50. Match starts at 10:00 am sharp.
We have two loaner rifles setup for FT with Hawke scopes that are available for use if you bring a buddy who would like to try their hand at FT. Please let us know in advance if you plan to take advantage of this.
Match fees are $10 for IWLAWAC members and $15 for guests. We need a minimum of 4 shooters to run the match, SO PLEASE SIGNUP IN ADVANCE. If we don’t reach a quorum by 10:00 pm on Thursday 3/20 we will post a cancellation notice that evening.
Paulo will be acting as Match Director
We'll try to be there!
THANKS!
HM
The bad weather should hopefully be away from the region by then.
Please, note that IWLA-WAC, our hosting organization has implemented an electronic liability waiver, which is valid for all the FT matches of this year and can be filled online at the following link:
https://waiver.smartwaiver.com/e/8HdXmoGfTFXBY2NFv5YJn7/
Although at the match we should have a tablet available for anybody to fill-in the waiver at the last minute, we strongly advise that you do it ahead of time (and print a copy, just in case). It could be particularly annoying driving a few hours, and not being able to shoot the match for a stupid technicality.
Thanks!
Paolo
Well, it looks like there was some wishful thinking on my side and now the weather forecast show chances of rain (mostly light) also on Saturday.
If the shooters that previously committed to come are "weather resistant", the match will go on as planned.
As a reminder, we need at least 4 committed shooters to have the match.
Feel free to send a personal message if you want to withdraw your commitment.
Hopefully, see you Saturday!
Paolo
The targets are all set. We need only to attach the strings tomorrow morning.
We might have some residual rain early in the morning, otherwise it should be muggy, but rain-free.
I will have some air available (with standard quick connector).
If you have not done yet, please, fill the waiver online (it is valid for the whole year) now: if there is no liability release on file, I cannot accept a registration. And, given that it is a brand new policy, it is likely that some Chapter officers would be around verifying that everything is taken care of correctly. At the same time, I cannot guarantee 100% that you will be able to fill the form on the spot by using a tablet.
Here is the link:> https://waiver.smartwaiver.com/e/8HdXmoGfTFXBY2NFv5YJn7/
Last reminder for IWLA-WAC members: on the way in and out of the airgun range, we need to sign the range logs and we need to display our badges at all times.
Thanks!
Paolo
The weather turned out incredibly nice. It started mostly overcast, a little humid, with temperatures in the low seventies, and it ended sunny, with relatively low humidity, and temperatures in the mid eighties.
The breeze, never too intense was present during the whole match. Not too much, but just enough to make the shooters thinking twice before taking most long shots.
Light was definitely a factor during the whole match, fist due to the combined effect of the fully-developed foliage and the overcast sky, then due to the high contrast caused by very bright sunny spots next to the shady (pun intended) targets and/or on the shooter's face.
We had two target malfunctions: one, an almost brand-new 2" target on the off-hand lane that refused to yield to 12 ft/lb pellets of the first shooter of the day (target promptly replaced) and a pesky old frog that locked itself up in a irreproducible way: a 26T .5" target that was successfully knocked down only once by only one shooter during the whole match, and that failed to go down when tested in loco with a calibrated target tester. However, once manually triggered, it fell consistently at each of numerous tests.
We had a large representation of Hunter Class shooters (all but one shooting PCP). Two of them, Greg White and David Floyd shot the highest score of the day (57/72) and Greg graciously conceded the victory to David, who had more hits in the two forced-position lanes.
Brian VanLiew shot the top score in Open Class (53/72), and Hector shot a remarkable 50/60 (I believe he had a gun malfunction forcing him to quit after ten lanes), the second top score for WFTF, behind Mark King.
The next match will be Sunday, June 8.
Thanks again to all who helped setting up and tearing down the course and who contributed to the success of the event with their presence.
Paolo and Mark
| Hunter | ||||
| David Floyd | FX Dreamline Tactical + Aztec 5-25x50 - JSB 13.4 gr | PCP | 57 | |
| Greg White | FX Crown Mk II + Falcon X50FT 10-50x60 – FX 13.4 gr | PCP | 57 | |
| Tom Strong | FX Crown + Sightron SIII – H&N 10.65 gr | PCP | 45 | |
| Brian Wagner |
|
Piston | 41 | |
| Laura Setikas | Daystate Revere + UTG Accushot – Crosman 10.3 gr | PCP | 39 | |
| Alan Dyke | Umarex Notos + Cvlife + Crosman 14.5 gr | PCP | 26 | |
| Jim Bell | Air Venturi Avenger + UTG + 18 gr | PCP | 13 | |
| Open | ||||
| Brian VanLiew | HW 97K + Nikko Diamond – JSB 8.44gr | Piston | 53 | |
| Paolo Amedeo | Marauder “XL” + Vector Optics 46x60mm – JSB 8.44 gr | PCP | 45 | |
| Toby Morris | Daystate Alpha Wolf + Sightron S8 – JSB 10.54 gr | PCP | 40 | |
| WFTF | ||||
| Mark King | Walter Dominator + Sightron S6 – Air Arms 8.4 gr | PCP | 55 | |
| Hector Medina | CCA D-54 + Vector Contz 5-30x56 – QYS 8.49 gr S-L | Piston | 50 | |
| Mike Beyerle | HW97K + Element Helix – H&N BFT 9.57 gr | Piston | 38 |
An apology to all the friends that I had to leave so suddenly.
My rifle's trigger stopped releasing the shots after 10 lanes (of the 12) and the gun was cocked and loaded.
So I hurried home to put it back into a safe condition. No easy task to disassemble a cocked springer, LOL!
The culprits were two springs in the trigger mechanism:
Anyway, thanks for the Match, it was real fun.
Keep well and shoot straight!
HM
OK, now with more time, some pictures, as usual, some of the lanes and the detail of the targets:
Lane 5 was the offhand
You see only two, because "Long Tom" is hidden behind the large tree on the left:
Last pictures, sorry I did not get all the lanes.
Hope you can see why DIFTA is one of the prettiest courses in the US.
AND, I will not stop insisting on this, for all the MD's:
Do NOT use 3/8" KZ's.
They prove nothing, they are not a challenge to your marksmanship skills, they test more the rig than the shooter.
AND are prone to mis-behaviour, this is a picture at 30X (sorry for the quality of the image), of a pellet GLUED to the paddle, that still did not bring the target down:
The DIFTA mechanism for doubtful targets beyond the first squad that shoots a target is to put a "P" on the scorecard, and I was awarded these points, but this is not about the points, it's about the smoothness and reliability of targets.
There is TOO much concentrated energy (wear and tear) in targets that have to be placed within the 19 yards line (IF they are to comply with the 50 Max Troyer), when shot at 20 ft-lbs. over and over and over again.
These targets WILL fail. It is not a question of "IF" but "When".
Want to make life devilishly hard / the T artificially high? Put a ½" at 24 yards!
Those 5 yards' difference in distance and KZ size make for a difference in energy impacted on the paddle of about 10%, and spread over 72% more area. That almost HALVES the wear and tear of the paddle and the mechanism. And this will reflect in the reliability of the target.
Which, in the end, reflects on the shoot itself.
JMHO
Keep well and shoot straight!
HM
The small KZ/close targets definitely take the most wear and damage. I only ever had to replace paddles on a couple of targets and they were small KZ targets. The area around the KZ also gets more beat up. I always tried to use the 3/4" kz as the smallest but we also did use a 1/2" once in awhile.
Rick
No problems with the ½" ers Rich.
As calculated, the difference in the area and the energy loss over those 5 yards means HALF the wear and tear when compared to the 3/8" s
AND, that is the best case, because most 3/8" ers are placed well under the 19 yards max. So, the wear and tear is an even bigger problem.
How much the edges get dented, was proven a few months ago when our own Mark Mayer went through the 3/8" ers with a a 3/8" drill bit.
AFAIR, at least one of them pulled strongly on the bit. Meaning that the hole had become less than 3/8".
Paraphrasing one of the wise men in FT :
"Nothing detracts more from the sport than a faulty target"
And something that disappeared somewhen from the AAFTA handbook of 2019 to the 2023 versions read:
"The quickest way to ruin a match is to have a target that
does not work properly!"
Some may think I am the lonely voice in the desert and that "everyone wants to keep things as they are".
Thing is that "things" are changing in the sport worldwide and we are not.
Food for thought.
Keep well and shoot straight!
HM
