Sunday, June 12, 2005
Shootin' In the Rain...
Just shootin in the rain! I hate shooting in the rain. The weekend was the Good Ole Boys FT match that is hosted by Roz Sumpter on 130 acres owned by him and Richie Nowack just outside of Pulaski Tennessee. This is the 5th year this match has been held, up to this year I helped Roz run the match. I usually designed and oversaw the setup of the course including last years Nationals while Roz Took care of everything else. Over the past couple years we got some additional help from Ron & Linda Juneau and Cliff Smith. Due to mostly to work, I had to set this match out so Roz and the others (Including Don Matzeder) did everything. I really needed a break this year anyways and it was really nice to just show up and shoot without any other responsibilities!
The only thing they couldn't plan on was the weather. Things were looking good at the beginning of last week but tropical storm Arlene popped up out of no where in the Gulf. Suddenly on Friday we were all looking at the prospect of a tropical storm going right through Pulaski and the forcast was for heavy rains and winds on Saturday night and into Sunday. Usually around this part of the country the Weathermen aren't right very often, however this time they nailed it, as I write this the center of Arlene is passing about 60 mile west of Huntsville and headed directly towards Pulaski, which is about 50 miles northwest of Huntsville.
Roz and the crew decided to shoot the whole match on Saturday since Sunday was going to be a washout. They made a wise choice in my opinion, instead of trying to shoot all 120 shots in one day, they pulled three lanes off of each course which originally had ten lanes and shot an abbreviated course of 84 shots. They couldn't go down much less than that since the number of shooters, about 45, wouldn't fit on two courses with any less lanes. The original match start time was supposed to be at 11:30 but it was moved up to 9:30 am which caused some confusion and some last minute rushing around by everyone to get ready. Luckily I found out in time to get to the match and get a few shots off before the match.
I checked the weather channel prior to leaving and saw that it was going to rain all day Saturday but just not as bad as Sunday was supposed to be. I decided to switch my action over to my painted Macarri stock so that I would have to subject my beautiful new DaveG stock to the terrible weather. It was a good choice as it ended up raining on us the entire day with only a few short breaks here and there. I hate shooting in the rain and I don't know if I will every do it again. Both courses got muddy and the conditions deteriorated as the day proceeded. This reminded us of the '97 deluge at Baton Rouge, for those of you who were there you know what I mean. I think this match will be remembered as the Mud Match of '05!
It is a shame that some of the lanes has to be pulled off the courses since there were some pretty interesting lanes and I was looking forward to shooting. Roz has always enjoyed throwing in some interesting, less official targets in his matches. He had three theme lanes, the Rodney Boyce lane, the DonV ambush lane and the Quigly lane. The Rodney Boyce lane had three very diffcult shots on it, a 3/8" at 20 yards, a 3/4" at 40 yards, and a 1 1/4" at 55 yards (I don't think anyone cleaned that lane). The DonV ambush lane had three targets made by Don VanDewerker shooting up hill from a bunker like structure at the firing line. The targets were a tank, a bunker like target and a barn like target that was uphill and at the top of a power pole so the angle was like 15-20 degrees up. The Quigly lane was based on the Quigly Down Under movie and was a 2" tall by 1 3/4" wide bucket that is scaled to be around the same sight picture as the bucket Quigly shot in the movie. If you hit the bucket anywhere on the face it would fall over. The Washington guys started the Quigly challenge a few years ago and it sounded like fun so Roz set one up, only at 40 yards however, for the match. All six standing shots in the match were shot on this target. I heard someone had hit it 5 times, I only got it twice.
I had intended to shoot Hunter style at this match until I got my new stock. I wanted to try it out and decided to shoot with my normal FT rig instead of my ProSport. I ended up switching stocks which voided the whole reason I wanted to shoot the match with my normal FT rig. I wish I had thought about taking my Prosport to the match Saturday morning and shot with that, I probably would have done about as well!
Even with the adverse conditions, there was still some really good shooting going on. Ken Hughes was shooting out his backside and took the top honors in Piston gun with an 68 of 84. Ken has really been trying to master the piston rifle and his hard work is showing results. I, on the other hand, haven't been practicing much over the past year (I have been paying attention more to my new bride) and my lack of effort has been showing results too! Wade Sutherland and I tied for third place, he was feeling dizzy and sick all day and on top of my bad shooting I had a badass headache all day so those are our official excuses. Roz took second in piston and Cliff Smith and Ron Juneau rounded out the top five in piston gun. Like a big dummy, I got busy rounding up my stuff and flapping my gums and forgot to look at the PCP results. I did hear of several people who were having problems with their guns due to the rain though.
I am glad to be back home, warm, dry and rested. I am going to have a big cup of coffee now and start preparing for the next match. Hopefully it will be a dry sunny match and I will shoot a little better!
The only thing they couldn't plan on was the weather. Things were looking good at the beginning of last week but tropical storm Arlene popped up out of no where in the Gulf. Suddenly on Friday we were all looking at the prospect of a tropical storm going right through Pulaski and the forcast was for heavy rains and winds on Saturday night and into Sunday. Usually around this part of the country the Weathermen aren't right very often, however this time they nailed it, as I write this the center of Arlene is passing about 60 mile west of Huntsville and headed directly towards Pulaski, which is about 50 miles northwest of Huntsville.
Roz and the crew decided to shoot the whole match on Saturday since Sunday was going to be a washout. They made a wise choice in my opinion, instead of trying to shoot all 120 shots in one day, they pulled three lanes off of each course which originally had ten lanes and shot an abbreviated course of 84 shots. They couldn't go down much less than that since the number of shooters, about 45, wouldn't fit on two courses with any less lanes. The original match start time was supposed to be at 11:30 but it was moved up to 9:30 am which caused some confusion and some last minute rushing around by everyone to get ready. Luckily I found out in time to get to the match and get a few shots off before the match.
I checked the weather channel prior to leaving and saw that it was going to rain all day Saturday but just not as bad as Sunday was supposed to be. I decided to switch my action over to my painted Macarri stock so that I would have to subject my beautiful new DaveG stock to the terrible weather. It was a good choice as it ended up raining on us the entire day with only a few short breaks here and there. I hate shooting in the rain and I don't know if I will every do it again. Both courses got muddy and the conditions deteriorated as the day proceeded. This reminded us of the '97 deluge at Baton Rouge, for those of you who were there you know what I mean. I think this match will be remembered as the Mud Match of '05!
It is a shame that some of the lanes has to be pulled off the courses since there were some pretty interesting lanes and I was looking forward to shooting. Roz has always enjoyed throwing in some interesting, less official targets in his matches. He had three theme lanes, the Rodney Boyce lane, the DonV ambush lane and the Quigly lane. The Rodney Boyce lane had three very diffcult shots on it, a 3/8" at 20 yards, a 3/4" at 40 yards, and a 1 1/4" at 55 yards (I don't think anyone cleaned that lane). The DonV ambush lane had three targets made by Don VanDewerker shooting up hill from a bunker like structure at the firing line. The targets were a tank, a bunker like target and a barn like target that was uphill and at the top of a power pole so the angle was like 15-20 degrees up. The Quigly lane was based on the Quigly Down Under movie and was a 2" tall by 1 3/4" wide bucket that is scaled to be around the same sight picture as the bucket Quigly shot in the movie. If you hit the bucket anywhere on the face it would fall over. The Washington guys started the Quigly challenge a few years ago and it sounded like fun so Roz set one up, only at 40 yards however, for the match. All six standing shots in the match were shot on this target. I heard someone had hit it 5 times, I only got it twice.
I had intended to shoot Hunter style at this match until I got my new stock. I wanted to try it out and decided to shoot with my normal FT rig instead of my ProSport. I ended up switching stocks which voided the whole reason I wanted to shoot the match with my normal FT rig. I wish I had thought about taking my Prosport to the match Saturday morning and shot with that, I probably would have done about as well!
Even with the adverse conditions, there was still some really good shooting going on. Ken Hughes was shooting out his backside and took the top honors in Piston gun with an 68 of 84. Ken has really been trying to master the piston rifle and his hard work is showing results. I, on the other hand, haven't been practicing much over the past year (I have been paying attention more to my new bride) and my lack of effort has been showing results too! Wade Sutherland and I tied for third place, he was feeling dizzy and sick all day and on top of my bad shooting I had a badass headache all day so those are our official excuses. Roz took second in piston and Cliff Smith and Ron Juneau rounded out the top five in piston gun. Like a big dummy, I got busy rounding up my stuff and flapping my gums and forgot to look at the PCP results. I did hear of several people who were having problems with their guns due to the rain though.
I am glad to be back home, warm, dry and rested. I am going to have a big cup of coffee now and start preparing for the next match. Hopefully it will be a dry sunny match and I will shoot a little better!
