FIELD TARGET COMPETITIVE SHOOTING,,, part 1

[evo]

well chaps , I,ve been asked by a few to write about the GP series I have entered in the NWFTA,

 

as some of you know I decided to challenge myself and pit my wits against some of the best shooters in Field Target in Europe never mind this country,

 

I started with studying WHAT rifles where doing the business on the Field Target scene, after a long think I decided to go with the Air Arms EV2mk4 and after reading every article there was to be read about the rifle I went out and luckily found one for sale , after shooting about 50 pellets through it with only a 3x9x50 scope on top it was a decision I didn,t take lightly to send it off to be tuned , serviced and also have a Airstripper Built for the individual rifle. This I decided to get done by one of the best in the country a guy called John Ostler,, two of his rifles have won the world FT championships which speaks for itself,,

 

I had 8 weeks before my first competition was due so I thought this would be plenty of time to get the rifle done and have a couple of weeks to get the rifle adjusted up ready for my FIRST EVER competition , how wrong could I have been,

 

whilst the rifle was away being done it was time to pick a scope and get it ready for the comps,, (( this entailed fitting everything to the scope ie, adjustable sportsmatch mounts, 150mm side wheel, oversized turret, 2x pointers and once this was done it was time to mark the distances on the sidewheel, the scope I chose was the Nikko Sterling Sportsman 10 x 50 x 60, a top scope in FT circles and on par with the sightron sIII.here is the scope once I fitted all the additives onto it whilst the rifle was away getting sorted ))

 

getting the scope ready

this was done by buying a 100mtr tape measure and it took me two days out in a field putting markers out from 8 yrds all the way out to 55yrds, I started at 55 yrds and would put the magnification on x 50 , I would then adjust the side wheel until the target in question became crystal clear, I would then put my 55yrd label on the sidewheel where the pointer was, I repeated this every 5 yrd intervals on the wheel until I was down to 10 yrds, I then spent rangeing the in between measurements ie 54,,53,,52,,51,,49,,48 etc until I again got down to the 10 yrd mark, now believe me this took bloody ages, anyway once I had marked the side wheel distances up ( with no help I may add ) and I must have walked bloody miles back and forth, it was just a matter of time for the rifle to come back and get it zero,d in and then mark up the top turret dial for my adjustments for shooting,

 

well weeks went past and with only 10 days to go I still hadn,t got my rifle back,, I was now beginning to panic so decided to give john a txt, two days later it was confirmed the rifle would be ready and sent to me 24hr delivery,, John had not been well so could not work on my rifle, anyway the rifle arrived and I only had 6 days to get it ready for my first ever competition,,i was sweating to say the least,

 

the first thing I did was fit the scope to the rifle and get out to one of my perms to zero it in,,here she is ready to take out and have a play and adjust it as best as I could ready for the comp,

 

now I was told it would normally take 12 months to get your FT rifle setup to fit you and to get use to it and I was trying to pack all this into six days and I was seriously stressing out, getting the turret markings was really difficult, I spent three days out in the field in between rain getting this done and lets not forget I was totally blind to how to do it and everything I did was from what I had read off the internet, I did most of the markings but had quite a few inbetweeners missing but this was because time was NOT on my side,, I also had not found what the best pellets where in my rifle which really was a pain to know,, well with only 2 days to go most of it was done but not all so on the Saturday I spent ALL day sitting in a field on my own walking knockdown targets out and sticking them in the ground , then rangefinding them with the scope sidewheel, adjusting the top turret and shooting,, I was hitting around 90%, after I would shoot the target I would get the tape out and measure how far the target was and double check against the side wheel, the sidewheel seemed correct, but the only problem I had was the targets I was missing was where I didn,t have the clicks marked on the top turret,, but the problem I had was TIME , it was less than 24hrs before my first comp,,

 

well I called it a day as the belly was rumbling and I had an early start in the morning so I would just have to guess some clicks but I had an idea of them sort of lol,

 

hope you have enjoyed the writeup so far ,,, I,ll put part two up tomorrow and let you know how the first competition went,,

 

cheers all

 

Evo

[Ttfjlc]

Good luck mate

[fenboy]

A good read evo

[kiffy]

a nice read, good luck in the season

[team tractor]

Nothing to worry about in FT

I shot competitive for 10 years and loved the different scenery more than anything.

Top tip for dialing in tho is always wind the same way due to slop inside the wheel ( they all have a bit) it makes a big difference at 55 yards .

My teachers / mentors have passed away now but it always stuck with me that for 8 yard targets you set to 55 yards and aim at the top of the kill

[winnie&bezza]

Interesting and good write up. Looking forward to today's one. Good luck.

[figgy]

Great read

[secretagentmole]

Good read and good luck sire, may you fare well in the land of the tin chicken hunters!

[Fabhui]

Interesting read.

[teza]

Good read and looking forward to the second part , good look and atb Bob

teza

[smiffyuk2003]

Cracking read, looking forward to the next chapter.

[Rewulf]

Hawke Chairgun is a good tool for understanding trajectory,just make sure you put all the info in correctly ,especially scope height!

It gives drop height,clicks ect.

Then you can start on the real FT stuff,trying to work the wind out!

[secretagentmole]

Hawke Chairgun is a good tool for understanding trajectory,just make sure you put all the info in correctly ,especially scope height!

It gives drop height,clicks ect.

Then you can start on the real FT stuff,trying to work the wind out!

If you want to work wind out I recommend Black Pudding!

[figgy]

If you want to work wind out I recommend Black Pudding!

Crikey that's extreme, how big and long does the black pudding need to be?

 

The only way to learn windage is to shoot in it at different distances, experience is the only way I've found. Unless you use wind meters and range every shot.

[belly47]

Interesting read Bob

 

Best of luck to you

[Rewulf]

. Unless you use wind meters and range every shot.

 

Not allowed in FT, plus with the relative low energy of sub 12ft lb air ,not infallible.

As you say ,all about experience.

[evo]

FIELD TARGET SHOOTING PART 2

 

SORRY FOR THE DELAY ALL, work has gone nuts due to staff wanting holidays and the little fella has not been well so had to cover for the wife also, also any spare time I,ve had has been spent rebuilding a destroyed huntsman classic ( mind blowing to say the least )

 

anyways back to the topic,

 

Got up at 6.30am and my buddy picked me up at 7am, off we set in out 1.20hr long journey to BYLEY FT CLUB which was the first venue for GP1 NWFTA.

 

on arriving at the venue we where greeted by the excellent Byley team and a brew was had, the weather was cloudy with some sunshine and a gusty breeze was felt which would certainly make things a bit tricky to say the least. Once the tea had been drank I decided to try a few shots on the practice ground to check all was well with the rifle, I started on the 50yrd targets and considering the breeze only missed one of the first ten shots so I refilled the rifle ready for the comp, their was some good lads about with the likes of Andy finnigan, Rob oniell etc who are very well known on the circuit and Andy finished second in the Europeans a couple of years back, have to say that he shoots for Byley and you could,t meet a more helpful guy,

the draw was made and I was to start on lane 2 and I was also paired with a guy called mark who although he had not been shooting as long as myself he was more accustomed with the competitive shooting world than I was,

the first thing I did notice was just how friendly and chatty everyone was, you could not have been with a better bunch and ALL there were there to have a good time and hopefully shoot well,

SHOOTING THE COMP

my first two shots were sitting which was a relief because I was feeling the nerves to say the least but this was mainly wanting to do well but not being fully prepared and also not being accustomed to my rifle, well the first target was 45yrds away and the second was 18yrds and I managed to drop them both which certainly eased the nerves lol, I then dropped both targets in lane four and we had a slight breeze running from left to right which could not be detected from where I was sitting but we were shooting across water and you could see the breeze on the top of it which helped,i wont go into detail about all the lanes because I would be here for hours and you will all fall asleep

the third lane was a tricky one because it was standing shots, now this was testing because the breeze was now right to left and one minute it was there then the next it wasn,t so it was gusting, I decided to go for the furthest target first which ranged 32yrds and I hit it centre which I was happy with, I then ranged the closer target and split it, how the hell I missed it I don't know it seemed a simple enough shot was the closest of the two but I hit the target low and left

I went round the course and the more I shot the more confident I was getting, confidence was to prove a downfall,,,,, I had tried to get into a routine of putting the sidewheel and top turret back to zero after every shot but on lane 8 I had not done this and it was to prove a disaster because I missed both targets which where both around 40yrds and sitting, after the second miss I realised I had dialled the top turret the wrong way and was actually shooting high on both targets, this was my first mistake and I would make sure it would never happen again,

 

this was now 5 targets I had missed one stander, two long sitters due to gusting wind , then wrongly dialled in the top turret, well it couldn,t get any worse or could it

 

the next target I missed was definitely a flier because I ranged correctly ,dialled in correctly and the pellet landed two inches low and left, yet the breeze was left to right , it was certainly a bad pellet, overall out of the 40 targets I missed a total of 12 giving me a total of 28, 37 won the day with 34 second ,,, 3 of them I could defo put down to fliers, I missed two long standers ,one short stander, and two where wrongly dialled the other 4 shots were just bad judgement of the wind , I was not giving enough windage and this I boiled it down to not being used to the scope and rifle,

 

I really enjoyed the day and ended up 9 shots behind the winner Rob Oniell and only 6 shots behind Andy finnigan so considering the time I had to get the rifle ready and also using pellets straight from the tin I was more than happy with how I performed,, I also learnt a very important lesson in making sure I put everything back to zero after each shot so I don't ever wrongly dial in again,

since the competition I have had more time to spend with the rifle, I have also found a pellet that is sweet in the rifle and I have now prepared my pellets to try and eliminate the fliers, so far the pellets I am now using have been superb and the fliers have been totally eliminated now which is pleasing to know,

another thing that stuck in my mind was as soon as I would sit down I would go into a routine to get the rifle ready to shoot, this really helped to settle me down for the shots to be taken,

the next GP is on sunday and I,m really looking forward to it because I certainly feel a bit better with the rifle and I,ve also sorted the pellets out so my aim now is to improve on the first comp and iron out any mistakes I made,

I can honestly say that considering it was a competitive competition the people around me where as nice as you could get, the other shooters where very welcoming and friendly and the staff at the club Byley where nothing short of superb, the course set out was very tricky indeed and I even got congratulated by Andy Finnigan for dropping a 55yrd target that he missed lol

overall I,m itching to get to the next comp, but so far so good and things are looking good now I,ve had a bit more time to add on to the rifle,I,ve changed the original EV2 butthook and put a Brian Samson one on, this has certainly improved the feel of the rifle for comfort and fit,

I,ll let ya know how I get on in the GP2 this sunday and to those who have never tried Field Target or Hunter Field Target shooting all I can say is get down to your local club and give it a go, its a brilliant sport and everyone is always friendly and cant be more helpful, you are missing out if you don't do it, it also teaches you things I didn,t even know existed,

 

catch ya soon with GP2 review and results

 

atb Evo

[belly47]

Glad you enjoyed it Bob

 

With your enthusiasm and determination to do well I'm sure you will soon be competing at the top

 

But most of all it appears you having fun

 

Good on ya

[winnie&bezza]

Sounds fantastic and a good first score. When everyone else is friendly and helpful it makes it so much better then grumpy secretive people. Never done FT but reading that makes me think I should give it a go.

[Hendrix's rifle]

Sounds like a good crack. Seeing as you enjoy it carry on and good luck to you, seems like you could be on a winner 👍

 

Edit, good read

Edited April 19, 2016 by Hendrix's rifle

[malkiserow]

Great write up Evo, glad it is all coming together nicely..... good luck with the next comp

[Paul taylor]

Great write up and great result to get you started.

Good luck with the next shoot, onwards and upwards 👍

[evo]

thanks for the replies gents,, winnie ,,, it really has opened my eyes as to just how friendly these competitive shooters are, they cant help you enough even to the point of giving you tips and tricks of the trade,

I am a member of Byley Field Target club now and I must say I have done a lot of sports in the past but have never done one where people are so open about things,there is a guy at the club who won the World championships Terry Almond and his wife, he has been so helpful to me its unreal, he has bent over backwards to sit and chat and even given me instructions on how best to shoot standers, this is normally one of my strong points but with the EV2 being a lot heavier than my hunting rifles and also shooting on 30 mag its very difficult to keep the bloody thing still,

 

I,ve been spending time in the house just practicing my hold which is basically to strengthen the muscles I,m using when shooting standers, the wife thinks I,ve gone nuts ha ha,

 

the simple answer to getting it right is to practice, I,m quite lucky as I,ve got 17 drop down targets now and plenty of land to practice on so I will only improve, pellets are a must to get right and this is where most time is spent, getting the right batch for the rifle because it certainly makes a difference,

 

if you have not tried Field Target shooting then find a local club and give it a go, its so enjoyable I,m just gutted I didn,t do it 20 years ago and you can use any rifle you want as long as you have a single shot or you remove your mag before going to the next lane

Great write up and great result to get you started.
Good luck with the next shoot, onwards and upwards

cheers paul

[winnie&bezza]

thanks for the replies gents,, winnie ,,, it really has opened my eyes as to just how friendly these competitive shooters are, they cant help you enough even to the point of giving you tips and tricks of the trade,

I am a member of Byley Field Target club now and I must say I have done a lot of sports in the past but have never done one where people are so open about things,there is a guy at the club who won the World championships Terry Almond and his wife, he has been so helpful to me its unreal, he has bent over backwards to sit and chat and even given me instructions on how best to shoot standers, this is normally one of my strong points but with the EV2 being a lot heavier than my hunting rifles and also shooting on 30 mag its very difficult to keep the bloody thing still,

 

I,ve been spending time in the house just practicing my hold which is basically to strengthen the muscles I,m using when shooting standers, the wife thinks I,ve gone nuts ha ha,

 

the simple answer to getting it right is to practice, I,m quite lucky as I,ve got 17 drop down targets now and plenty of land to practice on so I will only improve, pellets are a must to get right and this is where most time is spent, getting the right batch for the rifle because it certainly makes a difference,

 

if you have not tried Field Target shooting then find a local club and give it a go, its so enjoyable I,m just gutted I didn,t do it 20 years ago and you can use any rifle you want as long as you have a single shot or you remove your mag before going to the next lane

 

cheers paul

You cannot ask for more than that. Having people like that around when you are doing your hobby makes it so much more enjoyable and less likely to get fed up with it. I wonder if they are as friendly down south. If they are anything like the fellow carp fisherman I've come across down here then they will all be secret squirrels who can barely say hello. I know what you mean about headshots and weight. My s400 with the original stock was lovely for standing standing shots (actually feels even better with stock I'm doing) but with my r10 I'm not so steady and struggle a bit. Must be so satisfying setting up rifle, scope with all range markings etc, right pellet and then hit a good score.

[figgy]

Evo when is chapter two of your HFT journey coming?