Crikey! Where did 2017 go? It really is hard to believe that with Christmas just around the corner and another year will draw to a close! The winter months don’t have to mean putting your gun away until Spring though – there’s a whole load of top quality competitions that run through the winter, especially if HFT is your thing, including the Winter Gauntlet, Daystate Midland Hunter, and Southern Hunter Series. If the weather is really rotten though and or you are just too much of a wimp to venture out when it gets a little bit colder, you can usefully apply your time to planning your 2018 shooting campaign and filling up most of the weekends next year. It’s only the unwise who fail to do a little bit of advance planning and they have only themselves to blame when they are later “detailed by household management” to decorate the spare room or something equally horrific, when they could be out doing something far more meaningful and worthwhile such as shooting. Whilst you’ve got your diary out, be sure to keep the following dates free – 3 June (British Air Rifle Championships at Maldon), 8 July (the Air Arms International in Holland – see page 14 of this issue for further details!), and 29 July (British HFT Pairs Championships at Misfits HFT Club). With these and all the regular FT and HFT flagship events going on next year, 2018 looks as though it’s shaping up to be a classic one for competition air rifle sports.
Marta out-gunned her fellow male competitors across the 4 rounds of the competition to secure an historic victory
To the victor, the spoils - Marta Růžičková has this year become the first lady to claim overall victory in the prestigious Czech-Polish HFT Cup
Gp 1 - Redfearns (April 22) Gp 2 - Springfield (May 13) Gp3 - Rivington (May 27) Gp4 - Nelson (June 10) Gp5 - CSFTA (July 1) Gp6 - East Devon (July 15) Gp7 - Anston (Aug 5) Gp8 - Thurlaston -MFTA (Aug 19)
Further details can be found on the BFTA WEBSITE
Next year sees the inclusion of a few new venues, including a pre-season shoot at Dunfirmline in Scotland and a first-ever visit by the Series to the Misfits and the Nomads HFT clubs, who will be hosting rounds 1 and 7 respectively.
Full details of where and when is round is being staged can be found on the UKAHFT WEBSITE and entry forms will be available to download from there from January 1st 2018
Checkout the ENGLAND FIELD TARGET FACEBOOK PAGE for more details of this marvellous news.
Round 1 – 8 April, Ford Round 2 – 22 April, Mile Oak Round 3 – 27 May, Swallows Round 4 – 17 June, Horsham Round 5 – 1 July, Buxted Round 6 – 15 July, Mile Oak Round 7 – 5 August, Swallows Round 8 – 12 August, Ford Round 9 – 16 September, Horsham Round 10 – 30 September, Buxted End-of Season Finale – 28 October, venue T.B.C.
The dates for the 10 rounds of the Series and the end-of-season finale have now been confirmed:
England: James McLachlan, Dave Ramshead, Daz Taylor, Neil Wakelin, Tom Willingham, Mark Wilson Scotland: Greg Morss, Grant Thomson, James Hesson, Nick Hopkinson, Wullie Hoggan, David Carter Wales: Elliott Compton, Mark Kirby, Dan McMahon, Jason Bressington, Ken Pothcarey, Stuart James Ireland: Kevin Hills, Russ Connor, Martin Armstrong, Nick Byrne, Kevin McMenamin, Eoin O’Brien
Entry registration for what promises to be a hugely enjoyable 4 days in the beautiful Italian countryside opens on 2 January 2018, via the WEBSITE.
Further details can be found on the Welsh Smallbore Rifle Association’s WEBSITE.
Full results of the 2017 Czech-Polish HFT Cup can be found HERE
The W.S.R.A.’s Winter 2017/18 short-range bench rest league recently got underway, and Round 1 saw a number of shooters showing very promising form. League Organiser Terry Thomas brings us a quick round-up of the competition’s opening round results:
Division 2 saw Owain Watts of Tondu Target Shooting Club coming in with a 197-10x, marginally ahead of Kris Roberts 197-4x from Swansea Rifle Club, whilst in third place was Mike Philips Ross-on-Wye Rifle Club with a score of 195. Irene Murdoch’s 198-7x was just enough to put her ahead of Sandra Mack on 198-4x, and Donal Tibbs’ score of 191 meant that Swansea Rifle Club members took the first three places in Division 3. All the shooters in Division 4 are new to bench rest shooting, and all of them hail from Chepstow Rifle Club, and it was Grayham King who took the lead afre Round 1 on a 193, closely followed by Russ Jackson with a 187 and Jerome Vaurand on 185.
In Division 1, Sofie Shaw Of Easingwold Rifle Club has opened her campaign in the league with a magnificent score of 200, a single point ahead of Bruce Page and Ron Harding, both of Swansea Rifle Club, and fellow Easingwold member Edward Kendall. It will be interesting to see if Sofie can maintain her pace throughout the following rounds.
Marta Růžičková triumphed in the 2017 Czech-Polish HFT Cup, and in doing so became the first ever female winner of this hotly-contested competition. The Czech-Polish HFT Cup is staged over 4 rounds, with 2 being held in the Czech Republic (at Bohumín and Stárkov) and 2 in Poland (at Lazy and Pyskowice), and attracts the very best HFT shooters from both countries.
The fifth staging of the European Field Target Championships will take place near Rome, Italy, on the grounds of the Torre Baccelli Shooting and Hunting center in Fara Sabina, between the 19th and the 22nd of July 2018.
With the entry list for the HFT World Championships at Kelmarsh having been closed several weeks ago, the teams for England, Scotland, Wales, and first-time entrants Ireland have now been confirmed.
The 2018 series kicks off at Cambridge on 22 April with 6 subsequent rounds, concluding at M.A.D. on 28 October.
The Sussex Interclub Hunter Field Target (S.I.H.F.T.) Series has gone from strength-to-strength in recent years, and that trend looks set to continue into 2018 with the competition continuing to draw shooters not only from the 5 Sussex-based HFT clubs but also from the 3 “guest clubs” (namely, Maldon & District, Meon Valley and Iden Ferns) teams, as well as individual visitors.
The World Field Target Federation has awarded the 2019 World FT Championships to England, it was confirmed on 20th November.
Time to get your diaries out and make sure you keep those weekends free when the UK’s premier HFT series is taking place.
Dates and venues for next year’s Grand Prix Field Target Series have been confirmed by the British Field Target Association:
The Field Target variant comes complete with a 20 MOA picatinny riser rail, 30mm scope rings and weight bar. LOA: 960mm Height: 200mm Barrel: 525mm Calibre: .177 Weight: 3.7kg Price: £1299.00
My thanks to Crackshot in Newton Abbot for taking care of the RFD transfer of the rifle. Distributor: Sure Shot Web Site: www.sureshot-airguns.co.uk E-mail: mail@sureshot-airguns.co.uk Phone: 01284 850941 or Office/Mobile 07973 719918 Address: Sure Shot Airguns Ltd, Birds End, Hargrave, Suffolk, IP29 5HE, United Kingdom (by appointment only)
My feeling is that this is a very honest rifle and that it will get better with use. With the right pellets it will perform as well as any comparable rifle and better than some, it seems that smooth twist technology is now effective in .177 calibre and at 12 ft. lbs.
Is there a catch? Well there are two; to get the best from the Streamline you really have to find the pellet that suits your rifle, I suppose this is one of the prices we pay these days for ultimate accuracy. The other is the single shot adaptor, which when working well does its job perfectly, but it is easy to get loading wrong, especially when cold or wet fingers are trying to drop a pellet in the slot. NOTE: I have just been told that a new design of tray is on its way, whether it gets to me before I have finished the review remains to be seen.
This rifle has many things going for it; it is light, it can easily serve as both FT and HFT rifle, it has a highly adjustable stock that can be made to suit most people, a good trigger that is easily adjusted and it is accurate with the right pellet, it is also well priced for the package you get especially given the scope riser and mounts are included. There are other nice touches like a set of allen and torq keys, enough to tackle all the small adjustment points on both the action and stock, and a spare set of filler probe O rings, always useful.
Ahhh, right, well. I am not a good standing shot and to perform at my best I need a bit of weight to bear down on my leading arm. The Streamline is many things but weighty it is not and even with an adjusted 2nd stage trigger weight, standers over 30 yards could be a bit of a lottery. The obvious and easy solution is to add some weight.
Probably because of the good balance, the Streamline turns out to be a very good rifle in the kneeling stance. With the trigger adjusted to my liking I was able to use my usual 1st stage 2nd stage technique for ‘snap’ type shooting. This meant I was consistently hitting full size kills at 45 yards.
I took a little while to get everything adjusted to my liking, once done I started on some range work. The Streamline is an extremely well balanced rifle and the trigger, although far from match grade is a marked improvement on recent MPR’s / S400’s that I have shot. The downside is the weight, or lack of it, especially with the Leupold Competition scope up top. Never the less on a windy day at the club, the 13mm target at 30 yards was no match and longer range targets were equally in danger of falling.
Next it was time to assess just how the Streamline works in the three FT positions.
At 45 yards the Air Arms pellets came out best with repeated 10 to 11mm groups, with several batches of JSB’s at 25mm and a different batch of Air Arms at 40mm. At 50 yards it all seemed equal with all pellets producing 30mm groups, then out to 55 yards and the wind dropped a little allowing the Air Arms to produce a 23mm group with the other pellets all in excess of 30mm.
At 30 yards and with its preferred Air Arms Field pellets, the Streamline will lay pellet on pellet, I then transferred to some open ground and sitting on a bean bag FT style I shot groups of five, with a very gentle left to right breeze.
Groups were shot at 30 yards to check zero, then out to 45, 50 and 55 yards, the results were all measured outside edge to outside edge. The first thing that came to light is that the smooth twist barrel just like every other barrel has a definite preference for certain pellets, this came as a bit of a surprise but possibly shouldn’t have.
Next job was to see if the smooth twist barrel can hold its own with more conventional barrels…
As the Streamline has three power settings, I thought it would be fun to turn it down a bit, on medium power it was running at a regular 8.5 ft. lbs. and on low power at 5 ft. lbs. I can’t say I would ever use the adjuster, but it is good to know what effect it has.
The paperwork that came with the rifle from Sure Shot stated that the rifle was reaching 11.6 ft. lbs. using 8.44 grain pellets, that’s around 785 fps, so after my first range session and after a barrel clean out came the chrono. The Streamline has a regulator fitted so I was expecting a string of similar velocity readings, sure enough with Air Arms Field pellets (the free ones I got at the Worlds) I was getting a regular 785 to 789 fps. Other similar weight pellets from different manufacturers gave the same results.
On releasing the shot there is a slight recoil but very little report, in fact the loudest noise is the hammer spring after the shot has gone. It took me only a handful of shots to get the rifle zero’d, but it was the following day before I could check real accuracy thanks to hurricane Brian, or at least the bit that affected the South West of England.
I found that as set by the factory the first stage of the trigger is a little weighty, nothing that is troublesome and something that can be tweaked using one of the two adjuster screws provided. The second stage is very nice, again a tiny bit heavy, but again that can be adjusted. The trigger break is clean and sharp and there is no backlash that I could feel. After my first range session I adjusted the weight of both stages and got them a good deal closer to the way I prefer them.
Loading is an art form and has a definite knack which takes a while to acquire. The loading port is a deep slot in a moulded plastic block and the pellets have to be rolled in. It is possible to drop them in backwards, nose in, nose out and any number of other combinations but the most reliable method is to angle the rifle sideways until the loading slot is vertical and roll the pellets into it with your thumb.
With a Leupold Competition scope installed in the mounts provided and the air tube filled to 220 bar, it is time to try the Streamline out. The biathlon-style cocking lever does not need slapping backwards, it just needs a nice steady pull through until you hear the action ‘snick’. Over-enthusiastic use of the lever produces a nasty metal on metal feel which is most likely the internal mechanism hitting a stop. Don’t let me give the impression this is a delicate mechanism, it’s not, it is just lightweight.
On the other side of the action to the cocking lever is a rotary power adjuster marked with one, two and three dots, three being 12 ft. lbs. Above the adjuster and single shot adaptor is a set of dovetails front and back of the breech opening; mounted to them on the FT version is a picatinny riser/bridge and a set of matching 30mm scope mounts… sweet! Below all this, back down on the bottom of the stock is the trigger guard and in front of that is the hamster that sits in an accessory rail that runs the entire length of the fore end. The hamster has a similar pair of fixing posts to the butt plate that allow it to be angled front to back, it is also height adjustable… and that is it really, above the fore end is the air tube and above that the shrouded barrel. The air tube has a probe type filler and manometer installed at the end. All the metalwork is anodised black with some neat engraving on both the stock and action highlighted in white, it all looks extremely business like.
Next we come to the cheek piece which again cannot be angled but has a full range of horizontal and vertical adjustments. The next point of contact is the grip which is not adjustable. Immediately in front of the grip, unsurprisingly, is the trigger, the post is fixed but the blade can be rotated to your preferred angle and can also be moved up and down the post. Just above the trigger on the right hand side is the safety catch, this only operates when the rifle is cocked, talking of which, directly in front of the catch is the biathlon style cocking lever, and in front of that is the single shot adapter loading slot.
The Aeron stock is made entirely from machined aluminium, with laminate wood cheek piece, pistol grip and hamster. This model has the standard woodwork but there is a higher spec model available with woodwork by Warren Edwards. Starting at the back we have a butt pad and integral plate, the jaws of the pad are adjustable via a series of threaded holes and allen screw fixings. The pad does not have any lateral adjustment but using the two extension rods it can be angled up or down and also has a small amount of vertical adjustment. At the bottom of the plate is a weight bar that screws into the plate and has five small adjustable weights hung on it.
So let’s have a little look, butt pad to muzzle and see what exactly it is that we have here.
I can’t help myself, it is not the result of a deprived childhood or a hoarding obsession or anything like that, I just like new stuff; stuff that is different, stuff that is unusual and stuff that may, or may not be better than the stuff I already have. In this case the stuff is a new rifle from Sure Shot that uses the well-known and well-used AERON (ACZ) metal stock but with an FX Streamline action installed, going under the snappy title of ACZ Streamline STX Ultra FT… catchy I think you’ll agree. I have had my eye on FX rifles for a while as the smooth twist barrel has always intrigued me, and of late I have been hearing first hand of very good experiences at 12 ft. lb. level, something that has been far from guaranteed in the past, so when I saw a single shot, smooth twist barrelled action worked into a pretty well respected FT/HFT stock, I thought “that is my kind of stuff”.
Always on the lookout for something new, Neil MacKinnon tries an FT rifle with a difference, the smooth twist ACZ Streamline.
Full details and scores from all the CSFTA FT Winter League rounds this far can be found on the CSFTA WEBSITE.
So, heading into the Christmas break, it is Justin Wood at the top of the pile with a mightily impressive average of 99% over the 4 rounds so far, with Cliff Church behind him on 96%. Team-wise, Buccaneers B still lead Bisley by two points, with North Oxon just a single point behind them.
The final lane at the end of the wood pretty much summed the day up, with competitors getting one but not the other target, even though there was only about 7 yards difference between them! Asking around at the end of the shoot, the general opinion was that the wind was moving the pellets randomly – sometimes to the left, sometimes to the right, and at other times not at all; one thing that everyone was agreed on though was that North Oxon had laid on a cracking day’s sport, and there had been not a single stoppage.
The course-setters had gone on the previous days weather forecast of no wind and set it that way, but the wind did come and it played havoc as the morning progressed, picking up slightly and constantly shifting direction – the exact opposite of Round 1 on the Isle of Wight, when the forecast had been for wind but none turned up!
After the open section, the course continued on into the wooded area, and with nearly all the leaves now off the trees, the breeze was able to swirl around quite a bit. This section contained more than its fair share of reducers and long distance targets, meaning that shooters had quite a challenge on their hands to correctly read what the changeable wind was doing from one moment to the next.
The ground at North Oxon is a strip of woodland that runs behind the ground and open field on the other side. This means that the course can only really run along one side and the courses that the team at North Oxon tend to set are usually “old school FT” style ones, and this one started on the far left side of the container and with a nice mixture of both short and a few long targets in the first 6 lanes, along with the first pair of kneelers, one at mid-range and the other a bit further out. Shooters then moved on to the open section in front of the container, and a welcome chance to maybe grab a quick cuppa – or at least a few sips - between the lanes. This open section had targets set at a variety of distances and angles, giving plenty of opportunity for misses and dinks were frequently audible as you walked past this section of the course.
A few weeks later and the weather in the run-up to the shoot had turned cold – very cold - though by the time the day of the competition had arrived the weather had noticeably warmed up, with temperatures almost double figures. The sky was slightly overcast, with the light wind coming from a northerly direction making it feel slightly cooler, though not by much.
And with that, we all headed off to North Oxon, the most northerly club in the CSFTA region, for the Round 4………..
So what does that mean for the regional standings? After 3 rounds Justin has an impressive 98% average, with Rob Farnworth on nearly 94%. In respect of the team standings, Buccs B leads on 28 points, with both Buccs A and North Oxon both 4 points behind.
So at the end of the shoot who had the bragging rights? Well, that turned out to be as Justin Wood and Cliff Church, both two shots clear of a gaggle on 36, which included visiting shooters Simon Evans and David Purcell. Also here was one of the legends of SEFTA and now CSFTA, David ‘Holly’ Hollingdale, who proved that you don’t always need modern equipment by getting a 36 with a 1980’s vintage GC2 with a 20-50 Lupe on top – and a significant step up from the score of 25 that he previously came away from Basingstoke with. After that, it was groups of 4 down to the 31’s, with at least one shooter of each grade represented amongst them.
All in all, the Round 3 at Bisley was a hugely enjoyable one, with the usual mixture of banter and ribbing of friends and club mates if they were close by - dinks a plenty, but lots of laughter as well.
A Chief Marshall’s lot is rarely a happy one, and a special mention must go to Mark Stanley, who was running about quite a bit at the start of the competition when a few whistles sounded due to walkers suddenly appearing behind the targets on the 14-17 lanes - despite all the warning signs and red flags being on prominent display!
The dogleg section had targets facing in two different directions, with a few targets up in the trees including one of the kneelers at just over the 40 yard mark - good job the other kneeler was a lot closer! There was no let-up though, as the following lane was the final standing lane with the second target around the 43yd mark and the opposite direction, and this lane marked the start of the final six lane run to the end. Target placement here was a bit sneaky, as there were a couple of lanes where you could see three targets, and in the “heat of battle” it would have been very easy to have ranged and shot the wrong one – a mistake made by at least a couple of competitors as I heard shouts of “Who just shot my target!’
A mixture of long, short and both sizes of reducers were to be found amongst these, as well as one of each of the positional shots here. Some targets crossed over the previous or next lanes targets, though these had been carefully positioned so as to ensure that the strings did not interfere. Not stupid distances but long enough to make you think a bit - especially as the cold could drop the pellet low, or your shivering throw it off target.
With the first 10 lanes running along the fence line, a dogleg then took you away from the fence but with lanes on both sides. The first lane started as you cross over the walkway that runs beside the fence, and with subsequent targets on these lanes each angled slightly away from each other, you needed to keep your mind on what the wind was doing. The safety red flags were limp on the poles but there was enough wind out there to move a pellet sufficiently to cause a miss if you did get it right.
After the safety briefing, the pairs for the shotgun start were called out, with those starting the furthest away called first so as to give them time to get to their respective start lanes. Round 3 had attracted a few visiting shooters from further afield, including some from the SEFTA region and a few from Wales (including one shooter who hailed from abroad and who was in the UK visiting his Welsh friends for the weekend!)
For those that have never been there, Bisley have the choice of three areas of ground to shoot over – just in front of the club house, over the first bridge, or the longer hike over by the military fence. Well for all of those visiting, both from near and far, it was the long hike option that the host club had chosen; still, there’s nothing like a bit of exercise to raise the heart rate before a competition and maybe warm you up a bit.
Bisley, the Mecca of UK shooting, was the location for Round 3 of the CSFTA Winter League. What was the weather going to be like? Round 1 on the holiday Isle of Wight was dry and calm, whilst Basingstoke was wet underfoot but dry with variable wind strengths. Well, Bisley turned out to be dry but cold - not frosty cold, but cold enough for your breath to give you an idea of what the breeze might be doing.
In some parts of the UK, the winter months are a time when there’s less going on for Field Target shooters – not so if you happen to be fortunate enough to be in the area covered by the Central Southern Field Target Association, whose members clubs lay on the hotly-contested CSFTA Field Target Winter League. CompAir’s Andy Winch caught up with the action at Round 3 at Bisley and Round 4 a few weeks later at North Oxon’s grounds…
The Shooting Show gives you the chance to not only look at but also try out some great items of new kit
Gamo ae one of the manufacturers who have already confirmed that they will be exhibiting at next year’s show
There’ll definitely be no shortage of space for the 2018 Great British Shooting Show at Birmingham’s N.E.C.!
The N.E.C.’s spacious exhibition halls means that there’s no shortage of space to set out a multitude of airgun shooting lanes
The Great British Shooting Show runs from 16-18 February 2018, and further information (including details of how to book advance admission tickets at a discounted rate!) are available from the Show’s website HERE.
The move to the N.E.C. therefore seems to bode very well, not just for the Show itself but particularly for those whose passion I for airgun, and it will be great to see what is possibly the fastest growing sector of all shooting sports no longer “playing second fiddle” to the other disciplines.
There will be over 30 lanes on the airgun range including manufacturers’ lanes where visitors can try out their latest models. In addition, there are the dedicated shooting lanes that will form “The Air Arms Experience which gives people the chance to try out a wide variety of airgun target shooting disciplines including Hunter Field Target, Field Target, Target Sprint, Pistol, Precision, Benchrest, and Bell Target shooting. A new addition for 2018 will see specialist optical lanes where you can try out the latest scopes (including ‘night lanes’ for those who also enjoy a bit of nocturnal hunting in addition to their target shooting activities) night vision optics.
OK, but what about those of us whose passion is for airguns, and what improvements will we see at next year’s Show? Steve organ is quick to point out that the airgun area of the Show will be much larger than previous years, with the extra space that is available meaning that many exhibitors will be able to bring their bigger exhibition stands that they have previously only used at international shooting shows. The good news continues with manufacturers and distributors including Air Arms, Anglo Spanish Imports (ASI), Brocock, BSA, Daystate, Edgar Brothers, Gamo, Highland Outdoors, Tesro UK, Umarex and Weihrauch Sport having already confirmed their atatendance at the 2018 Show, many of whom have said that they will be unveiling new products for the first time at next year’s show – though unsurprisingly, they are keeping their cards very close to their chests about these at the moment.
The Great British Shooting Show prides itself on covering all aspects of shooting – everything from clay pigeon shooting, game shooting, stalking, airsoft games, gun dogs, as well as all things airgun-related – and therefore of this the Show attracts large numbers of visitors. It was therefore vital that the new venue could not only offer suitable and adequate space to enable Steve and his team to put on the event, but also that the Show’s “new home” had really good road, air and rail transport links, suitable parking facilities, and so on. Having been built specifically as an exhibition centre to stage shows and similar events, Birmingham’s N.E.C. ticked all these boxes admirably, and the venue had the added advantage of being not a million miles away from the Great British Shooting Show’s previous home at Stoneleigh Park.
Enjoyable though previous shows at Stoneleigh Park were, it wouldn’t be unfair to describe the area that housed the airgun section of the Great British Shooting Show as very much “the poor relation” when compared to the sections where many of the other branches of shooting were located. The hall where the airgun exhibitors’ stands were set up had (to put it kindly!) an extremely dated feel, which combined with low ceilings and poor lighting didn’t exactly make the ideal showcase our side of the sport. This was undoubtedly one of several factors that prompted the show’s organiser Steve Morgan to take stock and look at what other venues had to offer, and the N.E.C. at Birmingham was very much at the top of the list of possible contenders to host the 2018 event.
The tenth anniversary of the Show coincides with it relocating to Birmingham’s N.E.C. next year, and CompAir caught up with Steve Morgan, the man who makes the whole event happen, to find out what the move means for airgun shooters.
Mark Lloyd was victorious in the Summer Gauntlet Oddball Class
Mr Dave Benyon takes aim during Round 1 of the Winter Gauntlet Series
Justin Grice, now shooting a Theoben, settles down to take his shot
Daz Taylor hijacked our correspondent’s camera; for all our sakes, please don’t let him do this again, Dave!
Mark Kirby, puzzled and out-foxed by the wind, went on to give vent to his feelings by using what our reporter later described as industrial language
The pleasant weather for Round 1 saw a good turnout at the Oldham ground, including Elliott Compton on the peg
A high target, set at a tricky angle made for one of several challenging shots at Round 1
Thea Batey collected her trophy at Round 1, following her win in the Ladies Class of the 2017 Summer Gauntlet Series
The firing line banter and shoot jungle drums were saying that a couple of competitors shooters were either 1 down or still clear (even with the course setting team using all the tricks in the book!), and so the chance of pulling any errors back would have been a tall one. A wobble on another positional takes a second point away from me, though I manage to hang onto a score of 58 by the time we’ve finished but Dave unfortunately slips up on another couple of targets. As scores filter in, the much-prized clear round has eluded everyone once again, though 3 shooters manage to come in with awesome scores of 59 on a highly technical and challenging course.
At just over half distance T6 managed to steal a point from us both; it was another odd-shaped target, which later discussions with Dave Benyon led us to believe that we had both tried covering too much and had both gone high by not compensating for elevation climb – and that we had both been suckered into the range trap!
On arrival at T1, we find that it’s another long one, set at 180 degrees to the last target, though despite that we both mange to take cleanly. The change of direction also brings a new challenge into the equation, with the low winter sun now shining almost straight down your scope. Lovely! T 2 was the unsupported stander, set out over 30 yards from the peg, and it’s the sort of thing we’re seeing quite often these days, with particularly tough shots being sited close to the first peg on the course, and it makes for a good way of sorting out the count-backs in the event of tied scores.
On the run up to T30, we encountered lane after lane of new target positions, but we both managed to keep our score cards “clean”. T30 was the first of the new diamond targets; so far the course has been quite “long”, which has been starting to build some windage history on the face plates, and so we knew that the conditions were claiming a few victims. With the odd-shaped kill, the target was fairly difficult to range by just using bracketing, and so it was one of those where you have to use image sharpness, combined with doing the imaginary paces thing in your head to try and work out the distance.......the course-setters were really making us work hard for it today! Unfortunately, T30 manages to spoil Dave’s nice, clean card, but there is still over half the course to go.
Once again, my shooting partner for the day was Dave Benyon, and we arrived at our start number 19 peg to discover that it was a 40 yard-ish head shot rabbit, which you had no choice but to shoot through a hole in a clump of bushes mid-way to the target - excellent for telling you absolutely nothing about what the wind drift is doing on the other side of the bush! As a course-setter, you know just how difficult to set up this kind of shot; Dave is first up and kindly gives me a perfectly central mark on the paddle to aim at, which I manage to land mine on – a nice way indeed to start the day…
The good weather conditions also acted as a catalyst to draw in a few visiting shooters, and Round 1 had the honour of Kingsley’s finest (and Tench, of course), and so the bar was set high in terms of the standard of the competition. After the all-important safety brief, the walk down to the start pegs showed just how much work had been put into this opening round – a virgin course with the added surprise of yet more new, bespoke targets in the form of “floating diamonds”. I wouldn’t use the term “faceplates” to describe the new targets, as there was so little of them with the minimum of 10mm all around the kill also being diamond-shaped; let’s just say that it seems we have some very twisted target-makers out there!
The guys at Oldham Club have a long-established reputation for setting out quality HFT courses, and for Round 1 it was Steve Wild and Mariusz Wisniewski who nailed it once again by providing yet another new firing line and a really enjoyable course. Another bonus on the day of the opening round was the weather - conditions couldn’t have been more perfect for a spot of HFT with clear blue skies, a light breeze, albeit a slightly chilly one. Later in the day the temperature would very slowly make it all the way up to a balmy, sub-tropical (do remember, we’re talking about Oldham in November!) 5 degrees Centigrade as we approached lunchtime. I had been keenly awaiting these sort of ambient temperatures to see what the effect would be on the latest generation of converted 10 metre guns compared to proven, factory-supplied 12. ft lb. guns, and it will be very interesting to see how things pan out with these over the winter months.
One tradition that hasn’t changed is that Round 1 of each Gauntlet Series is also the occasion when the winners’ trophies for the previous series are handed out, and for the 2017 Summer Gauntlet Series after all the scores had been totted-up and double-checked were:
This year, there’s a slight change to the usual format of the Winter Gauntlet Series in order to accommodate an additional club and venue, with the Winter Series having 4 rounds with a shooter’s best 3 scores counting towards their grand total, whilst next Summer’s Series will comprise 8 rounds with 6 scores counting.
With the mankinis now washed, laundered, and safely put away in the summer clothes dressing-up box, it must be time for the Winter Gauntlet Series to get underway. CompAir’s intrepid Northern Correspondent, Dave Ramshead, donned his best thermals and bravely headed off to do battle…
Glenda Privett
Glenda: That’s ones easy! Better toilets!
Glenda: A few achievements stand out in my memory, the first was winning the most improved shooter in CSFTA winter league, and scoring 34 at Buccanners in 2016 and a 34 at Popham this earlier year
Glenda: Trying to improve, and I really enjoy shooting well in the wind
Glenda: I’m currently shooting an Air Arms HFT 500, a “Big Nikko” MK3 scope, and JSB 4.52 pellets.should give Rivi a try, so that’s another one on my list.
Glenda: It was a simply a case of my husband Steve saying “why don’t you come along and give it try?” That was 8 years ago and I was hooked!
Glenda is a member of Buccanners FT Club and together with her husband Steve is an important part of both that the club and the region. Always willing to help new and old members, especially juniors, her banter has had many of us laughing between the lanes, but be under no illusion - underneath all that merriment and mirth, Glenda is a cracking shot.
If they can do it, anybody can! The unholy alliance of messrs Simpson and Chillingworth took home a brace of nice trophies for their efforts at the Pairs Charity Shoot
Buxted members Kevin Hills and Nigel Turner were the very worthy winners of the PCP-Springer Class at the Mile Oak Pairs Charity Shoot last summer
The event is limited to 60 pairs of shooters, and we are therefore advising competitors to get their entries in early, in order to avoid disappointment. Entry costs just £20 per pair.
There’ll be a choice of 2 classes to enter – you and your shooting partner can choose between the PCP/PCP Pairs Class, or for those who prefer a “proper” challenge, we have the PCP/Recoil Pairs Class. We reckon that the latter class carries superior bragging rights - especially if your score beats any of those entered in the PCP/PCP category!
Greg Hensman and his team at The Misfits HFT Club will be hosting the inaugural British HFT Pairs Championships on Sunday 29 July 2018. The competition will be shot over a 30 peg course, set to current UKAHFT rules, and we are absolutely delighted that the competition has been sanctioned and endorsed by the UKAHFT.
Back in the early summer, CompAir helped support a pairs charity shoot run by Mile Oak Shooting Club in aid of the Cancervive Charity, and it was a huge success with everyone enjoying themselves and asking when they could do it all again. Well, now here’s your chance…
A warming cup of tea or coffee helped competitors keep any chills at bay as they made their way around the 2 courses
The wooded area of the courses was where a number of high, lofted targets were set
Autumn in a Slovakian woodland - the perfect setting for a spot of HFT!
The elevated targets made the choice of aim point critical
The Slovak HFT Open has become a regular fixture on the shoot calendars of many European HFT shooters
In the Ladies Class it was Hungary’s Katalin Nagy who secured a well-deserved win
In the Junior Class, it was a 1-2-3 clean sweep for the host nation Slovakia
The Czech Republic was one of just 4 countries that was represented at the 2017 Slovak HFT Open
The Slovak HFT Open has earned a reputation for first-rate sport - and excellent hospitality for all those taking part
Czech shooter Libor Pacik was a massive 13 points ahead of his nearest rival in the Recoil Class
This year’s win was Jakub Vicher’s fourth in successive years - a remarkable feat!
A number of the long-distance targets were set out in the meadow area of the grounds at Skycov
The safety brief is even more crucial when there are visiting shooters from other countries taking part, as it’s vital that everyone understands what is required of them to ensure that the competiton runs safely
At the end of competition on Saturday, there was still time enough for a few of the Czech and Polish shooters to pay a visit to the nearby Hrušov Castle, and although the mist and fog meant that the views from the castle ruins were somewhat “limited”, the trip rounded off the day’s activities very nicely. Then it was back “home” for dinner and beer. Sunday saw similar conditions to the previous day, and absolutely no let-up in the intensity of competition, with just a single point separating Open Class first place man Jakub Vicher on 190 points from his Czech Republic compatriot Ladislav Pusztai on 189 after 2 absolutely “full-on” days of HFT; Slovak shooter Milan Komoráš secured 3rd place for the host country with his score of 187 points. In the Recoil Class, the first place trophy once again headed for a new home in the Czech Republic, courtesy of Libor Pacik’s remarkable score of 175 – a full 13 points ahead of his nearest rival. The Ladies Class saw Hungary’s Katalin Nagy clinch victory with her very impressive score of 184 points, whilst in the Junior Category Matej Grega (with a stunning score of 185), Adam Komoráš (160 points), and Denis Šramo jr. (130 points) made it a clean sweep for Slovakia. Jakub’s first place meant that this was his fourth win in a row at the Slovak HFT Open and when asked how he managed this remarkable feat, although not entirely sure himself as to why he has become so successful at this particular event, he put is down to several factors including his approach to the event. “Possibly it’s because I also look forward to this particular competition, we treat it a bit like a family holiday and as a “reward” to ourselves for all the hard work that has gone into the previous months. When we head over to take part in the Slovak HFT Open, I do not have to worry about anything or deal with any problems. I just meet great people, enjoy myself, and do what I love most – shooting HFT”
The weather for the 2 days of the competition could best be described as typically “autumnal”, with an occasional slight breeze and the odd spell of light rain – perfect weather for an HFT competition (although those who take their sport seriously will confirm that just about any weather conditions are ideal ones for a spot of HFT!) A number of the targets had yellow plates with a black kill, but most were black with a yellow kill, and a number of shooters discovered that it was sometimes pretty tricky to make things out through their scopes – especially on Sunday, when a thick fog descended and hung around the woodlands where the courses were set out for most of the day. One section of the course had been laid in an area of meadow, which is where a number of the longer distance targets were set out, whilst those targets in the wooded areas were often placed in elevated positions at a variety of differing angles, including some that were so “steep” that they required shooters to take the angle of the trajectory of their pellets into account when deciding on which aim point to use! With the weather conditions being somewhat dank and misty, a particularly nice touch by the competition organisers was the provision of tea and coffee under a small gazebo set out on the courses, meaning that competitors could pull in on their way round each course for a “pit stop” in the form of a very welcome cuppa – a great idea and one that those who organise shoots here in the UK during the winter months would do well to take onboard.
For quite a few years now, the HFT Slovak Open competition has been a traditional fixture on the HFT calendar, and has become an event that attracts shooters not just in Slovakia but also from the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland. This year saw the event being staged on the weekend of 21-22 October, and saw over 60 competitors make what for many has become a bit of an annual “pilgrimage” to Skýcov in western Slovakia. The Slovak Open has become a very popular competition over the years, because it offers not only two first-rate HFT courses set out in very attractive surroundings, but also because of the excellent accommodation (conveniently located just literally just a few metres away from the grounds where the competition is staged!) and the charming hospitality of the Slovakian hosts – both of which have very much become a hallmark of the event. The organisers behind the Slovak HFT Open very much recognise that any competition is only as good as the shooters who take part, and therefor they place great emphasis on getting everything right and putting on the very best shoot that they can for all those who take part. The 2 courses (named “Blue” and “White”) each comprised 50 targets, meaning that scores on each day of the competition were out of a possible maximum of 100 points, with the overall score for the competition being out of a maximum possible of 200 points. With competitors from 4 different countries taking part, special attention was paid to ensure that the all-important pre-shoot safety brief was properly delivered and understood by everyone – and then it was down to work…
The full results of the 2017 Slovak HFT Open can be found HERE and to view the Official Photo Gallery, click HERE
Czech Republic shooter Jakub Vicher made it 4 years on the trot by winning the recent 2017 Slovak HFT Open at Skýcov. CompAir caught up with the man himself to try and find out the secret behind his remarkable run of success in the event…
In summary based upon using the scope for 5 HFT competitions so far this is proving to be an excellent scope for HFT and I would expect to be keeping it on the rifle for the foreseeable future, well worth the £349 RRP given the excellent reticule, quality glass and robust construction.
I have recently fitted a maximiser which certainly helps in clarity as well as aligning my eye for the close 15mm targets – was only getting half of these before I fitted it but have not missed any since and I can clearly see the pellet strikes at 45 yards.
The picture will white out quite easily if shooting towards a low winter sun as you will do this time of year but if your eye is aligned correctly the picture is still clear, so that is no bad thing, I am planning to fit a sunshade which might improve it still further. What is good is that there is no edge flare when looking at pale coloured surfaces in bright lights.
I fitted the scope to my FTP on medium mounts and it was quickly zeroed, I have set the parallax to 30 yards (the same as I had set my other scopes), the targets out to 45 yards are clear and much easier to see with the greater magnification however the targets less than 15 yards were less clear though much better that the old Viper. On the second competition at the end of season UKAHFT shoot it performed very well allowing me to get a 4th place.
The whole scope has a solid feel to it and I have had a number of folk comment that it “looks good”.
Other functions which are clever but not relevant to HFT are the geared turrets with the option to fit your own range tapes and a rear flip up cover with a built in magnifying lens to enable you read the turret without glasses.
First impressions were very good, the glass is immediately better with an improved depth of field than its predecessor, the turrets have a locking lever on them so you won’t accidently spin it as you remove it from the bag and the centre 1 mildot section of the ret will illuminate (and stays on for a whole course).
I decided the best way of seeing what the new scope had to offer is to use it through the winter Southern Hunters Series, I have never managed to get a scope set up to suit me straight out of the box so it would need a few comps to really see what it can do.
My usual HFT scope for the last couple of years has been a Leupold Mk4 2.5-8 x 36 with an illuminated ½ dot ret or TMR ret as Leupold refer to it. The glass is lovely but the 25mm kills at 40 yards do seem to be getting ever smaller on 8x mag.
One of my first proper HFT scopes was the MTC Viper 10x44, I still have a couple of them and always thought the SCB ret was the best reticule for HFT, the glass quality however was more variable, some were really good, some less so. You often heard the comment “if only they did a scope with that ret but better glass”. Having said that Richard Woods does seem to do well with them…
Charles Peal takes a look at the new MTC Viper Pro, and is putting it through its paces in the popular Southern Hunters Series this winter…
Mike found the Gold Star very capable when it came to unsupported kneeling shots
Rock steady performance from the BSA Gold Star - if only we could say the same for Mike!
CompAir’s tester-in-chief Mike Seagrave found the Gold Star to be a well-made, consistent and reliable rifle
The Gold Star’s adjustable stock was easy to set up to suit Mike’s requirements
Have your ever experienced occassions when shooting in a threesome, the usual “post-lane discussions” brought to light the fact that although all of you successfully knocked the target over, each had given the shot differing degrees of compensation for the wind? One reason behind this could be that shooters who are on top of their game know their guns intimately and have learnt just how their rifle behaves in the wind and know just how much “to give it for wind”. Consider the difference when a competition that takes place in still, calm, almost windless conditions and the majority of shooters come in with pretty high scores, compared to those days when a shoot takes place amidst windy, blustery conditions when it is often the case that most of the best shooters will still be towards the upper end of the score sheet (albeit with slightly lower scores than they might normally turn in), but “the chasing pack” will be spread out over a wider range of considerably varying scores. One of the major reasons behind this is that the top shots know and understand their rifles and their chosen set-ups inside out, and they know just how their guns will react and perform across a whole range of wind conditions.
As I have said earlier, the words “it takes less wind” are highly subjective ones, especially when we do not know what the Gold Star was being compared to and under what sort of conditions the comparison was made. From my own experiences, I didn’t feel that I had to aim off any less with my HW100-barreled Steyr or my Anschutz, but unless I had had the opportunity to shoot the Gold Star against these other rifles side-by-side, at the same time, in exactly the same wind conditions then the question will always be one that is open to debate. Having enjoyed a couple of months shooting the BSA gun in a variety of conditions at a number of competitions, one thing that definitely isn’t open to debate is the fact that it is a very well-made, reliable and dependable gun that is more than capable of giving an excellent account of itself in the heat of battle.
So how does the Gold Star fit in with the above? Well, I feel that this particular rifle is one that is not only very consistent and predictable in terms of its performance, it is also a gun that is comparatively quick and easy to “learn”; it has no hidden vices or strange foibles to catch out or trip up the shooter. In addition to its consistent performance, the Gold Star also boasts a reputation for excellent reliability – certainly when compared to some of the tales of woe we often hear concerning some of the more “exotic” and highly-tuned rifles that you see out there on the competition circuit. Solid, consitent, reliable and predictable performance goes a heck of a long way in helping you pick up those vital extra points on windy days, and I reckon that it is these factors that may have helped perpetuate the rumour about the Gold Star taking less wind.
The words “it takes less wind” is a highly subjective statement and one that is open to differing interpretations; shooting successfully in windy conditions will always involve a goodly amount of previous experience, an ability to observe what the wind is doing, and frequently an element of luck. To illustrate this point, just think how many times have you “given it wind”, only to see your pellet land on the faceplate exactly where you aimed?
Fortunately, my own rifle’s staple diet of Air Arms Diablo Fields 8.44 grain pellets seemed to work very well in the Gold Star, and after several outings to a variety of different venues over the last couple of months, using it on both woodland and open grounds, I think that I might just have the answer to the all-important question of whether it takes less wind or not…
When the single shot version of the Gold Star arrived here at “Seagrave Towers”, the first thing to do was to head off down to my local club’s range and get the rifle set up to my own personal preferences, which included adjusting the stock and trigger, and then spending some time getting the feel of actually shooting this lightweight yet robust gun.
The Gold Star is without doubt a gun of quality and one that is firmly aimed at the HFT side of the sport. It is a well kitted-out regulated rifle, with features that include a match grade trigger and a fully adjustable stock (available in both laminate and hardwood versions), but it was the enhanced cold hammer forged (ECHF) barrel and its claimed “wind-cheating abilities” that I was especially interested to look closely at.
Almost as soon as BSA launched their Gold Star SE a few years back, rumours began to circulate that this particular rifle “took less wind”. Determined to find out if there was any truth in this statement or whether it was just an urban myth, we put CompAir’s tester-in-chief, Mike Seagrave, on the case…
The dates you need to put in your diary now are Friday 6th and Saturday 7th July 2018; the guys and girls at the FT Schalkhaar Club are putting on a BBQ for competitors on the Friday evening, followed by one of their famous HFT night shoots once it gets dark. If you aren’t familiar with this style of HFT shooting, have a look back to the article in Issue 1 of CompAir to find out all you need to know about the joys of range-finding by torchlight! The Air Arms International Challenge Cup course will be set over 30 lanes to UKAHFT rules, and with strong interest already being shown by HFT shooters from other European countries it is highly likely that the format will include a category for national teams from each country taking part. The FT Schalkhaar Club is also offering free on-site camping to those taking part, and they’ll also be laying on a full English breakfast the following morning – just the thing to get you properly set up for the Air Arms International competition which starts at 12.30PM on Saturday afternoon. The total cost to include both shoots, the BBQ and breakfast is amazing value at just €45, or a mere €12 for those who can only make the Air Arms International Challenge Cup on Saturday. And for those less hardy souls who don’t fancy the idea of camping, there numerous hotels, hostels, and B&B’s nearby. Getting there is very straightforward – an overnight sailing from Harwich to Hook-of-Holland sees you arrive around 7.00AM, or you can take the EuroTunnel from Folkestone to Calais, followed by a drive of around 4 hours to the FT Schalkhaar Club’s grounds. We’ll be bringing you more information about the various travel options available to those taking part in the next few issues of CompAir, along with details of an air rifle shop near Amsterdam that is rumoured to offer some remarkable prices and a very warm welcome to visiting shooters from the UK. How to enter: At this stage, all you need to do is add your name to the list of competitors on the Air Arms International thread on the Shooting-the-Breeze forum, along with an indication of whether you would prefer accommodation in either a hotel, hostel, B&B, or camping if that’s your thing. Gary Chillingworth will later on collate all the names and accommodation details and pass them on to FT Schalkharr Club, who have very kindly offered to make the various reservations on behalf of UK-based competitors. This brand new event aims to bring everything that makes the Air Arms RSN 10 Memorial Shoot Challenge Cup one of the most enjoyable HFT competitions of the year, and add in what promises to be a fabulous weekend away with a unique continental flavour combined with the opportunity to compete against some of the very best shooters in Europe. And don’t forget to max out on carrots a few weeks before the night shoot!
Now firmly established on the HFT calendar as one of the “absolutely must-do” shoots each year, the Air Arms RSN 10 Memorial Challenge Cup continues to go from strength-to-strength, as does Air Arms’ reputation for being one of the world’s premier air rifle manufacturers. With the company’s brand now reaching far beyond the shores of the UK, it was decided that 2018 will see the inaugural Air Arms International Challenge Cup being contested at the FT Schalkhaar Club in Holland…
John Costello
JOHN: Well, I’ve yet to win the Europeans and so that would be a nice one to have and to do another Worlds would be mega, but for me right now I’m just looking forward to seeing the sport grow and shooting in as many countries as possible.
JOHN: I always feel like the juniors are the ones to watch; as they break out into the senior category you usually see them step up their game quickly, just as Red has done - clearing a course at the Worlds is an awesome achievement.
JOHN: I can only see FT getting bigger and better in the years to come, hopefully bringing in more sponsorship and encouraging more people to join the Field Target family.
JOHN: There’s not much I would change about FT; I think the sport is run very well and it’s growing in the right direction.
JOHN: There aren’t that many down sides to FT to be honest, apart from getting caught in a torrential downpour half way through a course!
JOHN: For me the best part of Field Target is seeing parts of the country or the world that you might not normally visit and the awesome community of people that are part of the sport. My favourite shoots must be the NEFTA Classic and the World Championships.
JOHN: I currently use a Steyr LG110 with the longer chassis and a Sightron S3 LRIRMH, and as far as the set-up goes the key things I usually try to stick to are using a offset pistol grip, offset butt hook, a Rowan adjustable fore end, and keeping the scope as low to the barrel as possible.
JOHN: I’ve been shooting for 15 years now, since I was 11 and I got into it through a school friend who introduced me to Thorn Dell Air Rifle Club. When their Winter League came around I shot that and have just carried on ever since then.
Hunting style butts are more flat and simple.
Here you can see Brians butt plate fitted to my stock.
Here is the original Air Arms butt plate you need to remove.
Good quality allen key bolts are used to keep things nice and tight.
You can adjust the wings to fit your shoulder perfectly.to test new things.
The Air Arms HFT500 pad has more curve than a standard hunting rifle. So is still a great HFT pad.
The rear of the pad is textured to aid grip in the shoulder.to test new things.
A bit of range time is always a fun way to test new things.
Being able to adjust the pad to angle into your body is a great feature.
You can adjust the wings to fit your shoulder perfectly.
Brians butt pad complements the HFT500 perfectly.
FT style butts are marvles of engineering.
There are a myriad of styles of rifle butts, covering a whole range of shooting disciplines. From the conservative hunting rifle butt to the wonder of engineering that is a Field Target (FT) butt, they both serve the same basic purpose. But they do so in very different ways – hunting-style butts are usually flat rubber, so you have grip but it won’t snag on your clothing whilst you’re moving around. FT butts on the other hand are highly adjustable so as to give you the perfect fit; they are designed so as to give the most stable base for the dedicated FT static positions.
The build quality is great. There are small ridges due to the way 3D printers work, but these are in no way a problem. The assembly is defiantly sturdy enough, with multiple, good quality nuts and bolts, so there’s no movement or give in it. Weight-wise, it comes in at just a tad over 100g, and is 25mm wide which allows a good fit in the crease of your shoulder. You can adjust the angle through 20 degrees, so that it angles into your body – though do be sure to order left or right-handed! The adjustable wings are fully UKAHFT legal in length, so as you can see it’s been totally thought out in its design.
Now, the most important part - the cost. Usually bits of kit such as these come with a hefty price tag. But that’s not the case here – a mere £31.25 is an absolute bargain, surely making it a “must-have” and very worthwhile accessory for any HFT shooter.
The idea has seemed to pay off as I haven’t missed a positional shot in my last three HFT competitions. Now whilst I’m not saying it’s all thanks to the new butt pad, it has defiantly helped me get a consistent, repeatable anchor point with my positional shots - and a wise man once told me that your positional targets are where an HFT competition is either won or lost.
Fitting the butt pads was simplicity itself. In the case of the Air Arms HFT500, all I had to do was to remove the two bolts at the rear of the original pad. Then using the same bolts fit the butt plate, just slide on the pad itself, and then adjust the height to suit you and the adjustable wings to fit your shoulder. The way I’ve set mine up is so as to give the most support in the free-standing position, as this is when my body is the least stable and so I reckon that this is where I could get the maximum benefit from my new bit of kit.
These 3D-printed masterpieces come in a range of colours and have a choice of back plates to fit different rifles. As luck would have it, there’s one that will fit my beloved Air Arms HFT500, and so with a few clicks of the mouse, I ordered one and it duly arrived a few days later in the post. I got opted for a gold-coloured one, not just because I liked the colour but I also reckoned that in choosing this colour I might just one day earn myself a gold grade HFT badge!
But what I want to talk about further is Hunter Field Target (HFT) butt pads. With HFT butts, the rules say you can’t use butt hooks, meaning that FT style ones are out. However, it’s nice to have a bit more adjustability than the basic hunting-style butt, as HFT is of course a target sport with dedicated positional shots on in each competition. So what you need to look for is something of a “half-way house”, a rifle butt that falls somewhere between those used for hunting and the full-blown FT competition butt. And I think that I’ve found the perfect HFT butt…… Brian Samson is not just an FT legend and proprietor of Doncaster indoor range, he also produces his own butt pads.
Before you get the wrong idea, I’m talking about rifle butts. It’s a subject I’ve been thinking about a lot lately. Whilst we often worry about what’s coming out the front end of our rifle, we often forget to think what’s happening behind.
Now then, butts. We all have one, we all use one, and we all have our preferences on what we think makes a nice one. Some like them wide and squishy, some like them thin and hard. Some like them flat, some like them to have a nice curve, and some like them to be adjustable!
You can check out the full range of targets and related products by visiting the Custom Targets WEBSITE
It’s also good to see such an innovative approach being taken by a young, home-grown British company who have taken a very simple and straightforward concept and refined it to produce a wide range of inexpensive and enormously enjoyable targets that will appeal to everyone from the casual plinker to the most demanding of competition shooters.
The other bits of good news is that these targets are bio-degradable (so no worries if you’re using them in your back garden about having to pick up all the bits and pieces afterwards), and that with new styles and designs of targets coming out of the Custom Targets R&D department, you’re not going to get bored anytime soon.
Unfortunately time quickly slipped by that afternoon (as it often does when you’re having too much fun) and I didn’t get to try out the other targets that were included in my test pack that had target centres that looked to be only just a little bit wider than the width of a .177 pellet – now there’s a challenge for my next visit to the range!
I wasn’t the only one enjoying the challenge that these cleverly-designed targets presented – I was soon joined by a fellow club member who wanted to have a go. My fellow shooter, like me takes part in quite a lot of HFT and FT competitions each year, and his first reaction was that shooting the latest offering from Custom Targets was nowhere near as easy as he had at first imagined, although he had to admit that it was still highly enjoyable.
Bingo! Now the fun really began! I found that I had to shoot with pin-point accuracy to knock out the centres of each cut-out part of the target, and to be so absolutely spot-on each time certainly demanded my fullest concentration, with the slightest deviation resulting in my pellet either just nicking the edge of “the kill” or carrying on straight through the air gap around it – huge fun!
I had set the first target up at 20 yards downrange and to be honest it wasn’t really representing much of a challenge; my Steyr with a fancy scope atop it were rested on a bench and I was making mincemeat of the target with every shot that I took. Time for a rethink therefore, and I went for a bit of a walk – all the way out to the 45 yards maximum distance permitted in HFT competitions.
First impressions as I opened up the pack and took the Custom Targets out were that A) this won’t take long, and B) that the thin metal target holder that the targets are screwed onto by way of a butterfly nut would fall over straight away. And of course, as has often been the case in life, I was about to be proven wrong once more…..
I’d noticed these when Custom Targets first released them a few months back, and to be honest my initial reaction was one of “Sure, they’ll be fine for the back garden plinker, but surely no serious competition shooter would give them a second glance”. But then there’s the old adage that goes something along the lines of “Don’t knock anything until you’ve tried it”, and so I decided to put aside any negative preconceptions and headed off to the range at my local club.
We recently dispatched a pack of the latest goodies to come out from Custom Targets to Mike Seagrave, CompAir’s official tester-in-chief (and goodness knows, he certainly tests our patience at times!) to see how they measured up to the job...
We need you to let us know the names of those guys and girls who lay on the very best bacon butties and the finest burgers at the shoots you go to. Once your nominations are in, we’ll draw up a short list that will be published online so that everyone can vote for their favourite, with the winner being awarded the prestigious CompAir “Top Nosh” trophy. The Michelin Guide can go hang – this is the only award that matters when it comes catering properly for the competition air rifle shooting fraternity! Please send your nominations to compaireditor@gmail.com
Without a tea wagon or burger van present, the atmosphere at a competition just wouldn’t be the same, and here at CompAir we thought that it was about time that some long-overdue recognition was paid to those hardy souls who pitch up in a muddy field at some unearthly hour of a Sunday morning to ensure that the assembled shooters can get a brew and don’t go hungry.
There’s a long-standing and very noble tradition in both Field Target and HFT shooting that no competition can get underway without shooters first having partaken of a bacon roll and a cuppa. Then of course there’s the obligatory post-shoot burger, that is consumed whilst the competition admin team tot up everyone’s scores and the rest of us conduct a post-mortem session into those targets that got the better of us.
You’d be hard-pressed to find anyone betting against Jason Lockett lifting the .22 title this winter - especially after such a commanding performance at Round 3!
Graeme Cargan suddenly seems to be making a name for himself with a springer this winter...
A very happy Justin Rayner receives his well-deserved Open Class winner’s trophy
Meanwhile in the Junior Class, George Danvers once more lifted the trophy, his 55 being 4 points clear of that of the rapidly-improving Georgia Moore’s score of 51. However, if you wanted to see what total dominance looked like, then you needed to look no further than Jason Lockett’s crushing performance in the .22 category. Not only was Jason eight points ahead of his nearest rival, Round 3 at Richings Park saw him collect his third successive trophy this year in the Southern Hunters Series; he is surely going to be the man to take the category title this winter.
Full results of Round 3 and the previous 2 rounds can be found on the SOUTHERN HUNTERS WEBSITE.
It was a little closer in the Veterans Class, with Ron Witney “just” 2 points ahead of Mike Burgess, whilst over in the Recoil Category, Mile Oak’s Graeme Cargan proved that his win in this class at Meon Valley’s ground a fortnight earlier was no flash in the pan – just sneaking it from Buxted’s Nigel Wood by a solitary point.
The Ladies Class was won by Jade Saunders, whose 52 was not only a country mile ahead of her nearest competitor, it also surpassed that of her partner Lewis Hodges tally of 50 – I bet conversation in their car during the drive home to Sussex would have made for interesting listening…
Looking down the final results, the thing that particularly stands out was that with the exception of the Recoil Category, each class winner managed to take victory by quite some margin in most cases, a particular case in point being Open Class winner Justin Rayner whose superb score of 59 was 3 full points clear of the chasing pack of Mark Rackley, Mike Byford and Howard Kalisch.
Richings Park supremo Gary had been hard at work setting out the course single-handedly for the previous few days, and this time he had decided to “play the long game”, with most targets being set out at distance and very few close ones in evidence. The forecast earlier in the week had been for a reasonable amount of breeze, but come the day the wind was conspicuous by its almost total absence – if it had come out to play, it could have been a very different story in terms of scores for some of the competitors!
It was just over a year ago that the Southern Hunters Series paid its first-ever visit to the Richings Park grounds, and the feedback from those who took part was extremely positive. Fast-forward 12 months, and just shy of 100 HFT shooters who are undaunted by a bit of mud and the various other joys that go hand-in-hand with a British winter returned to Richings Park to do battle once more…
Whether it’s to let us know about what’s going on in your area or at your local club, or maybe let us have your thoughts about what you’d like to see featured in future issues of CompAir, all you have to do is drop us an Email or contact us via our Facebook Page.
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