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Match Report, IAFTC April 17, 2008
As
you know, we don’t have legal power limits based on foot pounds of
muzzle energy in the United States.
We do have an airgun field target guideline not to exceed 20
foot pounds in order to avoid target damage.
My club respects that rule, but enforcement is a matter of
personal responsibility and honor.
My AA S400 Extra FAC has a power adjuster that I set just a
hair’s breadth below 20 when I started shooting FT in 2005.
It has never varied, and I have never questioned it until
this last match.
That is the background.
Here is the story.
It was a warm and bright Saturday morning.
Filled with enthusiasm, we set up the match and headed for
the sight-in range where there was a chronograph.
We hadn’t had a chronograph at our matches before this year.
Ash Covey chronographed his Daystate at just over 900 fps.
Of course I had to tell him that my Air Arms S400 clocked in
at 924. Ash allowed
that with my 10.5 grain Crosman Premiers my gun might be over 20
foot pounds. Judgmental
choruses went up and down the firing line.
There was talk of willful and flagrant violation of the 20
foot pound rule. Within
moments the rule was elevated to the cornerstone of Airgun Field
Target in the United States.
Why it is every time you get close fracturing a rule, it
instantly becomes the cornerstone of your sport?
I didn’t have a calculator
to defend my rifle’s honor, but over the years its velocity hadn’t
wavered even though there were many opportunities for the adjustment
to be bumped or turned. I
hadn’t checked it lately.
Had something moved without my realizing it?
At a water break,
George said that I had better bear down because he had only missed
two targets
in his first
18 shots. I was down 5
at that point, but George had some tough lanes coming up, and I did
indeed bear down. By
the end I had shot a 45/54 and George had shot a 44/54.
But, that was not the end.
The first thing after the match George wanted to
discuss was a broken retrieval chain on one of the targets, but he
let the subject drop when I told him that it was broken by a low
shot from
Ray, my lane partner.
Then Ash announced that he was certain that with CPHs my gun
had to be well over 20, a number that quickly increased to 23 by the
time we went to our after match lunch.
At the restaurant, accusing eyes roamed the lunch
table. My pellets had
unfairly bored holes in the wind, toppled fully grown sage brush and
smashed hapless field targets.
George went on that his Theoben was only 11.5 foot pounds.
With his best Joan of Arc look of martyrdom, George concluded
“And YOU are the club president!”
“Come on guys, this isn’t Watergate” I said.
But, in the back of my mind there was doubt.
I hadn’t checked the velocity in over a year, and 924 did
seem a little higher than I remembered.
Perhaps the adjuster had
been disturbed. There
was a chance that I was wrong and my airgun would be dishonored.
“When I get home I will look this up on the web
and see just how far over Ron is,” announced Ash.
“Just
E-mail me the results,” George said to Ash.
I thought I heard a
diabolical tone in his voice.
Ash and George could have spent half the match cooking up
their story. I was
beginning to suspect a Daystate/Theoben conspiracy.
When I protested about being convicted in my
absence, Ash flashed out his cell phone like it was Excalibur
itself. “I can go on
line from here!” he said.
He punched in numbers, and said, “It’s working”.
He was drawing out the last
moments of drama.
“Oh, I stand corrected.”
Ash’s voice dropped an octave.
He passed the phone to George who read, “19. 9108”.
My Air Arms S400 was vindicated.
The power adjuster in my Air Arms 400 is a
brilliant piece of work.
It was set just below 20 foot pounds in July 2005 and it is
still holding its adjustment as well as keeping me out of hot water.
We
had a new shooter, Ray Carter, who came as a spectator in March.
This month he came to participate.
In one month Ray, who is new to air rifles, bought a used RWS
52 from Pomona Air guns.
He mounted a scope and showed up sighted-in and with
trajectory information for FTS pellets.
Ray’s score is not the whole story.
A majority of his shots were face plate hits close enough to
the KZ that, with practice, will soon be hits.
Scores
Piston
|
George Gardner, |
Theoben Evolution, |
Bushnell 6-18, |
JSB (L), |
44/54. |
|
Ray Carter, |
RWS
52, |
BSA 3-12X, |
FTS, |
Apr-54 |
Precharged
|
Ron Gill, |
AA
S400ERB, |
Lepers
8-32X, |
CPH, |
45/54 |
|
Ash Covey, |
Daystate X2, |
44Mag 6-20, |
JSB (H), |
33/54 |
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