The majority of our guns are variations of the Crosman pistol design that dates back to the 19 50s, and most are powered by CO2.  CO2 with its reputation for being temperature dependent proved to be no problem even on a cloudy morning where the thermometer hovered in the high 50s.  At the sight in range before the match, everyone found that their zero settings still held.  Gas consumption varied Ash changed powerlets twice during the match while Ran changed only once.  Ray changed just before the first target and shot the 45 shot match on one powerlet.  Two shooters, George and Ron Gill, powered their guns with compressed air.  George pumped for every shot (more on this latter), and Ron added 20 strokes on his Axor pump half way through the course of fire.

The lanes started with one in the draw bottom, then ran along the top of the draw for 3 lanes, and finished with a land back in the bottom of the draw.  Five lanes with three shots each at three targets gave us 45 shots to get off before the threatening clouds closed in with predicted rain.  Each lane had its own suppresses.  Shots across the draw were beset with variable winds that were not felt by competitors sheltered by tall sage brush.  The first target on lane one was Gorge’s snail set very close with a 3/8” kill zone.  Asch thought he should have brought pointed pellets to funnel in to the small kill Zone.  This proved to be a very tuff target with only one hit in addition to the three straight shot by George. 

George’s rifle is based on a 1377 pistol.  Besides a longer barrel and a shoulder stock, both stock Crosman parts, he added an aftermarket flat toped piston to increase the pumping efficiency.  George pumped 13 to 16 times for each shot depending on the range.  That’s 600+ pumps to get through the match.  At lunch he revealed that he never changes his elevation settings.  With every additional pump the zero range is greater.  “With another stroke each pellet goes just a little further”.  It sounds too good to be true, but he won the match with a score 9 points ahead of second place.