Saturday 12 February 2022

Match report from Frank - On Saturday we shot air rifles indoors owing to a continuing bout of wet weather. Record breaking rain falls were recorded in Taranaki. Shooting at paper targets at 25 yards benchrest was the preferable option. It was a test of rifles and marksmanship. Geoff led the charge with 381 closely followed by Nigel with his trusty Air Arms rifle on 379 and so the scores stand. But here is a lesson, we always need to check our scores afterwards because on a close examination, on one target Nigel was awarded a 16 instead of a 18 which would have made a tie for first. If a shooter does not check the marked score straight away after being marked and talk to the scorer if an error such as addition is spotted the score stands. Card markers are only human and can make mistakes. It is imprortant to remember that the scorer's decsion is final if s/he does not agree with you. A similar mistake in 22 target shooting many, many years ago cost me a championship because I didn't check my scores. John snr shot very well for third place 371. All shooters shot well to score over 300. At the end of shooting Alan shot with Frank and proved that an air rifle is not so much different to rim fire, he proved very proficient with scores of 99 and 93 and that challenged Frank to score his first 100 in air rifle. After many years (66) of prone shooting both rim fire an centre fire out to 1000 metres which I might hastily add I have enjoyed. I started with a air rifle, and are now back to shooting with air. The challenges of Bench Rest, Standing, Kneeling, sitting from 10 metres to 50 metres. Field target and silhouettes etc. etc. Yes Yes, I can’t wait until Saturday comes, and even if it doesn't go well, there is always some rubbish to talk to my mates about.