Evening everyone.
I arrived at Furnace Mill quite early for me at around 08.50hrs. The weather was quite good, but quite a bit of cloud was around, however, it was warm and dry. I should have been there a little earlier, but ended up having an extra 50 min's doss in bed. Mind you, it being a Sunday and with nothing on the roads, I made it in around 20-25min's, which must be a new record.
Group 1 on lane 1. In the foreground is Lidds1980. To his left is Rancidtom and behind him, almost out of sight & kneeling down is Bombhead. Airsporter99 is on the right having a go at the lane 1 target with his rather nice .177" Mk I B.S.A Superstar.On arrival I could see Bombhead's car and as I walked into the hut I was greeted by Airsporter99. Tom was already tucking in to one of Jane's sarnies, along with a cuppa, so as I was a little earlier than usual I decided I too would have a sarnie and a cup of tea. No real surprise there though is there
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Rancidtom tries his hand at a standing shot on lane 2 with his J.B'd .22" Mk II B.S.A Super10.Whilst I was waiting for mine, Rancidtom, Airsporter99, Bombhead and Lidds1980 took a stroll up to the plinking range and I tucked into my sarnie, which was especially good because the egg was a runny one! In due course Harvey1972 arrived and ordered his sarnie and by the time we had finished Air Gunner 360 arrived. By now it was 10.15hrs, so we all went up to the plinking range, although my visit was a short one as I had left my pellet pouch in Michael.
Rancidtom, this time on the rather tricky lane 3 target, with Bombhead and the rest of group 1 looking on.On the way back down I passed DaveTV on his way up to the plinking range and by the time I got back most folk were ready to have a go at the course. I put around five sighters down the plinking range at 15 yards and the EV2 seemed fine and in good order.
Bombhead and his .177" HW97k attempting the target on lane 4, whilst the rest of the group look on.With four members in one group, (Bombhead, Lidds1980, Airsporter99 & Rancidtom), and the rest of us in another group of four, (me, Air Gunner 360, Harvey1972 & DaveTV), there would have been quite a lot of waiting around between shots if we all stayed on the same lane, so with Bombheads group on lanes 1 & 2, our group moved onto lane 6, before moving backwards to lane 1 and doing a bit of leapfrogging here and there. This meant that we were perhaps no more that four or five lanes apart, otherwise it wouldn't have been much of a meet up with one group at one end and the other group at the other.
Lane 6, and what an evil one it is. Tom gets ready to mark the scores as Bombhead gets into a difficult stance position to maximise his shot chances.In our group we all seemed to make a decent start. As for myself, I managed, perhaps for the first time since the course was altered earlier this year, to do the double on lane 6, which is a bit of an evil target as it sort of sticks out of and behind a tree and the left hand edge of the killzone is more or less obstructed by the tree.
DaveTV, of group 2, with his few days old .177" Daystate Mk4 Platinum.There was plenty of friendly banter and stories told throughout the course and although we had never thought about it until we were quite a way through the course, it ended up being a bit of a Air Arms v Daystate match. The "teams" were: Air Arms - Harvey1972 (S410) and myself (EV2). Daystate - DaveTV (Mk4 Platinum) and Air Gunner 360 (Mk4). Not that we were really in teams, it being just as things had turned out, but it was all rather good fun. Myself and Air Gunner 360 were just a side show for the main event, which was the "battle" between Harvey1972 and DaveTV. It was becoming obvious by around a third of the way through the course that the competition between these two was getting rather "hot". Myself and Air Gunner was a little confused as to how hot that competition was getting as neither Dave or Harvey would actually tell us their score as they did not want to tempt fate, however, we knew it was close, perhaps no more than one point in it and at times their scores were level.
Close up of DaveTV's Mk4 Platinum.It was quite funny watching Dave and Harvey tussle for the lead. First one would miss and that person's head would go down, followed by a muffled expleative, but the other would be raising an arm in triumphant victory, except for Harvey, who had to raise two arms!
Cinstone, (that's me), on lane 7 with my .177" Air Arms EV2 MKII. On the left is fellow group 2 members Harvey1972 & Dave TV. Behind Dave is Bombhead & Rancidtom. Behind me on lane 8 is Airsporter99. Air Gunner 360 is behind the camera!My own efforts were good, well for me they were. Up to lane 25 I had only missed one kill per each five lanes, but then it went down hill. After lane 25 I was still on for a 55/60, but then I only plated lanes 26 and 27. Fortunately, Air Gunner had a doughnut during the last third of the course and we finished on 52 points each.
Airsporter99 on lane 8 with his B.S.A Superstar.Dave and Harvey finished on 55 points each, so we decided to that we would all have a shoot off for 1st & 2nd and 3rd & 4th places.
Lane 8 again, this time it's Rancidtom.We walked back to lane 9, sorted out who was going to shoot first, then began. Lane 9 is another evil one that has a small killzone and sticks out from behind a tree, but Dave and Harvey were still equal after shooting this from the prone position. As were myself and Air Gunner after our attempts.
Close up of Airsporter99 and his tasty B.S.A Supertstar on lane 9.The next lane to be shot was lane 8, which is a fair distance and this was shot from the kneeling position, but yet again, both duo's were still equal after taking their shots.
From left to right, Harvey1972 & his .177" Air Arms S410 carbine, unknown, the "boss" of Furnace Mill, (when Jane's out of ear shot), Ed, & finally Buster.Lane 7 isn't too difficult, but is normally taken kneeling and is at a distance of between 30-35 yards. On this occasion we all shot it standing. Harvey went first, but missed completely, then Dave followed up with a plate and secured 1st place.
Lidds1980 on lane 9 with his .22" Air Arms TX 200 HC.I managed just a plate, but then Air Gunner manged a kill, which was a very decent shot from a standing position and the final results for our group were-
1st, DaveTV, 2nd, Harvey1972, 3rd, Air Gunner 360, 4th, cinstone. Dave and Air Gunner of course taking the "team" title for Daystate.
Airsporter99 on lane 10.Our group ventured down to the hut for a cuppa and for me and Harvey, some dinner. Dave, who was already late, had to go, but after dinner we went back up to the course and plinking range, where Bombhead was playing with his LP50 pistol and Rancidtom with his S.A.M pistol. Both of which are extremely great bits of kit.
Rancidtom on lane 10. Bombhead's turn to score.With Harvey, Air Gunner 360 and Airsporter99 having a bit of a plink, I tagged along with Rancidtom, Lidds1980 and Bombhead, who were having a bit of a play around some of the more suitable targets on the course with the two pistols. Tom managed to pull off a couple of fantastic shots, although "fantastic" wasn't the "f" word that he used on one of the shots
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Airsporter99 on lane 11. Tom, Bombhead and Lidds1980 look on.I had my EV2 on my shoulder and Tom and Bombhead both had a few shots with it. But perhaps in with a shout for one of the best shots of the day was one of Bombhead's, who, after two or three sighters, manged to knockdown lane 30, (around 40-42 yards), from a standing position. Now this is a decent shot anyway, but Bombhead did it shooting right handed, yet he is a left handed shooter
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Top: DaveTV's Daystate Mk4 Platinum. Bottom: Harvey1972's Air Arms S410 Carbine. Can you spot what's different about Harvey's carbine? We are looking for 2 answers.The weather had been fine throughout the day and the sun shone for most of the time around the course in the morning/early afternoon. Things started to get quite dark after dinner though, but apart from about half a dozen spots of rain whilst we were at lane 30, having a play with the pistols and EV2, we made it back to the hut and packed all our stuff away and still it hadn't rained. However, by the time I was driving through Kidderminster on my way back, the heavens well and truely opened up.
Airsporter99 trying out Bombhead's Steyr LP50 pistol. As you can see, Tom's so good he can do it sleeping!A very good day's shooting by all I think and it was nice to see everyone again. From my own point of view I managed a clean sweep of personal record breaking with new records attained in PCP HFT & FT 20 targets and PCP HFT & FT 30 targets.
Above two photo's: Bombhead and his Steyr LP50 on the plinking range.Final ResultsAll shot to HFT rules (more or less ).PCP1st, (after shoot off), DaveTV, 55 pts, .177" Daystate Mk4 Platinum + scope.2nd, (after shoot off), Harvey1972, 55 pts, .177" Air Arms S410 Carbine + scope.
3rd, (after shoot off), Air Gunner 360, 52 pts, .177" Daystate Mk4 + scope.
4th, (after shoot off), cinstone, 52 pts, .177" Air Arms EV2 MkII + scope.
5th, Rancidtom, 40 pts, .22" J.B'd B.S.A Super10 MkII + scope.
Springer1st, Bombhead, 46 pts, .177" HW 97K + scope.2nd, Airsporter99, 33 pts, .177" B.S.A Superstar + scope.
3rd, Lidds1980, 32 pts, .22" Air Arms TX200 HC + scope.
Me having a play with Rancidtom's S.A.M pistol. You may notice that my version of Photoshop doesn't have the "sarnie reducing effect" feature!
Airsporter99, with, by the looks of it, piles , oh, and his B.S.A Lightning. Behind is Air Gunner 360 & Harvey1972.
Top, middle and bottom. Bombhead, Lidds1980 & Rancidtom have some fun with their pistols on the former lane 17 target.
Above: Two photo's of Bombhead & Rancidtom on lane 28.
Tom with his S.A.M pistol.Thanks to Air Gunner 360 & Rancidtom for taking several piccies whilst I was shooting.
Chris.
