April 16, 2011 – Camp Verde, AZ

It is mid April and time for my monthly mental health therapy session, aka Field Target shooting!  Trust me when I say that I really needed this break from work, so Jim and OB and I piled into the car and headed for Camp Verde and Bobby Corcorran’s little piece of Airgun heaven.

Bobby has what is arguably the BEST location and terrain for shooting field target.  Just beyond his backyard fence is a thick tangle of treeline on either side of a dry wash that may have been a tributary of the Verde River at one time.  It is choked at places with downed trees, fallen branches and lots of underbrush and lush grass.  Beyond the far side, it opens out into flat lands that stretch for several hundred yards to the Verde River.

This past Thursday and Friday, he and Larry Nelson set up a 10 lane course using every bit of these terrain obstructions.  By following the string lines to the targets, you could eventually find where they were located, but difficult to see otherwise.  The challenge was getting into a position to avoid all the branches and twigs in the way in order to get a clear line-of-sight to the targets.

There was an owl up in a tree, squirrel and woodpecker on either side of a downed tree trunk, little birds hidden in and around fallen branches, all very well thought out locations.  Bobby also likes small kill zones!  None of this seemed to deter the 14 shooters who gathered to do battle with the steel critters on this absolutely perfect day.  The skies were clear and the temps warmed up nicely and there was almost NO WIND; just an occasional, gentle breeze.  The scores were indicative of these perfect conditions and good shooting was demonstrated by all participants.

I was squadded with Steve Montgomery this month.  Steve is also a big bore tactical rifle competitor and we chatted at length about those competitions while we were shooting.  It got to be comical watching the contortions he was attempting to clear twigs and branches to make a shot.  There was a lot of stuff in the way, intentionally it seems, but he was dropping targets one after the other.  It was fun to watch.  I was shooting HFT again this month, and was doing contortions of my own to get clear sighting to targets and was quite pleased with my own shooting.  Other than two missed shots for reasons we won’t discuss, all the other misses were from splits.  Steve even commented on the number of hits I had on the very edge of the kill zones.  I was ohhh, so close, but still nailed a respectable number of those little bast…..um, er, critters. 

On our last lane, we had a target at the base of a tree about 37 yards out and an owl target on the branch of a tree a few yards behind it, but way up there.  As I was sighting in on the ground target, the string from the owl was drifting with the breeze and dancing back and forth across the kill zone.  Steve was behind and watching this and started with a case of the giggles that got me going too.  The breeze would die down and the string would swing back.  I would sight the target and here comes the breeze and the string again and dance across the kill zone.  The sun was right behind us, so when I broke the shot, I could see the pellet in flight and dropped the target, barely missing the string.  We both busted up laughing.  Goofy stuff like this makes for a most enjoyable day.

After all the scores were turned in, we realized that we had a 3-way tie for match winner and a 2-way tie for 3rd place.  In the subsequent shoot-off, Dale Keiser edged out Bobby and Steve M. for match winner by a single point.  So, Bobby and Steve shot off again, this time with Steve squeaking by Bobby by only 1 point.  Not to be outdone, Robin Montgomery squared off against Steve Timarac in a shoot off for 3rd place, and won by a single point.  This was very impressive shooting and good that it did not continue for as long as it could have because we could smell the barbeque wafting through the air towards us.

Here are the scores:

Justin, Bobby’s step-son, is a chef and endeavoring to start his own catering business and decided to put out a spread for us.  His mother, Sandy, must have taught him well, because everything was mouthwateringly delicious!  Salad, coleslaw, beef and pork barbeque, brownies, mmmmm, mmmmm, mmmmm!  Thank you Justin and Bobby for taking such good care of us.  It was the perfect ending for a perfect day and we are most appreciative.

Next month, we will once again be here in Camp Verde on Saturday, May 14.  I can only imagine the diabolical course Bobby will have for us then.

Many thanks go to Bobby for once again opening his home to us, and also to Larry Nelson and Tony Antonovich for helping him with the set up.  Curiously, Tony did not make it to the match, and he was missed.  Thanks also to Pam Tlapa for performing the photographic duties.  You take great pictures.

Until next month, practice, practice, practice.

Respectfully submitted,
Mark Kauffman
Secretary, Airgunners of Arizona