October 6 was the first day of the Extreme Benchrest 2016 Competition. Organized by Airguns of Arizona, this 4-day shooting extravaganza draws shooters from all over the US and many other countries.
Among the 123 registered competitors, I met shooters from Norway, Germany, Canada, the United Kingdom, South Africa and Sweden and there may be more…
Below, Matt Dubber from South Africa was shooting a .30 caliber FX Impact in the Americn Field Target Competition.
Below. Giles Barry – creator of The Airgun Gear Show, www.theairgungearshow.com, is also at Extreme Benchrest 2016. Giles is from the UK.
He had previously posted a video on his YouTube channel explaining that “The Brits are coming to Extreme Benchrest 2016″. You just have to see this…
Of course, Extreme Benchrest 2016 is all about extreme, long-range shooting. Really pushing airguns and their shooters to the limits of what’s possible – and sometimes beyond!
Today, Thursday, is something of a warm-up day for the big Extreme Benchrest event, but there’s still lots of exciting shooting to be had. The main competitions today were the American Field Target competition and the Extreme Big Bore Competition.
Below, part of the American Field Target course.
For most of the day, some 50+ shooters took their turn on the American Field Target course.
American Field Target is a radical – yes, of course extreme – version of Field Target shooting. The big difference is in the power of the equipment that can be used.
Below. Bobby Corcorran, winner of the American Field Target Competition, shooting at the first station.
Conventional Field Target Shooting has a maximum muzzle energy limit of 20 Ft/Lbs, to avoid destroying the targets. American Field Target used much stronger targets that will withstand impacts from .22LR firearms. This means that the MINIMUM muzzle energy required is 30 Ft/Lb! .177 cal air rifles just don’t have enough power to knock down the targets.
Scopes of unlimited power can be used, rangefinders are OK and shooters can use personal timers attached to their guns.
Above, Steve Corcoran, the famed stock maker, competed using his .22 caliber, 40 Ft/Lb Daystate Air Wolf. Of course, Steve’s gun was housed in a beautiful stock of his own making.
Another difference between conventional Field Target Competition and American Field Target is that in American Field Target, the range of the target is given – the competitor does not need to estimate it himself.
Below, here are the ranges to the targets at one station. And yes, one target is at 97 yards range!
The American Field Target course at Extreme Benchrest 2016 was divided into multiple “stations” or firing points. Each station has 4 targets. Two shots are made on each target, giving 8 shots per station. The shooter has 1 minute setup time and then 5 minutes to make the 8 shots. Once the buzzer sounds, time’s up for that station.
Above. The timing and shooter instructions are given using a centralized, computer-controlled system. Very impressive! And it worked really well, too.
And then there was the 200-yard Big Bore Shoot. Compared to the American Field Target shoot, this was fairly conventional – except that the range was waaay out there at 200 yards!
Above, we see Rossi Morreale shooting a Western Big Bore air rifle and below Ross Marshall from the UK shooting a similar gun. Both of them had a blast!!!
There’s more to come tomorrow. Stay tuned!
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