Dartmoor held their second round of the SWEFTA BR league on April 1st. Paul Salmon has kindly written up the shoot report.
Today was April fools day – which was entirely appropriate, as Dartmoor had chosen to ignore the horrendous weather forecast and proceed with shooting the second round of our benchrest league. In the event the conditions were not quite as bad as had been expected, the rain almost stayed away and the gusty wind was ‘manageable’. I say manageable, because Mike Smith managed it, but he was the only one of us who did, producing a score which suggested that his cards had been shot during nothing more than a balmy breeze.I would like to suggest that he had been fortunate, enjoying only modest winds, while the rest of us were forced to shoot into the teeth of a hurricane. But since I was in the same detail as he was, and shot at exactly the same time – I can’t legitimately employ that particular excuse.So today was all about reading the wind, not just once, during the original sighters, but every single time, immediately before pressing the trigger. There was no recognisable pattern to the wind, just the constant random changes in strength and direction, so typical of our edge of Dartmoor location. A few of our regulars couldn’t make it due to work commitments, but eleven of us thoroughly enjoyed ourselves while trying (and failing) to outwit the elements.Martin Wicks was at a severe disadvantage today with his sub 6 ft lb Anschutz 9015, the strong and gusty wind pushing some his pellets out past the 6 ring. And Alistair Teague unfortunately managed to connect with a bit of aerial detritus on one shot – resulting in a sideways pellet striking the edge of a scoring box – potentially losing him six points!Our club has recently purchased a nice set of ‘proper’ wind flags, they are extremely sensitive and react quickly to any change in direction. But now we all need to learn how to interpret the information they provide – easier said than done, when one is pointing north and the next one, a mere seven metres further on, is confidently pointing toward the south.Paul Salmon.
No comments yet.