Blair Atholl F Class 6th Round


OCTOBER 2011


There was another weather effect – the saturated firing-point and its approaches became a sea of mud and puddles with distinctly slippery conditions underfoot with consequences for one F/TR shooter. Even the area under the ‘gazebos’ became soggy and muddy, especially on the extreme left (Target 6) as I found out in the final Saturday relay.


Invisible Winds


After what seemed an age, Match 1 finally got under way with the F/TR shooters out first. The flags hung limp, the grass and Mountain Ash treetops didn’t so much as twitch; only the mist banks at the far end of the glen showed movement and that from right to left. Nil to a touch of right windage needed? Not so – a bit of left windage was required given the position of most people’s first sighting shot. This condition held steady for maybe half a dozen shots and for a short while it looked like there might be some stunning scores from the off. Then an invisible wind came out of nowhere, first from the left, then fishtailing by half or more MOA, eventually ending up on a reasonably consistent light flow from the right.


Did the flags and flora show any of this? Not an iota – if the flags did stir at all, it was 30 seconds or more too late, whilst the perplexed shooter stared at the monitor, slowly shaking his head. These capricious and often invisible winds were to persist throughout the weekend but affected some relays more than others. Of those on that first F/TR relay, only Adam Bagnall broke 90, scoring precisely that with four Vs and Target Shooter’s photographer and webmaster Steve Thornton, who took the match with an excellent 92.3v. Most of the other top contenders were down in the mid 80s.


By the time the Open shooters took over, conditions seemed to have stabilised a bit or maybe the sevens just shot through the hidden changes and stayed within the five-ring. Liam Fenlon (7mm/270WSM) set a cracking pace - not to mention a new GBFCA 1000 yard record score of 100.11v - leading Simon Rodgers (7mm SAUM) on 97.7v and Gordon Waugh (.284 Shehane) on 96.2v. Liam’s eleven Vs aside, V-counts were low


87


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