by JeffH, MD
Another outstanding “Fudd” is in the books!
Thank you to the Hamilton Angling and Hunting Association for letting us use your wonderful range.
Saturday morning dawned bright and cool; it was -1C when I arrived at the range. Spectacular too – sun glinting off the frost that was so heavy you could see your footsteps in the grass.
People started rolling in about 8:30 AM and setup got underway. Side note, by rolling in, I mean we had our best turn out in years with 25 registered shooters plus visitors, More on that in a bit. Everyone pitched in and got ten lanes with three targets each in place. Shout out here to our course designer, Rob W, for another excellent course. It proved the mettle for the sub-500 shooters and kept everyone on their toes. Favourite targets were split between Frankenstein with the flag indicator and the woodpecker on the post.
Site in range opened about 9:45 AM to much anticipating… there were fifteen sub-500 rigs out and many were figuring out their holds. It was a sight to see! Doubly so in the Vintage group with three shooters and one 105-year-old rig! Thanks, Len J for showing what it could do! Thanks, Pete E for the display of vintage rigs too!
The shooters meeting kicked off at 10:15 AM and the match was underway by 10:30 AM. What a match it was. We had 8 squads of primarily three shooters per squad with a few doubles. Everything moved smoothly with only one cold line called! And that was because someone shot the string off the target!
The weather held too. It warmed up to about 10C thought felt considerably warmer under the metal roof. Most amazingly, we had NO wind until the final few lanes and by non wind, it was literally dead air. Quite a rare occurrence at HAHA and welcomed by the sub-500 shooters.
We also had a number of observers come over from the Archery course that John B ran. We had several great conversations and introductions to FT. Thank you, John!
The shoot wrapped up at 1:30 PM and the course was down and away by 2:00 PM. Or, at least, mostly away because we had a shoot off! Yup, for the “median” prize we had two shooters that were exactly on the number, Ted G and Tony R. The tie was decided in the first round using the Frankenstein target out at 35 yards. Nice shooting to both Ted and Tony!
After that we adjourned to the Club House for some great eats, prizes and the CAFTA AGM.
The eats were provided by Chris H – fantastic homemade chili, Geoff M – mouth watering “Fudd” carrot cake and chocolate chip cookies and Rob W’s better half with more excellent chocolate chip cookies. Thank you all for the food!
The AGM was held while we chowed down. Jeff H talked about what CAFTA does and we had a great conversation around increasing membership and ideas for other types of shoots that we might do. On the business side:
- Brian W and Jeff H were acclaimed to new three terms on the board.
- The kneeling rule was updated to clarify the position. The following will be added, “the instep and shin can not touch the ground. There must be a discernible gap between a person’s ankle, shin and the ground.”
- The Open Modified category was codified as:
A sub-division of the Open Division
Purpose: to facilitate shooters with mobility challenges so that they may shoot field target
Goal: to be as inclusive as possible within the existing rules.
Definition: Open Division rules with the accommodation that participants may shoot the lane in the regular seated position, i.e., they do not have to shoot the forced positional lanes – kneeling nor standing.
Finally, the prizes and results!
Top score: Richard S 120/120, Unlimited
Iron Sight Rile: James L 88 / 120
Iron Sight Pistol: Brian W 69 / 120
Vintage: Mike P 68 / 120
Unlimited: Richard S 120/120
Most “Elmer Fudd”: Chris H,
Coolest Rig: Tony R
Most Vintage Rig; Len Joe
Median Score: Tony R, after shoot off
Shout out to Geoff M for the novel 3D printed trophies, awesome and thank you!
Special comment about the “Median” prize. It was $60 cash to the person that had the median score on the day. Thanks to Brian W and Mike P for doing the wizardry to sort it out. Double thanks to Ted G and Tony R for the excitement of having a shoot off to decide who was the middlest of the middle!
Wrap up – thank to everyone that came out, helped and shot. Each of you made this a fantastically success and fun Fudd. It was wonderful to see everyone, share FT and enjoy the day together. See everyone soon!
Shoot safe, shoot straight and shoot often
Jeff H
2024 Fudd MD