HAHA Match Report – “Can You Clear It” – 2025 October 4th

By Jeff H, MD

Another perfect day for FT at HAHA! The day started coolish and quickly climbed up to summertime temps, reaching 29C! Combined with very little wind we had near perfect conditions for the “Can You Clean It” challenge.

First, some thank you shout outs!

1. Hamilton Angling and Hunting Association for graciously providing the rifle range for the match, thank you!
2. Everyone that helped setup and take down the course. It’s truly a pleasure to witness how well you all worked together, thank you!
3. To all those that made it out to shoot and observe. You are why we do this, thank you!
4. To our shoot-off contestants. More on this in a bit. Thank you for the extra excitement!

Folks started arriving at 8:15 AM and we got the course step up by 9:40 AM.  It took a bit longer this time as we painted targets.

Setup was followed by the safety / shooters meeting where we went through the standard safety protocols as well as talking about the upcoming Fudd match and the CAFTA AGM (Nov 1).  Then we opened the sight in range and started the shoot at 10:00 AM.

This one was a “Can You Clear It” challenge. What is that you ask? It is where we go outside the typical technical, gear focused parts of FT and explore the mental side. If offers a moderately difficult course to see how many shooters can knock down all the targets. Like last year, we kept targets mostly full sized with nothing smaller than 1” and the distances between 10 yards and 45 yards. It sounds easy on paper… then we go to the real world where the results speak for themselves…

Fascinatingly, this year no one cleared the course!  We did have a handful of people get tantalizingly close and a few great scores including a three-way tie for the Hunter Piston group with scores of 112/120. For perspective, that translates to 56 / 60 for the Open/Modified/WFTF groups. Outstanding indeed!

Beyond the ties, notable performances were turned in by Richard S getting the closest at 59/60 (Modified PCP), Chris H with 57/60 (Modified PCP) and Mike H with 115/120 (Hunter PCP). Plus, a pile of season highs by multiple other shooters.

The highlight of the day was the Hunter Piston shoot off. After Rob, Tom and Tony agreed, we set up a formal shoot off. That meant:

1. We set out three targets, one for each shooter, at an unknown distance.
2. The shooters take two shots in seated, then progress to kneeling and standing if the targets are successfully knocked down.
3. The winner is the person who knocks down the most targets.

For this one, we used the deer targets and set them out at 33 ½ yards. All three shooters knocked them down for the seated position. Tony dropped out in the kneeling round to take third while Rob and Tom advanced to the standing round. Tom clinched first by edging Rob by a single shot!

Special mention to Tom who for the first time got the better of Tony after a season long back and forth where Tom typically came up 1 shot behind Tony. The friendly rivalry continues!

Excellent shooting and great entertainment! Thank you, Tom (1), Rob (2) and Tony (3)!!!

After that we pulled up the remaining targets. Everything was wrapped up and back in the shed by 1:30 PM.

A heads up for upcoming shoots:

• Grenville, October 18th
• Port Colborne, October 25th
• “The Fudd” & AGM @ HAHA, November 1

Thank you everyone for a fantastic day shooting Field Target!

Jeff H
Match Director

Below are the results:

Division	Class	Name	Score	Score Max
Hunter	PCP	Rob G	98	120
Hunter	PCP	Howard S	107	120
Hunter	PCP	Dave D	103	120
Hunter	PCP	Mike P	115	120
Hunter	Piston	Rob W	112	120
Hunter	Piston	Nathan S	102	120
Hunter	Piston	Tony L	112	120
Hunter	Piston	Tom K	112	120
Hunter	Piston	Art L	72	120
Open	Piston	Jeff H	48	60
Open	PCP	Geoff Mac	49	60
Modified	Piston	Craig W	29	60
Modified	PCP	Ian T	44	60
Modified	PCP	Chris H	57	60
Modified	PCP	Alan G	49	60
Modified	PCP	Richard S	59	60
Modified	PCP	Raymond C	45	60