Maddening....HW 97k

[barcabarca]

   I shot at the AAFTA Nationals in Grants Pass, OR last week.  The match was a two day affair with 108 possible points over two days. ( each knock down of a target is a point...) It was very tough.  Every obstacle you could think of:  Bright Glare, Gusty Wind, Across 50 yards of Water, Up Hill angle shots, Long distance off hand shots, kneeling shots, tiny kz on targets ( really just a bit under two or three .177 pellets with for a few of them...) Targets in trees the only way it could have been more difficult is if the targets shot back!   it was truly a test.

My HW 97 was up to the task shooting like a champ on the first day. I chronied her at the mandatory check at 835 fps.   On the second day however, the cocking became erratic and more difficult.  At the sight in on the second day,  the chrony only read 797.  Uh Oh.  The HW 97 handled all challenges well, up until the broken spring and for maybe half a dozen shots after that it still put them into the KZ...

As the shots went on and the cocking became even more difficult... well I knew, as did all of the competitors around me, they could actually hear the crunching sound.... that it was a broken spring. At Nationals!!
The worst part was this spring was only a few tins and months old. Sad.  ( BTW the kit manufacturer sent me a replacement, no questions.  They are great and I will continue to purchase from them...)

All that aside, I still had a great time... Next time I will go more prepared. BTW the 12 FPE springer division was won by Hector Medina, with a 12 FPE Diana 54!  German quality yet again! 

I will figure out how to post the links to the videos I shot...

[robert w]

hector is the man and a diana to boot . sad the spring broke .but take a spare the next time . sounds like you had a great time anyway

[thekid]

Sorry to hear your spring broke.
That must have been fun, yet very challenging.
Congrats on making due.

[bart the fart]

Ouch! A spring down has got to sting there. Great story, and good times I'm sure. Thanks for sharing, I'd love to attend that event some year.
Cheers
Bart

[mtsheron70]

So how many points did ya end up with or did you have to withdraw from the competition?

[barcabarca]

Fortunately, I had my backup rig with me.    My trusty Diana 34p ! 

Unfortunately:

It had only my 3-9x32 mildot scope on it and I didn't have the chrony information other than my 20 yard zero...sooo..

I hit all of the targets I was aiming at for the last third of the match, but I didn't score on any of them.  But I gotta say, for the Diana 24p in .22 to come out of the box cold and hit close to most of the KZ in some really tough circumstances; example 54 yards over water to a 1.25" kz and see it hit just a bit to the side well... man that is some great air rifle. 

If I had the details of my dope for the yardages I think I might have done as well as the HW 97 on the larger KZ's....but as my bro used to say "if only if's and but's were candy and nuts..."

  I still had a great time.

I ended up with 40 points. 29 from the first day...so not so bad...