The 2025 Season Kicks Off in the Woods with Cool Temps and Bare Trees
- N.O.A News Director
- 11 minutes ago
- 3 min read
(Match Report by Tyler Patner) April 13, 2025
2024 was a longer year of FT for many of us than normal. With the FT World Championships taking place in November last year, the season was extended far past when the weather allows us to normally shoot here in Ohio. Despite that, it felt like a LONG winter and, with temps in the 40s when we set the course on Saturday, there was still a little winter left in the air. Thankfully, the forecast for the match on Sunday was a bit warmer, and it definitely turned out to be an accurate forecast. Special thanks to all of our guys that came out on Saturday and helped set up. We are very fortunate to have a lot of good help, and with 10 or so people, the work needed to get prepared for a match happens in just a few hours.
We had 29 shooters turn up on a chilly morning looking to get back into the swing of things and kick 2025 off right. Thankfully, the sun was out and there was not much cloud cover, so what looked to be a high in the 50s, ended up peaking around 65 for the day. But all of the temperature change created some interesting thermals on the ground. But more on that later, first let’s talk about the course.
Our 60 shot, 15 lane woods course offers a number of challenges, mostly lighting related. Of the 30 targets, 16 were over 40 yards. Of those 16, 12 were over 45 yards. Of those 12, 8 were at or over 50 yards. The Troyer was a 33.75T without wind factored in, and let me tell you, the wind played a significant role. I noticed early on that there was a significant amount of mirage out on the course due to the direct sunlight heating the cool ground. This made range finding a challenge for many, but also served as a guide for the wind. While the wind may not have seemed like much, the mirage told a different story down range. For example, lane 4 was my first of the day, and the 1.5”, 54 yard long target on that lane required an outside right edge hold…and my first shot barely made it into the left side of the KZ. So just about a full 1.5” of movement there. And with a number of reduced targets in the 40 yard range, you had to be on your game, even for those shooting 20 FPE.
We had two cold lines for the day, both protests. One without issue, and the other was a target failure, which was a quick replacement to get the match rolling again. Outside of that, the day ran very smoothly and despite some groans on misses, it seemed like everyone was happy to be outside again. I should also note that we had two equipment related DNF’s for the day, as Al Duster had some major zero issues with his Diana 56 rig, and Roger Barker lost a breech seal on his Air Arms Pro Target. We hope both can get their issues resolved before the next match.
Shooters were treated to our usual pizza lunch when they came off the line. We had 12 shooters in Hunter PCP, with Doug Cunningham earning a tightly contested win shooting a 49/60. He topped Ryan Spanagel by just one shot. In Open PCP, Brandon Michaud posted a solid 46 in his first outing sitting on the ground to win the day. In WFTF PCP, Tyler Patner dropped just one shot, ending with a 59/60. Keith Walters turned in a respectable 52 to claim second place. Matt Uhler posted a 40 in WFTF Piston with his TX200. And Rick Smelko topped our Unlimited class with a 57. Congrats to all of the top finishers and well done on a tough course in tricky conditions.
Thanks to everyone who attended, we hope you all had a great time and we look forward to seeing you in May for our next match. Until then, shoot safe and we will see you on the lanes!