Match Report Humility Hill 2018
Our match director, Randy Ebersole, tore his hernia patch during the setup of the courses, and he is laid up for a while waiting for surgery. So, I’m writing the match report for him.
The weather was really comfortable, although a little chilly in the 50 degree mornings with the cloud cover and gusty winds coming up the valley. We had a thunder shower the evening before the pistol match on Friday, but the winds dried out the new jeep road I had built and we all made it up just fine. The high temp was about 75 for the weekend with partly cloudy to sunny skies. The 4 to 11 mph winds switched directions and gusted as they normally do on that hillside and top. Timing your shot for a wind you “think” you know was the name of the game for most shooters. But the wind switched so quickly that by the time one looked back at the scope it had switched directions before you could break a shot. Balancing the sometimes uplift effect against the steep downhill angle adjustments needed on most shots, was a challenge for all. But the weather was so much nicer this May weekend, than last year’s inaugural event we held in March with snow falling on the hills arounds us and gale force winds chilling us to the bone. We all really enjoyed the incredible views of the valley below and mountains beyond, while groaning about the gusty, switching winds.
The high rifle score shot over both days reached 80%. Saturday’s course was 35T with 20 of the 26 targets past 40 yds. With the downhill and wind factors it reached 42T. On Sunday, 13 targets were past 40 yds, the course troyer was 32T and 37T with environmental factors. The standard deviation was 5.73 and 7.70 on Sunday.
We had 16 competitors that shot on both days, and John Berkquist shot with us on Sunday. He, Larry Durham, Vince Pacheco, John Knapp, and Scott Hull came up from Southern CA. Riz Marquez, Jim Cyran, Chris Merritt, Mike Culbertson, Bob Kidd, Son Lu, Jim Poh, Darren Taylor, and Fred Biergiel journeyed from Northern CA joining locals Chris Lovitt, Randy Ebersole and myself. Our match director, Randy Ebersole reinjured his hernia patch setting the courses and could barely walk by match time, so we reduced the walking by shooting two shots per target and splitting up the course into two courses, to save some walking and time for those needing to get an early start home Sunday afternoon.
The pistol match was contested Friday afternoon, by seven shooters 2 in the Unlimited and 5 in Hunter class. High score was shot by Scott H. with a 38/44. Randy E. and Riz M. were close behind with 37/44 on the 31 troyer course.
Saturday’s rifle match started out with lots of misses, but the second shot on the same target did help most competitors adjust and score a hit after the first miss. But, the score cards also show many double misses and misses on second shots after a hit on the first, indicating the switching wind conditions. The day ended with Riz M. in WFTF PCP and Jim C. in Hunter class tied for high score with a 42/52. I was close behind Riz with a 41/52 in WFTF PCP. Chris M. shot a 38/52 in Open class, but day two he shot the high score of the day with a 44/52 and end up with the 3rd highest score overall and a win in Open class. Springer combined class was led by Scott H. Saturday, in Open Piston with a 29/52, and Scott shot an incredible 42/52 on Sunday to run away with the combined Springer class.
Sunday saw Riz and I shooting together, as well as Jim C and Chris Lovitt. Chris gave Jim a great match on Sunday beating him with a 42/52, but Jim’s 41/52 secured his win in Hunter class and a tie for second highest overall score. Riz and I also had a great match Sunday with the lead changing many times as we each missed shots. When Riz missed 3 of 4 on our last lane, which happened to be offhand, he left it open for me to steal a win, but alas, 2 for 4 wasn’t enough to force a shoot off, and we ended tied for the day with 42/52 and Riz’s one point lead from Saturday sealed his victory. It is always great to shoot with Riz, we had great fun competing.
Here are the scores by class:
PISTOL – Unlimited:
Scott Hull- Marauder custom- UTG 3-12x44 – AA 10.34 – 38/44
Riz Marquez – Rizzynator custom – Bushnell 3-12x42 – AA 8.44– 37/44
PISTOL – Hunter:
Randy Ebersole – Thomas Carbine – 3-12x44 Leapers – AA 10.34 – 37/44
Wayne Burns – 1720T – 3-12x44 – H&N Sniper medium – 31/44
John Knapp – 1720T – Hawke 3-12x50 – JSB 8.44 – 24/44
Chris Merritt – Thomas Carbine - 3-12x44 Leapers – AA 10.34 – 18/44
Chris Lovitt – 1720T – Centerpoint 3-12x44 - CPH 10.5 – 17/44
WFTF PCP:
Riz Marquez- Thomas Carbine – March 10-60x52 – JSB 8.44 – 84/104 * High overall score
Wayne Burns – USFT 144 – Nikko 10-50x60 – H&N Sniper medium – 83/104
Randy Ebersole – Thomas Carbine – Nikko 10-50x60 – JSB 8.44 – 68/104
Son Lu – Steyr LG 110 – Sightron 10-50x60 – JSB 8.44 – 67/104
HUNTER PCP:
Jim Cyran – Theoben MFR – S&B – JSB 13.4 – 83/104
Chris Lovitt – TM 1000 – Sightron 10-50x60 – JSB 13.4 – 76/104
Mike Culbertson – USFT – Aztec – JSB 13.4 – 68/104
Fred Biergiel – Daystate MK4 – Hawke Airmax 4-16 – JSB 10.3 – 61/104
John Knapp- Air Arms 500 – Accushot 8-32-56 – JSB 10.3 – 66/104
OPEN Class:
Chris Merritt – USFT 27 – Nikko 10-50x60 – AA 10.34 – 82/104
John Berkquist – Raw TM 1000 – Sightron 10-50x60 – JSB 10.34 – Sunday only 30/52
FREE STYLE class:
Larry Durham – USFT carbine – Bushnell 4- 16 x44 – AA 10.34 – 61/104
COMBINED PISTON:
Scott Hull – SAG QB58 custom – Monstrum 6-24x50 – H&N sniper medium – Open Piston – 71/104
Bob Kidd – HW 97 – Sightron S111 10-50x60 – H&N FT – WFTF Piston – 56/104
Vince Pacheco – LG 10- 10-50 Sightron – JSB 8.44 – Open Piston – 40/104
Darren Taylor – B 40 – Hawke Sidewinder 4-16 – H&N FT - Hunter Piston – 38/104
Jim Poh – TX 200 – Sightron 10-50x60 – JSB 7.9 - WFTF Piston – 36/104
Randy asked me to thank you all for taking the time and treasure to travel here and join in our fun competing. Also, special thanks to my sister Laurie for feeding us over the match days. I also personally, want to thank you all for coming to visit the ranch and new courses to test our shooting skills, do some trading, and share stories of shots made and missed. It was so great to see each and every one of you!
I’ll see some of you in Battle Mt. Nevada real soon.
Blessings
Wayne Burns,
For Randy Ebersole
Match Director
Ashland Precision Airgunners.
Humility Hill Challenge II 2018