17 hour match triangle

Mark shooting Open PCP at DIFTA. Every lane was like this, great location.

Eric and I headed out Friday afternoon making our way to Frederick, MD for the DIFTA shoot. We planned to stay with Hector and Veronica and their two kids Daniel and Sophia the next two nights. Shoot DIFTA on Saturday and then drive to Wappinger Falls EARLY Sunday morning to then shoot at Ray's and head back home.
Our time to Hector's was about 6 hours. I started helping Veronica with Dinner while Eric and Hector started working on Eric's Steyr to undo the previous tuner's modifications and get it back into good order. This ended up taking Friday night and all Saturday afternoon.
Saturday weather was forecast to be about 88 and humid (typical for Maryland in August) and it didn't disappoint. We got to DIFTA at 8:15 and were sighting in by 8:30. At 9:45 Paolo started the match with the shooter's meeting. A "Speed Lane" consisting of 3 targets (6 shots) in 2 minutes or less was the only thing out of the ordinary.
So Mark and I headed to our starting lane and began knocking down targets. My second lane was the speed lane and I got them all, but having only 2 minutes to range and then make your shots definitely gets your adrenaline going. I got them all, but it took me probably 2 lanes before the adrenaline was gone. We'll be adding that to the RBGC course the next match.
After 6 lanes I had only missed 1 shot, but I ended up dropping another 7 on the next 7 lanes to finish with 64/72 which got me high score (and another free DIFTA match) and 1st in Hunter PCP. Mark, the fellow I shot with was 2 behind me in Open PCP. We had a good time shooting together and shared some laughs. Eric finished 1st in Hunter Piston.
For anyone who hasn't been to DIFTA I would suggest you make the time. It's an absolutely beautiful course with the sight-in and course all under a forest canopy with minimal ground growth. In the spring and summer you have a lush, dark green canopy and in the fall you have wonderful colors as the leaves begin to fall.
Sunday morning was an early one. I was up at 2:45 am and we were out the door by 3:30 am. We drove the 5 hours to Ray's in Wappinger Falls and got there at 8:30 am when the range was opened. Ray has a great course that is also in the woods. It's a lot more condensed than most, but he makes the best of it. The sight-in area gets congested as there aren't many targets, but it gets done. The other advice for Ray's is to bring both long and short sticks (for hunter) as most of the lanes are angled up where you sit, so having short sticks proves beneficial as you are then shooting down at almost all targets. The last lane you're usually shooting up at a 60 degree angle at some targets that are 10 yards away.
Both Eric and I shot Hunter PCP and Hunter Pistol, so we had our hands full shooting twice per lane but it was fun. In the end Eric and I were at 71 and 74 if you scored 0, 1, 2 (miss, faceplate, hit) and so we thought Eric had won pistol. But then Ray was counting hits only and somehow I managed to beat Eric by 1 point in pistol.
So Eric finished 1st in Hunter Piston and 2nd in Pistol while I was 1 shy of high score, 1st in Hunter PCP and 1st in Pistol.
After the match was over we all went to a Chinese buffet and caught up and then we left for home, about a 4 1/2 hour drive, arriving about 7:30 pm on Sunday.
We had a great weekend of shooting and seeing friends.

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All targets at DIFTA were pulled and repainted by Mark. Plenty of help makes light work.