I think I had the best seat in the house for the F-Open battle. It was GREAT to watch such gifted shooters duke it out.
Some detail for the interested. I was squadded with Chris Longley on Day 1. We were on target 8 (this will become important later....). FTR got to shoot Relay 1 and the first string of the day (thanks, Joel!). I shot a personal best in that match. Went to the pits and pulled Chris' target for his first match. He put up a nifty 200-13x. For 4th place (or possibly, 6th) - Whaa? Yikes! Tough crowd. His second match was another clean with a pile of Xs. At the end of the day, three 599s... Brian Bowling, Eric Johnson and Chris.
On day 2, relays were organized so the top shooters were squadded next to each other from the center out. A neat idea and a great way to generate excitement for the "crowd". I ended up on target 9 and was very concerned about crossfiring onto target 8 since I had been fixated on it the day before. I was squadded with Brian B and first to the pits. He shoots a clean with a pile of Xs. Slow, deliberate, awesome. Apparently he shot 13 Xs. Eric put up a monster 200-17X!! Adam Shidla 200-16x! Chris a respectable 200-13x....still three-way 799 after 4 matches. They went to the pits to pull 3 then scored us when they came out.
I was scoring for Brian in match 5 and we are on Target 9. Eric is on my left on target 8 and Chris on my right on target 10. Targets some up and Eric and Brian are eyeing the conditions. I hear Eric say he didn't fire. I know that Brian didn't fire since I was watching him. Ooops. Chris just sent BOTH his sighters onto target 8. He did what I feared doing. I was worried for him since dropping ANY points with these shooters in the mix seemed like it was going to take you out of the running quickly....Chris kept it together and drilled a dead center X for his first shot for record....on his target and finished with a 200-14x!
Eric and Brian traded 10s and Xs and even took a several minute break to wait out a condition change (Chris did also). I could feel the crowd gathering behind me to watch the shooting clinic. Brian was on shot 4 when he took the break. I can't remember if I heard 9 min or 6 minutes remained when he took shot 5. All three shooters finished with 200s and Brain fired his last shot with about 1 min left and Eric still had two shots with 1 min left. His last shot was with 5 seconds left (Eric thought 20 sec based upon his timer). No pressure. Best seat in the house, like I said. Still three shooters with 999s.
For the final relay I was back in the pits. Brian's first two sighters were nothing unusual. His 1st or 2nd shot for record was a solid 9 at 10'oclock. (I learned later that all three top shooters had same shot placement on that shot). I'm not sure what the other shooters did, but I can tell you that Brian shot super fast after that. As soon as the target came up, bam there was a shot on. He was pummeling the X-ring. I've only pulled a string faster one other time and that was because the sighters and every shot for record came in as fast as Brian was shooting. I like to think I can pull pretty fast, but I that was as fast as I can pull. Felt like 3-sec pulls. Arms were aching at the end of his string. I learned later that Eric, Chris and Brain all dropped a point on that early shot and Eric dropped another low 9 on his shot 17. That's a great shootout. It was sure fun for me to watch and I'm sure I'm not alone.
I highly encourage everyone to consider shooting a match in Elk River. Great competition, great camaraderie, fantastic facilities and always matches run like a Swiss watch. Thanks to Joel and his crew for putting together the match. Well done.
Drew
...and was a prize a lot of us wanted.
