It’s officially mid-September and Team Umarex has just gotten settled back into their normal routines after having attended the 2024 Pyramyd Air Cup in Marengo, Ohio. Due to a weird weather pattern, the central Ohio area was a bit warmer than usual. It was also a bit more windy than usual, too, during daylight hours. Depending on how you look at it, the lack of rain was either a blessing or a curse. I’m sure, given the near drought conditions present in Ohio, the natives were ready for some precipitation however they could get it.
Our team gathered at an AirBnB closer to Columbus on Tuesday in advance of the event to strategize, fellowship, and, of course, eat. Rather than go out for team meals, we took turns preparing food we picked up at the local Kroger. It was a hoot.
With the team fully assembled by late Tuesday night, we headed to bed in anticipation of registering and setting up on Wednesday.
We opted to sleep in a bit and make a lazy morning out of it since the registry didn’t start until noon. Once at the Cardinal Shooting Center’s office the shooters were quickly processed and assigned their various competitions and times. With this task out of the way we all pitched in a set up our vendor bay at the demo range and played around with a few of the guns we brought. That would be the Gauntlet 30SL, the .25 caliber Zelos, and the Marlin Lever Action BB gun.
The sight-in range was also open so we took advantage of this opportunity to check zero on our rifles and stretch the legs of the our .22 caliber Zelos that would be used in the PCP Gunslynger Competition on the books for Thursday.
I use the word “our” intentionally. We had sent out .25 caliber Zelos rifles to most of our team members, but .25 caliber was not allowed in the Gunslynger competition. This meant that we had four shooter that would be sharing the two .22 caliber Zelos’s we brought with us.
Keep in mind these were two off-the-shelf rifles and neither of them had been shot much at all.
I had initially put a rough zero on my rifle at home with some JSB 25.39 grain Jumbo Monster Diabolo pellets. At 40 yards, these pellets were performing well in the untouched rifle. However, at 100 yards, they were grouping a little too large for competition. Given the time crunch we were in, it was much easier to try another pellet than to begin an in depth tuning cycle. The first alternate pellet I tried was the JSB 20.83 Jumbo Monster Light pellet. At 100 yards, the groups I shot were as good as I could expect without doing any tuning. The only question now was if I brought enough of them!
100 Yards and 25 Targets
Thursday, we grabbed a quick snack for breakfast and headed to the Cardinal Shooting Center to prepare for the benchrest competition which would be starting promptly at 8:30. With our Gauntlet 30 SLs ready to rock and roll we made our way to the range to shoot and to support our fellow teammates. On our first cards, it was evident that the wind was affecting all shooters more or less equally and that it wasn’t necessarily a difference that cast a doubt on equipment. Allie Butler, the newest Team Umarex member, managed to shoot a 205 on her first card, and first outing with the Gauntlet 30SL. This was a respectable score especially considering that she had really not spent much time behind the trigger of the G 30SL. I shot 201, with Ckye Thomas coming in with 200, Abby Casey coming in with 197 and Eydin Hansen scoring 197.
The wind certainly picked up as the day moved on, so, unsurprisingly made for overall slightly lower scores. Allie shot 176, Abby shot 194, Ckye shot 212, Eydin shot 178, and I shot 199. It was after this round it became evident that we would not send a shooter onto the finals round this year.
Are You Fast Enough for Gunslynger?
Later on in the afternoon the Gunslynger competition began. First, the spring guns shot and boy, they were seriously entertaining to watch. This contest was timed, though the shooter could shoot as many pellets as they want. Also, it wasn’t just the clock you were racing against. You are competing against a random shooter whom you are paired with. Whoever hits the most targets by the end of the time or clears the stage first will go on to the next round. We all agreed that we should be shooting in this event also. That will have to wait until next year though.
When it was the PCP’s turn to go, we gathered up our 4 magazines and 2 rifles and readied for the event. I shot first out of all of our shooters. WIth the first magazine loaded up with 10 pellets per the event’s rules, I fully loaded up a second and third magazine, not knowing how many shots I would need to get through this– that is if I could get through this. Well, the Zelos did not let me down.
I don’t know what my time was, but I managed to clear the stage with 21 pellets fired and was able to move ahead to the next round where I faced…teammate Eydin Hansen. When our time to shoot came around, things just fell apart for both of us. Since we only had 4 .22 caliber magazines at the event, when we both blew through our first 30 preloaded shots, we had a very non-interesting magazine loading contest to see which one of us would move on. Between Tyler Patner and Rossi Morreale’s commentary and our frustration and laughter, we both managed to stuff a few more pellets in the magazine and get off some more shots. At the end of it all, Eydin got the best of me and squeaked out the win.
Abby Casey went on to win her first round and then on to beat a well known veteran airgunner.
Likewise, Ckye Thomas beat his first competitor and then in the semi-final round eked out a win against a prominent competitor. The .22 caliber Zelos certainly made an excellent impression in its debut outing at the Pyramyd Air Cup.
We were all pretty tired but also amped up from the day’s events and how well the rifles performed. At around 6:00 we headed by the rented house to clean up and prepare supper for our crew.
It’s Like Hunting Only It’s Not
Friday morning Abby, Eydin, and Ckye went back up to the Gunslynger range for the next round of competition in that discipline, but unfortunately, they were all defeated.
Around lunchtime Abby and Ckye headed down the road about a mile in order to arrive at the field target range. They were both shooting competition Walther LG400 PCPs in .177 caliber.
Field Target is a different animal altogether. The first round was a ho-hum middle of the road showing for both. With targets as small as they are in Field Target and the ranges being random throughout a set range- knowing your holds in as fine of an increment as you can. That is to say being a foot off in your range estimate can mean the difference between a hit and a miss in field target.
Saturday, Abby and Ckye went back down to the Field Target range for round two while myself, Eydin and Evan manned the lonely booth at the demo range. And lonely it was. With the crowd down on the other end of the facility, not many folks were wandering about on the west end. Around 3:00 PM the staff began collecting the tables and chairs for use later that evening at the banquet. We took the hint and closed up shop for the day. Abby and Ckye made it through the long hot day of Field Target in a better position than the day before but still not good enough to make it to the finals.
The awards banquet and raffle was a fun event, as per usual. There were many awesome airguns, optics, and other accessories made available in the raffle. Arguably, the raffle is more fun than seeing who wins what event because it is not such a matter of skill as it is a gamble that those with a gambler’s spirit pursue. That is fun to watch. Speaking of fun to watch, when a shooter picks up a cash prize (top prize for Benchrest was $7,500) they were paid off with a sound round of applause too. The food and fellowship was amazing, as would be expected. We hung out with the American Airgunner crew at the banquet. There were plenty of laughs to be had in spite of everyone’s general state of exhaustion, which by the end of the evening was readily apparent on everyone’s faces. We were all ready to be home. Nearly a week away from the house begins to weigh on anyone, especially if you’ve had several similar weeks like it earlier in the year.
Wrap Up
Soon we will be headed back out west to the Phoenix area for Airguns of Arizona’s Extreme Benchrest. That competition will be in October and we are all excited for the opportunity to go and. Stay tuned as we will have a report from that event too!