In September 2024, the largest Hunter Field Target shooting event took place. Over 100 shooters from Hungary, Poland, Italy, the Czech Republic and Slovakia traveled to Hungary for the two-day HFT competition.
Debrecen (Polish: Deberczyn) is the second largest city in Hungary, the largest city in the eastern part of the country with a population of about 200,000. The journey from Poland by car takes about 5 hours, driving from the south of Poland, through Slovakia (Košice) and then through Hungarian highways. The road through the Tatra Mountains is quite difficult, but after Košice there is a long, modern highway, for which a previously purchased vignette is required.
The HFT competition was organized on Saturday and Sunday. The weather was very holiday-like. Full sun and 31 degrees on Saturday and 32 degrees Celsius on Sunday.
On the first day, the shooters went to the so-called zero range to check and properly set up their equipment. The morning sun was pleasant, announcing the approaching heat. It was a real challenge, especially for spring air rifle shooters. Such an air rifle easily changes its parameters when the temperature rises rapidly. This is related to the heating mechanism, spring, piston and even grease, where it changes its density to the ambient conditions.
After a few hours spent shooting at the target, the briefing began. A few pieces of information about the area, sponsors, safety rules and the track itself.
The track was located in a nearby forest. The shooters were divided into two groups, shooting alternately on the first day RED track and on the second WHITE track or vice versa, depending on the group drawn. Individual groups consisted of two people. I walked the track in the group with a shooter from Hungary.
Shortly after 10 a.m., we set off to the forest to the designated positions.
I started shooting at the figures in the forest, then went to the meadow, along the way firing a control shot into the chronograph to check the current speed of the rifle. Only those with a power of up to 16.3j could take part in the competition, in accordance with the Hungarian limit for air guns. Interestingly, in order to transport such a rifle, shooters from Poland had to apply to the organizer for a promissory note for the transport of such an air gun. For a dozen or so euros, there was no problem at all.
A clearing in open terrain opened the second series of shooting. I had already scored 10 positions with varying effectiveness. The score was 1 for knocking over a figure or zero. The sun was slightly covered by clouds, but it was still very hot and the air gun, despite being carried in a case and kept in the shade, was already very hot, despite the PCP being already very hot.
The positions in the clearing had figures set in the forest, which made it difficult to determine the strength and direction of the wind. Often in the clearing, the wind was blowing from the left, and 40 meters further in the forest, where the figure was, the wind was from the right.
After a few such positions, I returned to the forest again. 40 positions completed, you can go back and rest, waiting for the next day.
On Sunday, the track changed (Saturday WHITE) to RED and after 10 a.m., the shooters went back into battle with hopes of improving their results from Saturday.
It was warmer than on Saturday and no clouds. A real frying pan in the clearing. It’s a good thing I gave up the shoes and pants I usually shoot in, in favor of shorts and sneakers, because I probably wouldn’t have lasted until the end.
I got the impression that the red track was a bit more difficult. Although the conditions were similar, the positions and the figures placed on them were somehow harder to fall over after the shot.
In the end, on Sunday I had a worse result than on Saturday. The points from both days added up to the overall classification.
The winner was the Czech shooter Karel Ryl, and how did I do? Join me shooting on my video. Enjoy