by Erud on Tue Feb 26, 2019 12:34 pm
Thanks for posting that Mark. It was a great trip, and an experience that I’ll never forget. Obviously we were hoping for gold, but all things considered, I was happy to go home with a medal. The Australian team was magnificent, and they were not going to be beaten by anyone.
As for the wind, the flag in that picture is telling the truth. Trentham is widely regarded as the most difficult range on the planet, and having now spent 25 days shooting there in the last 13 months, I can’t disagree. There is so much wind, and it changes so fast that sometimes all you can do is take a beating. I was happy with the quality of my shooting, but the wind was just too much for me to keep up with at times, and I consider myself to be a fairly competent wind reader. There just isn’t anything in the US to compare this range to. Just to give some perspective on the range conditions; at the last world championship in 2015 (held at Camp Perry in Ohio) the person who won the individual gold medal had only lost one point in the 135 shots leading up to the final. This year in New Zealand, the shooter who ended up winning the gold was down 31 points heading into the final. The previous champion from 2015 finished in 98th place this year.
I plan to write an article about the trip when I get time to do it, I’ll post a link when it’s finished in case anyone is interested. I am currently still trying to get caught up from 3 weeks out of the country...