Good shooting by all. I can do the target at 600, but I would definitely need to use good ammo or load my own.
Were they shooting .223, .308, or sone of the other flatter rounds like the Creedmore?
Field Target is a precision pneumatic (air) rifle sport. You shoot pairs of targets at stations over a course. Distances are 10 to 55 yards and the spot you have to hit to register a knockdown is between 3/8ths of an inch and an inch and a half. You have a 20 foot pound energy limit for the most popular classes (Hunter and Open, I shoot Open). That puts me at about 900 feet per second using a 10.34 grain lead pellet. There is a World Field Target Federation class that is limited to 12 foot pounds (because so many euro nations consider over 12 as a firearm) and that is significantly more tough due to the use of lighter pellets to make the energy limit while keeping velocity up.
It’s maddeningly difficult to break 50 or 60% when you first start unless you’ve done some precision shooting. I shot 56/60 today and go into tomorrow’s course with a 2 shot lead and the match high for now.
I can consistently shoot things the size of flys, staples, nail heads at 30-40 yards with my setup (I use a 50X magnification scope that parallax ranges). I credit getting into this sport with my making 300-400 yard single shot kills on deer i took my last couple hunts. It is by far the best practice for higher power because it scales AND most importantly gets rid of your bad habits and dumb mistakes.
You can get into the sport reasonably with something like a Benjamin Marauder or equivalent and ammo is around 10-20 bucks for 500 pellets.
AAFTA.org