This was the last “home field” matches before Camp Perry so I booked the weekend full of matches.
Saturday morning was NRA High Power. It was a full house with a lot of people trying to get some trigger time before Perry. Tropical Storm Bill had been predicted to doom the weekend’s matches but the weather held off. It was hot and muggy, perfect practice for Perry.
High Power Sitting
I beat my personal best on Saturday which felt great. I did reasonable in off hand which helped but I did a little above average for myself in slow and rapid which helped pull me up. I wasn’t really happy with sitting. This is the second match in a row I felt a little off in sitting, specifically bouncing around too much. Most of this boils down to rushing and loosing focus on trigger control. I’ll keep working on it. “All i need to do ” is to pull off one more good match over the expert cut (89%) to move up to the Expert Classification. Maybe with a little luck I can make this happen soon.
Sunday I shot a Garand Match and a Springfield Match. The Garand Match was a little sloppy. I was “wildly inconsistent” in slow prone as my shooting partner described it. More times than I’d like to admit I bouced from the X to the 8 ring… and once to the 7. That and a mediocre rapid prone held me back a little. But I was able to do ok in off-hand to fall just 5 points under the medal cut. I would have felt better going into Perry with a high score but its within reach at this point.
Garand vs 03A3 in slow prone.
On a later relay I brought the 03A3 out for its first Match. It has been a long project but it performed well all around. I had been apprehensive about rapid prone as in practice I had rushed myself into some ugly scores. However I was able to keep it together in rapid despite a dirty chamber and rough HXP causing some tough primary extraction issues. Between the fatigue, handling a new rifle, the heat, and rushing my shot, I dropped not one but TWO misses in off hand. Otherwise it was a good sting. Perhaps ironically, I was able to come in just 2 points under the medal cut, besting my performance with the Garand where I got all the rounds on target. So, I suppose “all I have to do” is not miss next time. Sounds easy right?
Back in 2012 when I was just getting started shooting Garand Matches I attended WBRP’s first Garand match. I had been meaning to return for some time and since I had the day free and I was looking for some trigger time (and some redemption from the Talladega match), I loaded up the truck and headed up north early in the morning.
It was a full 10 degrees cooler up in Wilkes-Berre and in the low 70s when firing started. It was just a little bit overcast and by the time we rolled into the last stage the sun was out. They have nice covered firing points with a concrete floor which makes things a little easier.
This was a CMP “National Match Course” walk and paste, which is 50 shots 10 off-hand: 10 rapid sitting, 10 rapid prone, 20 slow prone. The rapid stages start from standing per CMP rules, which makes things interesting.
They allow service rifles and modern military to accommodate as many people as they can. There was even a women there who posted a respectable score with a AK-74. I brought both the Garand and the AR-15A2 with me but on the way up I decided to shoot the A2. I have big plans to shoot some black rifle events at Perry this year and I could use a little time on the trigger of that rifle.
Off Hand
Off Hand went well all things considered. I dropped a 5 then a 7 about half way. I reset my position and things went better from there. However, somewhere during the stage I put a nice shot at six o’clock into the 9 ring… of the hospital target.
Dropping into the sitting position is not something I do often since the High Power Matches we shoot at Kimberton are NRA. That said, I managed to not fall over and dropped into a decent NPA. The first magazine did not feed on the first try. I don’t think I pulled the charging handle all the way. I let this stress me out and rushed the sting more than I should have but in the end I am happy with sitting. I should practice getting into position and not rocking so much when I shoot.
Rapid Fire Sitting
I feel great about my prone. I did well in rapid prone and cleaned one of the two targets for slow prone. After letting a bad prone string at Talladega get in my head I needed a couple good strings laying on the shooting mat.
Prone
I am glad I made it back up to WBRP. It’s a great group of folks to shoot with and they run a nice match. I am going to try to make it back up there again in the fall with my Garand.
To kick off CMP’s beautiful new marksman park down in Talladega, they held an “Inaugural D-Day Match” for as-issued Garands only, limited to 350 participants. Coming off the high of doing well at The Eastern Games I signed up just days before they were sold out. A few weeks later, we were up before the crack of dawn with M1 Garands in tow headed towards the airport.
The CMP Marksmanship Park
Around lunch on Friday we arrived at the Marksmanship Park. Turns out it was closed for an invite only opening ceremony that just wrapping up. CMP was nice enough to let us in anyway to check it out. Holy cow this place is nice! I expected it to be “cool” but it is truly a world class shooting facility. It’s has the feel of a luxury ski resort that also has rifle ranges. The club house is large and beautiful, plenty of room to lounge around in the AC, and watch the targets from one of the many monitors.
There electronic target system is the center piece of the marksmanship park. I have used similar systems up at the Marksmanship Center at Camp Perry but that was only airguns. Shooting a M1 Garand at a electronic target and seeing the shot pop up on the screen is really cool.
PING!
The park has several ranges that use the electronic target system. We spent most of our time at the at “Range 1”, a 54 firing point across the course range with 200, 300 and 600 yard targets. The firing points are covered which is particularly nice in the hot Alabama sun. The roof is high so there is adequate light to see your front sight yet it keeps the glare off the sight post. I know this seems a little odd to point out, but the covered firing points include proper bathrooms and water fountains, which are nice in a pinch.
The club house has a Creedmoor Sports pro shop which is great to have so close to the line. It takes some of the pressure off packing for the flight if you know you can get anything you need right there.
I bought a Ron Brown sling while I was there. The fella who rang me up told me about much he liked these slings and how he uses the same sling to shoot at Perry on all his rifles. I later put two and two together that he was Dennis Demille. Of course he was right about the Ron Brown sling. I tried it out on my A2 when I got home and it is a great sling. They have Creedmoor Jackets available to try on some with special “CMP Talladega Marksmanship park” patches on the back. The shop also had a nice selection of handguns, rifles (including CMP Garands), and what looks like most of the stuff in their catalog.
The Inaugural D-Day Match
On Saturday I shot in a the “Inaugural D-Day Match” which was an as issued Garand Match. I was a little late on the registration and was squaded in last relay, relay 7, at 3:00 PM. They were running a little behind early on but made most of it up by the time the relay 7 started. While it was the dead of heat in the afternoon in Alabama (around 90 degrees with high humidity) it was comfortable under the shaded firing points.
Warning: a lot of speculation about how I Could or Should have shot ahead.
At the time I was disappointed in my performance, however I have gotten past that. When it comes down to it I lost the mental game which cost me hitting the medal cut.
Slow Prone is where my problems started. I had some trouble in prep establishing my Natural Point of Aim. The targets seemed too high for some reason (they were not) and I settled on muscling the rifle up a bit. It turned out to be a big mistake. My slow prone string went from great to dropping eights towards the end. Presumably because of fatigue from muscling the rifle.
I worked out the issue, it was that I was facing down hill. I didn’t account for the concrete sloping towards the target before the firing line. I was able to get it together for rapid prone.
Rapid Prone was great string and this should have gotten me pumped up. I shot a 94/3 which is the best I have shot in competition for rapid prone with the Garand, at least in recent memory. Instead of being excited, I was still dwelling on slow prone going into off hand. Furthermore, I made the mistake of doing the math. I needed an 80 in off hand to medal, which isn’t impossible. Recently my average off hand has been just around 80.
Off-Hand did me in. I came into that stage frustrated and blew it. I dropped a 6 on my first shot, reset again, hit a 9 and a 10, then dropped another 6. I guess 3 strikes were all I could take as it went down hill from there.
All that said, I paid a price for a hard lesson. I know better than to get frustrated, dwell on the last shot and have the wrong mindset. In the end, a couple days later I feel good about this match. I came back as best I could , and came close to my goal.
I am off to Camp Perry in just 5 weeks with a couple of local matches between now and then so no time to dwell on the past.
All in it was a great experience and i’m excited to go back. My shooting partner had a great match and brought home a silver.
I can’t finish this post without mentioning the BBQ after the awards ceremony. Eating good southern BBQ, and drinking sweet tea on a patio with a view of the range and the Alabama Mountains, after a day of shooting, is hard to beat!
I know CMP has plans for Southern Games in December and depending on how it lines up with deer season here in PA, I may try to attend. I’ll certainly be back for the D-Day Match next year if they have one.
After a long morning of travel we rolled into CMP’s Talladega Marksmanship Park just after they wrapped up the dedication. It’s a very cool place, but more on that later.
They were having a “one shot dedication match” which was one shot with one of several CMP specials. Whoever is closest to the X for the day wins a CMP special.
We later learned this was an “RSVPed guest only” event we had accidentally crashed, Whoops.
Regardless of our party crashing, It was a nice chance to check out the new targets. The real challenge is, that the rifle has an unknown zero. I took a guess that it was 6:00 based on a drawing someone had left behind at the bench and clicked it left one based on the shot of the last shooter which was a in the 8 ring at 3:00.
Well my guess was wrong when it landed nice and neatly in the 8 ring, low and an inch too far left.
The CMP special won’t be coming home with me, but it was nice to try out the fancy new equipment!
The Talladega Marksmaship Park Inaugural D-Day match is just next weekend. I set out to get as much trigger time as I could this weekend.
My local club allows as many re-entries as they have room for… And boy did I take advantage of that this weekend.
Fresh off the high of getting my sharpshooter card in the mail, I started out with My A2 and a NRA High Power Match this past Saturday. It was unseasonably hot and humid and the sun came in and out causing some glare issues for me to fight. Overall I did well. I was hoping to break 89% but I came just shy. My goal is to break into Expert class before the end of the season. I’ll need some practice and some luck.
After high power I shot in a vintage relay with my 1917. I’ve been neglecting to practice with this old rifle and it showed for sure. I had a saved round in rapid prone and a miss in off hand. I blame the saved round on my efforts to slow down with the Garand and take my time.
On Sunday morning I kept the party going and brought a pile of rifles with me. My Garand, M1 Carbine and brought the 1917 back for some redemption. The weather was about the same, hot and muggy.
I shot well with the Garand I lost a few points in off hand that I shouldn’t have rushed but I squeaked by the bronze cut off.
There was a no show for the second relay so I was able to jump in and shoot my M1 carbine. I am still working out some kinks in both the carbine itself and how I shoot it. This gave me some good experience with the platform.
To make for a long day I hung around for the third and final relay and tried for some redemption with my 1917. Dehydration and exhaustion aside I did much better. No saved rounds and no misses in off hand. This and a couple beers afterwards put a nice end to a long weekend of shooting.
I am going to continue to put as many rounds down range as I can afford in both time and money between now and Perry. The way I see it, the more trigger time I get the better prepared I will be.
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