Category Archives: John C. Garand

A Great Start To The 2015 Season: Kimberton and York Riflemen

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This season started out with a marathon of matches. On Saturday, I headed to my home club at Kimberton. It was a beautiful cool sunny day for shooting.

First I shot a NRA High Power match  and beat my personal best! This should pull my 240 round average high enough to make sharpshooter classification. I had been struggling to move up in classification with our minimum 60 round matches. I was close last season but blew it with a bad first match due to lack of off season practice.

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After High Power, I kept the ball moving and shot my personal best in the Garand Match too! I did uncharacteristically  good in off hand, practicing with my air gun has been paying off. This was the first match I shot with my newly rebuilt Winchester with a new stock and Criterion Barrel. It sure held up its end of the deal, I extremely happy with its performance.

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After a great Saturday of shooting,  Pre-dawn on Sunday I headed across the river to shoot at York Riflemen’s Spring Garand Match. York runs a great match and I have been looking forward to this match for some time.  I brought 3 new shooters with me and the folks at York did a great job showing them the ropes.

The conditions were good it was  bright and just a little cool and,  short of a 5 in off hand, I shot well. My shooting partner brought home his first bronze medal and all the new shooters had a great time.

After this match I am headed to Butner for the CMP Eastern Games!

 

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Last Garand Match of 2014

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Capture

Took the Garand out for one last match for the year. It was a crisp December day in the low 40s and overcast. I had taken my rifle apart after the last match as I had shot one round of corrosive ammo and my OCD wouldn’t let it slide. Of course, I didn’t have time to take it out to check my 0 and let it set into the wood. I managed to dial it in with the 5 sighter rounds, which was better than I expected as I had peened the barrel which can change POI.

After the sighters, prone went well. However, I really fell apart in off-hand. My head wasn’t in it and I let myself get mad. Good news is I have four months to practice for the next season.

November 2014 Garand Match

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It was crisp and overcast for Sunday’s Garand Match. The visibility was good, not too bright or dark.

I shot on the 11 am relay. I’m not sure what I was doing in slow prone, I didn’t take my time to get into position and I ended up shifting a couple times mid string which was a little frustrating. I made up some in rapid prone and off hand, is off hand.

A couple of my friends came to the match this month, one of them a new shooter. Unfortunately the new shooter had some equipment trouble and his extractor went flying. Once the RO was able to get his rifle clear from the line we were able to get him a loaner rifle to finish out the match.

 

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Just one more match this season then its time for another long winter.

 

The flying extractor:

York Riflemen 2014 Fall Garand Match

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I took a trip across the river to York Riflemen, one of my favorite places to shoot, for their fall Garand Match.

It was raining  when I pulled in but by the time we headed to the pits the ran stopped and by the off hand string of the first relay it was in the mid 60’s with the sun was shining. There were only enough shooters for two relays so we “scored in the pits”.  I had never done  this before. This initially gave me some anxiety but, after some advice from my fellow shooters, it turned out to be not so hard. Run the target down, score paste, and run it up like normal. Then Grab your clipboard and write down the shooters score,  with any luck before your shooter takes their next shot.

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After a round in the pits it was my turn to shoot.  The weather had significantly improved by the time I was all strapped in for slow prone. I am happy to report that I beat my personal best entirely due to off hand. I had been in a bit of a slump with the Garand the past few matches, especially on off hand. I had an “ah ha” moment while dry firing this week. I was not leaning back nor to the right (away from the line) as much as I had been  Note in first picture there is way too much space between my side and my support arm.

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In this match, with the position I had practiced, I was able to get my support arm tighter against my side. This gave me a more stable position. While I still have some other things to work on I think this was good breakthrough.

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This old picture that has been floating around the internet for some time gives a good visual of what I’m talking about. Why he is barefoot I don’t know, GTB recommends you wear a sturdy pair of boots when shooting.

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It was a great match and I am glad I made it out. I’ll be back for thier spring Garand Match in April and plan to stay for their spring NRA match.

Slow Prone:

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Thanks to Adam for the picture.

September ’14 High Power and Garand Matches

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Except for an afternoon with my 22 upper, I have not shot a match with my AR since Small Arms Firing School at Camp Perry back in July. So I made sure to dry fire a bit before this weekend’s match.

Saturday was NRA high power. It was beautiful outside. Sunny, low 70’s just a little breeze from time to time. I took my time in off hand and kept them all on target. I loosened up a bit in sitting. I should have taken more time to establish a good natural point of aim, which hurt me a bit. I made it up some in rapid prone. I really tried to leverage the clock and took my time in slow prone, which helped. I’m happy to say I did pretty well for once. Applying what I learned in Small Arms Firing school and a little luck paid off.

 

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Sunday was the Garand match another beautiful day, unseasonably warm for September. I didn’t have the same luck as I did on Saturday. I struggled in prone with a bad position and according to the video playback I could have kept a better cheek weld.

I am off to York Riflemen next week for their fall Garand match. I’m looking forward to and have kept my rifle next to my desk to get in as much dry firing as I can this week. If all goes well I’ll take my time in off hand and keep focused on a natural point of aim, trigger control and breathing.

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