Category Archives: Civilian Marksmanship Program Matches

Practice and Changes to my Slow Fire Routine

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Took my Winchester Garand and 1917 Eddystone to the range after work today for some practice. I especially wanted to fire some more of my hand loads down range just to make sure they wouldn’t give me any trouble, they worked very well. I’m still amazed how well I can shoot this rifle compared to the my Springfield. I spend so much time worrying about stance, trigger control and other “soft skills” I guess the “hardware” can improve score sometimes too.

For the 1917 I am going to use HXP because I am still having trouble cycling hand loads in it and I don’t have the time or patience to figure it out before Perry so ill just use what I know works. I found with this rifle compared to a Garand even the slightest thing wrong and my shot goes wild. So it will be important to take my time and focus on the fundamentals with every shot.

For slow fire I have been keeping the rifle on my shoulder while reloading. To look at the scope I simply rock to the left to reload I use my right hand and tuck an round into the SLED then pull back on the handle and fall back into position. This seems to help me stay in position and be a little more constant. I’m not sure how this will play out in a pit match as I “short stock” my hand gets a little fatigued after awhile.

I’m getting awful excited about Perry in a few days, hopefully the weather holds.

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July Service Rifle and Garand Matches

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I had a long weekend of matches. Starting with High Power on Saturday with my AR. I’ve made some progress each match. In the second relay I shot a JCG match with my new Winchester, I amazed myself by breaking my personal best by 12 points with a 248-1/300. All of this dispite having some mechanical trouble.

During rapid prone my trigger was not reseting after cycling. A bit of Internet research suggested this was probably the clip ejection spring. This made sense as I was using a trigger assembly I had bought because it was “correct” and marked WRA and I had one clip fail to eject all the way during practice but wrote it off. I swapped the entire trigger group out with one that was known good. This solved the problem.

On Sunday, if 4 hours of shooting in 100 degree weather wasn’t enough, I brought the Winchester back out. The new trigger group resolved the problem, but it did cost me a few points as I needed to adjust windage and elevation a couple of clicks due to the different fit. I again beat my personal best with a 251-1/300! A very good weekend for shooting. Now just to press some new reloads for Perry and sneak out a couple afternoons for practice!

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June Highpower and Garand Match

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This weekend I shot in my second highpower match. I improved fairly significantly all of my off hand shots were on the paper which is an improvement on over my last match, I scored a 93 in rapid sitting which I thought was pretty good for my second ever time. I got a 78% overall so the 84% threshold for “sharpshooter” seems attainable.

The UPS man dropped off a CMMG A4 22 upper that I was not expecting as it was on back order. Once I can acquire a carry handle sight I should be able to get some good practice in. Full review once I get all the parts.

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For the Garand match on Sunday I had some trouble with my elevation. Frankly, I got pretty frustrated because it didn’t make a whole lot of sense why I would be shooting 4″ low all of the sudden. I returned after the match spent several hours shooting prone and reset my 0. If I’m shooting high at the July match I’m going to be awful grumpy.

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May CMP Match With My US M1917

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The Sunday after my first High Power match I took my 1917 to a vintage rifle match. I was having some trouble with it last season that I had rectified with a Flex Hone but I hadn’t taken it to a match yet to give it a full work out.

I was worried about rapid fire but it turned out the time I had spent practicing paid off. I finished in plenty of time even before some of the Garands. I’ve gotten the hang of keeping the rifle on my shoulder as I work the bolt which makes rapid a lot more consistent. Next time I’ll take a bit more time on each shot.

I struggled a bit in off hand per normal but all and all it was a good match. I beat my personal best for this rifle which is great, with a little luck and practice I should be in better shape by Camp Perry.

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Two days of practice

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It was a beautiful weekend for shooting and with my wife away I did a cut corner job of mowing the lawn and spent most of it at the range. I brought out the 1917, M1 and my new(ish) A2.

I spent some time working on the elevation for both my 1917 and Garand for both the conversion to 6 o’clock hold and to figure out why I was so low at the York match. I got that all worked out then spent some time working on my prone position, which I am now feeling much more confident in.

I practiced prone with my A2 and raised the elevation a bit so I could use 6:00 hold with this rifle too. I am very happy with it’s performance so far. I tried my hand at shooting sitting which I have literally never tried before. After trying to imitate the “crossed ankles position” I settled into some sloppy variation of it that seems to work OK for me. This has given me the courage up to sign up for the next NRA highpower match and bring my A2 in a few weeks!

Kimberton has a nice new slab for shooting prone.

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Think I have enough stuff?

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Don’t tell Bloomberg about my assault clips.

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