July 2015 Service Rifle and Garand Matches at KFGA

Posted on August 3, 2015 by Finch

Freshly back from Camp Perry, I headed out to my local club for High Power and a couple of Garand matches.

High Power started off poorly. I was on the end position which had a slightly obstructed view of the target and ended up dropping a miss early in off hand. Unfortunately, the rest of the match didn’t go much better. I seemed to be off in my windage and didn’t correct for it in time. The excuse I’m going with it’s difficult to see the 22 cal holes with the dark range conditions.

I was back at it Sunday with the Garand. It was seasonally hot and sunny. I had signed up for two matches. I started out strong with the first match beating my personal best in slow prone with a 99! KFGA tends to be bight and sunny on the line and dark down range so typically my prone scores end up a little lower here, compared to other places, perhaps I have over come that, or the light was better this month.

Rapid prone came out well and, dispite some slop in off hand, I was able to tie my personal best with the Garand!

For the second match, I was hoping to shoot my carbine, but I forgot my magizines and wasn’t able to scrounge up any from the other shooters. This turned out to be for the best, as I was able to top my personal best with the Garand by 6 points for a 279! I wasn’t quite able to top my performance in the prone stages in the first match but I still did well.

In off-hand, I really took my time with each shot and ran out the clock. I told myself not to break the shot untill it looked like it was going to be in the black, and it worked out for me. I broke 90% in off hand which is good for me.

In this second match, I was able to keep all but 3 rounds in the black, two eights in rapid, and one in off hand. What that tells me is that working on taking my time on each shot, getting the right sight picture every time and focusing hard on the front sight even in off-hand has been helping.

On the other hand, it tells me is I need to focus on applying these same fundamentals to the rapid strings. Looking back at my numbers I swing high and low in the rapid stages acoss platforms. I need to find a sweet spot between taking my time with each shot and not saving rounds, especially with bolt guns.

It was a great weekend, especially with the Garand. Now that I’ve shot within a handfull of points of the gold medal cut, I’d like to see if I can bring one home from either the Western Games this fall or the Eastern Games in the spring.

2015 National Matches at Camp Perry

Posted on July 25, 2015 by Finch

This year I signed up for as many matches at Camp Perry as I could squeeze on the calendar. It was a long eight days of shooting with eight different events all the way from Small Arms Firing School (SAFS) through Games Weekend, Vintage Sniper, Garand, Springfield, Vintage Military, and Carbine wrapping up with the big Black Rifle matches: the NTI and P100. I had a great time, shot well in several events, and took some lumps in others.

SAFS

Small Arms Firing School

This was my second trip to SAFS. I had learned a lot last year which I had been applying throughout the year and I was determined get some good coaching and to try and get those 4 “intro points” this year.

I signed up for the “basic” course again. The difference between basic and advanced being that the basic group gets a couple of hours of dry firing based instruction while the advanced group stays in the AC for additional classroom instruction. Knowing how I learn I figured the dry fire portion of the basic class would be of the most benefit to me.

My firing points coach was Sgt Manning from the Army Reserve Marksmanship Team. He gave me some great advice and I couldn’t have asked for a better coach. I picked up some good tips on the sitting position and off hand and even slinging up. For the latter, I had been stubbornly putting my sling above the pad on my jacket. Letting it a little lower on the pad does help keep the pulse down in the front sight.

The day of the SAFS M16 EIC match it was sunny and beautiful. Mid to high 70’s lighting was perfect, and the humidity stayed low at least for the first two relays. I was on relay two; the fella I had been squad-ed with the past couple days set the bar pretty high in the first relay so the pressure was on.

I was able to clean slow prone, as I had been hoping to, so I could bank up some points for the other stages. Don’t give me too much credit it was a SR target at 200 as opposed to a reduced MR target so the 10 ring is fairly attainable. I remembered to take my time in rapid prone and shot a 99 with a nice tight group.

I must have gotten a little cocky by rapid sitting. I didn’t feel as stable as I wanted and rushed too much, dropping some 7 and 8s. It hurt a little to post an 86, especially knowing I’ve shot as high as 99 a few times in sitting…. Plus, I was saving that 80 something for off-hand.

Sgt. Manning, my coach, knew I was grumpy about posting that score and gave me a little pep talk. “Those shots are gone” a phrase that I have been repeating to myself ever since. I’ve heard plenty times to let go of bad shots and that only the next shot counts, but apparently it took that phrasing for it to finally click for me.

Rarely have I been able to recover from a bad string by making it up in off hand (ie The D-Day match at Talladega) however I’m happy to report I was able to walk it home shooting on two legs and made the cut for my first leg points. I ended up at number 14! Of course I still ask myself where I would have finished if I didn’t bumble sitting.

See CBI’s write up of SAFS with me by clicking here.

Vintage Sniper

My shooting partner arrived at Perry with his original A4 to get the GTB shooting team back together in time for the Vintage Sniper Match. I had never shot a match in this format and frankly, neither of us had a great grasp on how to read wind. We had spent a fair amount of time worrying, strategizing, and throwing rounds down range. So, at least we had a 300 and 600 yard zero.

We had some trouble getting the seventy plus year old scope adjust elevation and the it was getting a bit stressful in the last few minutes of the sighting period. However, in the end we were able to squeak by the bronze line. Which was a nice surprise!

CBI has a nice write up on the course of fire and last years Vintage Sniper Match Click here to read it

Sunrise at Camp Perry

National Garand Match

The Garand Match was what I was hoping to do well in. Things were going well in the beginning, four tens in a row. I was on fire, well, then I burnt the house down. I was picturing that fifth ten coming up… waited…. waited… and my scorer calls for a mark. Yep, I cross-fired like a rookie. It got under my skin and I rounded it out with nines. Due to a goof up with CMP’s system my shooting buddy was down at Viale shooting the Garand match, and I didn’t want to have to explain why I didn’t make the cut. After a little pep talk from my scorer (a friend from my club) who told me I was doing fine just “Don’t F up” again, I pushed hard to make that bronze cut.

I may have only made the cut by a point, and have posted better scores in the past but it felt great to take home a medal by a hair after bumbling slow prone. This was my 4th Garand Match at Perry and it had been a goal of mine to take home a medal from this match. I’m happy to have finally made it. Maybe next year I can “not F up” and bring home one of a different color.

National Springfield Match

This is the first year I have had a Springfield to shoot in this match. I had pieced together a 03A3 from parts and CBI barrel. This rifle had performed well for me at a local match and at the range so I was excited to try her out at Perry. Rapid prone has been my nemesis with the bolt guns, HXP and my handloads have been giving me some trouble on primary extraction, so I picked up a couple of boxes of Creedmoor sports new match ammo. That stuff proved to be just the ticket for smooth and accurate rapid fire with my bolt guns. I was able to take home a Silver in the Springfield match posting what, at the time, was my personal best across wood guns!

03A3

National Vintage Military Match.

The old 1917 and I have never gotten along very well, this blog is full of posts about some terrible scores I’ve posted with this rifle. Only once in a practice session did I shoot it over the medal cut and that was probably exceeding the 80 seconds for rapid. However thanks to a great slow prone stage, a little luck, and perhaps all the trigger time I was able to wrap up “games weekend” with a bronze with the 1917!

M1 Carbine Match.

This little gun killed my streak. Well to be fair it wasn’t all the gun. I wasn’t familiar with the course of fire which put me out of my comfort zone. All stages are fired from a magazine, “slow” prone is 10 rounds in 5 minutes and off hand is 10 rounds in 10. The latter I missed during the range commands and had assumed it was five as well. That said, I still wouldn’t have made the cut even if I ended with a great off hand. This match is a walk and paste with no pit duty, so it makes for a nice easy day and a welcome break between the games events and the NTI/P100.

M1 Carbine Match

I clearly need to go back to the lab on this gun and get some trigger time. However, and I hate to type this, but it might not be worth it to put the time in on the carbine.

The Board Matches: NTI and P100

The National Trophy Individual Match (NTI), the Presidents 100 (P100) and the various team matches are the “serious matches” at Perry. I signed up for the NTI and the P100 which was a first for me. Prior to this I had never shot in a match with a true 600 yard stage. Oh boy, did I learn a few things.

I had a bumpy start to the NTI. The wind is notorious at Perry and short of the sniper match a couple of days before I had no experience reading the wind. So, after a bad wind call and swaying too much in off hand I started off the NTI with a miss. I kept it mostly in the black after that. For the P100 I did much better in off hand.

I apparently over corrected my wind for sitting during the NTI and was about a minute left. In rapid prone I was low about a minute, but otherwise had a nice group. I expected some differences with my zeros at Perry so chalk it up as learning.

Rapid Sitting

Back to the 600 yard line. As I mentioned earlier, the NTI was my first time the at 600 in competition. In the reduced matches I am pretty confident on my belly, but the wind and distance is certainly humbling. The 20 rounds of the NTI were definitely learning experiences. I tried to take what I learned in the NTI and use it in the P100 where, after losing some points on my first shot due to a bad initial wind call, I did much better.

The 600 yard line on Rodriguez

All said it was a great week. I made the SAFS points and brought home my first medals from Camp Perry. I learned a lot of lessons (some the hard way) and had a great time. After this trip to Perry I am inspired to start trying to chase some EIC points. I plan to start focusing on EIC matches and getting a bit more serious about the black rifle.

June Matches: 03A3’s First Match, Garand and High Power

Posted on June 22, 2015 by Finch

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?

Watch me dance in rapid prone

Redemption in the Poconos: Wilkes-Barre Rifle and Pistol Club Service Rifle

Posted on June 13, 2015 by Finch

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.

[Mis]Adventures in Alabama: The CMP Talladega Marksmanship Park D-Day Match.

Posted on June 7, 2015 by Finch

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.

Read about the first shot dedication match here.

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.

Pictures from the weekend:

Garand Thumb Blog

Distinguished Rifleman #2451: My experiences trying to become a better marksmen.

Category Archives: Civilian Marksmanship Program Matches

July 2015 Service Rifle and Garand Matches at KFGA

2015 National Matches at Camp Perry

June Matches: 03A3’s First Match, Garand and High Power

Redemption in the Poconos: Wilkes-Barre Rifle and Pistol Club Service Rifle

[Mis]Adventures in Alabama: The CMP Talladega Marksmanship Park D-Day Match.

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