Category Archives: Club

Win at York Riflemen!

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Great match at York this weekend. 

Started out with my best off hand with optics. I spent more time dryfiring in Prep, 5 shots without wasting time between them. It seemed to help to get in the rhythm. 


The rest of the match went well. I made a over correction off my sighters for prone and dropped 5 out the bottom and 4 in slow prone. The slow prone 9s were all eye fatigue, I need to remember to reset when I am struggling to get a good sight picture and try again, even in prone.

My shots under all of the reduced target faces

I end up with a 773, just 3 points shy of a elusive high master score, but good enough to come in first! 

No XTC for a couple of weeks until I head off to Perry for their early ECI match in a couple of weeks.

Make it a Dirt Dance Floor Again: York Riflemen’s Spring Garand and Service Rifle Match 

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York’s spring double-header is one of my favorite matches of the year. It starts with a Garand match, followed by a NRA 50 round match. It’s a reduced 200 yard match with pits.

The Garand match was fun, I shot uncharacteristically fast in slow prone but still managed a decent score. I kept raising my zero in slow prone and then, surprise, I blew my rapid prone group out the top.
 I pulled it back in off-hand and posted an 89  which I was very happy with.

We shot a 500 agg right after the Garand Match. Still happy with myself for shooting well off-hand with the Garand I did decent with my A4 off-hand too. A few 8s in off-hand but I posted a pair of 98s in rapids and didn’t shoot a 9 in slow prone until round 13!

I manage to come in second in the 500 agg with a 484 just a point short of High Master!

Trying to Pound 7s into 10s and Randomly Spinning Knobs: First XTC matches of the year.

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Kicked off the season with three XTC matches over the past 4 weeks.

Bridgeville was first on the schedule. They shoot their first couple matches within 2 weeks of each other at the end of March and beginning of April.  March’s match went well. I shot a solid master score. My streak of consistent off-hand continued, however there was a little “extra wind” in my scope which lead me to discover my garage gunsmithing resulted in a very slight cant in my scope.

So I went back to the garage and fixed it. While its level again it took me the next two matches to square up my no wind zero… and my stubbornness.

Hmm running out of space to the right of the target.

The April match at Bridgeville, I’m not sure I’d call it a trainwreck but it wasn’t pretty. I Let myself get frustrated in off-hand and blew a 6 out the top. Turns out it helps to break the shot in the middle. Shot a 91 in that string including that 6 which is still within what I consider “good.” Of course after I played the “of only I shot a 9 or 10” Lesson learned: shoot happy.

Breezy

Blew all 4 rapid strings out the right. Including a nice tight group spanning the 9 ring in prone.

Went back to the lab again to find that extra window. I convinced myself I found it and was confident my rifle was solid and I was going to get back to fighting strength for the home opener at New Holland.


Stood up on the line confidently and opened with an 8. Long story short I determined it was me and stubbornly wouldn’t touch the knobs. I even put my rifle in the rack and reset twice. One would think I’d notice something is wrong when I visited the 5 ring to say hi.  But instead I just kept trying to hammer those 7s into 10s .

For once I noticed the problem in sitting and brought it back. Even while saving a round in sitting due to some user induced error. 

Once I got on my belly things went well. Shot a 99 – nuffin and clean 5-5 in rapids. Then went back to 600 and posted a 192 which I’m happy with. I’m feeling more comfortable in the wind but I have to work on not letting the spotter interfere with where I put the cross hairs back there.

Lots of matches on the calendar, including 4 days of back to back XTC at the creedmoor cup and a couple reduced matches. Ill think positively for now and say the zero issues are behind me but try not to forget how the knobs work.

When you’re hot you’re hot. When you’re not…

Armistice Day Match at KFGA

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It’s a tradition at my club to shoot WWI rifles at the November CMP match. 

I brought along my Rock Island 1903 and my Old Eddystone 1917. 

I shot the 1917 first. The 17 and I haven’t always gotten along. However I was able to focus on that tiny front sight due to some suprisingly good light. Slow prone went well. In both rapid and off hand I was low. I either moved the sight or changed my cheek weld but it happens. I’m happy I kept them in a group off hand. That had been an issue for me at Perry this summer.

I rarely shoot my Rock Island 1903. Not that there is anything wrong with it, in fact it’s nice to shoot as it has USMC sights and a nice smooth action. 

Anyway, excuses aside, I did okay with that old rifle. I had some trouble remembering how the windage worked and bounced back and fourth across the target in slow prone. Four MOA per 1/4 turn is a little delicate.
I haven’t been happy with my offhand with the wood guns all season, but I managed to post one of my better off hand scores with this rifle. It turns out trigger control is important!

Last Stand in Dixie: Last XTC Matches of 2016

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Ok,  I suppose Delaware is not technically Dixie but it is south of the Mason-Dixon line and Camp Butner is for sure, so close enough.

To wrap up the 2016 Service Rifle Season GTB shooting team headed to Camp Butner for the NSSC NC Championship and EIC.  The NC Championship was a 1000 agg on Saturday. It was a beautiful summer day. Well, summer for us Yankees I assume, high 70s is what they consider fall in NC. 

During the 1000 agg I cleaned 300 for the first time! 

The rest of the match was fairly lackluster including a hot mess at 600.

The EIC the next day started out soggy off hand. I worked to make a come back but couldn’t quite make it. I ended with a 469 which wasn’t awful but a good 10 points below the cut.


Looking for some redemption the next weekend I drove down to the beach for Bridgeville’s last 800 agg of the season. My new Nightfore service rifle scope had shown up while I was at Camp Butner and this was its first trial. 

The match went well and was a nice end to the season. I posted a decent high end Master score and cleaned sitting for the first time! The new scope worked very well.  I’m looking forward to putting it through its paces next season.


Don’t worry this isn’t really the end of the season, there are still a couple wood gun matches left, maybe some rimfire, and of course hunting season!