Category Archives: New Holland Rifle and Pistol Club

What Off Season? First Matches of 2017

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This year I’ve been telling myself “there is no off-season.” Last year at this time I was shaking down my new rifle and trying to remember the things I learned in 2015.

This year I’ve been attending my clubs indoor rimfire league, pulling the team score down shooting kneeling on my feet.  

This month, I found a bit of time to attend some walk and paste matches to get my fix of high power.

 

The first of which being a 500 agg at New Holland where, after borrowing some ammo from the club (long story), both my shooting buddy and I posted our first High Master Scores! I came in 3rd for service rifle with a 485-14 in a three-way X count tiebreaker. Lots of good scores that day and a record turn out for the club.

The next weekend we headed out to Langhorne for their “outlaw” walk and paste. Another 500 agg in NRA format, I couldn’t top my 485 from the weekend before, but I was able to post a 481 which I am plenty happy with. I’m felling a little more confident in slow fire, posting a 91 and 198 on both ends. All of my off-hand shots went where I called them and the 9s slow prone were shot 1 and 2 where I knobbed my way right past the X. I cleaned the second string.


I have a lot of XTC scheduled for May and lots to do before then. Including squaring up my zeroes on my new scope and piles of brass to load!

Leg Points at New Holland!

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New Holland typically runs a generally well attended CMP EIC Match in April, but this year the weather just wouldn’t cooperate. Heavy rain the first try and then snow on the rain day cancelled the match twice! But  finally in July the weather worked out.

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While I still consider Kimberton my “home club” I am a member of New Holland Rifle and Pistol and spend a fair bit of time there practicing.

It was hot and humid again, but slightly cooler than it had been during the week.

There was a “P100” format match first to help everyone verify their zeros and get those 7s out of their system. Boy did I have some 7s to get out. I opened with my worst off-hand ever with the A4. Not one but two 7s and a few 8s to boot to total a gross 82. I mostly blame trying to work with a bad patch of ground fighting a downward slope.

The rest of the P100 went better. I made a nice group rapid prone at 300 and noted its poor placement in the 9 ring, which I corrected for the next match. Out back at 600 I posted a 96. My 600 come ups were predictable as I have spent plenty of time on that back berm practicing and my Leupold tracked right to where it should.


After turning in our score cards and grabbing a cold drink from the truck it was back to 200 to do it again for a 50 round CMP national match course, this time for points.

Remembering my struggle with slope I found a better piece of dirt to make my stand this time and posted a 93 off-hand! I got a little frustrated circling the 10 but I kept them in the black.

CMP rules require firing sitting from standing which can be its own special challenge. I borrowed a trick I learned from the Internet and parked my shooting cart behind me which I use to help me stand up in a less dramatic fashion. These methods helped me keep both feet in the same spot. When I was a bit larger, I was only keeping my right foot in the same place which made re-locating my NPA a challenge. I managed to keep most of the shots in the middle and posted a 97 in sitting.

Back to 300 for rapid prone I posted another 97, this one I worked a little harder for with an 8 low right, my “go to” spot if I goof up my breathing.
Spent some time in the pits after 300 nervously looking over my data book and feeling out where others stood.

Kirby says “way to go”

Back at 600 my wind call and elevation were right on and first shot was a 10. I wasn’t super happy with my position but assumed I could make it work. Turns out I was wrong, and pulled a 6:00 seven. I started seeing flashes of screwing up my nice short line scores with a hot mess out back. I took a minute to reset and worked my way back into the 10 where I stayed for all but two rounds for the rest of the string.

Out Back

Posted a 479 in the end. I knew there was a 480 to beat, and 3 legs to give out. So, I was nervous as the match director added up the final results. I managed to come in second for my first points since Small Arms Firing School at Perry in 2015, just less than one year since my first Across the Course match!

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My shooting buddy managed to take the last leg, which we like to call “the foot” so “GTB shooting team” had a good day!

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NJ State Championship and New Holland: 168 Rounds in One Weekend

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In my excitement after shooting the NTI and P100 at Perry, I signed up for a series of  late season XTC and EIC Matches. This weekend I scheduled an aggressive line up: a NRA 800 Agg at New Holland, a match behind enemy lines in NJ for a Governors 10 Match (P100 format), and a EIC match right after. These were also the first matches with my new White Oak A4 sporting a Geissele MK7, but more on that later.

New Holland 800 AGG

It was a beautiful almost fall day for the NRA match at New Holland . Off-hand went well. I don’t mean to jinx it but I’ve been hitting the low 90s pretty consistently now in with the black rifle. While this is no high master score, its a big improvement from where I was last year (70s).

Sitting went well. The first string I was a little low. Turned out my “come ups” were a little off from practice. Two more clicks fixed it for the second string. Well mostly fixed it.  I let the rifle slip during one of the shots and shot a “96 the hard way”, 9 in the 10 and 1 in the 6 ring. Whoops.

Rapid Prone was better than it had been for me in the last 800 Agg. I need to focus on slowing down a bit. At the next match I am going to start using my timer.

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Back on 600 again I creeped up a bit. I am weakest on the 600 yard berm and I need to work on that.  In the Garand games matches I used to think I was pretty good in prone shooting but the 600 has been humbling.

In the Pit

In the Pit

NJ State Championships and EIC match at Cumberland Riflemen 

At 3 am the next morning the alarm went off and I drug myself out of bed and headed behind enemy lines for a long day of shooting in NJ.

First was a Governors ten match which is a “presidents course”  thirty rounds: 10 off-hand, 10 rapid prone, followed by 10 slow prone. It was a good chance to check my zeros. I ended up bringing my off-hand zero to the same 8 clicks as my sitting zero and brought my rapid prone zero up another click.

The wind was whipping to my 8:00 for the 600 yard stage. I ended up with two minutes of left wind by the end of the stage. Since I was using this as practice I didn’t take any wind on my first shot just to try to learn how to handle conditions like that.

600

EIC Match

The EIC match started immediately after the Governors match and things were running a little late so we skipped the brief break and got right to it. I was able to crack 90 in off-hand with a little luck. I dropped a couple of 8s and then spent some time surrounding the 10 before I found the middle.

 

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Sitting went well. l I had a bit of a windage issue in the Governors match but corrected for it in the EIC. I slowed down a bit in rapid prone but still bounced a little. Back on the 600, the wind had stalled out. I did better, or at least good enough. I still need to work on the back 20.

In the end I made my goal which was to crack the 450 line, which is the cut for CMP’s EIC achievement pin. It was a great match and Cumberland Rifleman is a nice club. This was probably the most fun I have ever had in New Jersey. Next weekend I am off to Maryland’s State Championship and EIC match to get back at it!  Just in time to avoid the Philadelphia area “popemageddon.‬” 

 

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New Holland NRA 800 AGG XTC

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After Perry I decided it was time to start getting a little more serious about the black rifle. I’ve signed up for 3 CMP EIC matches in September and this NRA match.

It was seasonably warm, clear, and sunny with just occasional light wind. A great day for shooting.

I started in the pits with relays 3&4. Relays 1&2 shot off hand and the rapid stages first. 

  

Then we did a pit change and moved to the 200 yard line for off hand and sitting. I had trouble finding the 10 ring in off hand. The first string I ciricled it in the 9 ring before I finally located it in the 10th shot, it was in the middle. In the end I did ok in off hand, nothing spectacular but I didn’t screw anything up so I’ll consider that a win. 

After my shooting buddy shot his off hand stage I moved back to the firing line and shot sitting. I learned durring the sighting shots that I needed a couple more clicks of elevation. Lights up sights up! 

Sitting went  well but I still need to tighten it up a bit. We packed up after sitting and moved back to the 300 yard line for rapid prone. 

I’m a bit disappointed in my prone performance in this match. I  like rapid prone it’s a familar distance, and a comfortable  position for me and I should have been able to post a nice score. But I struggled in the first stage with a sloppy group and a low zero,  while I tightened up my group in the second stage I had not come up, or left, up as far as I needed to.

We hauled back to the 600 yard line and shot first. Fatigue was starting to set in and I was haveing some focus issues that cost me too many points. I also let my eye stain and a problem in the pits get into my head, which hurt the last 10 rounds   I should be stronger on my belly  at 600 especially when there was no wind and it’s a berm I’ve spent plenty time practicing on.

  

Post match changes 

Since this match I’ve installed a .072 front sight post to try and prevent the focus issues I had last weekend from happening again. 

  

I took it out after work and I am happy with the change. It is definitely easier to focus on. I briefly installed a .42 rear aperture instead of the .38 but, I didn’t like it any better so, after cleaning it good, I put the .38 back on. 

The .38 rear sight and the .072 front sight post seem to be a winning combination for me. I’ve been playing with using a blinder over my left  eye to cut down on the spasms my eye has when it’s over stressed, this I am not yet sold on but I’m will to try it out for a match and see. This weekend I am back at Kimberton for a NRA 600 AGG, hopefully some of these changes help!