Category Archives: Service Rifle

Summer Slump: August 600 AGG at KFGA

Posted on by

OK, it’s not that bad I just thought it would be a catchy title. Due to a conflict, I had to take a month off from the Garand Matches, but I was able to make my clubs NRA service rifle match this weekend. It was an absolutely beautiful day for shooting, high 70s sunny, with a light tail wind. It really is much nicer to shoot when the weather is comfortable.


I started off strong in off-hand, and was able to crack the 90s on the first 10 rounds. However, I had one too many 7s in the last 10. I am really starting to get comfortable with off-hand. I don’t mean to alarm anyone but it’s becoming my favorite string.  I’m doing a better job calling my shots. I knew  both of those two out of the black were trouble as soon as they left the barrel. For XTC I am working with my data book and documenting my call for each shot. Perhaps if I can call some of these before I pull the trigger I can keep more points.

I am happy with sitting. The light was changing during the string of fire. I’m blaming the vertical stringing in my otherwise nice group on that.

I still seem to be in a slump for prone. For rapid fire I was too low and pulled some rounds right. The former I am still going with the weird light at Kimberton, the latter I need to work on cutting out some of my slop in rapid.

Slow prone at Kimberton is challenge due to range conditions especially this time of year. For most of the string it was dark down range with a bright sun on the firing line. This makes seeing your shoots difficult and at least with my old eyes the halo on the front sight can get aggressive. I sooted my sight again before the stage and still had issue with the halo.

In the end I was about to squeak into the bottom end of expert class scores but not where I wanted to be to pull my scores up enough from last month’s 86% to get an expert card. There are 3 NRA matches left at KFGA and one at New Holland. I’m going to have to cram to get that last fraction of a percentage point in time to make expert by the end of the season.

New Holland NRA 800 AGG XTC

Posted on by

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!

  

July 2015 Service Rifle and Garand Matches at KFGA

Posted on by

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.

208 Rounds and 5 matches for May.

Posted on by

The Talladega Marksmaship Park Inaugural D-Day match is just next weekend. I set out to get as much trigger time as I could this weekend.

My local club allows as many re-entries as they have room for… And boy did I take advantage of that this weekend.

Fresh off the high of getting my sharpshooter card in the mail, I started out with My A2 and a NRA High Power Match this past Saturday. It was unseasonably hot and humid and the sun came in and out causing some glare issues for me to fight. Overall I did well. I was hoping to break 89% but I came just shy. My goal is to break into Expert class before the end of the season. I’ll need some practice and some luck.

20150602-210628-75988680.jpg

20150602-210629-75989821.jpg

After high power I shot in a vintage relay with my 1917. I’ve been neglecting to practice with this old rifle and it showed for sure. I had a saved round in rapid prone and a miss in off hand. I blame the saved round on my efforts to slow down with the Garand and take my time.

20150602-211208-76328515.jpg

On Sunday morning I kept the party going and brought a pile of rifles with me. My Garand, M1 Carbine and brought the 1917 back for some redemption. The weather was about the same, hot and muggy.

I shot well with the Garand I lost a few points in off hand that I shouldn’t have rushed but I squeaked by the bronze cut off.

17

There was a no show for the second relay so I was able to jump in and shoot my M1 carbine. I am still working out some kinks in both the carbine itself and how I shoot it. This gave me some good experience with the platform.

20150602-211846-76726246.jpg

To make for a long day I hung around for the third and final relay and tried for some redemption with my 1917. Dehydration and exhaustion aside I did much better. No saved rounds and no misses in off hand. This and a couple beers afterwards put a nice end to a long weekend of shooting.

I am going to continue to put as many rounds down range as I can afford in both time and money between now and Perry. The way I see it, the more trigger time I get the better prepared I will be.

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

Posted on by

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.

HPLAM

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.

20150505-135756-50276411.jpg

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!

 

20150429-071240-25960002.jpg