[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:

CMP One Shot Dedication Match: Talladega Marksmanship Park

Posted on June 5, 2015 by Finch

After a long morning of travel we rolled into CMP’s Talladega Marksmanship Park just after they wrapped up the dedication. It’s a very cool place, but more on that later.

They were having a “one shot dedication match” which was one shot with one of several CMP specials. Whoever is closest to the X for the day wins a CMP special.

We later learned this was an “RSVPed guest only” event we had accidentally crashed, Whoops.

Regardless of our party crashing, It was a nice chance to check out the new targets. The real challenge is, that the rifle has an unknown zero. I took a guess that it was 6:00 based on a drawing someone had left behind at the bench and clicked it left one based on the shot of the last shooter which was a in the 8 ring at 3:00.

Well my guess was wrong when it landed nice and neatly in the 8 ring, low and an inch too far left.

The CMP special won’t be coming home with me, but it was nice to try out the fancy new equipment!

208 Rounds and 5 matches for May.

Posted on May 31, 2015 by Finch

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

The PU Mosin-Nagant Sniper

Posted on May 10, 2015 by Finch

The PU sniper has been celebrated and degraded, referred to the best and most deadly by several internet “top 10 lists.” It has starred in video games, movies, and TV shows. Now, I don’t know about best and most deadly, but GTB prefers the 1903A4. However, the Soviets had one of the best sniper programs in WW2. Rather than producing a special batch of rifles intended to be used as sniper rifles, 91/30s were pulled and tested for accuracy before leaving the factory. The most accurate ones were then set aside to be fitted with the PU scope. Generally the PU sniper has a better trigger and smoother action than the rearsenaled 91/30s common today.

The PU sniper scope, from which the PU sniper gets its name, was introduced in 1942 and had begun it’s life mainly on SVT-40 rifles. However, these rifles were found to be inaccurate and not desirable for use as a sniper rifle, due to the semi-automatic action. So the soviets began putting them on the 91/30 rifles.

This is a 1944 PU Sniper made at the Izhevsk Armory. It is equipped with a PU scope that was manufactured in 1943 from the Kazan Optical-Mechanical Factory (KOMZ). KOMZ made 4% of the total PU scope production for that year and only 7% of the total production.

Each rifle was zeroed to it’s own scope and mount at the factory. To prevent a mix up, the scope mounts had the serial number of the rifle electro-penciled on them, and the rifles had the serial number of the scope stamped on the left side of the barrel shank.

After the war, most of these rifles were refurbished as all 91/30s were, and many were fitted with different scopes or mounts. So you may see a variation of crossed out and new numbers stamped or electro-penciled for the scopes and mounts, just as most other rifles that had been refurbished in Mother Russia.

One neat thing about this rifle, and I tried to capture a decent picture showing it, is the brown paint on the fore-end. Most of them did not survive with this paint. It is said that some snipers did this to cut down on glare. Whether it was for the glare on the scope or from their opposition, I’m not sure, but a cool part of this rifles history that still survives, none the less.

We are nearing the end of the golden era for these original WWII snipers. If you having been thinking about picking up a PU sniper, I would suggest buying one soon, while they are still very affordable. We have all seen the price increases across all WWII Rifles.

When shopping for a PU sniper, always do your homework. As with anything else, there are many counterfeits. Some of which were mass produced in the late 90’s through the 2000’s by Century Arms International, using scopes made made in the Ukraine in the 90’s. These reproduction scopes are not hard to spot, after you’ve seen one. The screws in the turret will be flush with the turret on a reproduction and the originals are have a domed head that sticks slightly above the scope turrets.

Another tell tale sign for a reproduction or post war mount is machine marks. The original wartime mounts will have very rough machining marks, as seen in my photos. Reproduction and post war mounts are very smooth and look well produced, since there was a need to expedite production, due to a war. Another tell tale sign of a reproduction, as silly as it sounds, is that the leather lens cap passes through the scope mount, so it can’t fall off of the rifle. Originals will just be placed over the lenses and can be removed from the rifle altogether.

One last big thing to remember is that PU production began in 1942. It is very highly unlikely that you will see any original PU with an earlier production year than 1942. If so, its very likely a reproduction. So read up, and get out there and pick one up, before they sky rocket in price like the other original WW2 snipers.

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Eastern Games “Pearl Harbor Six Digit” Service Grade: Initial Review and Range Report

Posted on May 10, 2015 by Finch

As I mentioned in the last post, I picked up a nice 6 digit Springfield at the sales event at the CMP Eastern Games.

I picked it from two six digits that I pulled off the table due to it’s nice barrel numbers on it’s 60s barrel, and a RIA stamped stock. Luckily a friend of mine who was “only going to buy a Garand if I find something nice” was just beside me at the table and was able to give the other six digit a good home.

I suspected it was a RIA rebuild based on the stock, however, after finishing my paper work and taking it down I learned it was a springfield rebuild (SA-64), which is still great, I really like 60s rebuilds. I have another Springfield rebuild, a Winchester Field grade, which has served me well as my match rifle over the past couple years.

This rifle has an interesting assortment of parts: a milled trigger guard in a Springfield tigger group, the RIA stock I first noticed, a late IHC bolt and Front sight, and a 60s era springfield op rod.

Since IHCs were post war and struggled a bit fulfilling their contract I am speculating Springfield armory was transferred some IHCs surplus parts after the contract expired. While I have no research to back this up that makes sense to me why so many IHC parts ended up in this rebuild.

Something particularly special to me about this rifle is that it falls in the serial range for Garands built in December 1941, the same month as Pearl Harbor, and the US declaring war on the Japanese and Germany. Based on some rough math this rifle was assembled in it’s original configuration just a week or so after Pearl Harbor. While no one will ever know what, if any, service this rifle saw, it was assembled during a very emotional time for a lot of people.

Now to what really matters, the range report.

Frankly I didn’t buy this rifle to be a shooter, which is a little out of character for me. As mentioned above I was looking for a six digit and I liked that it was a 60s rebuild. I took it out to the range get a rough zero and do a function test and I was pleasantly surprised. The CMP tag says ME = 1+ TE =2 which are pretty solid numbers. My gauge says it’s just under 2 which coincides with CMPs description.

After some haphazard chasing a single round to get a zero, it grouped very nicely with surplus HXP ammo.

The trigger guard could use a peen job to tighten up the lugs and the stock needs some linseed oil, but this rifle turned out to be an “out of the box games match rifle” which was a very pleasant surprise. After Camp Perry I will take her to a local match and see what she can do.