Author Archives: Finch

York Riflemen 2014 Fall Garand Match

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I took a trip across the river to York Riflemen, one of my favorite places to shoot, for their fall Garand Match.

It was raining  when I pulled in but by the time we headed to the pits the ran stopped and by the off hand string of the first relay it was in the mid 60’s with the sun was shining. There were only enough shooters for two relays so we “scored in the pits”.  I had never done  this before. This initially gave me some anxiety but, after some advice from my fellow shooters, it turned out to be not so hard. Run the target down, score paste, and run it up like normal. Then Grab your clipboard and write down the shooters score,  with any luck before your shooter takes their next shot.

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After a round in the pits it was my turn to shoot.  The weather had significantly improved by the time I was all strapped in for slow prone. I am happy to report that I beat my personal best entirely due to off hand. I had been in a bit of a slump with the Garand the past few matches, especially on off hand. I had an “ah ha” moment while dry firing this week. I was not leaning back nor to the right (away from the line) as much as I had been  Note in first picture there is way too much space between my side and my support arm.

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In this match, with the position I had practiced, I was able to get my support arm tighter against my side. This gave me a more stable position. While I still have some other things to work on I think this was good breakthrough.

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This old picture that has been floating around the internet for some time gives a good visual of what I’m talking about. Why he is barefoot I don’t know, GTB recommends you wear a sturdy pair of boots when shooting.

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It was a great match and I am glad I made it out. I’ll be back for thier spring Garand Match in April and plan to stay for their spring NRA match.

Slow Prone:

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Thanks to Adam for the picture.

Your Favorite WWI Bolt Action

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Leveraging the Laws of Thermodynamics to Remove a Stuck Barrel Nut

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I picked up a nice free float rail from ALG defense, so I needed to take the barrel off of my Palmetto State Armory (PSA) mock dissipator. Sounds easy right? Well not so much. Using my improvised upper clamshell and multi-tool I couldn’t even budge it. I managed to lift my workbench slightly off of floor in the process. This was pretty impressive as my workbench is a couple hundred pounds and screwed to studs in two walls.

The front sight was canted so I knew it was probably over torqued but it was worse than I expected.

After a few more tries and a can of liquid wrench, I gave up and ordered a torque bar and a heavy long handled PRI barrel wrench.

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http://www.brownells.com/gunsmith-tools-supplies/rifle-tools/barrel-tools/ar-15-m16-308-ar-barrel-extension-torque-tools-prod27452.aspx

http://www.brownells.com/gunsmith-tools-supplies/rifle-tools/wrenches/ar-15-m16-ar-10-barrel-nut-wrench-prod27412.aspx

Even with the new tools ,the barrel nut wouldn’t budge. Before I broke out the saw I thought I’d give a trick I read about a try. Science suggests steel (the barrel nut) contracts less than aluminum (the receiver) when frozen. So I tossed the whole upper in the freezer overnight with the jäger and my wife’s homemade Popsicles.

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Luckily that was just enough to break the nut free and was able to move on to installing my ALG rail, which was much easier.

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If I were to do it again I would have ordered the more expensive geissele reaction rod as it has nice flats built into it. The flats would make it a little easier to work with.

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September ’14 High Power and Garand Matches

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Except for an afternoon with my 22 upper, I have not shot a match with my AR since Small Arms Firing School at Camp Perry back in July. So I made sure to dry fire a bit before this weekend’s match.

Saturday was NRA high power. It was beautiful outside. Sunny, low 70’s just a little breeze from time to time. I took my time in off hand and kept them all on target. I loosened up a bit in sitting. I should have taken more time to establish a good natural point of aim, which hurt me a bit. I made it up some in rapid prone. I really tried to leverage the clock and took my time in slow prone, which helped. I’m happy to say I did pretty well for once. Applying what I learned in Small Arms Firing school and a little luck paid off.

 

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Sunday was the Garand match another beautiful day, unseasonably warm for September. I didn’t have the same luck as I did on Saturday. I struggled in prone with a bad position and according to the video playback I could have kept a better cheek weld.

I am off to York Riflemen next week for their fall Garand match. I’m looking forward to and have kept my rifle next to my desk to get in as much dry firing as I can this week. If all goes well I’ll take my time in off hand and keep focused on a natural point of aim, trigger control and breathing.

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Co-Witness: Absolute or Lower 1/3

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The internet is full of speculation as to what the “best” co-witness is for your red dot and iron sights.  Frankly there is no right answer, you have to decide what works best for what you are trying to do with your rifle.

First of all what is co-witness? Sights should always be co-witnessed, which means that the iron sights and the dot are zeroed at the same distance. Zero the irons, zero the dot  and they should both point at the same place. The decision point is in determining if you prefer Absolute Co-witness or Lower 1/3. The choice really comes down to what optic mount height you chose,  the irons will stay the same height.

Lower 1/3 Co-witness is just like it sounds, the iron sights (specifically the front sight) will be in the lower 1/3 of the optic. The idea behind this is the shooter can look over or flip down the rear sight and have a “less cluttered view” but, more on that later.

 

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Absolute Co-Witness means the front sight is in the middle of the optic. The idea here is cheek weld is the same for both sighting methods. This is the method I prefer. As you can see below it is not as cluttered as some suggest.

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I’ve gone a step further than most with absolute co-witness.  As I am a believer in marksmanship with iron sights, I use a fixed rear sight in conjunction with an Aimpoint T1. I’m not a tactical trainer, but I like being able to keep my head in the same place to use both.

The LMT rear sight allows me to use the irons to shoot known distances using the elevation knob and the red dot allows me to acquire targets faster and shoot from weird positions. Best of both worlds in my humble opinion.

There are some things the shooter will need to “be smart” about with this set up.

1. For taking quick shot, use the dot. Don’t try and line up the irons.

2. Focus on the target if using the dot, focus on the front sight if using the irons.

3. Use the 0-2 aperture once the zero has been established, the smaller aperture is too slow for quick target acquisition. If there is time to dial in a known distance, there is time to flip the aperture to the small side.

 

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Larue Tactical offers two very nice Aimpoint Micro mounts: the LT751 (absolute) and LT660 (lower 1/3). Both are solid mounts and they have a nice quick detach leaver and repeatable zero. See the mounts here.

They have an interesting picture that they use to try to make the case that with an absolute co-witness, part of the target will be blocked.  Compared to the pictures above I’m not sure that is an honest description. The eye should be close enough to the rear sight that it is almost entirely blurred out especially with the 0-2 aperture. Even with the shooters’ head all the way at the rear of the stock, the sight will not block the target as pictured below.

In my opinion, it all boils down to the user knowing when to line up the irons and when to rely on the red dot.

 

 

Picture linked from this thread http://beta.ar15.com/archive/topic.html?b=3&f=18&t=542595