Just a quick post with a couple videos from the Camp Perry Pits
The Rapid Fire Prone stage from the Garand Match
Slow fire prone…. sped up
Vidoe shot from the Rodriguez Pits on July 19, 2014
Author Archives: Finch
CMP International Harvester Service Grade Range Report
I was lucky enough to get a IHC from CMP back in June. Here is a quick range report, it shoots pretty dispite its Muzzle and Throat erosion numbers, how loose the gas tube is, and the jerk behind the trigger. I’m very happy with it. Plus now I can take this picture of all 4 manufactures of the M1 Garand ![10431530_734765289906669_8652228661072381725_n[1]](http://garandthumb.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/10431530_734765289906669_8652228661072381725_n1.jpg)
July ’14 Garand Match
Freshly back from Camp Perry, I went to my club’s monthly Garand Match. I skipped the Service Rifle Match the day before thanks to US Airways delaying my flight the night before. I felt a little weird call off from a match, I felt more guilty than calling off for work. It was warm and a little overcast on Sunday but a good day for shooting. While it’s probably an excuse, my Garand was just stripped down and reassembled after a good soaking at Camp Perry so it may not have been “settled into the wood” just yet. 
That said, I had a decent match, I dropped some 7s in slow prone, which I am blaming on the freshly reassembled rifle. I did have a miss in off hand, that I beat my self up about a bit. However, I took a look at some of my stats, and I do seem to be making some progress in off hand. I need to keep working on off hand, more dry firing, and more time with my 22. 
Garand and Vintage Military Matches at Camp Perry 2014: Rain Rain Go Away
During my Pre-dawn drive to Camp Perry for the Garand and Vintage Military Matches I checked the weather 4 times. Each time it was different.
Earlier in the week TWC was calling for a high of 79 and a 10% chance of rain. Somewhere things took a down hill turn as it was raining as I arrived at Perry.
I shot on Rodriguez for the first time, and it was nice not having to walk so far in the AM. I was lucky enough to get assigned to Rodriguez for JCG in the AM and Vintage in the PM so I didn’t have to take the shooter shuttle between ranges.
I shot first in the Garand Match, it was raining steadily in all 3 strings of fire. It was challenging to keep a good sight picture with everything so wet, I stopped several times in slow prone to blow water out if my rear aperture. I was happy with my shooting under the conditions but I had a miss in off hand which will give me nightmares for the next 12 months.
I had a clip get hung up on the reload in rapid, luckily I had a back up clip ready to go and tossed the bad clip and was able to reload and finish the string with plenty of time. I don’t typically keep an extra clip loaded for rapid but I will from now on.
The rain stopped in time for pit duty, Afterwards, there was a bit of a break while we waited for the Viale crew to wrap up and work their way over to Rodriguez. Leaving plenty of time to squad and get through the t-shirt line. I took the break to try and dry off some of myself and gear.
After the break I shot first again with my 1917. We haven’t always gotten along very well but we put our problems behind us. I was happy with my performance, could have done better in off hand, as always.
I again had trouble on the reload in rapid. I bumbled the loading from the stripper clip, I thought for sure I was going to run out of time, but I recovered and got them all on target even if the last couple did rush their way into the 7 ring.
After that it was off to the pits and home. Unfortunately I had to travel for work Sunday night so I hauled out of the gates of Perry and drove as far as I could keep my eyes open which was Pittsburgh.
Stripping wet rifles down in an airport hotel room is perfectly normal right?
Despite the rain I had a great time and met some great people. I got to spend some time with the guys from my club, which is always nice, and learned some new things. Next year I want to try and shoot more events, Springfield with my hopefully soon to be complete 03A3, and more of the “black rifle” events.
Small Arms Firing School at Camp Perry 2014
This year at Camp Perry, I attended Small Arms Firing School (SAFS). I’ve been working on off hand but I have been in desperate need of some more coaching so this was a perfect opportunity for me.
It’s a three day event. Well, sort of, the first day is just registration. There is only one registration day for SAFS and there are no same day registrations. Since there were almost 500 folks in SAFS the welcome center was busy when I rolled in around 10, after a leisurely breakfast, so get there early.
It took me around 2 hours to get all the way processed and buy some t-shirts at the CMP store.
Day two starts at the theater at 7. It was an unusually crisp morning for High Power week at Camp Perry.
After some review of the features of the M16, line and pit commands the USAMU went over some basics of marksmanship. I took several pages of notes it was good stuff.
At this point the class broke into 2 groups “beginner” and “advanced” the advanced group stayed in the theater for more classroom instruction i left with the beginner class. We gathered our stuff and took the long walk down Viale to the 200 yard assembly line. There was time to gather my gear from my truck which I had parked near Rodriguez, however there were some folks that had trouble getting to the line in time after retrieving their gear from the barracks. I would recommend either covering and parking your stuff outside the theater or, keeping it in your vehicle between the theater and Viale.
Once on the line, we were broken up into firing points and every 2 firing points had a coach. We then spent a couple hours dry firing, working on our positions and generally getting advice from our coach. I got a lot of value out of this, and I made some changes to my off hand position so I feel a bit more stable.
Some time around noon the rest of the group joined us and we went into live fire practice. Just like a “regular” match we broke up into 4 relays two of us went to the pits 2 stayed to shoot and score. I went to the pits first.
We each shot 10 rounds slow prone, 10 rapid sitting, 10 off hand. No sighters but no scores were recorded. I took this chance to try “center mass” hold which USAMU seemed to be pushing hard. My coach however preferred 6:00 hold. I decided to stick with 6:00 at least for the rest of the season.
We wrapped up around 4:30 which gave me time to spend some money on the row, again.
Day three is the “M16 EIC” match which is a proper CMP EIC match with a slightly different course of fire, 5 sighters and 10 shots slow prone, 10 rapid prone, 10 rapid sitting, 10 off hand. all fired at 200 yards. Everyone must use the issued CMP Rock River match rifle and the issued web sling, Shooters can use their other shooting gear, coats, gloves, mags, and lucky shooting hats.
I must have learned something, as I beat my best pretty significantly. While I didn’t make points, a couple of guys from my club did on their first trip to Perry, which was very cool.
It was a great experience, and I learned a lot. I have been trying to remind myself to “focus on the front sight control the trigger and breath” with every shot. While pretty basic it helps. Anyone looking to improve their marksmanship regardless of skill or experience level would benefit from SAFS, I highly recommend it, I intend to keep coming back until I can make points.
