Author Archives: Finch

August Service Rife And Garand Matches: Making progress

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First home match since Camp Perry! Shot service rifle on Saturday and JCG on Sunday. For service rifle I brought my front sight down a click, as I had been just a little high on the MR-31 targets we use for slow prone. This paid off and I gained a few points. I came 5 points from making “sharpshooter” and I had one miss in off hand. So in theory, I just need to get that last one on target and I’ll be there.

For JCG I took the hard lesson I learned about slowing down in rapid prone to heart and did better. Some sloppiness in off hand hurt my score at but all and all I’m happy with my results. Excluding Perry my scores seem to be improving it’s good to see my name in the middle of the results instead of the bottom!

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CMMG A4 22 Upper Range Report

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A couple months back I picked up a CMMG A4 22 upper. I had backordered it and frankly I had not expected it to come so soon and I was thinking about canceling it and getting an air rifle upper instead. I’m glad I didn’t!

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I hope to use it to get more practice for Highpower. I use the same lower as I do on my service rifle, so it has the same feel and Geissele trigger. Additionally, I use the same Turner 1907 sling, black dog magazines and topped off with a Rock River NM carry handle. While perhaps a little extravagant for a 22 upper but I wanted a good quality hooded sight that would feel the same as my White Oak A2.

It worked well, I ran out of daylight before I could get it in the black however I am happy with its performance. It fed and shot well, especially for 20+ year old 22 that’s been in the back of my gun safe as long as I can remember.

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2013 Camp Perry National Matches

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Early Thursday morning I took the 461 mile pilgrimage to Camp Perry for the 2013 National Matches.

This was my second time attending the matches so things made a lot more sense this time!

I shot in the morning relays this year instead of the PM relays. While it hurt to wake up so early it was a good decision. It was cooler, its done by noon so I had more time to goof off and both days we beat the afternoon showers. It was also nice to be there for colors, while I was in the pits I didn’t “see” anything but it was pretty cool to hear the countdown echo across Viale, the cannon and a live bugler. It might be corny but it got me excited for the day.

Great weather both days, only stoppage was for some low flying airplanes just before prep for slow prone. For the Garand Match we were delayed for a while waiting for the fog to burn off. I was in the pits at the time which wasn’t so bad, just lounging around drinking “pit coffee” and BSing.

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As far as my performance I made the same mistake twice in a row in rapid prone. After posting my personal best in slow prone for both rifles I rushed rapid, which is typically my best, and lost points I shouldn’t have. I learned a lesson the hard way, slow down and take your time in rapid!

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The upside is I have a good base to work with, a good rifle, a good load, and a decent position I just have to clean it up a bit. I can work with this.

Otherwise I had a great time, I can’t wait until the next match! If you are thinking about going you absolutely should check out the post below for a “step by step” on how it all works.

Camp Perry CMP Games & National Matches: How It Works

The north store was looking pretty sad when I was there. There was only 1 lonely service grade special which was gone by Friday.

I snuck a video during rapid prone. Is the line ready? The line is not ready. Skip to 3:00 for the actual shooting.


Some other pictures and highlights.

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Practice and Changes to my Slow Fire Routine

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Took my Winchester Garand and 1917 Eddystone to the range after work today for some practice. I especially wanted to fire some more of my hand loads down range just to make sure they wouldn’t give me any trouble, they worked very well. I’m still amazed how well I can shoot this rifle compared to the my Springfield. I spend so much time worrying about stance, trigger control and other “soft skills” I guess the “hardware” can improve score sometimes too.

For the 1917 I am going to use HXP because I am still having trouble cycling hand loads in it and I don’t have the time or patience to figure it out before Perry so ill just use what I know works. I found with this rifle compared to a Garand even the slightest thing wrong and my shot goes wild. So it will be important to take my time and focus on the fundamentals with every shot.

For slow fire I have been keeping the rifle on my shoulder while reloading. To look at the scope I simply rock to the left to reload I use my right hand and tuck an round into the SLED then pull back on the handle and fall back into position. This seems to help me stay in position and be a little more constant. I’m not sure how this will play out in a pit match as I “short stock” my hand gets a little fatigued after awhile.

I’m getting awful excited about Perry in a few days, hopefully the weather holds.

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July Service Rifle and Garand Matches

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I had a long weekend of matches. Starting with High Power on Saturday with my AR. I’ve made some progress each match. In the second relay I shot a JCG match with my new Winchester, I amazed myself by breaking my personal best by 12 points with a 248-1/300. All of this dispite having some mechanical trouble.

During rapid prone my trigger was not reseting after cycling. A bit of Internet research suggested this was probably the clip ejection spring. This made sense as I was using a trigger assembly I had bought because it was “correct” and marked WRA and I had one clip fail to eject all the way during practice but wrote it off. I swapped the entire trigger group out with one that was known good. This solved the problem.

On Sunday, if 4 hours of shooting in 100 degree weather wasn’t enough, I brought the Winchester back out. The new trigger group resolved the problem, but it did cost me a few points as I needed to adjust windage and elevation a couple of clicks due to the different fit. I again beat my personal best with a 251-1/300! A very good weekend for shooting. Now just to press some new reloads for Perry and sneak out a couple afternoons for practice!

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