Leaving a miss hanging: Camp Perry 2016

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I like to joke that I have good shooting weekends and bad shooting weekends rarly “mediocre” well, boy did that theroy prove true at Camp Perry this year!

The calendar was “back to normal” this year and the week started out with the Presidents 100 and the NTI.

I had never really planned on making the P100 and was hoping to warm up for the NTI. Short of a depressing off hand score The match went ok. My 300 yard zero came in about 1/4 high which I noted in my book for the NTI the next day. 

I was relay 1 for the NTI. I was up first at 200. Off hand then right into sitting. Well the match was more or less over for me after that. I had some time to regroup before moving back to 300 and 600 where I did better but not good enough to make the cut.

Vintage sniper we tried something new at 300, my buddies No. 4 t sniper. This turned out to not be the best idea we ever had as we shotgunss that 300 yard target with 303. That said this was probaly the most fun I had a match in a while as the pressure was off moving back to 600. A break I needed after the NTI!

Bolt guns were up next. My 03A3 is my favorite rifle to shoot. I built it from parts around a real nice CBI barrel. She did not let me down as I took home my one and only medal from Perry 2016 in this match! 

The old 1917 and I have only recently started to get along and we more or less did in the prone stages. There was an Incedent involving the pits “missing” then “finding” one of my shots in rapid but they worked it out. I had been trying a reduced rear sight on this rifle which turned out to be a disaster in off hand. With the glare I could hardly see the front sight, which was reflected in my score.

After a long rough week  was the Garand match. We waited around for several hours waiting for the USCG to fish a dead body out of the impact area. I took this chance to BS with the York Riflemen cre and take a nap in the shade of my shooting cart. It was nice. 

There was a monster system developing and headed our way when I laid down on the line. I shot below my average in slow prone but made up for it in rapid. 

Off hand, well I haven’t shot the Garand a lot this year, boy did it show. In my fragile mental state I managed to follow up a 7 with a 0 by bottoming out the sight. Posted another egg before I realized the issue. Got her back on target… On the target next to me and left a cross fire miss hanging in the pits as the clock ran out on my fifth trip to the National Matches!

Fleet Week 2016

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I hauled down to Quantico Virgina for “Fleet Week” which is a week long shooting event hosted by the Navy at the USMC base there. 

I shot in a 500 agg on Monday. It was the EIC course except with sighters in each stage. It was a perfect day mid 60s and sunny. The Navy shoot straight though with just one pit change which I liked. I was in the pits first. Even with a perfect Hail Mary 12:00 scratch 5 in sitting  I managed to beat my personal best for the EIC course! 

  
Tuesday was the EIC match. It was just an awful wet morning so the Navy postponed the match untill 11 which turned out to be perfect. By the time we were ready to shoot it was sunny and in the mid sixties.

Things went well at 200 but thats where it stopped. Moving back to 300 we had a lenththy “the line is not ready” and some how I managed to knock my safety on. I figured it out but the Hail Mary from the day before was still fresh in my mind so I rushed my way into a terrible score.

I remained optimistic as I moved back to 600. EIC is like baking a cake, it’s settled untill the last shot is fired. The wind was howling and my wind call was a little off, I made what I thought was a perfect correction right into the 5 ring. I assumed the wind changed and corrected again, right off the target. It turns out the windage knobs on the VXR scope turn the opposite direction of the A2 knobs. Learned that one the hard way.

In the end no points for me but I took some lumps early in the season and hopefully I can learn from them going forward. I’ll be back next year for sure the Navy runs a good match!

Quick AAR: First Across The Course Match With Optics

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  Took my shiny new, optics equipped service rifle down to Quantico for fleet week to give it a work out.

Some quick observations. I am using the VXR 1-4 with a SPR-G reticle.

1. My zeros were 100% and my windage changes went where I expected.

2. The back berm is where it mattered the most. Today was just me vs the wind. As opposed to me vs my eyes. When the math was right the shot went where it should. Best of all after the string my eyes didn’t hurt.

2. I like the dot. There has been a lot of speculation on the right reticle. At least for me it doesn’t seem to matter. I put the green dot in the middle of the black dot and squeaze.

3. Hold off. There was some crazy shifting wind at 600 today. I was able to hold off when I could see the conditions changing.  In theory this can be done with irons but it seemed much simpler to me with optics. With the light conditions I could just make out some of the scoring rings and was able to slice up the black for windage in a pinch.

4. Seeing the spotter. This one is minor but I’ve been using the rifle scope to see my last shot instead of my Konus. Shoot #1 > load > see shot #1 > make needed changes >take shot #2 > plot shot #1. While a little goofy at first this way, I am able to use the time the target is down to plot my shot in my score book. 

Bottom line: I like it. For me it seems to make a difference and be worth any trade offs at least for now. I posted a 458/500 which is my best EIC so far, even with a Hail Mary in sitting.

Let’s see what I say after tomorrow’s match  as they are calling for rain! 

Pre-Season Practice Match at New Holland: New Personal Best 

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New Holland Rifle and Pistol Club runs a series of monthly matches they call “shoot and scoot” in the off-season. Work had caused me to miss the first couple and the February match was moved inside due to single digit temperatures. But I finally made it out to the last one this weekend.

It was a beautiful March day sunny and in the 50s.


We shot a reduced “SAFS course of fire” which is 10 rounds each stage, slow prone rapid prone, rapid sitting, off-hand. I brought the new Optics equipped A4 service rifle to give it a full work out.

I wasn’t super happy with my rapid prone or my off-hand, but when I got home and did the math, I beat my personal best by 3% which is a statistically  significant difference  from my scores last year. Of course there are a lot of things at play here so it’s not good science to say the rifle is the cause. I have been working with my SCATT trainer in the off-season and i have never shot a reduced match at this range. The lighting and conditions here are just perfect which contributed to a good score.

A little story about off-hand, My first 3 shots were in the white, a pair of 8s and a shameful 7. I took a little break, told my self to put them all in the center of the target shuffled my NPA and then some how didn’t leave the black again. Sometimes all it takes is reminding yourself to shoot the middle of the target.



Snowmageddon: 2016 Freezer Match

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I’ve been tinkering with a new optics equip service rifle for the 2016 season for around a month now. While I’ve been playing with it at the range a bit and have been dry firing with SCATT the past couple weeks, I have been anxious to finally try it out in a match.

My club, Kimberton Fish and Game,  has an annual “any rifle” freezer match in January. It’s a 40 round off-hand charity match, with a raffle, prizes, and best of all, chili.  Course of fire was 10x10x10x10 with 2 sighters and a brief break for scoring before each 20. It was a beautiful day for January. There was still over a foot of snow on the ground but it was down right warm in the high forties.

I shot about my typical off-hand posting a 356/400 and coming in 6th over all. Not so bad, however, I was hoping to do a little better with the scope and with the practice I’ve been putting in with SCATT. My shooting buddy did very well besting me by 10 points and coming in 4th with his A2. Don’t write off the A4 just yet, it’s a rare day if I beat him on our feet.

A2 vs A4

Observations on optics.

Since this was the first time on the line with this rifle I noticed a few differences. While a 4x scope does not make one a better shooter, it sure make shooting more comfortable, specifically less eye strain and a faster sight picture. With a nice clear view of the target it is much easier to see the “wobble” and call shots. Long-term this should be a valuable tool for improvement.

We brought some new shooters with us to this match. One brought his FAL and the other, a 1917. There were a few other odd rifles on the line, some good old A2s and a couple of folks trying out their A4s for the upcoming season.

A couple more practice matches and then the Eastern Games will be here soon!

Right arm chicken wing of the free world