Bridgeville July 800 Agg: Shooting Master Scores

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The National Matches are just around the corner! I go to Delaware fairly frequently in the summer, for surf fishing, but this weekend I left the Rod at home and brought my service rifle down for an NRA 800 agg.

The weather was hot and the air thick with humidity. We ran two relays and scored in the pits. Which can be a bit tricky but the match runs fast.

I started out strong shooting “fast and angry” off-hand. Posting a 186.


I’ve been working on sitting and it seems to be paying off as I posted a nice pair of 99s. I seem to have a habit of pulling one low right when I forget to breathe.

Back to 300 I dropped 3 points in rapid prone I was happy with my groups. I Made a windage change between strings but couldn’t keep all 10 in the 10 ring in the second string.

Back at 600 I came close to my personal best and posted a pair of 96s for a 192!

The 8:00 8 was a sighter the 12:00 eight was pulse, heat, and fatigue late in the second string.

I managed to post a nice score on the high-end of Master keeping my streak going!

Thanks to some advice from others at York a few matches back I made some changes to my sling and now pull it almost all the way into my armpit. This has really been working nice as the sling doesn’t fall down my arm mid string and stays nice and tight.

Running to Camp Perry!

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  I hate when bloggers start post with “sorry it’s been awhile”mostly because I’m snobby. I am, however, behind on  posting but It’s because I’ve been busy shooting!

After I got back from Talladega I was determined to dial it up a bit and shot as many full course matches as I could!

First weekend back I went to Wilkes Barre to shoot a reduced 200 yard National Match walk and paste. After posting some not so hot scores at Talladega I turned around and posted my personal best at this match!

The next weekend I drove down to Cumberland Maryland to shoot a full course NRA 800 agg. I kept the streak going and shot my first master level score across the course! Just one point less than my high at York the month before! 

The next weekend I had two days of reduced course matches at Kimberton and York. Well that kill my steak, bleading points allmost every stage. 


Went back to the lab a bit shot on my scatt a little and practice with my m44 training rifle. Then hauled back to Ft Hill looking for some redemption. Well, it wasn’t a great day in the hollar. I let a mistake in rapid prone get in my head which cost me in the end. 


I hit the range after work this week and applied some new things I’ve picked up along the way this month and I feel optimistic I can kick the slump. 

Just 2 more weekends before the National Matches! I’m focusing on service rifle this year, my poor Garand has only fired once this month! I’m not going to let up yet. I’m packing the next couple weekends with an 800 agg, a 3×600 and a EIC at New Holland!

2016 D-Day Match at CMP Talladgea Marksmanship Park 

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We had so much fun at the inaugural D-Day match at  Talladega last year we flew back down. This time for both the Garand match and the EIC.

It really is a great range to shoot at. This time around there was less fanfare as the range had been open for a year. The Friday before we were about to check our zeroes and get a little practice on Range 1.

Saturday was the Garand match, I did really well in prone. However that’s where it stopped, as I seem to have forgotten how  to offhand with the Garand.

My  buddy remembered how to do all three stages right and brought himself home a gold medal! Most impressively he shot a 98 in rapid prone after his clip latch gave out and ejected his eight round clip about five rounds too soon.

On the upside I didn’t leave empty-handed as my name was picked to win a nice DuPage stock. I’m going use this for a match grade garand with a heavy barrel.


Sunday was EIC. Which was what we came down to Alabama to shoot.

I was a little soggy office and dropped more points than normal in rapid. However I was able to post one of my better 600 yards scores and beat my personal EIC best by one point. While that was not good enough for points I’m happy with my score, I’m making progress in learning some things.

CMP put on a great event. A games match and an EIC the same weekend really make the trip worthwhile and without pit duty an entire EIC match takes less than an hour. Which leaves lots of time for relaxing afterwards!

Electronic Targets: reliable but not infallible.


There was some drama last year around the KTS targets. It was much less of an issue this year. While there were several challenges, only in one case that I am aware of did the shooter win.

The new rules for electronic targets seem a bit harsh to me. If a shooter challenges and loses they will lose 3 points as opposed to the typical cash fee. I am in the “pro electronic target” camp but let’s be honest they are not infallible and risking 3 points is an awful hard choice to make with no information other then your shot calls.

Personally I’d like to see CMP back off on this one and apply the same challenge rules that have applied to paper targets for years to electronic targets.
PS If anyone from CMP reads this my wife would like me to ask if maybe next year you could sell hotdogs and snacks durring the day 🙂

Win at York Riflemen

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I had a long weekend of shooting on the books but the weather did not cooperate. The EIC and the 3×600 matches at New Holland  were canceled and so was the walk and paste at Kimberton.  The show still goes on at York Riflemen, so I hauled across the River for their 800 agg.

gunsup

It was overcast with a bit of fog but the rain stayed light.  There were two relays so we scored in the pits. I was up first.

I have been shooting fast in off-hand lately and its been working for me. I shot 22 rounds off-hand in around 12 minutes and posted a 185. A seven I did not call surprised me a bit, in reviewing the video i should keep an eye on my follow though.

Rapids went well. I shot fast again in sitting, on purpose. I’ve been trying to strike a balance between pacing fast enough to have enough time to establish NPA after dropping into position for CMP matches, and not spraying all the rings of the target with wild shots.

Sitting

I took my time in rapid prone and made a pretty nice group. A little to the right next time.


Slow prone went well enough that I was surprised to learn turn I came in first! This means a fair bit to me as I’ve been shooting a couple times a year at York for a few years now, I have learned a lot from the shooters there.

With some luck this might be the score I needed to get a new classification card. We will see what the NRA has to say in a couple of weeks!

Movin’ on up: Matches at New Holland, Kimberton and York

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In the run up to the CMP eastern games I shot a series of matches over two weekends.

First the season opener NRA 800 Agg at New Holland.


With the exception of a saved round in sitting due to a round that turned out to have some moisture in it, this turned out to be a great match for me. I shot slightly better than my average which should have been enough to earn an expert card!

Kimberton NRA and Garand Matches.

Back at my home club for the first NRA service rifle match of the year. This was my first match at this club with my new 2016 service rifle. It is a reduced course 100 yard 600 agg on a dark range which really gives the scope an advantage as it’s easier to see. I posted my first master scores and I was most proud of a pair of 99s I posted in slow prone on that tricky MR-31 target.


York Rifleman Spring Garand Match and 500 agg. 

Despite all the travel games I’ve been to York Rifleman’s Garand matches are some of my favorite.

I have been to every garand match at York since 2012 and I’m happy to report I finally made the medal cut. It was a close one due to a bad LC round (At least that’s my excuse) but it felt good to break the York curse!