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.