Category Archives: NRA High Power

First Matches of the 2014 season

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It was a beautiful weekend to kick off the 2014 season. Low 60s, sunny and calm.

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Saturday I took the A2 out for high power. I got a little sloppy in off hand but I was otherwise happy with my performance. I’ve been working on trigger control and breathing that seems to be helping especially in rapid.

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Early Sunday morning I drove across the river to shoot in York Riflemen’s spring Garand match. I spent the first couple relays in the pits.

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After the pit change I shot well in both prone stages. This was my first match with the John Weller sling I picked up at Camp Perry this year. I should have spent more time slinging up with it in my jacket before taking it out, as I had to “de sling” and adjust it a bit longer but since we had a block time (prep and shooting lumped together) I finished with plenty of time.

I made good use of both my timer and my score book in this match. It’s much easier to use a score book with pit service. Trying to find the holes through the scope for our walk and paste matches at KFGA can be frustrating.

Oh off hand, I really need to step up my focus on this stage. After shooting some of the best prone stages I’ve ever shot I the. Proceeded to blow it in off hand. My candid reaction to my off hand scores as recorded by my GoPro.

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Clinic at York Riflemen

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I took a trip out to York Riiflemen for an informal Service Rifle clinic. It was really perfect timing for me, as I’ve only shot 6 Service Rifle matches with my A2, and frankly, I haven’t spent a lot of time practicing with it.

It was a beautiful sunny and warm (50s) day with almost a foot of lingering snow on the range and lots of mud.

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One of the coaches went over a some tips on off hand. Take your time, and remember to focus on trigger pull, be consistent, avoid target panic.

We had a 20 minute block of time to work on off hand, I took a few shots prone to get a 200 yard zero (+6 1/4.) I tried out a change to my off hand position, resting the mag in my palm. I got some good advice from the coaches and feel a bit better about off hand.

After off hand we did a couple of strings of rapid sitting, which was great, because I have neglected practicing this position. I have some things to work on there too. You’ll see some of them in this video.

I’m going to keep recording my shooting and watching it afterwards. It’s been enlightening to see what I’m really doing compared to what I think I’m doing.

I picked up a few things to work on.

1. Stop dancing around in off hand (still)
2. Remember to breath
3. Always stage the trigger even in off hand

Additionally I’ll try and step up the dry firing off hand in my shooting jacket, I’ve been getting a little lazy keeping my elbow on my side.

It was a great clinic and should give me a good base to build on for the season. I’ll be back in April for their Garand match.

The view from the pit during rapid sitting:

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Shot sharpshooter, October garand match and data books.

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It was a beautiful fall weekend here in PA for shooting. Bright and sunny, in the mid 50s and the leaves are at their peak of color!

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Saturday was NRA high power with my A2. I surprised myself by shooting an 88% which was the first time I shot over the Sharpshooter threshold (84%) while I still have to maintain an 84% average over 240 rounds if I can get an 85 in the April match I should make the cut. At least according to my math. I have several months to practice before April roles around, I better get to work.

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As far as the Garand match I did better (232/300) than my showing at York earlier in the month but I have yet to beat the fi score I had when I first took this rifle out (252/300). Had some cramping in my support hand which resulted in me canting the rifle a bit which hurt my prone scores but I think I did ok. I’ll see if I can find a little better hand position for the next match. I’m also going to replace the turner sling that has been on my rifle for several years now with a John Weller sling I picked up at Camp Perry and see if it helps.

In off hand I broke one before I should, into the left corner of the target which was a bad start to the string. But, I kept them on target for the rest of the the match.

This weekend’s matches were also the first where I attempted to use data books. The results were varied but I think I will keep it up. For Highpower it’s very difficult to see the .223 holes so for walk and paste I will probably snap a picture of the pattern and document it after the match. For the Garand match it is easier to see the holes so I was able to document the shots in slow fire. At least until I dropped my pen in off hand! I think its valuable info to gather especially to track windage and elevation changes across matches. I use a creedmoor book for service rifle and a custom impact book for JCG. Once I have a little more experience with the books I’ll write a full review.

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Next month is our armistice day match so ill be taking the 1917 out.

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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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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