On a whim I signed up to shoot the vintage rifle and Garand match at the CMP games at Camp Perry this year. While I have shot many “shoot and paste” matches, I have never shot at a range that uses pits and had no idea how it worked.
To rectify this I signed up for York Riflemen‘s annual JCG match
I did two rotations in the pit. It took me some time to get into the rhythm but all and all it’s not so bad.
How it works
In slow fire you raise the target watch the impact area on the berm. When your shooter fires you pull the target down. Place the spotting disk in the hole. Place the scoring indicator in the correct place. Patch the old hole if there is one.
Raise the target frame. Repeat as needed. Remember to have the right paster ready and put the spotting disks flipped so that they contrast the target (i.e. white on black)
The new 2012 slow fire score signal locations:
On the other side of the line the scorer is sitting behind the shooter recording the scores and calling them out for the shooter (i.e. “first sigher is a miss”…well in my case).
For rapid its a bit less stressful. In the pit you raise the target. Count the impacts. After time is up take the target down put golf tees in the holes, Hang a chalk board on the target, tally up the scores (i.e. x=6 10=4). Then raise the target and the scorer notes them.
As far as my performance in the match….well I got a 203/300 which could have been better. But, for my first pit match at 200 yards in a cold rain, I’ll take it. The folks at York Riflemen are great to
shoot with I hope to be back next year.
In off-topic news it was fun to stay in a hotel with a 70 year old rifle. 🙂
