Garand and Vintage Military Matches at Camp Perry 2014: Rain Rain Go Away

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.

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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.

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Learning The Pits at York Riflemen

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:

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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. 🙂