Kicked off the season with three XTC matches over the past 4 weeks.

Bridgeville was first on the schedule. They shoot their first couple matches within 2 weeks of each other at the end of March and beginning of April.  March’s match went well. I shot a solid master score. My streak of consistent off-hand continued, however there was a little “extra wind” in my scope which lead me to discover my garage gunsmithing resulted in a very slight cant in my scope.

So I went back to the garage and fixed it. While its level again it took me the next two matches to square up my no wind zero… and my stubbornness.

Hmm running out of space to the right of the target.

The April match at Bridgeville, I’m not sure I’d call it a trainwreck but it wasn’t pretty. I Let myself get frustrated in off-hand and blew a 6 out the top. Turns out it helps to break the shot in the middle. Shot a 91 in that string including that 6 which is still within what I consider “good.” Of course after I played the “of only I shot a 9 or 10” Lesson learned: shoot happy.

Breezy

Blew all 4 rapid strings out the right. Including a nice tight group spanning the 9 ring in prone.

Went back to the lab again to find that extra window. I convinced myself I found it and was confident my rifle was solid and I was going to get back to fighting strength for the home opener at New Holland.

Stood up on the line confidently and opened with an 8. Long story short I determined it was me and stubbornly wouldn’t touch the knobs. I even put my rifle in the rack and reset twice. One would think I’d notice something is wrong when I visited the 5 ring to say hi.  But instead I just kept trying to hammer those 7s into 10s .

For once I noticed the problem in sitting and brought it back. Even while saving a round in sitting due to some user induced error. 

Once I got on my belly things went well. Shot a 99 – nuffin and clean 5-5 in rapids. Then went back to 600 and posted a 192 which I’m happy with. I’m feeling more comfortable in the wind but I have to work on not letting the spotter interfere with where I put the cross hairs back there.

Lots of matches on the calendar, including 4 days of back to back XTC at the creedmoor cup and a couple reduced matches. Ill think positively for now and say the zero issues are behind me but try not to forget how the knobs work.

When you’re hot you’re hot. When you’re not…