quote:

I bought a pair of Mechanix gloves on your recommendation.

Good luck!!!

RMD

That is very encouraging news about the autotrickler. What do you use to start the process, a dipper, powder throw or something else?

Also what tweezers do you use? Something long? I have been using a metal spoon that I bent but sometimes it seems to get a static charge that really presents a challenge in removing 1 or 2 kernels.

Henryrifle

I use a 1/2 tsp measure I took from a set of measuring spoons I bought at the grocery store. I will be meeting with Adam at Connaught next month, and I'm sure he will have his new device to show; the autothrow.

http://www.autotrickler.com/

He wants $200 for the autothrow upgrade.

As for my tweezers, it's a pair made of plastic with a curve at the end. I don't remember where I got it. If anything I think I got it with a scale I had earlier, the GM250.

Like you, I have an aversion to using metal instruments to pick up powder sticks. I would think any cheap plastic tweezers would do the trick.

Searching... I can report that a plastic spoon is terrible.

I have a preorder in with Adam. for he autothrow/autotrickler combo.

Plastic spoon would be bad. Any plastic tweezers should work fine. You're only adding or removing a kernel or two.

Eight days away now. Are you on the road headed up to Ottawa? Good luck in the competition!

May your aim be true, your wind calls accurate and your Xs plentiful.

Henryrifle

Not yet. I leave Texas on Friday and will get to Ottawa on Sunday. Monday is check-in and squadded practice. Competition in FCNC starts in earnest on Tuesday morning.

I think I have everything ready, just need to start packing the SUV on Thursday for an early departure on Friday.

Thanks for the kind wishes, I am really looking forward to this.

Bring a jacket. Ottawa will be a temperature shock in the mornings to a guy from Texas.


Good luck and have fun.


It looks like your drive might take you through Indianapolis. I highly doubt the timeframe will work out precisely but if you come up I-65 on your way to Indianapolis and it is after 5pm I will cook you an excellent ribeye.

quote:

Originally posted by IndianaBoy:
Bring a jacket. Ottawa will be a temperature shock in the mornings to a guy from Texas.


Good luck and have fun.


It looks like your drive might take you through Indianapolis. I highly doubt the timeframe will work out precisely but if you come up I-65 on your way to Indianapolis and it is after 5pm I will cook you an excellent ribeye.

Yeah, we're all looking forward to the cooler weather up there. It's been quite warm here in Texas.

I truly appreciate the very kind offer, and it's very tempting, but I must decline. I will be coming up I-65 but turning right onto I-71 at Louisville on my way to Rochester for the night on Saturday and that would be around 11:00AM or some such.

I've spent quite a bit of time in Indianapolis between 2006 and 2011. I did a massive project at a company called HHGregg. Super nice people and it's a great town. A good friend of mine just relocated there from Texas for his job. He's on the US F-Open Rifle team and it will be great seeing him in Ottawa.

Thanks again for the kind offer and the wishes.

Good luck!

The championship concludes today--looking forward to an update....

Henryrifle

Been trying to ind updates online, only the individual score have been posted on Accurateshooter.com


RMD

Took third overall in F-TR team competition. Team is celebrating.

That sounds pretty amazing. Looking forward to hearing details.

Henryrifle

http://www.dcra.ca/results/2017/CFRC/a876.htm

It will have to wait a bit. Long road home.

Outstanding!! Congratulation!

RMD

Congrats! That's quite an achievement.

By 4 points, and you out-X'd both the 1st and 2nd place teams. Nice shooting!

No, you are looking at F-Open. We shot F-TR, or as they call it at ICFRA, F-F. We are Team Bayou, a team made up of members of a single shooting club, competing at World level.

I just blew my anonymity on this site, but that was me coaching the team, I do not have a score next to my name. We had a spare shooter who helped us a great deal during the match even though he was not shooting.

Our V-count was low compared to the others as I played it somewhat safe on many calls because of the fast twitchy wind. We beat out some very solid, well-known and well-organized teams.

We're just a podunk group of club shooters who had a great time and a lot of luck. I will also say that I am very proud of my shooters, all of them, they are SOLID; it was an honor to call the wind for such a great group of guys.

I have all sorts of stories to tell. This match was, in a word, epic.

Let me first explain the course of fire so you can follow the stories properly.

The team matches were over three days. The first day was team practice at 700meter, 800m and 900m. The actual competition was spread over two days, Wednesday and Thursday and on each day we fired 4 shooters at 700meters in the morning then 800 meters and subsequently 900 meters in the afternoon.

At each distance we had 85 minutes to have all 4 shooters shoot 2 convertible sighter shots and then 15 shots for record. So a maximum of 68 shots at each of the three distances two days in a row.

A convertible sighter is when you fire your two sighters and if you like the results, you can convert both or the second one only for score. You cannot convert the first one by itself. So, if your first sighter is a 5 and your second sighter is a V, you can elect to convert both to score and your next shot will be the third one for record and you only need 13 more shots.

The target is the same of the NRA F-Class target in dimensions, but the values are different; the X-ring is a V-bull, the 10-ring is a 5, the 9-ring is a 4, the 8-ring is a 3, the 7-ring, (the last black one is a 2 and all the white is a 1, whereas on the NRA target there is a white ring for 6 and the remainder of the target is 5.

When the competitors are called to the line, they have 15 minutes of preparation time to set up for the match.

As the wind coach, I would be first on the firing point setting my chair and tripod right behind the target marker. Then I would have shooter 1 set up on my left and shooter 2 set up on my right. They would get their equipment ready. On the first match of each day, we would have a 4 minute blow off period to bring the guns to temperature and foul the cleaned rifles. For that we would have shooters 3 and 4 set up just outside shooters 1 and 2, and then would then remove their equipment after the blow off.

Next the range commands would be spoken and the targets would appear to start the match.

At that point, I would start my clock.

Prior to the first shot, I would make a guess at the windage required on the scope and would then direct shooter 1 to adjust the riflescope accordingly. Then the shooter would take position and wait for my commands.

The litany would be like this:

Me: "Target xx, color; shooter ready."
Shooter would line up on the proper target, confirm and then close the bolt. No reply needed if all is correct. If the shooter has an issue, he would tell me "not ready," and work on getting ready.

Once I hear or detect the bolt closure, I start feeing corrections to the shooter:


"2 right... 2 right... 2 and a half right..." The number is actually the number of rings from center V. So two right would mean the shooter has his reticle on the 10-ring line separating from the 9-ring. We have variants for just inside, just outside the ring and further refinements. If I want a center shot, I would say "Zero... Zero..."

Once I am satisfied with my call and I think the conditions will hold steady for 3-4 seconds, I would then either repeat the final correction or just say "fire." Lots of other teams like to say "send it." We're different and unique.

When I say "fire" the shooter needs to press the trigger as quickly as possible the very best he can. If he takes more than a few seconds, I my call "hold" if I detect a change. All the shooters will fire within a second or two.

They then report back to me if their final hold is different than from what I requested. This is very critical for me.

We also deal with elevation issues on the target, we have an entire jargon for that and so on.

One a shooter has fired his 15 record shots, I transfer my attention to the next shooter. I will tell him what to put on the riflescope and then we start our shooting.

Conditions at long range change all the time. I may call a hold, sometimes for many minutes, before resuming. My longest hold was 25 minutes and the Nationals 2 years ago. When something that sizable occurs, I allow the shooter to pull the bolt and lie in his back or whatever as I keep studying the line.

When we restart, we go back through our commands. Sometimes when conditions change and do not seem to want to come back I can elect to shoot a pilot, which is a sighter from a later shooter. I have stories on that that. Of couree, there are no pilots for the fourth shooter, no life-lines.

One all 4 shooters have fired their 15 shots for record, we pack up and vacate the line and then drag our equipment to the next firing line and do it al over again.

So, over the course of 2 days, each shooter fires a maximum of 102 shots, and I direct 408 shots on the target.

Shooting team is a lot of fun for the shooters because they just shoot where I tell them to shoot. They are responsible for the up and down (elevation,) I am responsible for the right and left placement (windage.) I will also assit on the elevation.

We also have a second set of eyes on the conditions, feeding me information from other indicators and recommending more of a push, less of a push or hold if something changes that I have not seen yet. We have the 4th shooter plot the shots as they appear on target and also confirm with the scorer that the shots are properly recorded. We have had more than one occasion where the scorer misses a shot or records the wrong value. We also keep score of our shots for comparison purposes. If the plotter detects that we are always low, he sill suggest we raise the scope to get more points. But it's also great to know the various prior impacts if I get lost.

We also have yet another member go score for another team. It's a busy affair.

By the end of the day, I usually have a headache from concentrating so long especially in the sun and conditions and it's just draining but it's a lot of fun.

I think this pretty much explains how the firing proceeds.