This past weekend, I participated in the TSRA long range championships, which started with a team match competition on Friday.

This was a chance for the remnants of the team that went to Connaught for the World's in 2017 to get together again and shoot a match locally.

We only had two of the 2017 shooters, but we recruited two more shooters from the club and I got to play wind coach once again. The course of fire was 3 matches at 1000 yards with 4 shooters each shooting unlimited sighters and 20 rounds for record. Each match was 132 minutes block time. That means during 2 hours, I would run all 4 shooters through with 80 shots for record and another 20-30 sighters. We got to do this 3 times.

The wind started on from the north, in our faces and there was very little discernable mirage. The wind started from 11 o'clock and just shifted all day long towards the right.

We ran into some vertical issues and I was calling wind using the flags, because of no mirage early in the morning. We expected bunny conditions, that soon turned out to be a pipe dream. The wind was switching back and forth, and quite quickly. At one point, we had to hold for quite a bit of time when my condition changed and then I lost patience and decide to plow on through and that cost us a few points. Lesson learned.

Match #2 followed immediately after the first one and the wind was shifting further right and increasing in variation and velocity. I tried to pick and choose my way through the conditions, but they were switching quickly. The mirage was out in force at hat time, and I was flipping between 5-600 yards and 900-1000 yards to try to see what it was doing. Progress was slow and we were still getting surprises.

During the third shooter's string I found a condition that I could deal with and we blasted away. I would call the shot and tell him to fire and as soon as the shot was away, I told him to load the next and get ready. As soon as the score was displayed, we would fire and reload quickly. On and on. We were able to run this one through nicely.

Then, on my last shooter we were able to start in the same condition and after 8 shots for record, it went away, brutally. I held for 30 minutes waiting for my condition to return. I was getting fidgety as the time was running out and I was growing concerned that I would have to shoot in very different conditions, with quite a bit of adjustment in the scope, the wrong way, of course. I was looking at my charts and trying to estimate the speed and direction of the wind by mirage. The flags were just going every which way, totally useless.

I told my shooter that if at 12:35 we did not have our condition, we would try to finish off the 12 shots in the conditions prevalent at that time and hope for the best.

As it turns out, at around 12:31, our condition returned and stayed put. We came to life and started blasting. Center, center, fire. Load quick and get ready. Score comes up, center center, fire. Load quick....

During this run, we were hammering the X and the 10 ring and then we got a few verticals, one 9 at 6 o'clock and later another one at 1 o'clock. I did not stop or slow down for those verticals, we kept on blasting and the next shot would be a 10 or an X and we kept going. We blasted out those 12 shots in record time and dropped just two out of all of them. When we had finished and the ECI was back in the rifle, I looked at the time, 12:35.

It was exciting, and a lot of fun.

Then came the third match. By that time, I had no idea how our scores measured up with the other teams, we had dropped an awful lot of points, even with all the brilliant shooting. Shooting is not like golf, you can't make up a shot.

So we started match #3 and I had the feeling we were simply not measuring up; there were some strong teams with great wind coaches and this was a wind coach competition, pure and simple.

During the third match, the wind was now predominantly from the right, but would switch on a dime and give back 9 cents change. It would also vary in intensity just to add another degree of difficulty.

By this time, I really wanted to redeem myself and try to make go of it. We had learned quite a bit from the prior two matches and we got going. For the next 2 hours, my right eye was glued to the ocular of the spotting scope and I watched a movie as it would display on a TV in the days prior to cable; with the waves, the crackle the vertical hold letting go and so on. I had frequent holds and we carefully picked our way through the conditions, working very hard to identify the exact condition we wanted. We started off pretty strong and then suffered a little during the second shooter's string. We did a little better during shooter's three string. By the time we got to the fourth shooter, I was tired and I was asking myself why I was doing this in the first place. This was stressful in the extreme and I felt very lonely in my chair. Shooter four was one of the founding members of the team and we had shot together for years; he's a great shooter and very quick to fire when directed to do so.

We got down to business and picked our way through the conditions. I had confidence that when I saw the shot, he would execute immediately. The wind was just going nuts at this point and the switches and letups were quick. Other teams had already finished, I think we were the last ones still shooting. We kept at it, identifying conditions here and there and making a run when possible. This time I was more cautious and stopped as soon as I detected a twitch in the mirage; not forcing that shot during the change. Caution paid off and we only dropped 5 points. Match number 3 was our best effort that day, by quite a bit.

Of course, as soon as the match was over, I was ready to do it again. It's amazing how quickly you forget the stress and loneliness when you get decent results.

The results came out later that evening by email; we only won match #3 and by quite a few points. I learned a lot on Friday and I can't wait for the next team match.

quote:

Originally posted by NikonUser:
It's amazing how quickly you forget the stress and loneliness when you get decent results.

Sort of like having a baby, eh?

Congratulations and thanks for the story.

quote:

Originally posted by sigfreund:

quote:

Originally posted by NikonUser:
It's amazing how quickly you forget the stress and loneliness when you get decent results.

Sort of like having a baby, eh?

Congratulations and thanks for the story.

That was exactly what went through my mind as I was discussing this with a teammate when the match was over.

That's why women can give birth more than once and wind coaches will go to another match.

And no, I'm not equating one with the others, just equating the concepts.