I took my double lugger out to the range for the "Modern Military" match yesterday, as well as my LRB with a Satern 5R with a Bassett and a 3-9x scope for the "Vintage Sniper" match.


The guy who hosted me last week loaned me his Sig 3-9x40 scope for the match. I only have one 3-9 but it's a 50mm, so I couldn't use it. I wanted to use my Leupold VX-3i but it was 3.5-10 x40 and was just out of the magnification range allowed. I'm barrelling his M1A right now and when it's done, the Bassett and Sig scope will go on his rifle. In the meantime, he invited me out for some vintage sniper fun.

I didn't have a shooting jacket, but he happened to have a spare that was too big for him. I tried it on and it actually fit pretty good. So at least I had a shooting jacket. No torso straps though.

The range is about an hour and forty-five minutes from my house. I got up at 4am and left the house by 5am. I did not get much sleep at all. Maybe four and a half hours.

There was a fair amount of M1's and M14's on the line.




I started out with the double-lugger, shooting irons. The match was all at 200 yards. 10 rounds slow-prone, 10 rounds rapid-prone, 10 rounds standing. I did fairly well on the slow-prone, scoring 99-3x. I gotta admit, I was pissed to have dropped that one point! I shot 125 grain TNT's for all three strings (44.0 grains of IMR-4895).


The next round was rapid and I shot a 94-2x. I need to work on prone...


And the one we all dread... AWFULHAND! I blew it hard on this stage. A pathetic 69. Honestly, I was tired and just wanted to get it over with. I blew this stage really fast and was probably the first one done.


Moving on to the sniper match, I did fairly well! Since it was my first time shooting there, I didn't have a team partner so they found a partner for me. I shot blemished 168 Nosler CC's for the 300 yard line (42.8 grains of 4064) and blemished 175 Nosler CC's for the 600 yard line (43 grains of RL-15).

I cleaned the target at 300 with 4 X's!


My first shot at 600 was a 7 but I only dropped 2 rounds in the 9-ring after that. The rest were all 10's and X's. scored a 95-3x.


Out of 22 shooters for the vintage sniper match, I came in 5th and finished with a 195-7x. My team member shot a 142-0x, so as a result, we placed third from last out of 11 teams.


I don't know how I placed in the modern military match. I did meet some cool guys there and hopefully one of the better shooters would like to invite me to be on their team next time instead of going in blind.

I'll be ordering a shooting coat soon from Creedmoor.

Tony.

Looks like you had a great time and shot pretty darn well! I haven't shot a Garand match in years and couldn't hit a barn wall from the inside while standing, and I didn't! I did pretty well prone even shooting my Smith Corona 03-A3. Getting older and with the eye sight going, and with the other associated ailments I am sure I wouldn't do well at all, but it would still be fun. Unfortunately when the body was able the wallet wasn't. Now that I own 5 Garands including 3 CMP Specials, essentially brand new rifles, the body is the limiting factor.

Hopefully you had enough of a good time to pursue it.

Tony - Email inbound re: shooting coat

Congratulations!!

Nice shooting.

I haven’t shot a CMP match in well over 15 years. They were a lot of fun.

So we got an email from the club. I made "Individual Excellence, Category B" for the vintage sniper match!

Individual Excellence, Category B
.........300.....................600.......................Aggregate

Cody....100-6................Cody...100-4................Cody...200-10
Tony....100-4................Bill...96-2.................Tony...195-7
Charlie.97-1.................Tony...95-3.................Bill...192-6


Happy dance!

That is some very nice shooting!

'Honestly, I was tired and just wanted to get it over with.'

I remember that all too frequent feeling when we finally got to the kneeling stage in 3P.

Just an update; I got a call from another shooter yesterday. He wants to team up with me for the next match! The next match is in a month. Time to do more prep!

Tony.

Which range?

quote:

Originally posted by RichardC:
Which range?

Port Malabar.

quote:

Originally posted by sprg03-A3:
Looks like you had a great time and shot pretty darn well! I haven't shot a Garand match in years and couldn't hit a barn wall from the inside while standing, and I didn't! I did pretty well prone even shooting my Smith Corona 03-A3. Getting older and with the eye sight going, and with the other associated ailments I am sure I wouldn't do well at all, but it would still be fun. Unfortunately when the body was able the wallet wasn't. Now that I own 5 Garands including 3 CMP Specials, essentially brand new rifles, the body is the limiting factor.

Hopefully you had enough of a good time to pursue it.

i feel your pain, literally

used to be a short range Expert , now , after a long period of not being able to shoot, I have been getting back into it and struggling,

old eyes (thankfully, the scopes help) and aches and pains (knees going ) do not help,

still fun tho

quote:

Originally posted by benny6:
Just an update; I got a call from another shooter yesterday. He wants to team up with me for the next match! The next match is in a month. Time to do more prep!

Tony.

get a jacket, (did not look like you had one) and a decent sling/glove,

find a place in the house, shop or garage you can dry fire and do so,
place a dot on the wall, appropiate size for a consistent sight pic, and dry fire a few times a week (if not every day)

it will help, but remember it needs to be good practice, not bad practice,

an air rifle in the back yard will also help in offhand, with the appropriate sized targets