Louisiana Highpower Championship

[Blackfork]

Next weekend September 23-24 at Ft Polk. Match Rifle and Service Rifle State Championship. 500 yard range. CMP sanctioned LEG match on Sunday.
contact JTexada@cox-internet.com

This is an old military range still in use by National Guard. No cover. Concrete pits with double target carriers. 500 yard berm is the longest range. Worth shooting if you have never shot there.

[Blackfork]

Got the ammo in the truck for two people, both LR 80s and across the course 69s. All the same case and every load weighed. Range book is filled out and on the clipboard. Mags are loaded. Bag is packed. Sling and sights are set for the 200 yard standing portion. I have some rubber buttplates for an AR to give away that I bought at Camp Perry. Just attending to details and waiting for Burke to get here from Dallas.

Need to do a little mapquesting so that I will have exact maps.

My goal is to WIN the match Saturday and Sunday. The Louisiana Service Rifle Championship and Match Rifle Championship are combined with a winner being named in both catagories. I'm shooting Service Rifle, but would like to beat the Match Rifle score in the aggregate. Mostly, that means shooting 95 or better standing. It's an 80 round match. I think 785 would win it. The LEG match on Sunday is just shot for score since I am already Distinguished, but I would like a score that would land in the top 100 scores that the CMP records every year.

Failing winning overall, I intend to shoot well at every opportunity and win some phases of the match. Failing that I intend to keep biting and scratching and competeing no matter what wheels fall off.

But the goal is to win the matches. Will post on Monday to report how it came out. Last time I was there in 2003 I won both.

Ft Polk is where my brother went to basic training in 1967 before going to Vietnam. They trained with M14s. He probably shot on this range.

[Blackfork]

Checked the weather to see temp and wind direction. Added rain gear beyond what's normally on the cart.

Food bag packed with slow-burning stuff. Apricots. Apple bars. Power bars. Raw food bars.

Tossed in two Distinguished pins bought at Camp Perry in case someone LEGs out on Sunday.

Tossed in seven rubber AR buttplates which I bought used at the Armalite store on Commercial Row at Camp Perry. Good shooters have them. They stick to your shooting jacket better. Service Rifle legal. Hard to find unless you do find them, then they are ten cents each. Great give-away.

Printed maps. Truck gassed with 2.12 regular gas.

Rifle clean, in case, sights and sling set for 200 yard line, mags loaded.

Extraneous stuff out of truck. We will be searched at Ft Polk gate. No pistols on range.

[Blackfork]

Of course, with all this logical preparation, to say nothing of my steely nerves and deep zen-like calm...nothing would do except to go down and shoot the first relay at 200 standing like an absolute old blind woman. I shot eights just out of the black. Wandering nines, a couple of tens and ended up at 184Xwith ONE X.

I'd though about eight points and three Xs higher. Game over.

Nope.

Well, since I had already paid my money, I might as well go on...and I did notice that nobody else had shot very well. One real champion had also shot a 184. The top score standing was a 189. Zen mode: OFF. Biting and scratching mode: ON.

So we sat down and I shot a very scattered 197X4 for the two sitting rapid strings. Again, nobody was shooting way better and a couple of people in competition shot worse.

At 300 prone rapid I had an absolute disaster. I shot a 98 and a 96 for a 194X5...but the guy I thought would win had a case separation and then saved a round in his alibi string. (Tubb gun in 6XTC)

Hmmmm. I did notice I had gone from eight points behind one of the leaders to one point ahead of him by the time we left the 300.

At 500, (all Ft Polk has), I shot a 199X7 to finish at 774X17. (so much for 785....) I figured third overall and a shot at top Service Rifle....maybe. But it turned out 774 beat the top match rifle by ONE point.

Second in the EIC match today for a silver. I'm distinguished in 2003.

So...that's how I stole the Louisiana Highpower Rifle Championship with my little old AR15 assault rifle. They gave me an acrylic bookend that says it, so it must be true. I'm going to put it with the other one I won in 2003.

[Quintin Likely]

That's some hard gunnin'. Congratulations. :cool:

[Borg]

Congrats,, good shootin'
Was it windy there today? Switchy?
I couldn't make it(work Sats),, I did shoot a personal best OH in a match today at Temple, with winds switchy and gusting up to about 13-15 mph,, a 195 4X,, it's amazing what the right sized jacket will do for your OH.
Maybe we'll meet up at Wolters if you go.
Borg

[Blackfork]

I'll be at Ft. Wolters. I've already gotten a "so what?" from the Texas Match Director. He's right. We have nearly 80 folks signed up for the Mineral Wells shoot.

Happy to have the trophy from Ft Polk, but it was mostly other folks bad luck. 774 isn't going to get a shrug from the winners at Ft Wolters.

We've had LEG matches at Panola where a 484.....wouldn't get points. They went to people with 486, 487, and 489.

Going to have to buy my own cup of coffee this morning. Still grinning though.

[Blackfork]

That's a nice range at Temple and 195 is about as good as a shooter gets. Great shooting.

The wind was steady Saturday at Ft Polk, though I did wait for the flag to flip over to the same side of the pole before shooting. On Sunday if FELT dead calm, but there was about 3/4 of a minute drift to the right with some switches. I shot a 193x9 and never felt very comfortable.

[Dave P]

Way to go, Blacky - very nice scores (except offhand - but who am I to complain!)!

Dave

[Borg]

Blackfork
I picked through that box at Perry,, got 10 also.
They all were "dead" (smooth and hard) rubber, so took 120 grit sandpaper and sanded it on flat and worked the curves,, then slopped brake fluid on for a hr,, cleaned it up and the rubber came back to life and really grips the shoulder now.
Borg