Marlin 39 Postal Match 2

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I stopped by Gander Mountain to grab a box of Green Tag for this weekend.

Man, I just couldn't do it.

You know, I make enough money to buy a Eighteen Dollar box of bullets, but I'm just not going to do it.

I refuse. These guys are asking eighteen cents a shot for green tag!

I'll shoot the match with something else.

Image012.jpg
 
I'm actually sitting on a bunch of CCI GTs but my rifle didn't show any particular fondness for them when I was shooting the magnified targets. Monday I'll try whatever I have left that I haven't tried yet. Nothing exotic but several different brands of target stuff.

DJR
 
$18 bucks - ouch. Like DJR, my Marlin and CZ are pretty indifferent to the Green Tags. I shot the match with Federal Gold Medal with good results.

Since this is an offhand contest, to what standard do we shoot? It's kinda fun to compare my offhand shooting to the Civil War sharpshooters:

The late Ned Roberts (of .257 Roberts fame) was taught to shoot by his uncle Alvaro Annis, who had been one of Berdan's Sharpshooters during the Civil War. Roberts wrote that his uncle "insisted that a good rifleman with a good rifle should be able to hit a silver dollar at 10 rods (55 yards] offhand, five times in succession." (The Breech Loading Single-Shot Rifle).

In another book (The Muzzle Loading Cap Lock Rifle), Roberts wrote: "Uncle Alvaro... frequently told me that the "real rifleman" should be able to keep his bullets in an 8-inch bull's-eye at 40 rods [220 yards] offhand shooting."
Click to expand...

Okay, it's actually kinda humiliating to compare my shooting to these guys. This standard is 2 MOA, offhand! John Wayne never shot that good.
 
JustsayMo said:
It's official. Mrs. JAG is the current NON-Magnified JW and freestyle leader!
Click to expand...

Out of how many shooters so far?

I was pretty sure my freestyle card was better. But as I learned in the last match, you never know until you measure it. I had a nice three shot triangle, quite close, and my wife had three shots on a horizontal line that had her furthest two further than any of mine. In retrospect getting the middle shot in tight helped where having a triangle pattern increased all the measurements.

Stoopid scoring system, who's bright idea was that anyway? :cuss: ;)
 
Jag,
Mrs. Jag's group edged your excellent unmagnified freestyle group by .010" using the official JAG ;):p measuring method; 1-2, 2-3, 3-1. Your group was excellent but Mrs. Jag has us all beat in both the divisions she entered. So far she's ahead of four shooters.

Making a strong showing for rookie of the match is DJR. I suspect DJR is the great grandson of Annie Oakley. His magnified groups are mighty impressive and based on the previous match results will likely be very competitive. We'll see if he can shoot with the irons as well. The cold conditions and newness of the rifle didn't seem to hinder him much.
 
So I'm sitting here, in the middle of the night, drawing little hearts on index cards, right?:D

Little Ralphie's fantasies about Black Bart have got NOTHING on on the butt whipping I'm handing out in my mind right now!:p
 
It has indeed been great fun and the good news is there is still time. Go borrow or better yet buy a 39 (you need one anyway) and you're there.

Today I'm putting heart stickers (Walmart has the perfect ones) on 3x5s in preparation for my big day tomorrow. I have nothing else on the agenda for tomorrow but shooting. I'm taking a huge thermos of coffee (so I'll be at my best) along with chili, crackers, and a back pack stove. I plan to stay all day if neccessary or until my eyes give up. Tomorrow is my unmagnified day and I have no delusions about it.

Bad news: Snowed again last night. Good news: It's melting and 35 degrees at noon.

Better get back to my preparations.

DJR
 
Good luck!

I too am not looking forward to the stark reality of shooting "John Wayne" style with open sights.

Hopefully, I can redeem myself from the bench...

About twenty years ago (OK,Thirty) I could hit small targets without support or optics.

Sadly, those days are gone.

I'll do the best I can and brag about it anyway!:D
 
Kind of a ragged hole,
but not bad for a whole box.
(Oh, wait: it's that heart that's ragged-edged.
Optical illusion.)

Best smile I've had all day. :D

Interesting tool, there. :scrutiny:
I'm guessing some kind of
new fangled wrench for lever guns ... :rolleyes:
 
Bonus Round

Frank,
Did you use Remington Bulk to form the heart before you placed it on the
3x5? It looks a little too ragged for MiniMag. Great shootin, tho', especially with a 1" sight radius. :uhoh:
TaKe CaRe
Ted
 
irons, peeps, ghost rings

I expect the unmagnified class will be dominated by the peeps (or the guys with office supplies :) but I'll be shooting the factory sights this morning. From the one time I shot it without a scope I'm pretty sure I'm going to have to drift the sight just a smidge so I've got my brass drift in my gear bag.

Woke up at 3:30 and finally got up at 4:00. It's 32 degrees right now and I'm not in too much of a rush. Good shooting light will be after 7:30 or so. I'll probably be shooting by 8:00.

I've been looking forward to this all week. Luck to you Frank and anybody else shooting today.

DJR
 
OK, it's done.

I had a GREAT time at the range.

I hung a piece of cardboard on the 25 yard rails and stapled the cards to the cardboard.

valentinesdaypostalmatch001.jpg

valentinesdaypostalmatch002.jpg

I used the target to the right of the cards to warm up, and then shot groups from the bench with both rifles.

After changing cards, I shot groups "John Wayne" from both rifles.

I shot 18 cards total, and picked the best of those.

I think I did all right, but I'm probably not going to win this one, either.

The big surprise probably isn't a big surprise to most of you.

The 1950 model with the iron sights shot better groups than the 2002 model with the 3-9 Leupold on it.

Cards on the way, Mo!
 
I'm done as well. The wheels didn't completely come off but it wasn't pretty. Somehow I packed a box of something that looked like Wildcats only to find out they were something else once I was out there.

Had on insulated underwear and wool pants, a fleece pullover under a down jacket. Was doing okay until the wind picked up. The snow was mostly gone and I set up on one of the cement benchs. Taped out 25 yards and set up a target stand. Adjusted the sights and settled in for a long day.

In the end the cold got to me. The wind finally had the range flag standing straight out and gusting. I quit a little after noon. From the looks of the cards that Frank culled I'm probably not in the running but I'm pretty happy with what I'll send in. Besides, there's no crying in the Heartbreaker Challenge.

My JW target was shot with Remington Target and my bench target was shot with Green Tags. Had a lot of fun with two minor problems. Had two FTE issues but I'm confident I know what caused it. Both occured with some Armscor stuff that came out of the box as one coagulated block. The wax seemed to have congealed in the cold. I think when I broke them up they were lopsided and lumpy with wax. Anyway, I got to figure out how to field strip the rifle.

That's it from up here. I'll mark these targets and pop them in the mail.

DJR
 
Amazing, isn't it?

If you had asked me before all this started, I would have told you that I could most likely get three shots touching from the bench at 25 yards.

Yeah, RIGHT!

I failed to do that today!
 
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