Yesterday I was at the range from 8:30 in the morning until about 4 in the evening. I started with me leaving the house at 7:30 after 4 hours of sleep to attend a CMP clinic at my club.
The weather was perfect and we had a great turn out. I think there were 16 shooters. The ones who made the largest impression on me were a father who brought his 10 year old son, and 12 and 14 year old daughters to shoot the match. They all shot AR-15's and shot on both Saturday and Sunday.
This was the first match for all of them, and one of the first times shooting for the kids, and they all shot very well. The match director said he noticed significant improvement in the girl's shooting from the first day to the second. I caught a glimpse of one of the girls' score sheets and she was within two points of my own score, and just barely missed meeting a U.S. Army qualifying score.
Personally, I had only a so-so match. I was shooting a Select Grade CMP Garand that I got about a year ago but haven't fired yet. I got good zero pretty quickly, and the off hand went ok, but as soon as we switched from single loading to clip loading in the rapid fire stages, I had problems. I couldn't get the clip to lock up in the receiver and the bolt to go forward. At first I thought it was only because I was loading two rounds in the clip for the first part of the rapid fire string. I finally got the two rounds loaded, but the bolt went over the top round without stripping it into the chamber, so I had the work the action again to chamber the round. This happened each time I had to load only two rounds in the rapid sitting and rapid prone.
It was even worse with the full 8 round clips. I just couldn't get the clip to seat, and when it did bottom out in the receiver and the bolt was released, the bolt wouldn't go forward with enough force to strip and chamber the top round. When I was only oading two rounds, at least I could get the bolt to go over the rounds and then work the action again to chamber the round. That would't work with the full clip because that top round HAS to go into the chamber. Because of this, I had one or two saved rounds in the rapid fire sitting string and five or so saved rounds in the rapid prone. Since it was only a clinic, and not a match, they ran the target back up for me, but it was embarrasing and I was flustered by then and more or less wasted the rounds, with the majority going into the five and six rings. Like I said, this was the first time I fired this particular rifle and there's nothing like a match to find the bugs. I know what gun I will NOT be taking to Camp Perry.
I redemmed myself slightly in the slow fire, 82 and 86. I've shot better slow fire scores, but they were respectable for me and I was able to call my shots pretty well. It wasn't the best showing I've ever made, and was actually one of the worst, but I don't feel that bad about it. I've had a long shooting layoff, especially rifles, and I need to get ahead of the curve again. I had a good time and really enjoyed watching the kids shoot. That was one of the most encouraging things I've seen in quite awhile.
After the clinic, my day wasn't nearly over. The rest is in General Handguns under "My wife picks a gun."
The weather was perfect and we had a great turn out. I think there were 16 shooters. The ones who made the largest impression on me were a father who brought his 10 year old son, and 12 and 14 year old daughters to shoot the match. They all shot AR-15's and shot on both Saturday and Sunday.
This was the first match for all of them, and one of the first times shooting for the kids, and they all shot very well. The match director said he noticed significant improvement in the girl's shooting from the first day to the second. I caught a glimpse of one of the girls' score sheets and she was within two points of my own score, and just barely missed meeting a U.S. Army qualifying score.
Personally, I had only a so-so match. I was shooting a Select Grade CMP Garand that I got about a year ago but haven't fired yet. I got good zero pretty quickly, and the off hand went ok, but as soon as we switched from single loading to clip loading in the rapid fire stages, I had problems. I couldn't get the clip to lock up in the receiver and the bolt to go forward. At first I thought it was only because I was loading two rounds in the clip for the first part of the rapid fire string. I finally got the two rounds loaded, but the bolt went over the top round without stripping it into the chamber, so I had the work the action again to chamber the round. This happened each time I had to load only two rounds in the rapid sitting and rapid prone.
It was even worse with the full 8 round clips. I just couldn't get the clip to seat, and when it did bottom out in the receiver and the bolt was released, the bolt wouldn't go forward with enough force to strip and chamber the top round. When I was only oading two rounds, at least I could get the bolt to go over the rounds and then work the action again to chamber the round. That would't work with the full clip because that top round HAS to go into the chamber. Because of this, I had one or two saved rounds in the rapid fire sitting string and five or so saved rounds in the rapid prone. Since it was only a clinic, and not a match, they ran the target back up for me, but it was embarrasing and I was flustered by then and more or less wasted the rounds, with the majority going into the five and six rings. Like I said, this was the first time I fired this particular rifle and there's nothing like a match to find the bugs. I know what gun I will NOT be taking to Camp Perry.
I redemmed myself slightly in the slow fire, 82 and 86. I've shot better slow fire scores, but they were respectable for me and I was able to call my shots pretty well. It wasn't the best showing I've ever made, and was actually one of the worst, but I don't feel that bad about it. I've had a long shooting layoff, especially rifles, and I need to get ahead of the curve again. I had a good time and really enjoyed watching the kids shoot. That was one of the most encouraging things I've seen in quite awhile.
After the clinic, my day wasn't nearly over. The rest is in General Handguns under "My wife picks a gun."
