The 2020 Season
The Scores
| Date | Location | Standing | Sitting | Rapid Prone |
Slow Prone |
Aggregate | |
| June 7 | Bonfield | 191-4 | 199-10 | 200-11 | 197-7 | 787-32 | 98.4% |
| June 9 | Bonfield | 189-6 | 199-9 | 199-7 | 200-9 | 787-31 | 99.2% |
| June 16 | Bonfield | 192-3 | 200-10 | 200-9 | 200-11 | 792-33 | 99.0% |
| June 23 | Bonfield | 188-6 | 197-8 | 200-10 | 199-13 | 784-37 | 98.0% |
| June 27 | Milan | 189-6 | 198-12 | 199-7 | 199-12 | 785-37 | 98.1% |
| June 28 | Milan | 93-3 | 98-3 | 98-1 | 198-11 | 487-18 | 97.4% |
| June 30 | Bonfield | 198-7 | 200-11 | 198-7 | 199-13 | 795-38 | 99.4% |
| July 4 | Bonfield | 198-5 | 200-13 | 200-11 | 200-15 | 798-44 | 99.8% |
| July 7 | Bonfield | 195-8 | 200-9 | 199-7 | 196-10 | 790-34 | 98.8% |
| July 11 | Bonfield | 199-9 | 200-9 | 200-11 | 200-11 | 799-40 | 99.9% |
| July 12 | Bonfield | 195-3 | 200-9 | 200-12 | 198-13 | 793-37 | 99.1% |
| July 14 | Bonfield | 193-8 | 200-14 | 199-10 | 199-11 | 791-43 | 98.9% |
| July 25 | Bonfield | 197-6 | 200-13 | 200-7 | 198-15 | 795-41 | 99.4% |
| July 28 | Bonfield | 195-7 | 200-14 | 198-10 | 199-12 | 792-43 | 99.0% |
| August 4 | Bonfield | 195-9 | 199-7 | 199-10 | 198-14 | 791-40 | 98.9% |
| August 11 | Bonfield | 197-5 | 194-9 | 200-8 | 199-14 | 790-36 | 98.8% |
| August 16 | Bonfield | 192-5 | 200-11 | 200-10 | 197-9 | 789-35 | 98.6% |
| August 18 | Bonfield | 193-5 | 200-12 | 198-7 | 200-13 | 791-37 | 98.9% |
| August 25 | Bonfield | 195-5 | 200-15 | 200-14 | 200-7 | 795-41 | 99.4% |
| August 29 | Marshall | 193-4 | 200-13 | - | 198-10 | 591-27 | 98.5% |
| August 30 | Marshall | 96-1 | - | 100-5 | 97-4 | 293-10 | 97.7% |
| August 30 | Marshall | 97-1 | 99-1 | 99-2 | 198-10 | 493-14 | 98.6% |
| September 5 | Milan | 198-8 | 199-14 | 196-2 | 197-13 | 790-37 | 98.8% |
| September 6 | Milan | 191-6 | 200-11 | 198-8 | 194-9 | 783-34 | 97.9% |
| September 10 | River Bend | 99-6 | 100-8 | 100-5 | 200-13 | 499-32 | 99.8% |
| September 11 | River Bend | 197-3 | 199-14 | 200-12 | 197-6 | 793-35 | 99.1% |
| September 12 | River Bend | 197-5 | 200-10 | 195-2 | 199-5 | 791-22 | 98.9% |
| September 13 | River Bend | 97-3 | 100-8 | 99-6 | 198-12 | 494-29 | 98.8% |
| September 19 | Bonfield | 196-4 | 200-15 | 196-3 | 199-10 | 791-32 | 98.9% |
| September 20 | Bonfield | 198-6 | 200-14 | 198-13 | 200-12 | 796-45 | 99.5% |
| October 3 | Milan | 198-5 | 200-8 | 200-14 | 199-9 | 797-36 | 99.6% |
The Stories
The shooting season that had so much promise has stalled. Government mandated shut-downs have cancelled matches including the National Matches at Camp Perry and Camp Atterbury. Instead of starting in April like normal, our season is now starting in June. I didn't shoot any smallbore over the winter which is a first for me in 20 years. Additionally, I bought a new range cart and I have to find the best way to move it around the range and position it on my firing point.
June 7
There's always lots of rust for the first match of the year and today was no exception.
My standing position felt odd like I was shooting for the first time. My wobble was too large for comfort and the dot would dart around. It was hard to predict where it would be next and that made it challenging to know when to shoot. Despite this the first half only had a single nine but it took a lot of work. The back half was a lot worse as I had poor trigger control and would be yanking shots out of the middle.
When did sitting become so difficult? My body just felt stiff and didn't want to get into position. Stretching out forward was a challenge and I saw plenty of pulse. My first group was low and when I broke the final shot I yanked it into the mid 9-ring. The second group felt better with at least a clean trigger break even if there wasn't much reduction in pulse.
Based on my experience last year with a 25X scope, I will now let the rifle cant a little bit in both prone stages. For rapid-prone I tried to let the rifle lay naturally with a counter-clockwise reticle position. Since I didn't have zeros, I kept coming up during this stage as I was shooting low. I wound up holding my breath during both strings like I always do. But I tried to break the shots only when the sight picture looked good.
In slow prone my position didn't feel as comfortable as I wanted. The whole string seemed like I was mounting the gun differently each shot and my head position varied. There was some bounce to the reticle due to pulse. I would try to time this bounce but I think I was doing something to the rifle as each shot broke. Maybe I was adding movement but the group was large and I need to do a better job of a clean trigger break.
| Standing: | 191-4 |
| Sitting: | 199-9 |
| Rapid Prone: | 200-12 |
| Slow Prone: | 197-7 |
| Aggregate: | 787-32 |
June 9
This was perhaps one of the most challenging shooting experiences I have had in recent memory. Every stage threw me a curve and it took effort and patience to get through it. I arrived at the range and found that we had to start at 300 yards and then shoot the remaining stages. Despite the challenges I'm glad I shot, as the adversity gave me something else to think about.
The range has some non-match electronic targets for use by general range membership. Because all the match targets were occupied, I had to use one of these targets for rapid-prone. The problem was that someone had used a bunch of green pasters on the target face and instead of a clear sighting black I had a blob of green that my reticle dot was over. The blob wasn't even centered on the sighting black so to align with the middle of the target I had to put my dot on the upper right part of the blob. My brain was constantly trying to decide whether to put the dot in the middle of the black or the upper right of the paster blob.
In slow prone I found another challenge with these non-match targets. They are positioned at the far left edge of the range. So much so that even target #1 is to the right. At this edge of the range, tree branches intrude into the sight path to the target. It was a breezy day so leaves would obscure the target one minute and then move out of the way the next. There wasn't much I could do about it so I would just pause when there was a branch in my way and fire when it moved. There was also some pulse that I tried to time for each shot.
By the time we moved forward to shoot standing the wind had picked up. I was also put on a different target and was more exposed to the elements. The wind was mostly 5-8MPH but would often gust to 12 or more. During prep it blew the cap off my head. I didn't want to try to chase my hat while shooting so I took off the cap for the string. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to get a haircut in a while and my long hair would fall in front of my aiming eye on many shots. This would interrupt my process as I was trying to find the lulls in the wind.
The skies were getting dark for sitting as a storm approached. We rushed through prep and the sighters. As I was firing the first string I noticed the repair center on the target was coming unglued and flapping in the breeze. The skies darkened and there were more and more drops falling from the sky. I prepared for the second string, the range commands were given, I inserted the first magazine, shouldered the rifle, brought the reticle to the target....and my target dropped into the pits. Not what I would expect with electronic targets. I instinctively yelled "my target went down" to the range officer but it was hard to hear over the wind, rain, and everyone else's shots. When I looked back downrange the target was now back in the air. My mind raced to decide whether to try to fire in the 45 seconds remaining or to pack up my gear in the rain. I decided the 75 mile drive to the range wasn't going to be wasted so I shouldered the rifle and started throwing shots downrange. My position actually felt good and despite the rushed cadence I was breaking clean shots. The resulting 6X clean justified my decision.
| Standing: | 189-6 |
| Sitting: | 199-9 |
| Rapid Prone: | 199-7 |
| Slow Prone: | 200-9 |
| Aggregate: | 787-31 |
June 16
Today's weather was really custom-made for highpower shooting. It was warm but still comfortable without a lot of humidity. A 1-2MPH breeze would sometimes come up but for the most part there wasn't any wind. Mostly blue skies with a few puffy clouds floating overhead.
Dry-firing standing this week was supposed to help improve my performance. But the smaller hold I saw when dry-firing wasn't there today. Of course a large wobble wasn't my only problem. I kept checking my NPA and it looked like it was good. But my first seven shots were all right of center. I would have clicked over but the shots were close to call. My trigger finger seemed delayed as well with lots of movement during shot break.
I dry-fired some sitting this week as well. Trying to find a way to get the rifle in my shoulder that gave the right amount of cheek pressure. I had good pressure in my sighters but not as much for the strings. The first string threw me off a bit as the bolt closed after firing the last shot in each magazine. I was able to get through it although the wobble was a bit more than I wanted. The second string felt better even though there were less X's. It was wobbly but the reticle kept coming back into the middle where I could just focus on squeezing the shot.
Two aspects to my rapid prone that I'm still working on is my canted sight picture and therefore my zero. More specifically, my windage zero. Today I started my sighters with my no-wind zero and a more aggressive cant than before. My sighters were right of call and I kept coming left. I felt like the greater cant wasn't sustainable for the long term so I went back to what I have been using. During the both strings I avoided shooting if I didn't have a clear sight picture with a sharp dot.
It was getting warm by the time we were shooting slow prone. I was drinking plenty of water but I was still getting some pulse. The wobble would go from the middle of the target up toward 11 o'clock. Not very far but far enough to where I would try to time my shot break as the dot was coming back to center. Because I was trying to find that perfect time to fire, this took more time for each shot. As I watched the reticle bounce around sometimes I would find myself staring at the sight picture too long and start losing focus on the dot. In those cases I started my process over again until I was able to see a sharp dot in the middle of the sighting black.
| Standing: | 192-3 |
| Sitting: | 200-10 |
| Rapid Prone: | 200-9 |
| Slow Prone: | 200-11 |
| Aggregate: | 792-33 |
June 23
It was a really nice day to shoot today. But that didn't stop me from screwing things up and having an unacceptable performance.
I dry-fired standing again this week to try to get back to the level of hold that I had last year. My focus was on forward hand/finger placement and how that impacted where my forward elbow goes on my torso. As soon as I started shooting I realized that things weren't going to be much better. My hold lacked smoothness and was way too jerky. Whenever this happens my trigger control is also bad as I start to yank the trigger to time my sight picture. With a hold that was hard to predict, I was always behind in my shot execution. Once I made the decision to fire I was already moving out of the middle. It was frustrating as I watched the points just bleed away.
A lot of time was spent clicking left in sitting. There was a slight breeze from that direction but nothing that would be worth more than a click. My sighters were to the right of my call so I went with another click left to start the first string. The first two shots were on call in the bottom of the X-ring. After that the string felt good with a wobble that came back to the middle and allowed me to break good shots. The result on target though was low and still to the right. I came up two clicks and left another two for the second string. I was confident in this one as well. I took my time and waited for that right sight picture as I don't want to handicap myself by breaking shots when I can see they are going to be out. This group was larger than the first one and pretty centered but I had one wild shot just out at 4 o'clock.
My rapid prone sighters felt good but the results on target made me come a click right for the first string. I shot my first two, looked at the screen and saw they were slightly on the right side. So I put that click of left back on and continued. Early in the second magazine the buttstock slipped a little in my shoulder. This made me lose cheeck pressure and I felt like my head was floating above the stock. It took a lot of effort to keep my eye seeing the right sight picture and only breaking shots when it looked good. The second string didn't have this problem and it was easier to get to the finish.
My slow prone has been working well for me recently. I spend plenty of time in prep relaxing my forward arm, confirming my NPA, getting comfortable in position, and setting up my desired level of cant. The first sighter was high in the 10-ring so I came down a couple of clicks. Most of the string was smooth sailing except whenever I would lose focus on the dot in the sighting black. It made me uncomfortable shooting like that so I would look away, breathe, and start my process over again. I will admit that a few shots didn't have the best sight picture or trigger squeeze but they came up X's anyway. If I was paying more attention to shot location I would have noticed that shots 16-19 were drifting towards the right on the target. So when shot 20 was a nine on the right, I shouldn't have been so surprised.
| Standing: | 188-6 |
| Sitting: | 197-8 |
| Rapid Prone: | 200-10 |
| Slow Prone: | 199-13 |
| Aggregate: | 784-37 |
June 27
The day turned out to be pretty hot and humid. Not the worst I've shot in, but pretty oppressive. I tried to stay hydrated and wound up drinking an entire gallon of water. I was still feeling the heat by the end of the day.
My confidence level for standing wasn't very high based on my recent performances. Of course, that doesn't help to shoot a good score. I don't want to start changing stuff. I just want to find the same hold and technique that I had last year. My attempts at doing this today were fruitless. The rifle just seems to have a mind of its own. I'm lacking control over where the rifle is pointing and I'm getting timid with my shot selection. At least last year I could work through the shot process again if the previous attempt didn't work. Now, the reticle wanders towards the black but it will just as easily wander out again. In addition to the 9's, I shot three 8's. It's like I'm just there to hold the rifle up but I can't control where it goes.
Sitting has been a bit of a mixed bag this year. The groups are decent, for the most part. But they're misplaced and never seem centered. I don't fully trust electronic targets to give me the feedback for zeros that manual targets do. Today we're shooting on manual targets so I'll have results on paper. My zero was pretty good though based on my sighters. They were right in the middle and I only came down one click. My position felt good on the first string without too much wobble. But as I worked my way through the string I found myself drifting to the right. Either my NPA was off or I was changing how I canted the rifle. The result was a group that had less than X-ring elevation but strung out from the middle out to two tight nines. The second string had some more right bias but the group wound up pretty good for windage with three 10's above the X-ring.
There wasn't much wind for rapid prone so I could confirm my zero from the electronic targets. It actually turned out pretty close. The first string felt good despite holding my breath. I wasn't sure what the result would be as there was a lot of haze and smoke in front of my scope. It wasn't the best group but it was still a clean. The second string took a little more effort to get the dot in the middle of the sighting black before I broke the shot. The reticle just didn't want to settle down and I had to take more time for each shot. This group was above center and I had one out by the thinnest of margins.
I had a good estimate for my zero for slow prone but I still wasn't sure how this was going to play out. There wasn't much wind which was good, but the heat was now affecting me. Every movement took was slower and took more effort. I used my prep to try to get the right amount of cant in the crosshairs. This was also the first time I used a spotting scope since these were manual targets. My estimated zero got me an 8 at 10 o'clock for the first sighter. I came down three clicks and right four clicks, fired my second sighter, and got an X. After that the main struggle was deciding when I needed to pause because of the heat. My pulse was pounding in my head. After each shot I wanted to load and shoulder the rifle again but I didn't want to force things. On the 14th shot I broke one that seemed to favor the right side a little. Sure enough it was a nine at 3 o'clock. I finished the remaining shots with all X's but I was pretty beat when I was done.
| Standing: | 189-6 |
| Sitting: | 198-12 |
| Rapid Prone: | 199-7 |
| Slow Prone: | 199-12 |
| Aggregate: | 785-37 |
June 28
The heat index wasn't as bad as yesterday's but it was still pretty warm for today's Leg match. Clouds came over late morning making things more tolerable.
Standing was the same story. Lots of movement, unpredictable direction, hard to control. The windows to break a good shot were fleeting and my trigger control was really bad when I got into those windows. Of the ten shots, I didn't shoot a single 10. Shots were either in or out.
Standing up before the sitting string was a struggle for me in my old age. I put one magazine between my legs to mark my seating position and another by my left boot to mark my leg position. That way I could better find my place when I sat down. My shooting position was decent enough but I found myself being sloppy when I was breaking shots. There were several during the string that just kept breaking low as well. But my biggest concern was the sense that the rifle was starting to cant over clockwise. I could see the crosshairs tilt more with each shot. The group on the target was all in the upper-right quadrant with one 9 just out at 3 o'clock and another one at mid-ring towards 2 o'clock.
There didn't seem to be enough wind to justify correcting in rapid prone so I shot it straightaway. The string felt good enough but the group wound up high in the 10-ring and only a single X. There was one 9 that was just above the 10-ring and a real far one out at 11 o'clock.
For slow prone we started to get a head wind of about 3-6MPH. It would slightly change direction but I found my corrections during the string were only a few clicks to either side of my zero. I was pretty happy that my very first shot was an X at 9 o'clock. The next four shots were 10's but a little low so I came up a click. After that I lost two nines but I had eight X's on the back half.
| Standing: | 93-3 |
| Sitting: | 98-3 |
| Rapid Prone: | 98-1 |
| Slow Prone: | 198-11 |
| Aggregate: | 487-18 |
June 30
A couple of days since my last match and I'm out shooting again. The heat and humidity continues but we were able to move right along and finish the whole match in about three hours.
My standing has gotten so bad recently that I wasn't sure how I was going to get it back. I haven't had any time since the last match to do any work on it. When I was in prep I noticed that the arch of my back didn't feel right. I got a little more back bend and my hold got a little smaller. But the most dramatic result was that the hold was much more predictable. I could anticipate the reticle placement and that brought my trigger control more in synch with the process. We'll see if that back bend will work for future matches.
I didn't get the canting drift in sitting that I did the last couple of matches. In addition, my zeros were pretty good. But I felt my execution was a little sloppy. The first string had some poor trigger control early in the string. When I did start breaking shots cleanly, the shots were breaking a little on the left. The group was centered so I put on another click of left for the second string. That one had shots that either broke on the left or the right. I though I was going to get two separate groups. It was more concentrated than that but a little on the left side.
It getting uncomfortable by the time we got to rapid prone. My first sighter was on call in the X-ring. The second one was called an X at 7 but it was more at 4 o'clock. The first two shots of the first string were on the right side of the X-ring so I just kept going with my sight settings. I had plenty of bounce in the sights so I tried to time the shots to where the reticle was bouncing into the middle. On the second string the first two shots were just off the X-ring at 4 o'clock so I gave the windage knob one more click left. I could feel my buttstock slipping in my shoulder but the sight picture on each shot looked good. The resultant group was low and I had two shots out the bottom.
My goal with slow prone was just to clean it as fast as I could since the heat index was climbing and I didn't want to spend any more than I had to in position. My sighters and first shot for record were just a touch high so I came down one click and didn't touch my elevation for the rest of the string. The reticle was bouncing from center to 11 o'clock but I felt like my trigger squeeze was pretty smooth. Each shot looked good so I was a little surprised when I had a 9 for my ninth shot. The second half was better with 8 X's out of ten shots.
| Standing: | 198-7 |
| Sitting: | 200-11 |
| Rapid Prone: | 198-7 |
| Slow Prone: | 199-13 |
| Aggregate: | 795-38 |
July 4
It was another hot one today. The fact that we started in the morning and we were done by noon certainly helped. As did the gallon of water I drank. There wasn't much breeze and if there was, it wasn't very strong.
I was continuing to explore the amount of back bend I had in standing. I didn't want to exaggerate it, just to get the same amount I had last year. My guess is this moved the center of mass of the rifle more over my feet and so I wasn't trying to balance on my toes. Today's firing point sloped upward towards the target so my forward foot was a bit higher than my back foot. This helped support the rifle better. The results through the scope weren't much better than a month ago but the predictability of movement made my trigger control smoother. Discipline played an important role as I had to restart my process on most of my shots. Breaking a shot on my first attempt is still proving to be a challenge.
This was one of the rare times that I had a good position in sitting this year. It allowed the reticle to come back into the middle and I didn't need to pull it back. This gave me a little more time on each shot to make sure I was centered and to squeeze the trigger.
While my rapid prone groups are a good size, their location is constantly shifting. I don't know if this is something that I am doing or it's the different electronic target calibrations. It seemed like a no-wind condition so I fired my first sighter with no correction and got a nine on the left side. That gave me a two click correction to the right for the second sighter and the first string. That group was still slightly on the left side but had good elevation. The first two shots of the second string were low and I corrected up a click during the magazine change. This elevation discrepancy was due to the pulse I was seeing and my attempt to fire the rifle on the bounce.
I took plenty of time before and during prep to hydrate and relax before taking position for slow prone. Taking care of all the little things beforehand is better than dealing with them during the string. My first sighter was unexpectedly a mid-ring nine at 10 o'clock. I attributed this to not having the correct amount of cant and came right three clicks. The second one was straight out the top. I was getting a little nervous that I couldn't get in the middle by now. Two clicks down and the first record shot came up an X. So far, so good. The second record was at the top of the X and I didn't want to take more chances so I came down another click. After a few more shots and I was building up just off the X on the right side so I adjusted. I never really got too far away from the X except for shot 15 which was a wide 10 on the left. Each shot I would align my cant and try to get the dot in the middle of the crosshairs clear. If I couldn't do those things, I started over.
| Standing: | 198-5 |
| Sitting: | 200-13 |
| Rapid Prone: | 200-11 |
| Slow Prone: | 200-15 |
| Aggregate: | 798-44 |
July 7
The heat has shown no sign of going away. Another day in the 90's and it's amazing how it makes everything harder to accomplish. More effort is required to move, plan, and concentrate.
Because some clouds were passing over, there was some shade as I began standing. That only lasted for about a third of the string though. My position was inconsistent and each shot felt different. More so than usual. Early on I was rising through the target as the shots broke. Like my NPA was too low and I forcing my position upward. This gave me some high shots and I fired three 9's in a row in this manner.
I wanted to try something a little different in sitting. Instead of making a partial correction off my sighters, I wanted to make an aggressive correction and see how that affected my scope settings for the strings and the group locations. The first sighter was a center X but my call was a mid-ring 10 at 6 o'clock. So I came up two clicks and fired the second one. That was called an X on the right side but came up just clipping the X-ring at 11. So I came down one click. Now I was one click higher than what I started with. As I fired the first string I felt my forward arm be very tense and I had to tell myself to relax it. This was a good group with 7X's clustered around the top of the X-ring. So I came down a click of elevation and now I was back to what I though my zero was originally. The second string felt good but it was all on the right side.
There was no plan to be aggressive with the sights in rapid prone. I just wanted to shoot the smallest group and get the proper amount of cant. Both sighters were just ever so slightly higher than call but I didn't want to go chasing them. On the first string I felt like I was doing everything wrong. There was movement when I pulled the trigger and the reticle was in a different place when the shot broke than when I decided to shoot. On the very first shot I even pulled through the second stage and the gun went off before I dressed up the sight picture. Needless to say it was a larger group than I wanted, the final shot was way out in the 9-ring at four, and I couldn't manage a single X. I shook that off and did much better on the second one. The shots were breaking on a good sight picture and I felt a breeze pick up out of the left so I broke the second half of the string with a slight left favor.
Taking my time to get into position for slow prone didn't help me much. While it was certainly getting hot for the time I was on the mat, I've dealt with this before and performed better. I started losing 9's early on and it seemed to be a combination of not enough grip on the rifle and the buttplate position which altered how my head sat on the rifle. When this happens in these conditions it's hard to be motivated to analyze and correct. The frustration coupled with the temperature made me just want to finish the string.
| Standing: | 195-8 |
| Sitting: | 200-9 |
| Rapid Prone: | 199-7 |
| Slow Prone: | 196-10 |
| Aggregate: | 790-34 |
July 11
There was finally a respite from the continual heat we've been getting. It certainly wasn't cold, but morning was quite comfortable and it didn't start to get warm until far into the match.
Getting good foot position in standing was a struggle. My feet were in a depression and my forward foot was higher than my back foot. Similar to standing on July 4th. Most shots were inside of call and I had a harder time finding my NPA early on. I would alternate with several shots breaking without much effort and others where I had to restart my process several times. Shot #12 broke on the left side and I knew it was a nine before it even got downrange. I was generally relaxed for most of the string with smooth trigger control.
Sitting had a more upright position than I normally do. Part of it had to do with the depression on my firing point. I was sitting in a hole and that elevated my feet. That put the rifle higher and my torso went up along with it. After firing my first two shots on the first string, I reloaded and then glanced at my tablet screen. I didn't look carefully but I saw a high 9. That wasn't anywhere near my call so I came down a click and kept shooting. Afterwards my target had 11 hits and the shooter next to me only had 9. I got the high 10 shots and that 9 was way out of my group.
Rapid prone was mostly uneventful but I had to come down a couple clicks as my zero seems to be dropping for this event. What stood out for me on the second string was that the buttplate wanted to slide after I shouldered the rifle after the magazine change. For those eight shots I felt myself pinching the rifle by pulling back on the pistol grip and pushing forward slightly with my right shoulder. I knew I wasn't supposed to do that but I needed to keep the butt from moving around.
Slow prone was more relaxing without the high temperatures. But we had a storm coming in and I didn't want to be the person on the line holding things up. There were some wild shots during the string. I realized that on some shots I was trying to time breaking the trigger with my pulse bounce. This was causing anticipation and some muscling of the pistol grip during the shot. My focus then was to get the wobble centered on the middle and to keep squeezing until the gun went off.
| Standing: | 199-9 |
| Sitting: | 200-9 |
| Rapid Prone: | 200-11 |
| Slow Prone: | 200-11 |
| Aggregate: | 799-40 |
July 12
Another pleasant day. There was humidity in the grass from yesterday's rain but the temperatures were only in the mid-80's so shooting was pretty comfortable.
My awkward foot position suggested that standing was not going to be easy. My heels were a bit higher than my toes which made my feet compress toward the front of my boots. A couple of X's for sighters made it seem like things were going fine and my trigger control was pretty good for most shots. But my decision making wasn't as good as it has been and this caused shots to go off even though the reticle was clearly not in the middle. I had plenty of lucky shots that were inside of call, but enough slipped out to make this string seem sub-standard.
My sitting wobble had this weird side-to-side wobble that I don't normally see. It didn't affect me too much but it was odd seeing it. Despite a fuzzy sight picture on some shots the first string had a pretty good group. While shooting the second string I could feel the rifle start to cant over to the right and the crosshairs were tilting more and more. The group was much larger with some shots that were real close to being out.
After yesterday's rapid prone, I'm gripping the pistol grip a little tighter. This, along with slight backward pressure, seemed to keep the rifle locked into my shoulder better. Both groups were good sized although the first one had four shots a little too close to the left edge of the 10-ring for comfort.
My first sighter in slow prone was a 9 on the left side. I corrected with three clicks of right windage and got an X for the second one. Then, my first record shot was out on the right side. I couldn't see any changes going on but I was already behind with a lost point. A couple of clicks back to the left and I was in the middle again. After a bunch of shots alternating between X's and 10's, I lost another 9 out on the left for shot 11. After that it was lots of X's but the two dropped points really frustrated me even though the conditions may have made this mandatory.
| Standing: | 195-3 |
| Sitting: | 200-9 |
| Rapid Prone: | 200-12 |
| Slow Prone: | 198-13 |
| Aggregate: | 793-37 |
July 14
This was a nice day to shoot with blue skies and sunshine. But I'm starting to get a little worn down with the amount of shooting I have done in the last week.
The best way to describe standing was that my technique was all over the place. I would have a good NPA for a couple shots and then it would shift to one side. Once that NPA shifts, it's an uphill climb to get to the middle of the target. My position, especially buttstock placement, felt different for each shot. Some shots would have good cheek pressure, other shots didn't. The frustrating part was my x-count was pretty good. I would expect a 40% x-count in standing to be at least a 195. Also, the fact that I had more X's than 10's tells me that I was either in or out on my shots and that's a sign of inconsistency.
Sitting felt better than it did in a while. Not fantastic, but my ability to get the dot back to the target and break a clean shot on a centered sight picture was satisfactory. At least that was on the first string. On the second string I started to see a little cant in the crosshairs which distracted me a little from executing the shots. I yanked shot #8 wide to the right and thought it would be out but it barely held on to the line.
My first string of rapid prone was an example of knowing that I know I shouldn't be doing something but doing it anyway because I didn't have any alternative. I fired my first two shots, reloaded, and looked at the tablet screen. It showed two shots just off the X-ring at 12 o'clock. I came down one click, shouldered the rifle and fired. The recoil moved the buttstock in such a way that the rifle was lowered and I was now forced to lift the front end with my forward arm. This is a no-no but I didn't have much choice at the time. The resultant group was, as expected, very tall with a mid-ring nine out the top. The second string was smoother with a steady pull on the pistol grip back into my shoulder and a relaxed forward arm.
I don't know if I was expecting much from slow prone. A clean would have been nice but I don't know if I was really working towards it. After I started to shoot the impacts were alternating between X's and 10's so it wasn't like I was in a rhythm of a bunch of X's in a row. I had a few mid-ring and outside 10's that made me worry. On shot #7 I felt myself have all kinds of tension in my support arm and right shoulder as I fired. It wasn't something I noticed as I was adding weight to the trigger but I certainly felt it when the rifle was recoiling. Sure enough that shot was way outside and I spent the rest of the string being more aware of what I was doing with any muscle tension.
| Standing: | 193-8 |
| Sitting: | 200-14 |
| Rapid Prone: | 199-10 |
| Slow Prone: | 199-11 |
| Aggregate: | 791-43 |
July 25
Warm and sunny but not as hot as some people were predicting. It was good to get a break from shooting for a couple of weeks.
Things were feeling fairly good in standing. My foot position was neutral. That is, I didn't really have to think about it as it was stable and there wasn't any unnatural pressure on any part of my feet. I tried to settle into the coat by getting my back bend within the coat rather than trying to bend the coat with my back like I think I have tried before. Trigger control was good and shots didn't have extra movement at the time the rifle fired. Almost all shots were inside of call. A great example was shot #12. I broke that with movement out to the right and I would swear that was an outside nine or maybe an eight. It turned out to be a mid-ring 10 at three o'clock.
In sitting I did something that I don't recall ever doing in my highpower career. I was shooting my second string and my focus level was very high. All I saw was the dot of the reticle and it's place in the X-ring. By the final shot there was wobble in my hold but I didn't want to just pull the trigger and take a chance on a wild shot, so I paused to let the hold settle. I've done this before and it lasts for a second or two. But on that final shot I paused after shot #9 and just waited for what seemed like an eternity. I was overwhelmed with a feeling of fear of firing that last shot. All it took was a smooth squeeze but I couldn't bring myself to do it. In fact, I had to bring my focus level down and realize that time was running out before I could think about forcing myself to let the shot go. I still had wobble and the location was an outside 10 but I got it out in time.
There was poor marksmanship technique in each string of rapid prone. In the first one I was pulling back on the pistol grip while simultaneously pushing forward with my shoulder. Admittedly though the group was decent enough. The second string had poor trigger control and it seemed like every shot took place with a moving reticle.
My first sighter in slow prone was an outside 10 at eleven o'clock. "What is it doing way up there" I thought as I came down a couple of clicks and right a couple more. The second sighter was a 9 at 2 o'clock and now I'm really scratching my head. Thinking that the right place is somewhere in the middle, I came a click left and proceeded to shoot seven X's in a row. It was getting warm though and I was seeing more and more pulse. I also started to sense that my trigger pull wasn't very clean and I would fire these shots where I would be afraid of looking at the result. Most of the time, despite these fears, the shots were X's. But on shots 16 and 20, they were very outside 9's.
| Standing: | 197-6 |
| Sitting: | 200-13 |
| Rapid Prone: | 200-7 |
| Slow Prone: | 198-15 |
| Aggregate: | 795-41 |
July 28
The afternoon started with mild temperatures but then rose to about 90. This was starting to work against me by the end.
There wasn't anything really bad about today's standing, but it wasn't really great either. My hold was decent enough and I could get the rifle pointed at the middle, but that shot decision was hard to make sometimes. My pace from shot-to-shot was slower than normal. I would snap a few shots off and then rest while holding the rifle. There were three 9's on the first half and I had the back half cleaned until the final shot. That one just rose up on me as I fired and the 8 stuck out like a sore thumb.
It took a while to get the right sitting position in prep. The sling had to be lengthened because I felt too much compression on my forward arm. I wasn't very confident in the first string as there was a bit too much wobble for my liking when the shots were going off. The second string felt better, at least when I realized I was tensing my forward arm too much. When I relaxed that there was less movement in the rifle. I also found that I was touching the trigger down at the lower part of the trigger shoe. This isn't normal so I must have been gripping lower with my hand.
At the beginning of my first string of rapid prone the targets were in shadow from clouds. In the iron sight days that would sometimes mean that my elevation will be off. That really doesn't hold true anymore but I still have that feeling of concern. That string was a solid clean with a good group. After changing magazines on my second string I saw that the first two shots were a little high and left. I adjusted my windage but for some reason I didn't think about my elevation until I was back down on the rifle. Then I decided I would just hold lower. This threw off my sight picture as I now had to favor to a hold in the bottom of the X-ring. That sounds great in theory but the unconventional sight picture meant that I was never holding in the same place and my timing was off.
I was starting to get hot by the time I shot slow prone. It wasn't too bad in the beginning but my pulse was getting worse and worse as I went on. It became hard to decide when to fire when the reticle was bouncing from the middle up into the 9-ring. In addition, I was getting a bit lazy about keeping my rifle canted consistently. This, coupled with the pulse bounce, made the shots hard to call.
| Standing: | 195-7 |
| Sitting: | 200-14 |
| Rapid Prone: | 198-10 |
| Slow Prone: | 199-12 |
| Aggregate: | 792-43 |
August 4
It was actually almost chilly on the firing line when we started. There was an occasional wind that would speed up to about 5-7MPH but a generally pleasant day to shoot. Last year I shot a 25X scope on my service rifle because I felt that I could learn more about my techniques if I could see more detail. I have brought that scope out again to see if I can decode some improvement in my shooting that I can carry back over to the service rifle.
With no zeros for this scope, I wanted to get a good call for my first sighter. That one broke in middle but it impacted in the 5-ring at seven o'clock. I made an (almost) full correction of 20 clicks up and 15 clicks right. The second sighter was in the 9-ring at seven. Another correction and the first record shot was an X. While close to call, that actually was deceptive. My next three shots were nines on the left side. That led me to come further right which I should have done earlier. But that's what happens when you don't have a past history of zeros to fall back on. My hold was decent but the greater magnification really pointed out a right-biased N.P.A. I was shifting around trying to correct this during the string but never got it right. The magnification really made decision-making easier and I was able to shoot at a faster pace than normal.
Sitting has been going well recently with the service rifle. With the higher power scope I felt that this should continue. Both sighters were X's but they lied. The first string had a low group that caused a nine that just went over the line. I had to trust my N.P.A. as I couldn't see the number board while I was shooting. To raise my face higher and get better alignment of my eye through the scope, I kept my mouth open so my jaw would elevate my head. This also gave me good cheek pressure on the stock. Both groups looked good through the scope but the results on target were disappointing. Regardless of location, the size of each group was too large for me to be happy with.
My come up to 300 yards for rapid prone was close but not enough. I broke a couple of good sighters that had good elevation. Both strings felt good when I was shooting them but the first one was low. The difficulty was getting the right aiming point as the middle of the target face was shot out. This wouldn't be a problem with a 4X scope. But at 25X magnification I saw a hole in the target where the X-ring had been. This made it harder to judge where to put that dot.
Slow prone with a higher magnification seems like it would be a cake walk. But my ability to screw things up was up to the challenge. My normal prone position works with my service rifle scope, but the 25X has different eye relief and I found myself pulling my head back from the eye piece to get a full field of view. As I started my string I was already questioning the quality of each shot as it went off. Early on it seemed like I was putting some tension in my forward arm and I got two 9's for those mistakes. After that I was in the X-ring most of the time but the shots were still not going off clean. I can't put my finger on it but there was something happening when the shot went off.
| Standing: | 195-9 |
| Sitting: | 199-7 |
| Rapid Prone: | 199-10 |
| Slow Prone: | 198-14 |
| Aggregate: | 791-40 |
August 11
We had storms in the area last night. When I got to the range the power was out and there were multiple trees down which had to be cleaned up. We spent a couple hours taking care of that before we started shooting. Last week I had a chance to move the 25X scope forward on my rifle so I could get better eye relief in prone. But now I was back to trying to get zeros again for all stages.
Moving the scope forward made head position on the stock critical for standing. Altering my cheek position on the stock just a little bit made the difference between seeing the sight picture and seeing a dark image. Hold was maybe slightly better than last week with good horizontal natural point of aim. Vertical NPA was harder to establish. Not because I couldn't adjust it, but because of the scope. The higher magnification limits my field of view and I can't see the number board when aiming at the middle. So my shot process would drop the rifle low to see the target number and then come up to the target as I increased my concentration on shrinking my hold and taking up the first stage on the trigger. This expanded vertical motion was something I wasn't used to and I constantly felt like I was up and down. What was really holding me back was poor trigger control. Every shot seemed like I was yanking on some part of the rifle with a semi-perceived flinch. I dropped two points in the first 3 shots because I wasn't disciplined enough. As time went on I settled into a rhythm and got more acclimated to the shot process with the greater magnification. During the string I started thinking about how low my X-count was since the shots were hitting just out of the middle. But that seemed to be a function of my trigger control as even if the dot was in the middle when I decided to shoot, I added movement that would pull it out just a little bit.
I calculated my sight settings for sitting based on what I came off with from standing. That got me pretty close and I also adjusted from my sighters. The first string felt good with shots breaking in the X-ring for the most part. During the magazine change I saw the first shot was out at 7 o'clock and the second shot was in the X-ring. Not wanting to go out the top, I only came up one click. The rest of the string was still low with two more shots out the bottom. I cranked in another three clicks of elevation for the second string. That one felt better as the trigger was breaking when the dot was in the bottom of the X-ring. After the string the group showing on my tablet looked good as it was well centered and had 6 X's. But for some reason the score was 97-6X. That was confusing until I zoomed out and saw that my fifth shot was shown as a 7 on the right side. That made no sense since, after the magazine change, I fired two X's, a 7, then four X's in a row. While I am certainly capable of shooting 7's with the best of them, I haven't had one in sitting in a while. Plus, that 25X scope makes the sight picture so big that any shot out of the 10-ring looks ugly. To fire a 7 would require me to yank the rifle over really far and it would look horrendous through all that magnification. Still, that's what the electronics showed me so that's what it was.
I walked back to the 300 yard line a little frustrated that my sitting score overshadowed a decent standing. Now I was facing rapid prone with the prospect of being out of the 790's on the day if I didn't get my stuff together. My first sighter looked good through the scope and came up just off the X at 5 o'clock. I was aggressive and gave a full correction of up two clicks. I called the second sighter low in the X-ring and it came up as a high 10. Feeling that I was too aggressive I came back down the two clicks. The first two shots of the string were high 10's but I only came down one click as I was so concerned of going out the bottom. The reticle was in the bottom of the X as the shots were breaking but sometimes that's where the rifle wants to be and it was close enough that I wasn't going to fight it. The group was well centered and I felt like I had a good sight setting. The second string didn't feel as good because my NPA wanted to be on the right side and I kept pushing it back into the middle. This back-and-forth didn't fill me with a lot of confidence but the group was surprisingly narrow.
Slow prone was like two different 10-shot strings. In the first half I was having a hard time settling into my elevation. I was chasing the shots not knowing if I was doing something wrong with my technique or that I didn't have a good zero. The shots looked good enough through the scope but I was still having elevation problems. On the back half everything settled down. Shooting didn't feel any different but I had 9 X's out of 10 shots.
| Standing: | 197-5 |
| Sitting: | 194-9 |
| Rapid Prone: | 200-8 |
| Slow Prone: | 199-14 |
| Aggregate: | 790-36 |
August 16
Today's format was a team match, with a twist. The experienced shooters were matched up with newer shooters with the intent to form roughly even teams and to get people some coaching. The day was really nice but 80 shots from four relays took a while to get done. Even with electronic targets. I still used the 25X scope for this one but it feels like I'm not shooting to its potential.
It was amazing how different my standing performance was from the start compared to the middle of the string. I started off with a good hold and clean trigger break. Both sighters were X's as were the first two for record. I was shooting with confidence and my calls were good. On the third shot I fired while the gun was moving out and got an 8. After that it got harder and harder to get the shot in the 10-ring much less the X. Shots 11 & 12 were both nines as my decision making process was breaking down. On shot 17 my mind had reached that high anticipation level that means that I'm ready to shoot. But instead of the rifle going off, there was this very long delay. During the delay my whole torso moved and I felt like the rifle was pulled from my shoulder. Then it went "bang". I helplessly saw the reticle fly across the target in slow motion. I had no call but I knew it was a bad shot. It was a six.
After last week's sitting I wanted to redeem myself. With a better zero that was certainly possible. It's even more possible when you shoot decent sized groups. The group sizes certainly weren't anything to write home about but at least they were centered. That got me a couple of cleans but I still need to get them smaller. It's hard to diagnose why they're not the really small groups like I know I can shoot. All 10 shots should be about X-ring size. These were close but there's always a few shots that are just a bit outside and turn the overall group into mid-ring 10 size.
I normally hold my breath when shooting rapid prone but today was a bit excessive. On my first string shots 1 & 2 were on the right edge of the X-ring. I came one click left during the magazine change and that second magazine felt like it would never empty. Desperate for air I just kept trying to get a good sight picture before I squeezed the trigger. It felt so good when the bolt locked back after the last shot. The second string was a similar situation but the group was even bigger with one shot right on the line.
In slow prone I lost my points early on because I had a hard time getting centered up. Even after I did it wasn't like I was knocking the center out of the target. There were a few shots in the middle where I had a few X's in a row but there were plenty of 10's that I didn't see. Each shot looked the same but my overall group just wasn't what I was expecting.
| Standing: | 192-5 |
| Sitting: | 200-11 |
| Rapid Prone: | 200-10 |
| Slow Prone: | 197-9 |
| Aggregate: | 789-35 |
August 18
It's been pretty dry and the skies have been blue. Mild temperatures made it a great day to be outside.
Afternoon winds were on the range today. It would gust up to about 7-8MPH for a while then die back down to 3MPH. I kind of wished I had the lower magnification of the service rifle instead of the 25X larger image. The movement wasn't terrible but it made each shot take longer. Especially when I had to wait out the gusts. My main problem was not being able to get a proper vertical NPA. On each shot I would dip the rifle low to confirm my number board and then come up into the target. But where the rifle should have risen to an NPA and slowed, I had a hard time telling where the rifle wanted to settle. There weren't any shots out of the black, or even past mid-ring 9, but the points just dribbled away.
The wind gusts continued into sitting. Not really a big deal as I thought my position was pretty good. Trigger control was good as well with shots breaking clean. The dot would be in the X-ring or maybe just on its edge when the gun went off. Both strings were well centered but I still had shots outside the group. I'm having a hard time shooting a decent, round 10-shot group.
My first string of rapid prone looked alright when I shot it. The group was a bit on the left side but still a clean. On the second string I kept breaking shots at the bottom of the X-ring despite not wanting to. The resultant group was way low with two 9's out the bottom.
During prep for slow prone, the rifle just seemed to want to cant more than I've been comfortable with. I didn't want to fight it so I let it settle and tried to keep it consistent. But my key to this stage was constantly re-adjusting my NPA. After loading, closing the bolt, and shouldering the rifle, I pivoted my waist around my forward elbow and confirmed that I was correctly pointed at the middle. It must have looked odd as I would move a little before each shot but I didn't care. I didn't want to have any drift away from center. The mirage was pretty thick today and that made the sight picture a bit of a challenge.
| Standing: | 193-5 |
| Sitting: | 200-12 |
| Rapid Prone: | 198-7 |
| Slow Prone: | 200-13 |
| Aggregate: | 791-37 |
August 25
Temperatures were in the low 90's but it was comfortable for most of the day. A little breeze and lots of sunshine contributed to a great day to shoot.
My scope is fixed at 25X but the objective lens has an adjustment for parallax. I've never played with that before so I tried today. Setting it down to 200 yards for standing gave me a fuzzy target and distorted scoring rings. I didn't think that would help in my decision making so I backed it off to 300. The target was still out of focus but I could work with it. The firing point had a hump so I had a foot on either side. My forward foot was twisted a little and that made my ankle sore by the time I finished. Mentally I wasn't prepared to start the string since I was rushing through the shots. I had the same up-down problem as last week with looking at my number board and then coming up to the target but sometimes not being able to stop. My first shot was an eight out the top as my discipline was lacking and I should have started over. I had another eight out the top on shot 8 and I decided that I needed to work harder to salvage the string. There were several shots where I took the rifle down two or three times because I didn't want to force a bad shot.
It took a while to get my sitting position in prep. Different buttplate positions didn't feel right and I was adjusting my position and the sling. I called my first sighter as an X at 4 o'clock. The shot was a mid-ring 10 at 2. I decided not to come down at all and called my second sighter at the bottom of the X. That one was a liner-10 up top. I came down my click at that point but I was regretting not making the correction after the first sighter. During the magazine change I saw that the first two shots were at the top of the X-ring. I came another click down and fired the rest of the group. I was still in the upper half but I wasn't comfortable with coming down any more. On the second string my first two shots were again in the top of the X-ring. I was willing to roll with this and the 8X clean justified that decision.
I tried leaving the parallax set on the scope at 300 for rapid prone. But there was so much distortion in the image with the addition of the mirage that I wouldn't be comfortable shooting like that, so I set it back to infinity. During the strings I was surprised how fast I shot. That was simply due to the fact that I had good NPA and the dot would come back to center after recoil.
My slow prone was like two different matches. In the first half I had a group going in the bottom of the X-ring. The second half though it was hard to get centered up. Only one shot was in the X-ring and the group was much bigger. The only change that I could tell was the increase in mirage and pulse bounce. The day was getting hotter and I was getting more uncomfortable. NPA was still an emphasis as I was shifting in my coat and on the firing point to ensure that I was lined up properly before each shot.
| Standing: | 195-5 |
| Sitting: | 200-15 |
| Rapid Prone: | 200-14 |
| Slow Prone: | 200-7 |
| Aggregate: | 795-41 |
August 29
I travelled to Marshall, Missouri to shoot in their service rifle championship. I had always wanted to shoot there but the 7 1/2 hour drive was previously a hindrance. We had some rain come into the area after my relay shot 200. The weather delay was long enough that the rapid prone stage was cancelled and the match was only three stages.
When I first looked through the scope for standing I thought that my focus was misadjusted. The target was fuzzy and I couldn't see the scoring rings in the black. The reticle was fuzzy as well and looked really small. I know I'm adjusting back from the high magnification scope to the service rifle but the sight picture was pretty bad. The heavy overcast made the image so dark that I couldn't discern the reticle dot when it went into the sighting black. This was really worrisome as this made it really difficult to decide when to shoot. My hold was poor as well so all this slowed down my pace and each shot took longer to shoot than normal.
With the same light conditions in sitting, I had the same sight picture problems. The dot would disappear in the sighting black and I couldn't tell what scoring ring it was in. Shot calls were impossible. My position was quite good and felt very solid. When I was shooting each string I would lose the dot in the middle and try to squeeze the trigger to give myself the best chance for a decent shot. Frankly I was surprised the groups were as good as they were.
After a five hour rain delay I finished the day in slow prone. The conditions were very good with a slight breeze in our faces but very little correction needed. Despite this, for some reason, I felt the need to start rushing the shots. Maybe I thought conditions were going to get worse or some other silly reason. But I was rushing my process and not making sure everything was ready before pulling the trigger. On shot two I fired as I realized that my forward arm wasn't fully relaxed. That put an eight out the bottom. I chastised myself for this mistake and from then on made sure that I fired on my terms.
| Standing: | 193-4 |
| Sitting: | 200-13 |
| Rapid Prone: | - |
| Slow Prone: | 198-10 |
| Aggregate: | 591-27 |
August 30
A team match this morning and the weather is great. Lots of water from yesterday falling off the trees along the range.
Standing is all about making the right decision at the right time. Only this morning it was hard to make any decision. A sub-par hold was probably the contributor but on many approaches into the target I saw the dot go into the 10-ring, float around, and then go out again. There was fear of firing the shot because I couldn't be assured that I could keep it in the 10 during the trigger pull. My trigger control was actually decent when I did fire. But I also think my level of concentration and anticipation didn't match the location of the reticle on the target.
I fired my rapid prone string just like all the other ones this year. Afterwards, I got up and started to put my gear away leaving my coach to deal with the target when it came up. It turns out that the shooter on my right cross-fired on to my target and there were 17 hits on it. By rules, my choices were to either challenge (this would be fruitless), accept the score of the low ten shots (a 99-8X), or refire the entire string and take the score of the refire. While the 99 seems like it would be "good enough", I couldn't bring myself to accept giving away a point. Especially with the way I've been shooting this stage this year. So I decided to bet on myself and take the refire. Things looked a little fuzzy through the scope but I kept blazing away trying to break the best shots I could. My gamble paid off.
For slow prone my sling was a little looser than I would have preferred. This wasn't a big deal but I noticed that the pressure of the buttplate in my shoulder wasn't the same as it typically was. There was only a slight 2-3MPH wind coming from the left so this should have been pretty easy. But of course it wasn't and we realized that maybe there was more going on downrange than we though.
| Standing: | 96-1 |
| Rapid Prone: | 100-5 |
| Slow Prone: | 97-4 |
| Aggregate: | 293-10 |
August 30
Since I drove all this way I wanted to get in as much shooting as I could. So I stuck around for the Leg match in the afternoon. The weather was very nice and I was enjoying myself so it seemed like the right call. We started at 600 yards since the MR targets were already set up in the pits following the team match.
The mirage was coming out of the left for most of the string of slow prone. I put on a couple of clicks for the first shot and got a 10 on the left so I knew the conditions weren't worth much. Every so often I would have to take off a click or two or add them back on. I was pleased with my elevation which extended from the bottom of the X-ring to a mid-ring 10 for all 20 shots. I stayed primarily on the upwind side where I lost two shots (back-to-back) on the left and had nothing to the right of the X-ring.
After 600 we moved forward to the 200 yard line. I wasn't sure about my standing but it started off real well. Shots were inside of call and, while I didn't shoot many X's, I was still clean through six shots. The 10 minute time limit didn't give me a lot of time to spend on each shot but I shot when I could, and paused when I had to.
It was hard to determine whether to put on a correction for sitting. The mirage was hard to see and the target is only 200 yards away. Typical for leg matches the biggest challenge was getting my pulse down after having to stand up and sit down again. That's what happens when you get old. The string felt good and the sight picture looked centered and consistent. The group was on the right side about 4 clicks too far. I can't believe that wind pushed me out that far so I must not have been as aligned as I thought I was.
I fired my rapid prone with two clicks of left but I needed a couple more. A good NPA kept the reticle coming back to the middle after recoil. My elevation zero for this stage has been fluctuating between 19 and 20 clicks up. 19 seems to give me groups that are too low and today's 20 gave me a group that was too high.
| Standing: | 97-1 |
| Sitting: | 99-1 |
| Rapid Prone: | 99-2 |
| Slow Prone: | 198-10 |
| Aggregate: | 493-14 |
September 5
Today's weather was tailor-made for a highpower match. Blue skies, warm temperatures, and mild wind.
My calls in standing today were really poor. The shot would break and there was too much distance between where I called it and where the spotter came up. I tried to concentrate on getting my support arm underneath the rifle but my hold was only mediocre and the movement challenged my ability to shoot with confidence. But the shots were breaking well with good trigger control and decision making. I took that deep into the string by remaining clean until shot 16.
Both of my sitting strings felt sloppy. I was shooting on the move instead of waiting that little bit extra for the reticle to settle in the middle. The movement made the groups seem all over the place. The resultant shots weren't too bad although on the first string I managed 8 X's but I still had a nine. That's just poor consistency in my execution.
Rapid prone was where the wheels really fell off. I've been alternating between 19 and 20 clicks for elevation. Both sighters were slightly above center but that was fine and I decided on shooting at 19 for the first string. My NPA was slightly to the right but that didn't worry me. The group was down low and one of the nines was down at the line. That string cost me three points and I couldn't afford to do that. I shot the second string at 20 thinking that was the right range but that group was still low and I didn't even have any X's.
I started slow prone with the same elevation that I used last week at Marshall and got an X for my first sighter. The second sighter was a 10 and the first for record was a nine. I started to come down but then fired another high nine. I wound up coming down four clicks from where I started. There were plenty of X's that were only interrupted by a lost windage nine. I would do a little bit of clicking for wind at the start but after a while I realized the wind was pretty mild and I just shot through it.
| Standing: | 198-8 |
| Sitting: | 199-14 |
| Rapid Prone: | 196-2 |
| Slow Prone: | 197-13 |
| Aggregate: | 790-37 |
September 6
While yesterday's weather was great for shooting, this morning was just the opposite. Thunderstorms were overhead bringing rain that delayed the start of the team match. When the storms departed, they left nasty looking skies and lots of wind. The wind would be the story of the day as it was blowing strong for the rest of the match.
Not much to look forward to in standing when the wind is blowing. There weren't a lot of true lulls. Only times between the gusts when the wind would just be light. On one shot I was in the 10-ring during a lull but didn't pull the trigger. Then the wind came back and I had missed my opportunity. Overall, shot calls were good. I could see where they were breaking but my NPA was telling me they kept going to the right.
Just because we dropped down for sitting didn't mean we were done being pushed by the wind. As I fired my strings I could feel the wind move my body. The reticle did this funny loop around the 10-ring on each shot and I had to try to break it clean so as not to pull away from the middle.
My elevation zero for rapid prone just seems to change every day. After yesterday I'm thinking my zero is more between 20 and 21 clicks. We didn't have the luxury of sighters today so I fired the first string at 20 but my coach was telling me to favor lower. I wound up breaking shots in the 10-ring at 6 o'clock but the group didn't have any shots lower than the X-ring. The second string was at 19 clicks and that was a clean with 7 X's.
My coach and I weren't quite sure how to read conditions for slow prone. The wind was moving too fast to show any mirage and there was only one flag off to the side of the range. We had the wrong guess for the first shot and got a seven on the left side. But on the bright side it was perfect for elevation. The rest of the string was a mix of putting more wind on, taking it off, and plenty of favoring.
| Standing: | 191-6 |
| Sitting: | 200-11 |
| Rapid Prone: | 198-8 |
| Slow Prone: | 194-9 |
| Aggregate: | 783-34 |
September 10
A team match today and the conditions were very calm. The weather was great except for a fair amount of humidity hanging in the air. The day went by quickly and it seemed too easy for the score that I shot.
At this range the targets seem to be below the firing line where we shot standing. That meant I had to adjust my NPA to have a lower rifle position as I didn't want to constantly try to push the rifle lower. My calls were good but my hold wasn't. I just couldn't get settled down to the point where I could shoot with rhythm.
My position in sitting was a little odd as my feet were more elevated than I'm used to. This tilts my body backwards slightly and my torso, and head, feel higher relative to the rifle. The result was that my wobble was larger than I would have preferred. That put a premium on a good, smooth trigger squeeze. The string went fine with a well centered group.
The elevation zero shifts continued in rapid prone. My zero has varied from 19 to 20 but I shot some above call sighters at 19. After my first two shots of the string, my coach called them high and I came down to 18. I held my breath as usual and just kept shooting until the bolt locked back.
Conditions for slow prone were about as good as they get in highpower. There was the slightest hint of moving mirage but wasn't much to click for. I wanted to break the best shots I could and let my coach move me left and right. We wound up doing a lot of favoring based on where the spotter came up. I found it easier to favor using the spotter as a guide rather than where the dot was in the sighting black. If the spotter was on the left side of the X-ring, I would try to fire when the reticle dot was just intruding on the right side of the spotter.
| Standing: | 99-6 |
| Sitting: | 100-8 |
| Rapid Prone: | 100-5 |
| Slow Prone: | 200-13 |
| Aggregate: | 499-32 |
September 11
It was hotter today than yesterday. In addition, it seemed so much more humid. A lot had to do with the fact that there was less cloud cover. Still, I kept trying to get through the day without dropping too many points.
I was feeling a little more anxiety in standing than I normally do. The heat was getting to me a little bit and I just wasn't comfortable. My calls were generally good and so was my NPA. But the results on the target were that I was breaking shots on the fringe of my hold and the edges of the 10-ring. When you do that sooner or later you will have some shots that are out.
Sitting was problematic from the beginning. I wasn't comfortable with my firing point and the wobble didn't settle in the middle. The groups felt loose and I wasn't squeezing the trigger like I should have. On the first string, during the magazine change, I dropped my first magazine and tried to pick up the second. I didn't grip it fully when I picked it up because it slipped from my hand and I tried to catch it in mid-air. It must have been funny to watch as I was swatting the air trying to catch my falling mag.
Most of my time on the mat for rapid prone was in direct sunlight. This produced a bright image in the scope and tended to make the sight picture a little fuzzy. As I was shooting my first string a cloud came over, darkened the image, and the reticle dot became much more pronounced. When I came down on the rifle for the second string I found my NPA to be a couple targets over. I shifted back to my target but my whole position just didn't feel very good and I was just hoping to keep everything in the 10-ring.
The mirage was barely moving for slow prone. During the string I went from about 3 clicks of right to 2 clicks of left. The bigger problem was elevation. Or rather, me holding it. I would shoot some high 10's, come down a click, shoot a 9 out the bottom, come up a click, and shoot a 9 out the top. Very frustrating.
| Standing: | 197-3 |
| Sitting: | 199-14 |
| Rapid Prone: | 200-12 |
| Slow Prone: | 197-6 |
| Aggregate: | 793-35 |
September 12
There was rain forecast for today and it didn't disappoint. The skies varied from sun, overcast, misting, and full out raining. So my gear got wet early and stayed mostly damp for the rest of the day.
After I had a problem with a dark image in standing at Marshall, I was worried that I would not be able to see the dot with the darkening skies. It turned out just fine, at the beginning anyway. I shot with more confidence this morning, feeling like I could turn in a good score. We started in a mist and I was still able to break decent shots. I dropped a nine early on but the shots were inside of call and I was in a good rhythm. Towards the end the skies were getting darker and the rain came down harder. I dropped a couple more points in the last few shots as I had a harder time seeing.
My sitting zero at this range is lower than it has been all year. The sighters were fine, elevation-wise. My hold on the first string was actually better than it was in prep. But I was moving the rifle during the trigger squeeze. The group was out towards 1 and 2 o'clock. I came down a click for the second string and had a well centered group.
My day really got ugly for rapid prone. I fired my first sighter with no wind and got a 10 on the left. Two clicks of right put my second sighter in the middle. During the string things just didn't feel right. My NPA didn't bring the reticle back to the target like it should have. The group was way out on the right side with three 9's. I couldn't believe that I was that far off so I only came one click left for the second string and had another group that was out to the right.
I really wanted to save my day with a good score in slow prone. It was starting to rain again as I got into position but the wind was mild and I felt I could do well here. I was about half way into my string when it sounded like my rifle was recoiling differently. On one shot I noticed that the bolt had locked back but the case was still suck on the bolt face. Weird! A couple more shots in and the bolt wasn't going into battery when it went forward. When I pulled the cartridge out, a spent primer came out of the ejection port as well. On the next shot I couldn't pull the trigger and I knew I had a primer in the lower. Now every shot meant another primer that was on my mat. The ammo was creating high pressures. This was probably due to being wet as the rain was coming down and coating my ammo. So I was firing each shot with the slight thought that the gun would blow up in my face. Even with this I was still shooting tens and still clean. I just wanted to get through the string and wasn't breaking the best shots as the last shot was a nine.
| Standing: | 197-5 |
| Sitting: | 200-10 |
| Rapid Prone: | 195-2 |
| Slow Prone: | 199-5 |
| Aggregate: | 791-22 |
September 13
The final day of the tournament and my gear hasn't fully dried out. It was overcast for the start but the sun came out strong later on. Today's format was no sighters and no alibis.
Standing started out pretty easy with the shots breaking without a lot of effort and no dropped points in the first half. Then my hold got a lot bigger and it took more and more work just to get the reticle in the middle. I could still see the sight picture and my calls were good but the hold deteriorated so much it was unbelievable.
The rifle never settled down in sitting. There was always some movement in the sight picture as it moved around the 10-ring. Some shots broke on the left side and I had one that went high. It was a guessing game how the target would come up and as always, I hoped for a clean. The hoping worked but I never would have guessed at the X-count.
The wind for rapid prone was coming at our backs. I watched the mirage, and it moved back and forth, but the magnitude was so slight that I just decided to shoot it straight-away. My position may have been a little lower than normal but my forward arm was relaxed and comfortable. The bright image made the sight picture a little fuzzy for a few shots and I had to blink through it.
Slow prone conditions were similar to rapid prone and I couldn't really bring myself to put much wind on the gun. My first 5 shots were X's but then lost a 9 on the left side. I clicked right and got back in the middle but then messed things up by pushing a corner 9. I finished well but this should have been a clean.
| Standing: | 97-3 |
| Sitting: | 100-8 |
| Rapid Prone: | 99-6 |
| Slow Prone: | 198-12 |
| Aggregate: | 494-29 |
September 19
I shoot in most of the matches that I run. Running things presents its own challenges to my shooting but today I was more distracted than normal. Actually I would say that I was more focused on the details of the conduct of the match than my own shooting. When I stepped up to the line I was thinking about shooting but the other stuff crept in. At least I enjoyed being outside as it was a great day with not a cloud in the sky.
Standing had a very distracted and disconnected feel to it. Like I was going through the motions but not focused enough to perform well. I would listen to the conversations around me and only give about 2/3 focus when I had to shoot. This was too bad as I had a good hold today with a relatively upright torso. I think I could have leveraged that hold to a better score if I could just keep my mind sharp.
Sitting was about as straightforward as you can get. My position was good, the shots broke clean, and they went where I pointed them.
This was a crazy rapid prone stage. The first string didn't feel great but it wasn't terrible. I had a clean but it was bunched up on the left side. I didn't want to get too aggressive so I only came one click to the right. I started the second string with my 2nd shot called on the right. The display showed that one to be just inside the 10 on the right so it looked like my group was on call and I kept on shooting. The rest of the group was way on the right with four shots out in that direction. I'm not sure what happened although there were other shooters on the right side as well.
The targets for slow prone had a white plastic backer. The white color reflected the sun so much that the image in the scope was overpowering. I would see my sight picture as the dot entered the sighting black but then trying to get it to appear in the middle of the black was tough. The surrounding white was so strong it made centering the dot difficult. Additionally, I had to click a little bit as I would be on either one side of the X-ring or the other.
| Standing: | 196-4 |
| Sitting: | 200-15 |
| Rapid Prone: | 196-3 |
| Slow Prone: | 199-10 |
| Aggregate: | 791-32 |
September 20
If yesterday was a nice day to shoot, today was even better. There was a chill in the morning but with blue skies and plenty of sun it was pretty comfortable. I was still running the match but with a lower turnout than yesterday I didn't have the same level of distraction. My focus on my shooting was higher and my performance showed it.
My natural point of aim in standing gave me confidence from the beginning. I was more conscious of closing my eyes as I mounted the rifle and brought it down to the target, then letting my eyes open and seeing how far off I was from the target. Most of the time I was good horizontally but this changed later in the string as I had to do more adjustment. Shots were generally inside of call and trigger control was good as well. But it was like I fired two different strings. The first half had good technique and the shots were able to almost find their own way into the middle. I cleaned this with 5 X's. But the second half had more stops and starts, more shots that broke on the edge instead of the middle, and a general feeling of decreased performance. I had a nine on shot 13 but was able to recover and I felt I could finish strong but the last one broke at 4 o'clock and was just out.
This sitting was about like yesterday's. Not a lot to describe. I just got into position, worked within my wobble, and broke shots as best I could. The first group was great except for one shot that I put on the right side of the 10-ring. I really would like to have a string where I fire all 10 shots smoothly. Instead I have these great 8 or 9 shot groups with an errant flyer somewhere.
As I got into prep for rapid prone and looked through the scope, I could see that the repair center on my target had come loose on its left side. The paper then wrapped itself over to the right and exposed the center underneath it. If it stayed wrapped around like this, it would be fine. But my concern was that it would flap back only partially during one of my strings and I would have to shoot on only a partial sighting black. But what to do about it? I didn't want it to affect my shooting. But at the same time I didn't want someone to have to drive down to the pits to fix it while the entire line waited. I decided to take a chance and shoot through it. That first string worked out fine except that the first 7 shots were right in the middle with six of them being X's. Shot 8 was on the edge of the 10-ring on the right side and 9 & 10 were out at about 4 o'clock. I never called these that far out and it was frustrating to see the result. On the second string I fired with the same sight settings and things were going just fine for the first 7 shots. Then, the loose target face flapped back into position and I finished the string shooting on that sighting black. Fortunately the different faces were placed correctly and matched the calibration of the electronic targets. Even though the system only registered 9 hits, 7 of them were X's.
I was looking forward to shooting slow prone as I felt like I could do well today. Maybe I was just more focused on my technique and trying to execute as best as I could. Things started off well and eight of the first 10 shots were X's. Then the shots became more and more difficult with the impacts starting to bounce around between center and high 10's. I would be mindful of my execution and the fundamentals but then get a 10 that was close to the line. From experience I know that once I start doing this, sooner or later a nine would dribble out.
| Standing: | 198-6 |
| Sitting: | 200-14 |
| Rapid Prone: | 198-13 |
| Slow Prone: | 200-12 |
| Aggregate: | 796-45 |
October 3
It's the last match of the year and I'm honestly a bit relieved. The trees are turning color and it's getting chilly each morning. Today's weather was pretty poor. It drizzled all day. Not enough to soak us or stop the match, but enough to dampen everything and create a gloomy mood.
I really didn't want to take my winter coat off for standing. It was in the low 50's and I think I would have been content to just run the line. But I went to my firing point with my breath showing whenever I exhaled. I adjusted my NPA early and it paid dividends as the wobble was centered and the dot would always come back into the target. I just had to find the right time to pull the trigger. Even the pulling part was smooth as the rifle would go off without extra movement. My only distraction was getting hit by my neighbor's brass in the back of the head. Shots were inside of call including one that seemed like it was going into the white but it came up a 10.
High X-count cleans in sitting require a small group that is well centered. Both strings today had good groups but they were slightly high and had some rightward bias. If they were centered, they both would have been 9X cleans. The first string especially felt good and the reticle would spend a lot of time in the center waiting for me to pull the trigger.
I've had some weird experiences in rapid prone but this is an example of doing a bunch of things wrong and still getting a good result out of it. It started when I first looked through the scope. Both the reticle and the target were out of focus. The dot would come into the black and it was one fuzzy object inside another fuzzy object. I couldn't even call my first sighter but I trusted my execution. Since that one was low, I came up two clicks and shot the second one. As I was firing the first string I tried breaking the best shots I could but my sight picture was about to become the least of my worries. The fifth shot cycled the bolt in a way that sounded different than normal. I pulled the trigger for the sixth time and got nothing. I looked at the ejection port and saw that the next cartridge was jammed between the bolt lugs and the barrel extension. At least I got four X's out of those five shots. My second string was still hard to see but I got all my shots off with 7 X's. As I was laying on my mat waiting to fire my alibi string, the thought occurred to me that if I have another problem I wouldn't be able to recover and would lose a bunch of points. So I quickly reached for a magazine and loaded it with eight rounds, one-handed. I would count the rounds I fired during the string and, if something goes wrong, I could load the extra magazine and finish. I started shooting and other than the poor sight picture, things were going fine for eight shots until the rifle went "click" on number 9. That mag came out and the emergency one went in at record speed. Two more shots were thrown downrange to make up all 10. That was a ride I don't want to take again anytime soon. Firing 25 rounds with four mag changes just to get a clean is a bit too much.
Slow prone looked like it was going to be rough from the beginning. I used my normal elevation zero for the first sighter but that was a six down low. I was shocked as I can't remember the last time I put a shot in the white at 600 yards. My guess was that I was putting more cant in the rifle than normal. Still, there it was. I put on another 10 clicks of elevation as this was no time to be timid and sent the second sighter downrange. That was an eight at 11 o'clock and now I was too high. Staying aggressive I came down 5 clicks for the first record shot. That was a low 9 and I came up a couple more. I was clean from that point on but I never really got centered. I remember seeing a lot of high 10's but the early shots made me leery of coming down too much.
| Standing: | 198-5 |
| Sitting: | 200-8 |
| Rapid Prone: | 200-14 |
| Slow Prone: | 199-9 |
| Aggregate: | 797-36 |
End of Season Thoughts
It was a year like I have never experienced before. A season that normally starts in April was postponed until June. My annual journey to Camp Perry and Camp Atterbury was cancelled. This was the first time I didn't go to Camp Perry since my first year in 1998. Taking some of the sting out of that was my ability to shoot on Tuesdays and travel to places like Marshall, MO and River Bend, GA.
Performance wise, this was my best season ever. The numbers bear this out as well. I went into matches with a lot of confidence knowing that I could put up a score in the low to mid 790's. X-counts were also good as I was expecting good groups in the rapids. Working with the 25X scope for most of August helped me to identify some aspects of my shooting that I have been using to improve overall. But, with the limited amount that I used it, there wasn't much advantage over the service rifle. To get a true advantage I would have to change a couple things on the scope and then use it for the entire year. For right now, I feel that I can still shoot the service rifle well and have no plans to change in the immediate future.
I started the season with some frankly poor standing scores, upper 180's and low 190's. My wobble was large and it was very difficult to control and predict the rifle's approach to the target. By the end of June a switch was flipped and suddenly I had much better control. I attribute this to better support under my forward arm to take the weight of the rifle. That way I was using less muscle tension. The result was ten examples where I fired a 197 or better. The downside is that further improvement may prove difficult as now I'm trying to improve on just a couple of shots each string.
This year's average sitting score was, statistically, not the best I have ever had. It just felt that way. I shot a lot more matches but even with all those opportunities to drop points, I still fired this stage knowing I would clean it. Out of 26 times shooting a 20-shot sitting match, I fired a 200 eighteen of those times. My average group size was 15.3% smaller than last year and 4.8% smaller than 2018. At one point it became hard to write my thoughts about them as the string just felt "normal" and any shots out of the 10-ring were the outliers. There is still work to be done on shrinking the groups by making sure I'm shooting the same for all 10 shots instead of just 8 or 9 of them.
Rapid prone was a personal best this season with almost half the matches scoring a 200. That's quite an improvement for a stage that I have traditionally struggled with. Even when I didn't clean both strings, I still felt good about most of them as average group size was 5.3% smaller than my previous personal best group size. This is despite the fact that I hold my breath for the second magazine of each string. Letting the sights cant a bit has been an improvement as this lets the rifle rest naturally.
Slow prone has been a dramatic improvement over previous years. I have been up and down with this in the past but 2020 scores were not only high but consistent. The double digit X-counts bear this performance out as well. Taking my time and being discerning with my shots selection has certainly helped. As has the aforementioned natural cant of the rifle.
| 2020 Averages | |
| Standing: | 97.1% |
| Sitting: | 99.6% |
| Rapid Prone: | 99.4% |
| Slow Prone: | 99.2% |
| Aggregate: | 98.8% |