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Good news for me! I made the list to shoot in the intramural service Rifle and Pistol competitions for my unit. Hopefully, I can do well enough to make the team for Division matches this up coming season!
I would really liked to walk away with the distinguished marksmen title if possible. Will keep this thread updated as practice and matches go the first 2 weeks in Decmber.
Well done!! I'll be rooting for you.
congrats and best wishes,hope you do well.Keep us informed.
That is good news!
Congratulations!
Awesome!
Congrats and good luck in the upcoming events.
wll
Appreciate it fellas. I have to start getting into positions now to increase my flexibility. Thats always been one of my issues. I have the fundamentals of shooting down, but getting my body into position and keeping it in position is the key.
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Day 1. Classes and zeroing. I got to used to shooting half inch or less groups with my bolt gun to switch to a M16A4 service rifle producing 2-4in groups at 100yds. Anyways matches are going to be interesting.
Rifle Course of Fire:
Weapons Standard issue M16A4 or M4 with the 4X Trijicon Acog
200yds line:
string 1: 20 Slow fire from the standing (20min time limit)
string 2: 10 rapid fire from standing to sitting (70sec time limit) (1 mag of 8 and 1 of 2 for a reload)
300yds line:
String 1: 10 rapid from standing to prone (70sec time limit) (1 mag of 8 and 1 of 2 for a reload)
500yds line:
String 1: 20 Slow Fire from the prone (20min time limit)
Pistol: Standards Issue Beretta M92FS 9mm
All shots on the 25yds line strong arm (1 Handed)
1st String 10 shots slow fire in 10min
2nd String 5 shots in 20 secs
3rd string 5 shots in 20 secs
4th string 5 shots in 10 secs
5th string 5 shots in 10 secs
Hopefully, with practice throughout this week I'll be ready for the matches starting next week.
Congrats!! Please keep us posted.
Day 2 full day of practice.
I felt very comfortable with the rifle and ACOG this time. Apparently all the shooting I've done with my Savage Axis has made me a better all around rifle shooter. My holds were much more consistent and repeating the fundamentals were much easier as I didn't need to think about them as much. I will say that the shooting jacket helped me to fit the weapon a lot better as normally the M16 is a little to short for me to get a precise position with a consistent cheek weld for match style shooting.
I started using a new method on the slow fire strings. Firing a single round and resetting the trigger to the lightest setting for every shot (with 3 round burst the trigger has 3 different weight pulls when firing semi auto). This does two things: 1. You get a consistent amount of trigger pull and slop. 2. The rifle is the same weight for every shot. This definitely makes a difference with the large volume of rounds being shot from the standing in this course of fire.
Shooting the M9 one handed is a trick. I did shoot a better group than I do sometimes shooting with two hands at 25yds. With the practice I get this week, I'm sure I'll be able to tighten my groupings up a lot. It seems to me that it's mostly about getting into a good rhythm and again consistently applying the fundamentals. Same with most consecutive shooting creating a system that develops muscle memory will make it easier for you to identify when something goes wrong. It is my belief that some of the best shooters do well because they can consistently make the same mistake every time and are able to compensate for it be offset aiming or whatever else it is that they may have to do.
Anyways, I'm done ranting about the day. Let me know if you have any questions or technique suggestions if you have competed in this format before.
Schedule is practice through Thursday, Prelims on Friday. and Full matches all next week!
LoneWolf this sounds like a really great experience. Hope you do very good. Would love to be there to take it all in.
I'm enjoying it. Early mornings and late evenings, but it's definitely worth it. Wish my Bn was better funded for it. A lot of hand me down gear being used right now. It is better than nothing though. Learning a lot of things in the environment as it's not the standard annual qual where they just want to push you through as fast as they can to get home for dinner!
How many rounds are you getting in per session?
We shot double strings on the rapids, but due to the amount of day light available this time of year they're cutting out the double strings during the practice days the rest of the week.
We will be firing the exact rifle course listed above, but they are going to give us 50rds for the pistol to get extra pratice in.
so 60rnds a day with the rifle and 50rds a day with the pistol until Friday when we shoot Prelims. 20 Rounds in the standing at 200yds in 20min is pretty exhausting though. I don't think i'd want to shoot anymore than that without a good 10-15min break in between sessions.
We have 6 relays so as one rotates off the rifle they go to the pistol and from pistol they got to the pits. It's a pretty big operation and this is a small match for intramurals with just local units.
Day 3:
Practice went great today! Groups were tighter, positions were tighter, and a lot of improvements on both rifle and pistol.
The experience continues to be great as the whole process is stress free and all about shooting better. We'll see how it changes when the competition portion heats up!
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Lone Wolf,
thank you for your service and good luck to you....
Another good practice session today! I wasn't quite as hot in the standing as I was yesterday, but I finally got my rapids groups in the right spot.
Prelims start tomorrow with random relay and target selection based on whatever sticker ends up on your rifle when you draw it from the armory (i.e. 1-32 means relay 1 target 32)
Tomorrows scores will place you for the actual individual competitions and determine your firing point based on ranking. (i.e. 1st place will be relay 1 target 1, last place will be relay 6 target 46)
We shoot two days of individual matches and then hold the team match on Wednesday. The top 4 shooters from each team in the individual matches will shoot against all the other teams top 4 shooters.
I never described the targets being used. For rifle from the 200 yards line the target is a 10" circle with a 3" V ring. All shots in the black are 5 points with a 4 and 3 ring outside of that.
For the 300 and 500 yard lines the target is a 12" circle with a 6" V ring and also only has 4 and 3 rings after the black. As usual tie breakers are determined by number of V's.
Today, I scored myself at 244 points out of 300 total. Not to bad, but definitely had some shots I could have cleaned up. I had a few misses in the standing that would have brought me up close to 260pts if they had been 3's.
I haven't scored myself on the pistol yet, so we will find out tomorrow. I have definitely tightened up my groups and hopefully the added competition factor tomorrow will entice more focus from my competitive side.
That's it for this update! Good shooting to you all!
I appreciate the words and support! I would have to guess you have put some time in as well!Quote:
Originally Posted by Vietnam71
Make up post from yesterday Day 5 Prelims:
Rifle Score was a 254-6V for the course. I scored higher do to not having any misses, but shot worst as in not as many 5's or V's. I think this was due to being just **** exhausted from a full week of shooting the rifle course, pistol course, and pulling pits everyday. Mind you there's a couple miles of hiking between all these events throughout the day. This weekend was much needed!
Pistol I shot my best slow fire score to date with an 88, but probably would have been more effective throwing my rounds at the target for the rapids. I ended up with a 188-1V out of 300.
My rifle score landed me in 45th place out of 102 competitors, so at least I'm in the top 50%. This puts me on 3rd relay for Monday and pulling pits first. I'm hoping this works to my advantage because it's suppose to be bitter cold on Monday and this should help warm up my body in the morning and give the sun a chance to come out (I'm praying!).
If I can stay focused and do what I did during all the practice days I believe I will still be able to step up my game. My personal goal is to shoot a 270 or better on the rifle and clean up my pistol the best I can.
The top shooter in the rifle shot a 283-14V. I did not verify what the high pistol shooter was.
Day 6, Day 1 of Individual Matches:
Rifle Score: 252-4v Pistol Score 214-1X. Wind was 15-20mph all day long and was a strong opponent to fight against on all yard lines. Hoping it calms down some tomorrow for the last day of individual matches.
Pistol was a fight to stay on target as well. I just about key holed my first 3 shots in a nice little clover leaf, but then the grouping just started to open up from there. I did out score myself though compared to Friday.
Tomorrow's game plan is to just go out and have fun. I'm sitting in 43rd place of 102 shooters. I know I haven't shot my best yet, but I have forgotten the number one rule about this type of shooting! You have to have fun!
Keeping it short today gentlemen! Have a good night!
Day 7, Day 2 of Individual Matches:
Rifle Score: Things fell together today and the weather was perfect! 281-16V one of the high shooters for the day, but placed 27th for aggregate score.
Pistol was a 212, but I shot a 350 out of 380 on the standard course of fire and upgraded my annual marksmanship badge to an expert qualification from a sharpshooter qualification previously.
Tomorrow is the start of the team matches and is followed by the Gunner's cup which is a course of fire of the Range OIC's choosing and is a full gear tactical style course that usually starts around the 500 yards line and works it's way in shooting in various positions and styles. The cool thing about the gunners cup is that any tacticool gear is allowed as long as you can carry it!
The number one thing I changed today was that I just had fun! I wasn't really worried about my score even though I was shooting well. I remembered that I love to shoot and therefore should find it fun and not stressful.
Here is my full run on the Rifle today.
200yds
Standing Slow Fire Score 91-1V
Rapid 3-5's, 6-4's, and 1-3 Score 42
300yds
Rapid 7-V's and 3-5's Score 50-7v
500yds
Slow Fire 18-5's, 2-4's Score 98-8V
Pretty stoked about that run today!
Those are some pretty good numbers by anyone's standards.
High score today was a 289. My 200 rapid was my weak point. My hold was just a little low.
Final Days of matches:
Placing out of 107 shooters:
Rifle: 27th Place
Pistol: 16th Place
Not to bad over all. I learned some new things and definitely got a lot of practice in. I look forward to hopefully competing in the Division matches come February/March time frame.