Handgun Slhouette--East Coast Championship

[Hawkeye7br]

Diana & I are just outside Wilmington, North Carolina at the IHMSA East coast Championship. The range is facing north, with nearly white sand backstops behind black targets. Very bright, but well defined targets for the most part. This is a 60 round match instead of the usual 40 rounds at local levels.

Day 1 started with my favorite Big Bore gun, a Freedom Arms revolver in 357 mag. A couple of targets in the front half escaped my blurry and aging eyes. Back half was not bad, dropping just 3 of the 30 targets at 150 & 200 meters for a 55x60. Decent showing, but less than what I wanted. .22 Revolver went the other way. Dropped a single target at each of 75 & 100y for a 58x60. Pretty happy with that, a very solid score that should place top 5. Final gun was Big Bore Unlimited, and it was a struggle. Dropped 2 targets at 200m, and that was hugely disappointing for me. All 3 guns today were open sights.

Day 2 was also a mixed bag. Opened the day with a Big Bore Unlimited Standing entry (scoped standing). Ran the first 31 targets and happy until then, but dropped 6 of the next 11 at 150m. Finished the relay and then hit 13 of 15 at 200m, again happy with that but the lack of focus in the middle left me with only 52 where I should have been 55. A good score, but may not in the face of good competition. Next entry was a .22 and I struggled with the sight picture....my front post is the same width as the leg of the chicken and turkey and makes it very difficult to have correct elevation. A dismal score of 54. Final entry today was Big Bore Unlimited Any Sight (freestyle position, scoped) and should be a gimme for a perfect score. I chose to shoot a bolt gun that I hate, my Sako in 250 Savage Improved. I can only shoot it from dead frog position, so there is some wobble in the scope picture. It was work, but the groupings on target were good and they all went down. Finally.

Heat & humidity rule here. 90 degrees, high humidity, no breeze. Diana learned her lesson in Oklahoma, she'd rather drink water all day long than endure another trip to the hospital and get her fluids thru a needle in her arm. 3 more days shooting here.

 

[Hawkeye7br]

Day 3-- Continued the mixed bag of ups & downs. We had torrential rain overnight and thunderstorms were predicted during the day. Time to break out the all-weather bullets. First event was .22 Unlimited Standing, an event I haven't fired in about 10 years. Last month I threw a rifle scope on a bolt action pistol to shoot a prone event, and on a whim I tried a few shots from the standing position. Ran that gun today in a first attempt to keep score and came away with a 46x60. That's about where my top scores of yesteryear put me, so I'm OK with it

In Half-Scale Anysight, I again chose a gun that I don't have a long history with. A Rampro bolt gun in .222, I committed to shooting it before realizing I was out of the preferred powder. No matter, shot it with a load from the manual that I thought would be close. Hey we get 5 sighter shots, what could go wrong? Dropped a target at 150 meters, then another at 200m. A good score, about typical of what I should expect. Of course in a match like this you always want the perfect score....it just wasn't my day to get it done. Cloud cover faded in & out, but am just not comfortable with a center grip gun.

Diana shot her Browning topped with an of Tasco red dot in Unlimited Standing. She did well until she just tuckered out in this longer match, but I think she will still place well in her class.

 

[Hawkeye7br]

Day 4-- Dawned a perfect day, 85 degrees with a slight breeze, blue skies. First gun up was a freestyle event, .22 Unlimited Any Sight (scoped creedmore or prone). Targets from 25-100 yards, nearly all my shots were well centered. Final shot.....breathe....relax....bang.....nearly relaxed too much! Shot was on the pecker on the ram target, but down it went for a 60x60.

Half-Scale Big Bore with open sights was another story. Lack of practice for this specific set of targets led a downward spiral. Lots of missing at 50 & 100 meters, ended up eating a large portion of humble pie.

Then the bar opened.......

 

[Litlratt]

I'm assuming bar is equivalent to wailing wall.

 

[Hawkeye7br]

Yup, relax with friends, have a couple brews, lament your scores, solve the problems of the world. Wait for results to be updated online. Knee is killing me, too much torque in trying to shoot freestyle. Need more local ale.

 

[Hawkeye7br]

Day 5-- Didn't start well, I was dry firing in the motel that morning and missed 2 targets.

Half day of competition followed by shootoffs. Shot the production gun for first time in 5 years. Not much change, just horribly rusty with it. Dropped a target at 100m, another at 150m, but 1st bank of targets at 200 started with 2 misses and ended with a AD, my first one ever in 35 years. The trigger adjustment screw appears to have backed out a tad. Only one more miss, am actually pretty ok with a 54 after finding the targets.

To my surprise, some of my scores have held up and I'm in 3 shootoffs, which I suck at. First shootoff was in big bore Unlimited Any Sight with the Sako devil gun. Hit 6x10 of the little rascals at 200m, enough to end up second. Then a shootoff in half scale any sight, and shooting against the winner of the last shootoff who was using the same gun. So he had 10 sighter shots,and I have a different gun. He cleaned the first 5 to my 4, but he dropped the last 2 in the second string and I went clean. Spectators actually gasped. I was stoked. Last shootoff was in 22 scoped and against world champ with his very custom gun. We both cleaned the first 5 targets at 100y, so they made them smaller. Missed a 1/5 scale chicken & pig (chicken is size of golf ball, pig is twice as wide) and that was that, 8x10 is not enough today. Nonetheless, gotta be pretty happy with overall performance and didn't panic during shootoffs.

Diana & I are off to beach, then head for home with a little sight seeing along the way.

 

[Litlratt]

Congrats!!

 

[rhino]

Well done, Rich! And thanks for the reports!

 

[Hawkeye7br]

Thanks guys!! I seldom do well in shootoffs because the focus is normally on the agg score, and practicing on little bitty targets takes time away from the other events. In this sport, shootoffs are the only time shooters go head to head by shooting the same targets in the same firing period. Some guys use the strategy of shooting the first target quickly and adding pressure to the other shooter to make a "must hit" shot. Plus, you're often shooting next to your competitor, and can hear his spotter calling his shots. Pretty hard not to sneak a peek at his bank!!! but that takes away some focus and a guy is just better off to focus on his little narrow world of what must happen during the 2 minutes.

Again, Thanks!!!!