Ok I'm back.I figured I'd give you guys a rundown on how it went.
First off, all the other times I've gone its been warm verging on hot.Dry hot and still air makes for pretyy decent shooting.This time the temp was going all over the place.One day it was warm in the 70's and the next it was in the 50's.The day I left it fricken snowed about 40 miles away from where we were shooting.The wind was strong and was going from 0 to 25 mph and gusting,not constant.
Anyways on to other stuff.
My partner was shooting an AR-10 which had been sent off to get a new barrel put on.It was to meet us in Arizona and then would just be put on the lower and we should be good to go.With Murphy riding along with us it didn't happen.The barrel showed up.And the upper showed up.But neither were attached to each other.Of course we had no tools so we had to mickey mouse it together with a pipe wrench.Of course when it fired it wouldn't cycle properly and was having stoppages every couple of rounds.And this,of course,was the day before the match started.Wicked start for us.The guys at McMillian were more than generous and offered up a loaner boltgun.Did we use it?No of course not.
Day 1
Four matches were planned for today.
Match 1
Called the Donga Run,this one consisted of starting by running up a dry gulley to find a police tape box from which you and your partner had to find and shoot 4 IPSC targets with 2 rounds each,which were camoed and concealed somewhere withing certain arcs.The kicker was that it was damn near impossible to go prone to shoot as there was tons of bush and crap in the way.Anyways scoring was 25 points per head shot and 15 per body,possible 100.There was also a time limit althought it was generous.I managed a 75 on that one with one shot that must have hit a branch because it just nicked the side of the target while the others were good hits.
Match 2
This was a dots of doom type match.Four circles starting from 1 moa and going down to .25 moa.This one you moved closer by 25 m for every different dot,so needless to say you had to hold 1 moa the whole way down.My first shot was 3 inches high.Remember the temperature change?And the rest were equally off.That sucked.Most people didn't fare to well on that one.I don't think anyone cleaned it.
Match 3
This one was kind of a silly match.It was a walk back match starting at 10y.You would move back 10 y every time and fired from some silly positions.IE on both knees unsupported,one knee unsupported,standing,prone with no bipod ETC.I shot OK on this one even though I thought it was kind of a stupid match for a sniper competition.
Match 4 was a ranging exercise.You were given some arcs and told that there were 4 targets within them.The targets were 15 inch IPSC targets that were painted in camo.You and your partner had to find them(no small feat) and range them with non electronic means(mildots),put them on a photo and give a proper description of how they were camed up.The closest one was just over 350y and the farthest was 560y.Not exactly easy to find.We managed to find them all and get a good range on them.95 points out of a posible 100 and only because we were out on one target by about 10 yards.
Day 2
Match 1
Day 2 had three matches in store for us.
The first was a 3 position drill from 100y.It was 2 shots each from kneeling,sitting and prone unsupported all in 1 minute with a manditory reload.While it went well for me ,my partner had a ####load of problems with his rifle.
Match 2
This one was a long shot on some steel that was 20 inches high at about 600y.Not so tough in itself you had to range it with Mils and you only got 3 shots to get it.To compound the problem there was a trick wind gusting from 8-25 mph.With no flags,or mirage over the gully we were shooting up(because we were at least 60 feet off the ground),and the local brush VERY stiff and hard to read from,neither of us got any hits.
Match 3
A hostage match where 4 targets appeared,two of which were hostages and 2 were bad guys, and you had a 3 second exposure to fire your shot.You had to send 4 shots on 3 exposures.We were shooting about 90y across a gulley and at a 20 degree angle down.I had all the hits but the scoring ring was about 1.5 minutes wide and the bad guys appeared in different areas.All my shots were a little low and out of the zone.
Day 3
Match 1.
A mover on which you had to fire 6 shots as it moved back and forth at about 5-6 mph.The wind was making the target move in weird ways.About a 94y shot and it had to be done firing from a railing either standing or sitting.
Match 2
This was a match where you had 4 barricades.You had to fire 2 shots at the first one standing.Then your partner shot.You move off the the next one and shot 2 each kneeling.Off to the next for 3 sitting and the finally 3 prone at the last one.We did quite well on this one even though the target had very small scoring zone.
Match 3 .
This was a weak hand/strong hand exercise.There were 2 steel targets across the gulley.One was at 460y and the other around 550y.You had 5 shots each.You had to fire 2 at each target but the last one you could decide which one to put it on.If you went for the long one you could fire strong hand and the close one you had to fire weak hand.I managed 3 hits out of 5.2 on the long one and 1 on the close.I fired my extra at the long one.
And that was about it.I knew our goose was cooked on the first day.With screwed up zeros and a gun that wouldn't work we were somewhat doomed from the get go.My 700 and my new M-14 mag conversion worked absolutely flawlessly.It only got smoother as the shoot went on.I have pics if anyone wants to host 'em.
