However when I woke up again at 0730, I noticed that birds were singing. I listened, and sure enough, the rain had stopped. well hell--the range is only 40 miles away, I figured. if I could get moving, I might still make it. I got dressed hurriedly, grabbed my Springfield Armory M-1A out of the safe along with sixty rounds of ammo, and threw them into my vehicle along with my shooting mat, jacket, spotting scope, and range bag. Lagniappe, true to form, gave me a few rough minutes when I let him outside and he jumped the fence in pursuit of the neighbor's cats. But he came back when I called, doubtless because he knew that it he caused me to miss this match, he'd be sitting down by the road with a "Free to good home" sign around his neck.
I made the 40 mile drive in just over 45 minutes, arriving just after 0830, still in time to check in and grab a spot on the line.
Now I love my old M-1A. It was my first 'real" rifle, purchased back in 1988 when President Bush Sr. signed the nation's first "Assault Weapons Ban" into law. (Thanks alot, sir!)
Back then, I bought it just because of the ban and I did little with it until I caught the Service Rifle Competition bug in the mid 90's and began shooting it in Hi-Power matches. It's crowning glory came during the 2001 National Matches at Camp Perry when, during the President's 100 match and firing Lake City Match ammunition, I shot an 89 out of a possible 100 with it in the 600 meter relay, putting five shots into the 9-ring and three into the 10, with 1X. (The other three were 8-ring hits...and this was in that high-wind that Perry is famous for.) I've never shot that good before (or since) and had I done so well at the 200 meter and 300 Meter stages, I probably would have made the top 100. Sadly, due to my acquisition of an AR-15 HBAR and a solid-shooting M-1 Garand, I didn't fire the M-1A any more, and it's sat in my safe ever since, save for periodic cleanings.well I took it out today, just to see what I could do with it in preparation for next year's M-1A match at Perry during the 2008 Nationals. We fired the NRA "B" (long course), shooting 50 shots for record (actual scored shots) with five "sighter" (practice) shots to get set. I felt pretty good even though the sights were parked in the bottom notch, not elevated at all for 200 Meter shooting. I cranked the rear sight up to what should have been a good 200M zero and fired my first practice shot. Clean miss. Whoa. That's embarrassing. I adjusted and fired again. A second miss. Now I was starting to worry. I had no idea where the rifle was shooting and I only had three sighters left. One more elevation adjustment put the third shot on the paper, and two more dialed it into the 10-ring. I was ready as I was going to get and began shooting for score.
The first stage was 20 rounds slow-fire prone, and during the twenty minutes alloted me, I shot a rather respectable 185 (out of a possible 200), with three hits in the X ring. Other than three close 8-ring hits, I dropped my second to the last shot into the six ring because I heard a snatch of conversation from a couple of people behind me on the line and let it break my concentration. But scoring results showed me to be in third place on the firing line. Hmmmm... Not bad considering this was only my third match in over three years and my first with the M-1A in six.
Next came the standing-to-prone rapid-fire stage, where we all start out standing and when the "commence fire" command is given, we drop prone and have 70 seconds to fire ten shots, with a mandatory reload somewhere in the string. I had a bit of trouble with the reload and rushed the next two shots (both 8-ring hits) but everything else was a 9 or 10 for 91 out of a possible hundred. Not bad. And I found out that I'd risen to second place. Not exactly stellar shooting compared with how I used to do, but passable these days.
Third stage was standing-to-kneeling rapid fire. When the "commence fire" command was given, we all dropped into either a kneeling or sitting position and began firing. This is now my worst stage since injuring my leg, as I can no longer acquire my formerly rock-solid cross-legged sitting position, so I have to adapt using a less-stable position these days. But despite that, and despite the fact that my rifle musse seemed to be swinging around like an orchestra leader's baton, I managed to finish up with all shots on and 84 out of a possible 100. Yet due to a stroke of luck, the leader had a rifle malfunction and missed several shots. Scoring showed me of all people to be in first place with one final ten-round stage to go. Damn!
We went into the last stage--standing offhand, where the last ten rounds are fired while standing and without the aid of a sling. This used to be my worst stage and it was where I always screwed up at Perry, but here my leg injury seems to have blessed me with a more stable firing platform due to the rigidity of the prosthetic. I wanked one into the 6-ring, and tossed another into the 7-ring but the rest were solid nines and tens and I finished up with an 85 out of that 100 and a total score of 455-3x.
It wasn't great by Perry standards but this day on this line, it gave me a second-place (Silver) finish. The former leader, his malfunction cleared, came back to pass me up in the last stage.
But I was only too happy to finish in 2nd place. After all, I'm just getting back into the sport and I'm having to re-learn almost everything since I've gone so long without competing and had the leg injury mess things up so bad. And the icing on the cake was that Steve, the guy who runs the program, cooked up burgers and brats since it was the last match of the season. So I got a free lunch out of it to boot.
The 2008 National Matches are coming. And if I keep improving, I should do well enough to be able to report about it here.
Nice shooting!
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