A man's got to know his limitations...and those of his rifle.

So today was a day I've looked forward to for months--the first CMP Hi-Power rifle match of the year. I got myself up at 7am this morning and went to get my gear loaded, anticipating another great day at the range with my trusty M-1 Garand.

But as I was in the gun room, I heard a voice call out to me. "Yo! What about me? Are we ever going to go shooting again?" It was my Smith-Corona 1903A3 Springfield, sitting there in the rack. When was the last time I'd fired one of the Springfield rifles, I asked myself? Wow. Camp Perry National Matches, 2004. Almost four years ago. Well damn... I plan on firing one in the Nationals this year, and it sure wouldn't hurt to take one out and re-familiarize a bit with it. After all, I'm left-handed so it takes a bit more effort to smoothly operate a bolt-action rifle under the time constraints of a match that it would had I been born right(wrong) handed.

So with an apology to my Garand, I grabbed the Smith-Corona, gave it a quick inspection to ensure that the bore was clear and the rifle was functional, and headed for the match.

I got out to the range, and damn it was cold! A biting wind on the line really made it unpleasant. But at least there was no snow. I got all prepped and loaded my ammo onto '03 stripper clips, remembering the last time out at Perry, when I stupidly thought that I could substitute M-14 strippers for the hard-to-find '03 strippers, only to have the set-up fail miserably during the first rapid-fire stage of the '03 match. Ah yes...that would have been 2004, this rifle's last time out. No wonder I hadn't shot it for four years. That screw-up is still embarrassing, particularly as the score is matter of permanent record.

So I started firing my five sighting-in shots to get the rifle on-target. It only took three rounds to put a solid hit on the X-ring and I was pleasantly surprised. I shot my 20 rounds prone slow-fire for record and damned if I didn't finish out a close 2nd place on the line with 188x4 out of a possible 200. That rifle was dominating the ten-ring. The only flaw was a round that had dropped way down into the six ring, the result of two consecutive misfires caused by light primer hits. When the next round actually went off, I wasn't where I should have been mentally and I doofed it. So what was up with these misfires? Then it dawned on me: The rifle still had excess grease inside the bolt from it's military long storage before I'd gotten it just before that 2004 match. It hadn't been an issue on that hot August day but here in this chill air, the grease was much less fluid and it was binding the firing pin. Aw, damn. And I hadn't brought the Garand as a back-up. Stupid, stupid, stupid...

Rapid-fire prone came next. I had another misfire, but I pulled the striker back and hit it again and the round fired. Still, it rattled me a bit and cost me some time so that even though I put all the rounds on the target in the alloted time, it wasn't as good as I'd have liked. But I was still in 2nd place...just a little farther back but still within striking range of the leader if he choked or if I had a strong finish.

But then came the rapid-fire sitting position. A bit of lost time trying to get into a solid sitting position thanks to my prosthetic leg--followed by two more misfires-- totally trashed the stage. I couldn't get the two duds to fire by re-cocking it this time, so I wound up only putting 8 rounds downrange instead of 10, and the last few of that string were scattered. So much for a medal this match. It ended here. It just wasn't in the cards for a one-legged left-hander to accurately put ten rounds in the black with a malfunctioning bolt-action rifle in sixty seconds.

I won't even bother writing about the slow-fire standing offhand. I was actually pretty fair on that stage in the past with the M-1, but I just could not get that light '03 to sit still on the target and I'd lost the attitude after that last stage and it was all downhill. Very sad...Very sad indeed.

But the next match is a month away, and next time I'm going to be back out there with this 1093 Springfield sans the grease and we'll try it again. Meanwhile, I'm going to be doing the position practice that I should have been doing all winter and we'll see if I can't clean up my sitting position and solidify my standing off-hand. All it's going to take is some self-discipline and effort on my part, so there won't be anyone or anything to blame next time around if I don't improve.