As most of y'all know I've been dying to get into FPR since I built my AR. I went out to the March match and watched how the match was run, procedures and such. I asked some questions, OK I asked alot of questions, so when I finally did compete I would have a good idea of what I was doing. I meet most of the guy's there and had a great time, most people there could tell I was a newbie so they offered advice or tips on competing which I listened to, especially Lanny, he is a wealth of information. I had alot of fun just watching and going thru the motions. Needless to say i was hooked.
Skip ahead to June's match. I finally was able to make this match at the last minute it seemed. I had been getting things together to shot this match kind of hurriedly so I was a little rushed which I hate, but I was there. I got my gear ready and was sent to the pits first since I was in the 2nd squad. I had my lil shooting buddy along with me this trip, my 12 yr old son who is becoming a pretty good shooter himself. He was a big help to me in the pits, he helped me score and mark the target to. We scored in the pits too this time because of the number of entrants which wasn't hard to do anyway. I scored for the other shooter who I shared the lane with. The wind looked to be playing heck with the guy's which started making me a little nervous since it was only going to get worse I thought.
Once it was my turn to shot I got ready and Chaser had helped me with a dope for my scope since I had never shoot this far before. I shot .223 with 75 grain Hornady Match bullets so we had to guess a little on the elevation. I dialed in 12 1/2 MOA for the first shot, it was a miss, so Chaser told me add 3 more which I did. 2nd shot was almost perfectly level with the X ring but way to the left on the edge of the target. I decided to confirm this shot before making any other adjustment. What I had neglected to say before this was I was having some equipment issues which I had not counted on. My scope had some trash floating around in it which I keep trying to tap back out of the way which apparently got the other guy's attention and they had a good time with it. Something about my user name fitting me well or something, I just ignored them! I also had a safety issue with my rifle on the 3rd shot which was going to force me to drop out of the match, that was until Chaser very generously offered the use of his backup AR, I mean he just went to his truck and unloaded it, sighted it in and said "here use mine"! I didn't know what to say, but Thanks and proceeded to start shooting the match.
Now with a new to me rifle and 2 stage trigger which I have never shot with, it took me awhile to get rolling smoothly. I ran out of time and had 1 miss and could not fire my last 4 shots since time ran out, but scored a 130 anyway with 1 X ring! Rd 2 was a little better, now I had an idea of what to do but was still getting use to the 2 stage trigger and getting my breathing timed right. I managed to pull out a 148 with 2 X's. By the time the 3rd rd came up I was finally getting use to the rifle and trigger but the wind was doing it's thing. I did start the first scored shot with an X ring, I just grinned ear to ear. I would no sooner than I was dialed right in ready for another X ring when the wind would shift and throw my shot off. Thats Palo Alto for you! You see with my very limited wind experience all I know is to aim dead center and see where the shot lands and add some Kentucky windage to compensate. Every time this happened I had to do this to know where to aim the next time. I did manage a decent 175 with 3 X rings this round for a dismal total of 453 and 6 X rings. I still had alot of fun and wasn't too disappointed in my performance, but I learned something very interesting (besides getting better glass and checking my equipment better), I used Ricks very accurate AR versus my rifle and did decent especially on the 3rd rd, so this leads me to believe that with good equipment I can do pretty well once I get more trigger time. Now I want to see if the AR I built is a really decent shooter at 600 yards like I hope it is.
My overall experience was great even with the issues I had which wasn't really a big deal that day since Rick loaned me his rifle and I was still able to compete. The friendly atmosphere and lots of helpful people make this type of competition (if you really want to call it that) a real enjoyable time even in the heat. My son can't wait till he can compete now he says, we will see if ole Dad can do OK first before I unleash the youngster on the guy's! Come on guy's, get off your butt's and come on out, it's alot of fun and just a plain good time out there! Hope to see y'all in July!
Bam Bam who might be changing his user name due to someone picking on me!
Skip ahead to June's match. I finally was able to make this match at the last minute it seemed. I had been getting things together to shot this match kind of hurriedly so I was a little rushed which I hate, but I was there. I got my gear ready and was sent to the pits first since I was in the 2nd squad. I had my lil shooting buddy along with me this trip, my 12 yr old son who is becoming a pretty good shooter himself. He was a big help to me in the pits, he helped me score and mark the target to. We scored in the pits too this time because of the number of entrants which wasn't hard to do anyway. I scored for the other shooter who I shared the lane with. The wind looked to be playing heck with the guy's which started making me a little nervous since it was only going to get worse I thought.
Once it was my turn to shot I got ready and Chaser had helped me with a dope for my scope since I had never shoot this far before. I shot .223 with 75 grain Hornady Match bullets so we had to guess a little on the elevation. I dialed in 12 1/2 MOA for the first shot, it was a miss, so Chaser told me add 3 more which I did. 2nd shot was almost perfectly level with the X ring but way to the left on the edge of the target. I decided to confirm this shot before making any other adjustment. What I had neglected to say before this was I was having some equipment issues which I had not counted on. My scope had some trash floating around in it which I keep trying to tap back out of the way which apparently got the other guy's attention and they had a good time with it. Something about my user name fitting me well or something, I just ignored them! I also had a safety issue with my rifle on the 3rd shot which was going to force me to drop out of the match, that was until Chaser very generously offered the use of his backup AR, I mean he just went to his truck and unloaded it, sighted it in and said "here use mine"! I didn't know what to say, but Thanks and proceeded to start shooting the match.
Now with a new to me rifle and 2 stage trigger which I have never shot with, it took me awhile to get rolling smoothly. I ran out of time and had 1 miss and could not fire my last 4 shots since time ran out, but scored a 130 anyway with 1 X ring! Rd 2 was a little better, now I had an idea of what to do but was still getting use to the 2 stage trigger and getting my breathing timed right. I managed to pull out a 148 with 2 X's. By the time the 3rd rd came up I was finally getting use to the rifle and trigger but the wind was doing it's thing. I did start the first scored shot with an X ring, I just grinned ear to ear. I would no sooner than I was dialed right in ready for another X ring when the wind would shift and throw my shot off. Thats Palo Alto for you! You see with my very limited wind experience all I know is to aim dead center and see where the shot lands and add some Kentucky windage to compensate. Every time this happened I had to do this to know where to aim the next time. I did manage a decent 175 with 3 X rings this round for a dismal total of 453 and 6 X rings. I still had alot of fun and wasn't too disappointed in my performance, but I learned something very interesting (besides getting better glass and checking my equipment better), I used Ricks very accurate AR versus my rifle and did decent especially on the 3rd rd, so this leads me to believe that with good equipment I can do pretty well once I get more trigger time. Now I want to see if the AR I built is a really decent shooter at 600 yards like I hope it is.
My overall experience was great even with the issues I had which wasn't really a big deal that day since Rick loaned me his rifle and I was still able to compete. The friendly atmosphere and lots of helpful people make this type of competition (if you really want to call it that) a real enjoyable time even in the heat. My son can't wait till he can compete now he says, we will see if ole Dad can do OK first before I unleash the youngster on the guy's! Come on guy's, get off your butt's and come on out, it's alot of fun and just a plain good time out there! Hope to see y'all in July!
Bam Bam who might be changing his user name due to someone picking on me!
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