Maryland State Service Rifle Championships 2013

I shot the Maryland State Service Rifle Championships over 2 days. For the first day (9/21) I got up at 5am, ate a bowl of oatmeal, and drove the 2 1/2 hours to warrior mountain. I was on relay 3, so I went to the pits first, and fired standing 3rd. I ate a sandwich in the pits, but I got hungry with low blood sugar about 5 shots in to standing. I was a bit of a wobbly mess, so I did not do very well standing that day. I did have a nice sitting score.
Rapid prone, I wasn't sure if my elevation should be 23 or 20. I went with 23, right 2 plus a little left for the wind, and ended up with a good group high left. The next string I went down to 20, and was centered low. Go figure.
I got rained on in slow prone, and that caused some problems. Actually, for the first couple of shots, the rain helped me focus on the front sight, and I shot x's. After that, the gun got slippery, and I had a hard time getting a good cheek weld, and holding position. In the end, I did at least shoot my classification.

Last	First	Stand	X	Sitting	X	R prn	X	S prn	X	Score	X	Percent
McGinnes	Michael	174	3	196	5	184	0	179	3	733	11	91.6%

The second day (9/22) was the EIC match. I slept in a nearby hotel (7 C's Lodge, pretty nice), and only had a 20 min drive to the range. Nonetheless, I just felt crappy that morning. I'm not sure why.
So I'm relay 2, so I'm shooting 2nd (which I prefer). When I mounted the rifle for the first shot, it was all over the target. At that point, I should have taken the rifle down and started over, but instead, I shot a miss. That's right, my very first shot was a miss, and I knew it as soon as I pulled the trigger. I figured my day was pretty much over, but I kept it together and finished standing with an 82. I really do need to write down a shot plan for standing. It needs to include finding my balance in my feet, relaxing my legs, and relaxing my upper body, shoulder, and arms. I need to practice at least 22 rounds a day.

Sitting, I had a good position, and not to much pulse. I took it one shot at a time--breath, front sight, squeeze-- and shot a 98.

Rapid prone, I had a pretty good position. My goal was to break every shot in the X, and get a nice small group so that I could confirm my zero. I ended up with a good group, but a little too much to the left on the 9-10 line, netting me a 96. Which means I'm going to 600 down 24 points. That's not actually too bad, but it doesn't leave much room for error.

Then, I had a phenomenal stage and string in slow prone. For the first string, I really wanted to try to break clean shots, so that I could adjust my zero as needed. I decided to be brave about spinning the knobs as long as I broke a good shot. I helped to focus on each shot, and keeping focus on the front sight while I squeezed the trigger. The second string in particular I took shot by shot. I finished with a 92 and a 99, for a stage total of 191--personal bests for string and stage. As a result, I have the beginnings of a shot plan for slow prone. Roll left, place rifle in shoulder (high), establish cheek weld with nose in charging handle, roll right and place right elbow, lift and reestablish cheek weld. While looking at grass, relax left arm, relax shoulders. Breath, sight picture, front sight focus. I also have a new no wind zero (NWZ): Right four clicks. I started and ended with the same elevation, with a little fiddling in between.

I ended up with a 467, which I knew was good-- and gave me hope of getting EIC points -- But I hadn't realized that that was a person best for a National Match Course. I ended up 5th, 5 points and a few X's out of the money. In other words, if that first shot had been just a six instead of a miss, I would have finished 3rd, taking home a bronze and 6 points. As it was, I didn't even get first leather. Still, lesson learned: never give up.
Other lesson learned: if my wobble zone is the whole target board, take the rifle down and start over.


After shooting the Maryland State Service Rifle Championships at Ft. Hill/Warrior Mountain, I need to update my personal bests, and goals (new PBs in bold):

Personal bests to date:
Standing 97/100; 191/200 (spring league, M4)
Sitting 100; 196
R. Prone 100; 195 (2012 Creedmoor Cup)
S. Prone 191 - 5x; 99 - 3x(?) (MD State SR Championships)
Navy total: 474-11x (spring league, M4)
NMC total: 467-8x (MD State SR Championships)
800 Agg : 750 (2012 Creedmoor Cup)
Best Ball (NMC): 488

Goals:
Standing: Clean, regular 90s.
Sitting: Regular cleans
R. Prone: Regular cleans
S. Prone: Clean string, 195, regular 90s ea. string.
NMC Total: 475, regular 470s.

Last	First	Stand	X	Sitting	X	R_prn	X	S_prn	X	Score	X	EIC_Ranking
Podshivalov	Roman	96	1	100	1	99	2	191	6	486	10	Winner
Bloss	Tim	94	1	97	0	97	1	191	4	479	6	Second
Read	Justin	92	2	96	2	96	1	188	5	472	10	Third
Thomas	Alex	91	1	94	0	96	2	189	5	470	8	High_Junior
Lechliter	Leah	85	0	96	3	98	2	188	4	467	9
McGinnes	Michael	82	0	98	1	96	2	191	5	467	8

Presidents 100, 2013

President's 100

I'm a very long shot for the P100. If I have a really good day, it's possible, but mostly I shoot it to prepare for the Individual and Team matches. Also, it's a match, and having fun shooting matches is the whole point.

The match is just three stages: 10 shots standing (offhand) at 200 yards in 10 minutes; 10 shots prone at 300 yards in 70 seconds (rapid prone); and 10 shots prone at 600 yards in 10 minutes (slow prone).

I shot on relay 6, which means I went to the pits first, shot 3rd after the pit change at 200 and 300, scored at 300 and 600, and then I could shoot and scoot at 600. 

Offhand: I tend to be either good or bad on this stage. If I get in a steady position, with a good natural point of aim (NPA) I can do really well. If something is off, it can be a challenge.  I was having a good string. I wasn't 100% solid, but I had a good NPA. I was hitting 9s and 10s, although I couldn't seem to find the X ring. The last shot of the string was solid, I broke the shot right in the middle, and it came up the elusive X...on the target next to mine. I had cross fired, earning myself a big fat 0 for that shot, and finished with an 83. Even if I didn't drop any more points, I was out of the 100.

Rapid Prone: The wind at 300 was blowing pretty good. I estimated 8mph out of 7:00, so I put on 1.75 minutes of left wind. That was not quite enough, and I lost points out to the right, finishing with a respectable, but not great, 95. 

Slow prone: There are two great challenges to shooting at 600 yards. The first is that the target is unforgiving. The X ring is just 6" ( 1 minutes of angle) across, so every little thing counts. Your position has to be solid, and consistent with a good NPA. You also have to keep a laser focus on the front sight, but still be seeing the target well. The other factor is wind. If you don't correct for it, or make the wrong correction, the wind can blow you completely off the target. I struggle a little bit with the first part, and the wind was tough. I estimated the predominant condition to be about 10mph, and variable. I put on 4.5 minutes right, and shot a 7 at 10 o'clock. I figured some of that was me, so I only put another minute right on the gun, and fired. The score keeper called out, "eight, dumb-ass." OK, the "dumb-ass" was implied, but you could hear it in his voice. I put another minute right on the gun, and the next shot came up a 10. From there, I did my best to read the wind, and chased the spotter a little bit. 

Juddgernauts - Spring League 2013

It was a good year. We were the second place Expert team, missing first place by 4 points (5582-90x to 5586-81x). Spring League Team Results

On the last match of the series, I set some personal bests:

97-2 / 100 Standing
191-4x / 200 Standing (first time breaking 190 offhand).

Navy Match: 474-11 (second Master score).

I also broke 1400 for the league (1500 agg).

2013 - 1403.025

2012 - 1394 

2011 - 1351

My off-hand was much improved. I did not do as well as normal in the rapids. Slow prone was a little improved. If I can maintain my slow scores,
I need to work on improving my rapids so that I can regularly shoot 98+, that get's me to the 480s.

Personal bests to date:
Standing  97/100; 191/200 (spring league, M4)
Sitting  100
R. Prone 100; 195 (2012 Creedmoor Cup)
S. Prone 186 - 3x; 94 (RC200), 95 (RC100)
Navy total: 474-11x (spring league, M4)
NMC total: 455-6x
800 Agg : 750 (2012 Creedmoor Cup)

Goals:
Standing: Clean, regular 90s.
Sitting:  Regular cleans
R. Prone: Regular cleans
S. Prone: 190, regular 90s ea. string.
NMC Total: 475, regular 470s.

Spring League 2011

Since I didn't add anything after the first match, I'll hijack this to be the Spring League 2011 results post.

Never give up, even if you think you're ahead. I was sure I had first place Sharp Shooter in the bag. I was                    8 points ahead of the guy in second. What I didn't figure was that he only had to shoot a 452 in match 4 to drop his low of 443, and pass me by one point. Which is what he did. Meanwhile, I had rifle problem* in match 4, and decided I could just call it a day, which would drop Match 4 as my low score.
In fairness to myself, I didn't realize I could have continued, and even if I had, I don't think I would have had time to shoot a full standing string.


*My buffer tube had backed out enough for the buffer retainer pin to come out and block up my action. It turns out you can shoot an AR without a buffer retainer pin, but you do have to get it out of your action.

Shooter             Total     M1      M2      M3      M4     Low     

Blatter Joseph C    1352.007 450.005 443.006 450.000 452.002 443.006
McGinnes Michael B  1351.018 450.004 448.006 453.008   0.000   0.000


First Match Notes:
Sitting:
up4, left 29. Need to be up 5 or 6, left 29.

Rapid prone:
up 11, left 23. at sighters. S1 was 8 at 3 o'clock. S2 9 @ 5:30. Adjusted sight to left 25. Was told 1st low at 6, second in the black (9-10 at 10). held a little high and kept getting "Good." Group was high right.

CMP Practice.

Standing

I actually managed to find a clear, warm day to go practice last week. The wind was calm; the sun was bright; the temperature perfect. I started with Standing practice. The good news is I can call my shots. It was nice to see the holes appear where I thought they would. I only got off 15 rounds during the shooting period, but they were mostly 8s, 9s, and 10s. The first shots seemed to be the best. As I shot, I was getting fatigued, and it was harder to settle the rifle. I guess I better get a little more exercise.




Sitting

Next came rapid sitting. It took me awhile to find a good position. If the I had a good head position on the stock, the rifle was pointed at the ground. If the rifle was pointed at the target, I couldn't get my head on the rifle, or my eyeball was in front of the rear sight. I finally got a good crossed ankle position, and shot a pretty good group (96-3x). Part of the solution was choking up on the front stock to bring the sights up to the target. I got a 1" stock spacer coming from Midway which should help get the rear sight away from my eye. I'm also getting a Ron Brown sling from Creedmoor, which I hope will help keep the sling in place.




Prone

I didn't really have the heart (or daylight) to shoot a slow prone string. I just didn't feel like messing with my sling again. The damn thing always works its way down my arm as I reach for single rounds. Therefore, I decided to shoot "Rattle Battle."


I shot my own 100yd version of Rattle Battle, with a 600yd target reduced for 100yds. The official stage is as many rounds as you can shoot in 50 seconds. I only had one loaded magazine, so I just shot that about as fast as I could. I'm pretty sure I was under 30 seconds. So, shooting 30 rounds in 30 seconds, I got 28 hits on a target that's a little over 3-inches wide at 100 yards. Not bad.

The Importance of Brass

I've been shooting Service Rifle for a little bit now, and I haven't paid too much attention to my ammo. I mostly shot inexpensive 55gr factory ammo that grouped around 3MOA.

Remington white box from the bench:


Georgia Arms from prone:



Earlier this year I got a 1:8 barrel, and some Sierra MK 69grs to go through it, but I haven't had a chance to try them out until recently. My first groups with the 69s were not any better than the 55s, about 2.5-3 MOA. After some reading, I decided to sort my brass by headstamp, load some rounds and head to the range. My first group with sorted brass:

Sierras in TW69 brass from the bench:



WTF? It turns out TW69 is really crappy brass made at the Twin Cities plant. During the time this brass was made, they were mostly concerned with productivity and not quality. Also, at least one of those shots on the right did not come from my rifle. Fortunately, I had also loaded some (mostly) once-fired R-P brass, and those fared much better.

Sierras in R-P brass from the bench:


You notice there are two distinct groups. One to the upper left with 6 shots, and one around the X with 4 shots (I think there's a double). When I got home, I weighted the R-P brass I hadn't loaded and found two distinct groups:

91| 1 1 3 3
91| 7
92|
92| 8 9
93| 0 0
93| 9

key: 93| 0 = 93.0 grains
leaf unit: 0.1 grains
stem unit: 1.0 grains

What, you don't know how to read a Stem and Leaf Plot? Anyway, Some of that is once fired from the same lot, and some is range brass, but I can't tell which is which. My guess is that each kind groups pretty well, they just don't happen to group in the same place.

Now I've got my brass sorted into Lake City, Winchester, and 'Blaster.' I also weighted the Winchester and culled anything that wasn't within a grain of average. I'll let you know how they shoot when I get them loaded (daddy needs a case trimmer). Oh, and the Lapua brass should be here Saturday.