Posted: 2/5/2007 12:56:10 AM EDT
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Practical Rifle Annual Sniper Match Saturday, February 10th will actually be two matches: one for bolt-action rifles and one for semi-auto rifles. You will only compete against your style of rifle. You can pay twice and shoot both kinds of rifles, but will only be eligible for the trophy or plaques with the rifle you declare as primary (primary rifle will always be shot first on each stage). There is no reason to miss this match just because you don’t have a bolt action rifle. Terry is the match director and I may or may not show up, depending on how my knee surgery turns out on Thursday. One of the highlights of my life was meeting this man: oldbluejacket.com/CarlosHathcock.htm http://i9.tinypic.com/4hirvut.jpg en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlos_Hathcock Rest in Peace, White Feather. Practical Rifle has long been a unique venue to shoot in. The availability of the large quarry area in the gun club has made our shooting matches something that would be difficult to find elsewhere. I know that these matches have improved my shooting abilities and made me much more comfortable and safe with battle rifles. I have been told by some of our shooters that have been deployed overseas that the experience they received in our matches has helped them to carry out their mission. Each year we hold our Annual Practical Rifle Sniper Match in February, in place of our regular match. Sometimes I have received criticism because this match is not like other sniper or precision rifle matches. I appreciate the input. However, the Practical Rifle Sniper Match is not intended to be like other sniper or precision matches. Our goal is to have a well-planned, well-run match for the Practical Rifle shooters who want to test their skill not with their usual battle rifles, but with their most accurate sniper-style rifle. To keep with the traditional “feel” of Practical Rifle, time is often used to increase the pressure on the shooter. The stages must be set up to run quickly and smoothly. Otherwise, everyone ends up spending the entire day out in cold weather and the experience doesn’t end up nearly as positive. Well, I’ve been rambling again and Terry says I should keep that to a minimum. The purpose of this email is to let you know what the proposed stage designs are (so far) for this match. Due to circumstances beyond our control, this match will likely have all stages on the big-bore range and the adjacent .22LR range. If we can, we will do a special stage in the quarry. Proposed Stages: STAGE ONE – KNOW YOUR LIMITS (PHASE ONE) Shooter will have a short time to get into position on an unstable platform and load their rifle. They will then have a fixed time to engage their choice of eight targets with five rounds only at various distances from 100 to 300 yards. Each target will be labeled with its score value based on its distance and difficulty. Placement is based on number of points scored with your five shots only. STAGE TWO – SNAPSHOTS A steel target will be placed at approximately 200 yards away. Shooter’s rifle will be staged on table with bolt closed on empty chamber. Shooter will be standing upright with hands at sides. On signal, shooter retrieves rifle, gets into his or her choice of position, and takes one shot at target. Scorekeeper records hit or miss and time. This is repeated five times with rifle being restaged with the bolt closed on an empty chamber each time. Placement is based on total number of hits with ties broken by lowest times. STAGE THREE – KNOW YOUR LIMITS (PHASE TWO) Shooter will “low-crawl” to a barricade with rifle (bolt closed on empty chamber). Shooter will then engage small, smaller or tiny targets at 300 yards with five rounds only. The smaller the target, the higher the point value. All misses count the same. There will be a maximum time limit that starts once shooter reaches barricade. Placement is based on total points. STAGE FOUR – FIVE MEN RUNNING, WALKING AT VARIOUS SPEEDS Shooter will have one shot only at each of five moving targets at various speeds (five passes, five shots). Placement is based on total points. STAGE FIVE – SNIPER GOLF Become a scratch player with your sniper rifle! You will get five shots only at five balls at varying distances from 25-100 yards. One shot only at each of five distances under time pressure. Placement is based on number of hits with ties broken by lowest time. STAGE SIX – LONG DISTANCE SNIPER This stage will happen only if we can get clearance to shoot into the big pit. If it happens, this will be the stage you remember. Distance will be in the neighborhood of 450 yards. There will be two targets, one large and one small. You get one shot only at your choice of one of the two targets. You get one point for the large target and two points for the small one. Ties are broken by fastest time. Getting into position may require some physical exertion. All of these proposed stages are subject to change before the match. If you have suggestions for better stages that are in the spirit of Practical Rifle and can be run smoothly and quickly, please get them to me as soon as possible. This year, there will be two matches: one for bolt-action rifles and one for semi-auto rifles. We will be awarding nice trophies for the two match winners and plaques for 2nd through 5th and top ten in each category and top female sniper and top law enforcement, plus stage winners. This match has always been fun, but it is much more fun if your rifle is sighted-in before the match. I encourage everyone to be prepared! Randy An Armed Society is a Polite Society Reach out and touch someone. Don't try to run. You'll only die tired! "man or woman, young or old, my sights are steady, and my trigger cold. walk or run, laugh or cry your in my A.O., now you die!" (sent to me by an ex-USMC) (Bolt) Actions speak louder than words. A sadist kills for pleasure, a mercenary kills for money, a marine kills for both. I was also honored to meet this man: Jeff Cooper Since we no longer use bolt-action rifles in the military service, many people never learn how to use them. The curse of the bolt gun is short-stroking. If you don’t withdraw the bolt far enough, you will not pick up the next round and will be rewarded with a click when you expect a bang. This is a bad development and may get you killed. Show that bolt no mercy. Slam it back! Jeff Cooper I used to assume that most practical rifle shooting was done from the sitting position, properly looped up. I am not sure of that now. I do agree that sitting is very useful, but over the last couple of decades I have discovered personally that I have shot more from a rest and from off-hand than from sitting. This, of course, depends upon the terrain in which hunting is conducted. If you are hunting in open mountains or prairie, you will probably use the same position more frequently than in the low veldt or in deer forest. In both the low veldt and most deer shooting you will use off-hand a great deal more and, of course, off-hand is the most challenging firing position. It takes more study and calls for more skill to bring off correctly. It should be noted that the shooting sling is of no use in unsupported positions. It only helps you when you have something to rest your elbow on. So the shooting sling is particularly useful in braced sitting and, if you must use it, in the kneeling position. Ordinarily you do not need it for prone because in prone you can usually get down onto the ground and use the Hawkins (a type of fist-rest) position. The rest position involves placing the left fist upon the ground or upon a rest and hanging on to the forward end of the sling strap. Usually there is a time problem in shooting from off-hand. There will be only a short time available in which to get off a good squeeze. You will have the chance to control your squeeze only if you are aware of the amount of time your target is going to wait around. Your target may not stand there forever, and often you will see that the time problem is going to be limited by the action of the target. For example, if the target is walking, he will walk between a clear space and cover, and you must be sure to get your squeeze off in the time available when he is still walking. Jeff Cooper The proliferation of the bench rest has been a definite backward step in marksmanship. Properly used, the bench rest practically eliminates human error, and human error is the measure of marksmanship. The revered Townsend Whelen left us with the troublesome dictum that "only accurate rifles are interesting." This is simply not true - in my opinion. Most rifles are more accurate in the inherent sense than almost all shooters, and this gets us nowhere. I was distressed by the idea as a youth, unaware that a rifle's worth must be evaluated by the purpose for which it is intended. A rifle which is particularly suited to stopping a charging elephant need not print minute angle groups - or two minute angle groups. Printing tiny groups is only critical if the printing of tiny groups is the object of the exercise, and this is usually not the case. In my opinion, the most important single desideratum in a rifle is "shootability" - a combination of at least half a dozen different characteristics. This is certainly not to say that intrinsic accuracy in a rifle is not important, but it is to say that small increments of accuracy are too often over-emphasized. Group size in a rifle is rather like drag time in a sports car. It is interesting, but it is not the whole story. Jeff Cooper By ANTONIO CASTANEDA, Associated Press Writer Sun Jul 30, 12:57 PM ET RAMADI, Iraq - He was 5 when he first fired an M-16, his father holding him to brace against the recoil. At 17 he enlisted in the Marine Corps, spurred by the memory of 9/11. Now, 21-year-old Galen Wilson has 20 confirmed kills in four months in Iraq and firedanother 40 shots that probably killed insurgents. One afternoon the lance corporal downed a man hauling a grenade launcher five-and-a-half football fields away. Wilson is the designated marksman in a company of Marines based in downtown Ramadi, watching over what Marines call the most dangerous neighborhood in the most dangerous city in the world. Here, Sunni Arab insurgents are intent on toppling the local government protected by Marines. Wilson, 5-foot-6 with a soft face, is married and has two children and speaks in a deep, steady monotone. After two tours in Iraq, his commanders in the 3rd Battalion, 8th Regiment call him a particularly mature Marine, always collected and given to an occasional wry grin. His composure is regularly tested. Swaths of central and southern Ramadi, 70 miles west of Baghdad, are dominated by insurgents who regularly attack the provincial government headquarters that Marines protect. During a large-scale attack on Easter Sunday, Wilson says, he spotted six gunmen on a rooftop about 400 yards away. In about 8 seconds he squeezed off five rounds — hitting five gunmen in the head. The sixth man dived off a 3-story building just as Wilson got him in his sights, and counts as a probable death. "You could tell he didn't know where it was coming from. He just wanted to get away," Wilson said. Later that day, he said, he killed another insurgent. Wilson says his skill helps save American troops and Iraqi civilians. "It doesn't bother me. Obviously, me being a devout Catholic, it's a conflict of interest. Then again, God supported David when he killed Goliath," Wilson said. "I believe God supports what we do and I've never killed anyone who wasn't carrying a weapon." He was raised in a desolate part of the Rocky Mountains outside Colorado Springs, "surrounded by national parks on three sides," he says. He regularly hunted before moving to Fort Lauderdale, Fla., as a teenager. His brother also serves in the military. Guns have long been part of Wilson's life. His father was a sniper in the Navy SEALS. He remembers first firing a sniper rifle at age 6. By the time he enlisted he had already fired a .50-caliber machine gun. "My father owned a weapons dealership, so I've been around exotic firearms all my life," said Wilson, who remembers practicing on pine cones and cans. "My dad would help me hold (an M-16), with the butt on his shoulder, and walk me through the steps of shooting." Technically, Wilson is not a sniper — he's an infantryman who also patrols through the span of destroyed buildings that make up downtown Ramadi. But as his unit's designated marksman, he has a sniper rifle. In the heat of day or after midnight, he spends hours on rooftop posts, peering out onto rows of abandoned houses from behind piles of sandbags and bulletproof glass cracked by gunfire. Sometimes individual gunmen attack, other times dozens. Once Wilson shot an insurgent who was "turkey peeking" — Marine slang for stealing glances at U.S. positions from behind a corner. Later, the distance was measured at 514 meters — 557 yards. "I didn't doubt myself, if I was going to hit him. Maybe if I would have I would have missed," Wilson said. The key to accuracy is composure and experience, Wilson says. "The hardest part is looking, quickly adjusting the distance (on a scope), and then getting a steady position for a shot before he gets a shot off. For me, it's toning everything out in my head. It's like hearing classical music playing in my head." Though Wilson firmly supports the war, he used to wonder how his actions would be received back home. "At first you definitely double-guess telling your wife, mom, and your friends that you've killed 20 people," Wilson said. "But over time you realize that if they support you ... maybe it'll make them feel that much safer at home." He acknowledges that brutal acts of war linger in the mind. "Some people, before they're about to kill someone, they think that — 'Hey, I'm about to kill someone.' That thought doesn't occur to me. It may sound cold, but they're just a target. Afterward, it's real. You think, 'Hey, I just killed someone,'" says Wilson. Insurgents "have killed good Marines I've served with. That's how I sleep at night," he says. "Though I've killed over 20 people, how many lives would those 20 people have taken?" Wilson plans to leave the Marines after his contract expires next year, and is thinking of joining a SWAT Team in Florida — possibly as a sniper. bw An Armed Society is a Polite Society |
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I forgot to include that sign-up is at 8:30 am on the 300 yard line at the big-bore range at Tri-County Gun Club. The $15 match fee doubles after 9 am. The match starts at 9 am. Please be on the 300 yard line by 9am. Also, because we will be using some steel targets, the maximum caliber is 3006. bw http://i9.tinypic.com/2iw94sh.gif http://i19.tinypic.com/2l9ljef.jpg |