Posted: 6/19/2007 6:45:55 PM EDT
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The Utah high power championship was held this last weekend in Green River. I was able to get my a$$ brutally kicked in the sweltering heat at the range while the family leisured down the cool Green river. The title was again taken by a Colorado shooter (come on Utah shooters!) that absolutely stomped everybody and was a junior to boot. Congratulations, he was a fine shooter. Any Utahn interested needs to take a look at the high power shooting program here in Utah. I encourage those thinking about it to give it a try this summer at one of the practice matches held in Centerville. Bring what you have and see if you've got what it takes to "keep it in the black". Standard configuration AR's do surprisingly well if you have one available. Don't let all the junk that the "regulars" use scare you off, it's just stuff of convenience...most of it is not necessary. Come on out an give it a try!      SEE YOU AT THE NEXT MATCH!!! |
| TempExp, you're telling me. You rocked last Saturday's match. Congrats to you. I've thought about doing high-power. Looks fun. That said, I can't hit a 5-inch popper at 60 yards or so consistently, off-hand. I think that takes me squarely out of the running. Damn... |
The rifles are upwards of 13lbs. You want to have as much support done by bone as you can since muscle tires after a short time and leads to a larger arc of movement. The support arm is held close to the body to allow much of the weight to drop down onto the elbow. I like to jam my elbow into my side and throw my hip out a little to form a little shelf to rest my elbow on. There are many different ways to hold the rifle using the support hand. It's a matter of lots of dry firing and getting into position to find what works for you. I like to splay my index and middle finger with the delta ring since I feel that allows me to keep my wrist locked and supporting the weight straight down more. I've tried having my palm wrap around near the ejection port but I didn't like having the brass sometimes hit my hand. The sitting/kneeling stage is started from the standing so you can see one shooter prepared to drop down into the sitting position when the time starts. The slow-fire is stage is also started from the standing so good shooters have spent hours just practicing getting into the position they like as fast as possible but keeping their heart rate slow. |
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Gixxersixxer pretty much has it summed up...AR's are held "weird" in highpower sometimes because it is effective for that type of shooting. Shooters try and keep their cheek-weld as consistent as they can throughout the three shooting positions. That usually means that during the standing stage, you hold the rifle quite high on the shoulder. And yes, match rifles often are "leaded" down for increased weight. A heavy rifle is more stable and moves around less, which is a good thing when the wind is blowing so hard that you can't keep your sights on your own target! The additional weight also reduces the mild recoil down to almost nothing, which helps some shooters overcome flinching. It's a great sport and fellow competitors are some of the nicest folks I know. If any of you guys out there are former Marines and liked the annual rifle qualification like I did, you would like shooting highpower as it is very similar. Utah has a very active schedule during the summer months with matches most weekends. YOu can even show up early and register right on the spot. Bring what you have and tell them you are a new shooter - they will hook you up! |