The guy in the photo with me is the smith who is building my 204 (and 17fb and 20ppc and bat 6.5 x 284). You'll note the photo of the 1000yd range from the bench and then the same photo taken on zoom. Long way away! Remember guys this was written for my local board so sorry for the references to people you dont know (I havent convinced them they need a 204 yet). The Pies (Collingwood) are my Aussie rules team and they went down by 5 points in the preliminary final
Righto, technically this should be in shooting sports section but some members only read certain bits and I just felt like sharing!
After the Leeton shoot i had to follow up to see if i really liked it. The Procal at Canberra is the last 500 fly of the season.
I upset my boss off by leaving our conference before the formal dinner (piss up) and flew straight to canberra where Rinso picked me up from the airport on Friday night. I watched the last half of the replay even though I knew the Pies had blown it with Ethan (Rinso Jnr) and Rinso.
At 7am Sat off to the range for the 500m Fly. I learned a few things. one stands out, if you are shooting a 6.5x284 free recoil, use your shoulder to stop it, not your forehead, ouch!
Met up with Shane and the rest of the "Clancy Gang". Up until then everyone was being nice to me, encouraging the eager amateur. I asked why I didnt have a Clancy hat so I could be in the gang, only to be told, learn to shoot, then you can have one. The niceties were over thanks to Jugs! I got Shane to pose for the 'show off the Ausvarmint polo shirt" shot
The firing line had an impressive array of equipment
including Shane's heavy gun and the light gun I was using.
We saw a collection of shehane trackers
the nicest looking rifle award goes to our own Ackley Improved. I must say I seem to share his taste in guns
The firing line was pretty busy
The conditions were very challenging with gusting changable wind and strong mirage. I did OK to score 99 on my first 4 targets and was heading for a middle range score. I would have been happy with a mid range score on my first big event. The mirage meant you couldnt see bullet holes in your target but judicious use of the sighter shots on the splash plate let you get on paper.
On my last target the wind changed direction completely. My splash plate had taken a bit of a pounding (there were 3 details) and I couldnt tell if the marks were new or old. Its now that I recount the next lesson. Shoot with a spotter. I made a different allowance for the changed wind but didnt allow enough. Turns out I was missing the splash plate but couldnt tell because of the dark marks left on it. A spotter would probably have seen this.
I was now shooting completely blind and picked a spot where i thought I had made enough allowance and ratteld off 5 shots in a similar wind condition as fast as i could load them.
When i saw the target there were 2 holes cutting and another within a 20ct piece diameter, problem was they were all on the edge, outside the scoring rings and the other 2 shots had completely missed. I kept walking back and forward from the shooting line to the target display but the holes never moved no matter how many what ifs I went thru. Bugger, finished on 99, 24th out of 31 and had to cough up the $10 to Ethan who scored 111. I knew I was completely hooked then because I was so pissed by this stuffed up target.
This morning was the 1000yd.
After my sighters (which Rinso says were all over the place from his view in the butts) i thought i had the wind figured. First shot was in the blue centre ring. The flags stayed in the same general direction and only the horizontal height of the flags was varying. I only allowed a couple of inches on the target for these variations and put the next four down in the blue ring for a 47.1, highest single target (heavy or light) shot on the day. It was a real good feeling to be patted on the back by 'real' target shooters.
A single target means nothing in 1000yd your aggregate over 2 targets is what counts.
Lesson 3 read mirage as well as flags. I didnt. The wind had completely reversed. I got one in the blue centre, three grouped out round about the 6 ring and one was a flyer, low and out to the one or two ring. I either pulled the shot or there was a subtle wind change that the flags didnt show. Anyway score was 31, dammmmmm. Well I will become a regular (when I get my hat) and my own 6.5x284. It really is addictive and the people are great, I have made some new friends.
Give it a go guys.
Hold 'em & Squeeze 'em