3 position rifle

I practiced 3 position rifle last Tuesday at the indoor range.  I forgot how hard smallbore rifle standing is.  I have been shooting a pellet rifle in my garage a lot but I still had a hard time with my .22.

The winter season is starting

It is snowing hard today and my mind is drifting away from hunting and back towards shooting.

I want to spend some time shooting 3 position rifle in preperation for next years HP Rifle season.  I think that shooting 3 position rifle is great pratice for HP Rifle.  You must have a better hold in 3 position than you do in HP.

I went to the Inland Empire Rifle and Pistol Associaiton web site and noticed that KISA didn't have any teams entered in last years postal match.  That is really too bad.  It is nice to see how you do competing against people from other areas.

But back to the point - next week I am going to try and shoot 3 or 4 position rifle at the indoor range at least once a week.

Nosler Club Program

Recently I learned about Noslers club program.  This program looks like it could be fantastic.  22 caliber 77 grain HPBT match bullets are $11 per hundred and .308 caliber 168 grain HPBT match bullets are $15 per 100.  This is less than half price.

You just don't get prices on bullets like this very often.  I am going to contact the KISA board and see if they will get us into this program.

Some clubs place an order quarterly, I would be happy to do it annually.  We could just put the order form in a newsletter and give people 30 days or so to place their order.

They have a lot of different bullets on their list, including many pistol bullets.

Changes at KISA

I went to the indoor range a couple of days ago and I can see how the club is changing.  The club used to hold a lot of bowling pin matches which I really enjoyed.  When I went to the range I could see were they took the steel table tops and after cutting them up they put them on the walls of the indoor range.

I don't know if this is because people don't like to shoot in matches where it takes a pistol a little stronger than a 9mm to win or they just aren't in to shooting in matches anymore.

Last winter some of the club board members threw away our high power rifle targets.  We pretty much got a new board three years ago.  In the last three years we have not had one board member shoot in a high power rifle match.

The club used to also hold charging bear matches this time of year and it doesn't look like it is going to happen this year.

The club has two sets of HP silhouettes and two sets of rimfire silhouettes but we havn't had a silhouette match in three years.

I guess that people aren't into shooting in matches any more.

Accident at Monashka Bay Range

Several weeks ago the Kodiak Police Department was firing at the Monaska Bay outdoor range.when two of their rounds left the range.  The bullets went into the landfill and hit one worker in the helmet and one in the neck.  Neither worker was hurt. What I have heard is that the police were firing thousands of rounds and some of them richoted into the landfill.

Thank goodness they were firing 9mm so nobody got hurt.

The reason I like a .45 is that shooting something twice is silly.

Sean from the AML/JIA came down and looked at both the Monashka Bay Range and the Salonie Creek Range today.  The Salonie Creek Range is a very safe range.  The only thing that needs to happen on an ongoing basis it making sure that the range boundry flags are in place.  They need to be checked reguarily.

The Monashka Bay outdoor range needs to be improved.  It would be best, in my opinion, if they changed the line of fire about 15 degrees to the left.  Jim Grahm drew up the planes for this many years ago and I think that they are still valid.

I am going to run these plans by some people that are into range development.

Last Highpower Rifle Match of 2011

This last Saturday was the last HP Rifle match in Kodiak for 2011.  We only had three competitors but they were all good shots.  Dave Ostlund won, I took second, and Bill Deal took third.  Bill would have taken second but he cross fired one standing shot at 200 yards.

For me the highlight of the match was shooting a "clean" 100 in the 200 yard rapid fire event.  I shot a 97 in the second 200 yard rapid fire which was also pretty good.  The interesting part of this second string is that I shot 9 tens and then a seven.  I don't see how I could even move my rifle that far off target my sling was so tight.

Dave Ostlund is going to take over the High Power Rifle matches next year.  I really look forward to shooting in them.  One change he is going to make is how we fire the Wednesday night matches.  Instead of walk and paste 100 yard matches he is going to move us back to 200 yards and use the carriers.  I think that it will work pretty good, I just worry that we can get done before it gets dark.

No matter what, I will be out there.  And I am looking forward to concentrating on shooting instead of trying to remember pasters, radio's, etc.

Last Wensday night match.

Last night was the last Wensday night match of the year.  And it was getting pretty dark by the end of the match.

And the match didn't go very good for me at all.  Standing was terrible - it was windy but I should have done better.

Sitting was bad - I figured out after the stage that my sling was too loose.  I have lost some weight and I think that I needed to tighten up my sling becase of it.

Prone rapid fire was bad, slow fire even worse.  By the slowfire prone stage it was getting dark and by shot 15 or so I couldn't see the bullseye very well.

In a week and a half is the Nelson Cup Island Championship followed by a L.E.G. match on Sunday.  I hope that we have good weather.  I am ready to shoot a good score.

Days are getting shorter

We only have one more Wensday night match and 2 Saterday matches left this year.  We also have a LEG match in September.

At last Saterday's match Dave Ostlund finally cleaned a target.  In fact he shot a 199 for the rapid fire sitting.  Not a bad score at all.

The bugs didn't seem bad when we got to the range last night so I didn't put on any bug repellant.  What a mistake!  I about got ate alive.

August matches are going good

Last Wensday's night match went pretty well.  We had 9 competitors so we had to fire in two relays.  Its getter harder to have two relays when the days are getting shorter but it went pretty good.

The weather was nice, dry with no wind.  But I like to have some wind because the bugs can be terrible.  And last night they were bad. It is hard to concentrate on your front sight when there is a bug crawling on it.

I did ok shooting a 451 but Dave Ostlund did great shooting a 476 - 7X.

My goal is to increase my average to 94% which means I have to start shooting 470's.  This is possible.

Life could be better

When I set for reloading this year I decided to use a RCBS X die.  Without knowing so I adjusted the die down too far.  So in rapid fire I meet my match.  In sitting rapid fire I had to shoot an alibi.  Not good.  In prone rapid fire I had to shoot to also shoot an alibi but when I did the rifle jamed again.  The problem was that I set the shoulders back when I resized the cases.

The funny part is that it never jamed when I shoot slowfire - only the rapid fire strings, and the first round out of the magazine - went sour.

I reset the die today but I have 300 rounds loaded up badly.  I will use them for pratice or for slowfire only.

First match of the season

Last Wensday night was the first match of the season.  It was cold and windy but it was not raining.  What made it harder was shooting into the setting sun.

The scores weren't great but we have a whole seaon to work on them.

And walking back from the targets I managed to sprain my ankle!

Delta Colorado High Power Rifle Match

On March 20 I was able to shoot a 100 yard HP Rifle match in Delta Colorado.  The range was nice and the people were even better.  They loaned me a rifle and sold me a 100 rounds of ammo at rock bottom prices.

It was a really nice experience since there were no bugs and it wasn't raining.

Regardless I managed to shoot the worst score of my life.  I must be getting old or something.  I hope I do better the rest of the season.

Kodiak Rifle Shooting

The Kodiak High Power Rifle season will start on April 16, 2011.  The first match will be one of our full distance 500 yard matches.

You don't need much to shoot in one of these matches.  A rifle with iron sights that will hold at least 5 rounds in the magazine is all you need to shoot.  Bring along 88 rounds of ammo, ear and eye protection, and you are set.

It is nice to have a spotting scope or a pair of binoculars.  A shooting mat is also nice but an old tarp will work.

Most people shoot AR15's, M1A's and M1 Garands because they can be accurate and they are easy to reload in the rapid fire stages.  They definitely aren't required though.

Go to the basics of HP Rifle to learn more.