Bears

The other night we were shooting the 200 yard standing portion of the match and a bear walked behind us about 25 to 50 yards away.  The bear didn't seem to care about us which was just fine with me.

Civilian Marksmanship Program (CMP)

I see that KISA has decided to drop our membership to the CMP.  I know that there are members of the club who would still like to pick up a M1 Garand, an old bayonet, etc.

I guess that times are changing.

Alaska State Highpower Rifle Championship

I went to Fairbanks again to shoot in the State High-Power Rifle Championship. It was a lot of fun but I didn’t do a fantastic job of shooting.  The week before the match I changed my sling, my offhand hand position, and added 8 pounds of weight to my rifle.

That is not what you are supposed to do during a match.

I guess that I continue to learn even though I am becoming an old man.

CMP - LEG match

I was hoping that KISA would put on a LEG match. Looks like it isn't going to happen. First Dave Ostlund said that the board didn't want to tie up the Salonie Creek range for another day.

Then I went to the CMP website to see what CMP clubs there are in Alaska. I see that KISA has dropped their affiliation.  It would have been nice to have kept our membership in case any of the club members wanted to order a M1 Garand or some other rifle from the CMP but I guess that is their problem.

USA Shooting

USA Shooting has some great information on competive shooting on their web page.  Check it out.

http://www.usashooting.org/11-resources/shootinginstruction

AR15 gas leak

For some time my AR15 has been blowing gas and stuff back into my face.  It wasn't too dangerous but it was a real pain in the face.  Anyway I found an easy fix for it.  If you are having this problem here is the solution.  And it really does work.

http://www.03designgroup.com/technotes/do-it-yourself-gas-buster-charging-handle

1st Kodiak HP Match in 2012

Last night was the first HP rifle match in Kodiak.  Dave Ostlund is running them this year and I think that he will do a very good job.

The match started on time at 7:00 but because of the new format it went past 11:00.

This year Dave is going to use the pits and shooting at 200 yards instead of the old walk and paste 100 yard matches.  It is nice using targets that are pulled into the pits to be scored but it takes a lot more time.

Dave says that he may change it so that we shoot the 200 yard events one Wensday and then the 300/600 yard events the next Wensday.  The 300/600 yard events would still be shot on reduced targets at 200 yards.

On the way home we did see a bear on the banks of the river between the bridge and the ocean.  It wasn't to big but I wouldn't want to wrestle with it.  The funny part is that bear season closed the day before.

3 position 22 5/9/2012

The high power rifle match was cancelled today becasue of heavy rain.  There was some snow in the rain, but not very much.

I decided to go shoot the 3 position rifle course since I had the evening free.  It went very well.  Too bad I didn't get to shoot this well in the HP Rifle match.

I would like to comment on the restrooms in the indoor range.  They are really dirty.  I would be mortified if they were in a restraunt or a store.  The toilets and the sinks are covered with grime and dirt.  I hope that they get it cleaned up in the near future.

2012 High Power Rifle Matches

I added a new page for the 2012 HP Rifle match dates and times.

Working in the pits.

Some people have asked about what happens in the pits at a highpower rifle match.  I have added a page with links to some videos.  These will show it pretty well.

.22 ammo tests

This ammo test is fantastic.  I strongly urge you all to look at it.

http://www.accurateshooter.com/guns-of-the-week/22lr-rimfire

New link

I just added a link to another site called HP Rifle links.  It is the place to go to get a lot of information on HP Rifle shooting.

http://www.iowahighpower.com/hplinks/index.htm

Wind drift

I found a pretty cool chart showing the wind drift of several common match bullets.

Click here if you would like to see it.

Board Stipends

I was talking with Bob Tucker a couple of days ago and he mentioned something that the KISA board is doing now.  Since I got off the board they started letting the board members have free memberships.  I wish we would have done that while I was on the board.  That would have saved me more than a couple of hundred bucks over the years.

Colorado Match

A couple of weeks ago I went to see my mother in Colorado so I took along my AR15 and shot in a match there.  I did terrible.  The front sight was blurry and so was the target.

On the sitting rapid fire I had a misfire and instead of claiming an alibi I thought that I would just hurry up and get 10 shots off.  I got off ten shots, but I did it much too quickly, and shot a bad score.  I did ok in the prone rapid fire - but not great - with a 94.

Got to the slowfire prone and my sight picture was really bad.

A couple of days later I went to an outdoor match with my frien Van and I forgot my glasses.  Everything was a lot better.

Then I went to Dr. Shank yesterday.  My vision has gotten better since last year and he told me not to wear glasses.  Duh - why didn't I check this before I shot.

Another note - I was eating a lot of sugary junk food for a couple of days before the match.  I don't think that eating sugar helps your vision at all.

Anyway, I am going to start this year not wearing glasses - we will see what happens.

Suggestions to Military Riflemen by Townsend Whelen.

This is a very good book that was written in 1909.

http://books.google.com/books?id=TphJAAAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false

A lot of it is still relevant today

2012 Highpower Rifle Matches

Dave Ostlund is taking over the Highpower Rifle Matches this summer.  He held a class in it yesterday and I heard that he got a pretty good turnout.

It may be a really good HP season.

I am looking forward to shooting without having to worry about running the matches.

Action Pistol/Rifle Match

I went and shot in another one of KISA's steel challenge matches today.  I didn't do that good.  My High Standard pistol kept jamming.  On the last round I thought that I would try the other magazine.  It worked perfectly.  Duh!

My Remington 597 jammed a couple of times but it is starting to settle down pretty good.  I just need to learn how to shoot faster.

While I was there I heard that the club had cleared the snow from the road to the Salonie Creek Range.  He said that the club paid $4,500 to clear the snow.   That is a lot of money for snow removal.

I guess that it is necessary to keep the road to the Salonie Creek Range open since the Monashka Bay outdoor range is still closed.  I haven't heard of any effort by the club to get it reopened.  I guess that they are waiting for summer.

3 Position Rifle

I haven’t shot 3 position rifle lately so I thought that I would break out my Anschtz and give it a try.  Boy, did I shoot terrible!  The rifle was heavy and it was hard to hold it on the targets.  When I finished shooting 60 shots (20 standing, 20 prone and 20 sitting I was tired.

I must be getting old. 

I did try my Remington 597 today.  For the first couple of magazines it jammed on the second round but then it started working flawlessly.  I hope that it shoots good next Sunday.

KISA action pistol and rimfire rifle match

I went and shot in the KISA rifle and pistol steel plate match today.  Boy, did I do a nose dive straight into the ground.

First off my rifle wouldn't shoot.  I cleaned it today and when I put it back together I used the Remington instructions.  They said to use 11 ft in of torque.  When I used that much the bolt would hardly move.  I backed it off some and went to the match.

I could never get it to shoot 5 rounds without missing.  I went to the rimfire shooting web page http://rimfireshooting.com and asked for advice.  The people said to use no pressure on the guide rails.  I have changed the pressure on my guide rails and I will go see if it works better this week.  It does seem to cycle a lot better than it used to.

Next stop was rimfire pistol.  I pulled out my trusty High Standard Victor and went to the line.  I have been having a lot of trouble with misfires in it.  I sent it back to be cleaned but it was still misfiring.  It looked like the fire pin was hitting the cases hard enough, they just weren't going off. 

I switched to CCI standard velocity.  Not one misfire.  I can live with that.

Nest stop - centerfire pistol.  My .45 acp would always go off, I just couldn't hit anything.  I changed my load and haven't checked it on paper yet.  I am going to make it a point to do so.