Range Day Happiness

Went to the range today to finally, once and for all, get the Aimpoint sighted-in. Set the stands up at the 50-yard line and later plinked at 200 – they kinda have the same zero. Yeh, workin’ good. Pics of targets (booooring) tomorrow…
UPDATE: I had finished my build of the Noveske lower, complete with the hideous CA-Legal magazine locking system that requires a tool for removal, and had the Upper mated to the lower for this exercise.

I started by getting the Aimpoint zeroed on the little targets tacked down the left side (see top picture). That took a bunch of clicking on the scope’s windage and elevation turrets.

A gripe I have with Aimpoints like this is they don’t have “witness marks” that establish the vertical or horizontal plane – so if the scope is rotated or canted in the mounts at all, any bit of Left-windage can also result in some “UP” movement, and while trying to dial the dot DOWN you might also be sending it Right… Arrgh!

Anyhow I finally got some good placement results, and then tried shooting at those tacked vertically on the right.

I loaded the magazine with five rounds and fired five-shot rapids from the bench and was pleased with the results – albeit this is only 50-yards. The Aimpoint 2-MOA dot was just about the size of the black…



Later I switched to larger targets with a bigger “black” and did the same. They have a larger “black” but the same sized scoring rings. Yeehaw! Well, good for me anyhow.

And the bottom one I shot Offhand unsupported – crap! Actually better than I anticipated. Watching the bouncing dot move around as you try to hold steady is really a learning experience.

During the second string of fire I took a 200-yard target down and put it up on the stand at position #12 (the black part is 13-inches across) and found some interesting and satisfying results.

From my distance and with the mirage coming up off the ground, even with my spotting scope I couldn’t really tell what was goign on but, every now and again I threw a bullet downrange at it, firing six shots in all (UPDATE: by just holding the dot on the target center).

A bit of vertical stringing obviously.

So OK, I kinda feel I got this dialed-in now.

35° Degrees Fahrenheit

It was cool this morning, 35° – then it cleared out and brightened up, then some weather tried to get in and the wind came up and things got cold again.

I shot a miserable 67 offhand that killed my score, but I stuck around. I’ve heard that some guys take-off – I guess they figure there’s no point in further shooting once they blow a stage, but that kind of behavior doesn’t usually happen with the guys in my club. I shot on target #3 in the first relay with the regulars. We had enough new shooters for their own relay, so we lead – and then in the second stage we helped coach the new guys and did the target changes and scoring – that’s how it’s supposed to work, everybody chips-in.

Did sweetly with a 96-4X in rapid-seated (best yet), and then worked up a pretty good rapid-prone with an 85-1X – not my best but second-best. Finally in slow-prone I clicked up windage right two and up one, and settled in on tying up my best-yet slow prone score with another 182 – and then beat it with 4X’s! Small improvements in little increments. Finished with 430-9X.
There’s the score that went missing after the lightweight bullets came apart with the fast twist – those nine X’s “and twelve 3’s,” as my wife laughingly called it.
I got my 9-X’s back. But that lousy offhand – if I had got them in as I did at the last Match I would have made Expert, but its getting close…I can taste it.
Drove home and together we went out to La Fiesta for a Mexican lunch. The Casa Noble Añejo is killer in a Margarita, probably shouldn’t do that (mix it in a Margarita), but what the hell, it’s yummy.

66 + 79 + 91-1x + 180 = 416 – 1X

Got the 1-X in Rapid Prone, also my best result with a 91 – overall not quite as good as last year but not bad for no practice in three months! I threw a couple flyers; the eight I circled, and a Seven down at 7:00 o’clock out of the picture.

The day was bright and sunny, the hills dry and brown, the line full with competitors from our club the Zouaves, and the Santa Clara Club to see who would take home the Trophy.

Since David switched sides and Wes shot a few sevens, they did. One guy brought a 1916 in CA-Legal semi-auto to play with afterwards – that was bitchin’ cool, though belts are CA-limited to ten-links at a time.

He hit the 200-yard gong with the first two shots but the recoil forced him off after that – they have pretty sucky target sights (like NONE!) since that’s not their intended purpose.
From the Garage sale we still have the fins and the purple Vanson motorcycle-chick jacket, but we sold the rug and table which was the main event. My sister eventually sold most of her stuff, after getting us to help unload and then totally disappearing – though she ended the day with some extra drama and now an ex-boyfriend. I wish to hell and pray that some day finally she’ll get a serious clue and make better choices. It’s not cool to be a 50-something “follow-your-heart & flower-power” and yet again, always still bumping up against the slime-a-zoids and assholian creeps.