Out and About

The weather was a cool 68-degrees when we rolled out at 9:45, no clouds. We went down Bass Lake Road through Serano onto White Rock Road, and took that way out to Scott and hung a left out in the middle of nowhere. We drove past the backside of the Hangtown MX National Track.
Scott is a quintessential crowned two-lane blacktop hoot-and-holler blind-turn decreasing-radius roller-coaster ride. Be careful, there’s no shoulder and the barb-wire fence is right there after the ditch. Surprise! Some heavy-equipment came past in the opposite direction, wide-load stuff that was too big (and slow) for the freeway. One rig was pulling a flat-bed equipment-trailer, with a well-used, giant-yellow, earth-moving dumper riding on it. It was like a super-giant Tonka truck. Wide-Load indeed, the rubber of the tires bulged-out off the side of the flatbed and I thought it might brush-off my side-mirror. Be careful for what you find out there.
We drove on down, up and down, through an arbor of old oak-trees to Jackson Road (Hwy 16) and (right turn) thence through Rancho Murietta to Ione Road and on down to Meiss Road. You can guess where that leads. Forty-odd miles later we arrived.
Waiting outside in the truck my wife had observed the “changing of the guard” protocols: the RO calling the Cease-Fire over the PA system, then checking down the line, calling safe, and everybody (what few were there this morning) standing back behind the yellow, or going forward to change targets. I had briefly explained the touch/no-touch rules, but for a non range-rat it really helps to actually *see* it in operation and understand the safety involved. My biggest gripe going shooting the very first time was that nobody told me what to do or not to do, and I got yelled-at by an RO because I was out-of-line. I didn’t think my wife would appreciate that kind of baptism by fire-breath. It’s something we should all do for newbies. We put eyes-and-ears on, and entered the Main range-house/Pro Shop for some orientation.
The Staff is friendly and facilities are HUGE! They operate the facility and have some 40-different vendors who teach and train there, lotta classes, lotsa public matches – and somehow I gotta get back into my CMP groove.
Upon entry to the facility, by the front gate, are separate Skeet, Trap, and Clay ranges. Up By the main-range house are the 100-yard Rifle and 50-yard Pistol ranges – with a 300-yard rifle-lane for the public (if you can shoot a 100-yard group).
Next to that is a whole Silhouette set-up, with chickens (200 M), pigs (300 M), turkeys (385M), and rams at 500 meters – huh, metric guys. Further along there are six action-pistol bays for the SASS crowd, and then you get to the 1,000 yard long-distance range…
We joined. My wife wants to go back and shoot her Model 90 Winchester, and revolvers. Maybe try the AR too…
On out way out we went back up to Jackson Highway and took a right, then after a few miles a left on Old Sacramento Road and another left when we crossed Latrobe. We drove up Latrobe back to EDH and had a pizza at a little place in the newly built “Towne Centre.”
We could have gone right on Latrobe to Plymouth, and from there up 49 to El Dorado, or taken South Shingle off Latrobe right up to Durock Road (my buddy Pete told me “Durock” (durak) means idiot/moron in Russian – take that Putin.), and that’s the way I’ll probably go on any return trip since it leads right home… Rain forecast for Wednesday.

Hack attack… (cancelled)

We are set to go ruin a nice walk in the sun-dappled rolling hills tomorrow – if it’s indeed sunny.

It looks like rain and I’m not so sure about my knee or wrists, not to mention ankles.

Or where to stash the flask.

Fluorescent colored balls help to find themselves, but it’s no green laser…

 

UPDATE: The weather shifted and dropped 20-degrees with a forecast of rain, and everybody woke up sore and achy in the windy overcast – so we bailed…

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.

Match Results

Whoo-wee! I think the GunBloggerRendezvous lit a fire under me. It was a nice day that cleared from some overcast to bright sun. Shot in the second relay on target #7 again and shot well, finishing as top Sharpshooter with a personal best of 427-6X. Not enough to make Expert, but getting there.
Not so great Offhand with a 73-0X, better in Rapid-Seated (same as last Practice actually) at 84-2X, much mo’betta in Rapid-Prone with a 93-2X, finished up with a 177-2X in Slow-Prone for my best score yet.
I think I like shooting on #7 not out of any notion of Luck but because it’s got a white target label between two black ones, and it’s a sharp angled shape between two curvacious ones – the 6 and the 8 – so I can pick it out better.

3rd Annual Mike Campbell Memorial Carbine Match

I think this is one of the most fun shoots we do, mainly because it’s so dynamic. The brass is flying all around, we move, and everything is done in rapids. We shoot prone rapid, sitting rapid, and standing rapid – two strings of ten shots from each position in 90-seconds.

We move from 100-yards Prone to 75-yards Seated, then to 50-yards for the Offhand, so the elevation is also changing constantly but not such as you might think – the hold has to change because the sights have limited flexibility. But it’s such a flat-shooting cartridge at 50-yards you just hold on the X and bang rapidly away and have a great time.
I had to remove the Aimpoint red-dot from my National Postal Meter, even though those were allowed last year – so the rules are constantly changing besides. Some things don’t change though, and my buddy the Distinguished shooter won again, but this time he didn’t “clean” the target. Ha! The guy who barely made it last year however came in Second, while I got Seventh with seven X’s. Out of about fourteen guys, that’s my mid-range style…

An unremarkable outing

I don’t even know my final Match score from Saturday, and they aren’t posted to the website yet. Offhand and the rapids went by before I settled down to slow-prone.

I totally threw one away into the dirt, besides that Six. Damn.

(FIL care redacted)

Meanwhile my own Dad turned 82 on Saturday. I have a couple small presents and we’ll have a get together dinner when my brother and his wife (and kid) come down on the 30th. The 30th is the day of the 2nd Mike Campbell Memorial Carbine Match. Gotta give the NPM a function checkout.