|
Osage Orange
Sharpshooters 2005 Schedule - Online at www.swampworks.com/OsageOrange.html Match Schedule The Carbine Rattle Battle simulates (somewhat) the National Trophy Infantry Team Match held at Camp Perry during the National Matches. We will shoot at silhouette targets simulating the 500, 300 and 200 yard targetes (E and F silhouettes). If you have a carbine, please bring it. We generally can assemble 12-15 carbines, which works out well for 2 relays. Here's how it will work. We will assemble 4-person teams through random drawing, and each team will get 4 carbines and magazines. Each shooter will be issued 55 rounds of ammunition, and we will have a 5 minute sight-in period. You may shoot as many or as few sighters as you wish, but everybody gets 55 rounds of ammunition…no more, no less. Each 4-person team engages 6 targets. The outside shooters are called swing shooters, and they have to engage 2 targets each. Any team shooter may shoot any or all shots on any or all targets. Teams start in position, chambers loaded. The command "load and be ready" is given, and within 3 seconds "fire". You will then have 50 seconds to fire as much as you can. Hits on the 500 yard target are 3 points, hits on the 300 yard target are 2 points, and hits on the 200 yard target are 1 point. At each distance, the number of targets with 6 hits or more is squared (e.g., 3 targets have 6 or more hits, 3 squared is 9) and that value is added into your score. We'll probably have 4-6 teams competing, and the top team gets cash. Most likely, the folks going to Camp Perry will use this as a practice session, and their scores will not count. Newsletter
Problems One thing we never solved is whether or not we want to send the newsletter out as hardcopy, using the U.S. Mail. For the past 2 or 3 years we have been putting the newsletter up on the web site, but before that we used to send it out too. There are good reasons to do it both ways, but hardcopy provides some obvious logistical problems and expenses. If any you feels strongly about this, please communicate with me. I would be happy to re-institute the hardcopy newsletter but will not until somebody specifically requests it. Raffle News We are currently in the midst of raffling off a spotting scope outfit. It is a high-quality spotting scope rig, including a Kowa 821 M scope complete with 27 power long eye-relief eyepiece and scope cover; a scope head from Ray-vin; and a custom stand from Les Welch and his son. The rig retails for about $1100 total. When we sell 220 tickets, at $5 each, we will hold the raffle. Once that scope is raffled off, we will also raffle the smaller C-Star scope that was included by Jim Owens (www.jarheadtop.com) as part of the purchase of the Kowa. The smaller scope will also be raffled as a complete setup with one of Les's stands and a Ray-Vin head, so whoever wins it will be all set to go. The club will have a little over $200 invested in the scope, so we'll only sell about 50 tickets on this one. Remember, only club members are eligible to buy raffle tickets. Junior Program We averaged about 5 shooters per match for the 4 matches. No doubt I could have done a better job promoting the last match. Just as this newsletter is late, the promotional side of the club activities has gotten a little behind. Nevertheless, it should be obvious that our junior program is not a screaming success. From discussions with folks at other clubs and from email discussions with other match directors, we are not alone. In fact, we are quite typical and maybe even a bit better than most clubs. But I don't think success is judged on a relative scale; rather, I think absolutes apply here. And 4 shooters is a poor turnout for a match. So I will have some fairly radical proposals for you to consider over the winter months. They will involve cooperating with Dalton Range folks to run a clinic and a few junior matches at that range. Mike Brooks, the manager and education officer at the Dalton Range, has created a portable shooting range and has been visiting various schools and organizations trying to promote the sport with youth. He took this route because, just like us, he had fairly poor turnout at the range when he just scheduled something like a "Youth Shooting Day". I think if we try to work more closely with the Dalton Range on a competition program for young people, we might have more success. Right now, I am toying with the idea of extending our Spring clinic to a couple of days or evenings and orienting our shooting date in May to Rimfire Sporter. I would also like us to consider altering a couple of our summer shooting dates to Rimfire Sporter. In all cases, the emphasis would be on youth. At this point in time, all of this is just talk. And we need to talk more about it. My feeling is that we now have adequate shooting opportunities in Marshfield and Miller, that we could use the "draw" of the Dalton Range as a way to promote junior shooting. I think we need to try. Osage Orange
Shooters Everywhere Eight club members also attended the Kansas Regional, June 18/19 in De Soto KS. Our participation at "big" matches is increasing, and that is a good thing. It is sometimes intimidating, even for a middle-aged person who's had success in work, with family, and with church, to show up and shoot a rifle in front of strangers. Why is that? Why do we get nervous or care what other people think? We shouldn't because nobody gives a hoot what you shoot, only you. I think the best entertainment in the world is a day spent shooting across the course high power (200, 300, and 600 yards). It is one of the most demanding physical and mental games I have ever played (and I realize it is not for everybody because of these demands). I hope many more of our members will try it. Standing
Part I Building Position Your feet should be comfortably spaced. Too wide and you will become uncomfortable after a while; too narrow and you will lack support in the wind. I say approximately shoulder width, or whatever is comfortable. Where you put your support arm (left arm for us right-handed shooters) will somewhat determine how "sideways" to the target you stand. Start by having your toes touching an imaginary line drawn from the target towards you…in other words, sideways. The left arm and upper body are critical to a good position, and they also determine somewhat the relative placement of the feet. We could stand comfortably all day, but when we put a 8-15 lb rifle in our hands, it weights us down. So, the left (support) arm comes in against the rib cage and acts as a monopod to support the front end of the rifle. I put my elbow a little forward of my side, a bit more towards my heart, and so my feet have to open up. (That is, I move the left foot about 6 inches heelward to bring the muzzle back onto the target. I imagine my body being a door, hinged on my right side. If I opened the door all the way, I would be facing the target. If I closed the door, I would be facing away from the target.) Other folks place their elbow a little bit more on their side, and their hand hangs differently, and so they have to close up their position. Based on your elbow position and the shape of your body, your forward foot should be somewhere between 6" closed and 6" open. Every Army Marksmanship Unit shooter I ever watched was directly sideways to the target. Most shooting books say to get the support (left) elbow onto your hip. If I did this I would shoot worms. Indeed, it helps the stability if you stick your hip out a bit towards to target (DO NOT OVERDO IT). But no matter how far I stick that hip out, I cannot get my elbow and hip to meet up. Rather, I brace the side of my arm against my rib cage. Certainly my hip comes forward, and that tilts the upper part of my body thus providing a more stable platform for my upper arm to brace against my body, but I don't worry about bracing the elbow on the hip. Finally, you may have to induce a little arch in your spine to get the rifle over your center of balance. Again, don't overdo it. With the hip, the elbow, and the upper body back-bend, you are really fighting two opposing forces. You will find that the more tension you put on your body by thrusting the hip out and jamming the arm down, the more stable you can hold the rifle for a few moments. But then muscle fatigue starts to set in and the position breaks down. So comfort is all important I think that in positioning the support arm and the hips, and in the back bend, it is most important to remember the statement that you must feel like you can stand there all day. You must have some tension on your hips and bracing on your arm in order to hold the rifle up (that's part of feeling comfortable, the rifle is effortlessly supported). Other parts of your position, such as your cheek or your right hand, can involve a little tension or consciously held force on them and they won't break down drastically over time. But if your hips and upper body aren't in that sweet-spot relationship where you are stable but you can stand there all day, and if the rifle isn't effortlessly supported, it will not work. How you test this (and your trigger hand tension, yet to be discussed) is to practice holding the rifle up, on a target, for a minute: start the timer, raise the rifle and assume the position; line the sights up on the target. Close your eyes and count slowly to 3, then open them. If you are not on target, move your feet to get the sights lined up. You are finding your natural point of aim (NPA) Now continue to hold the position, concentrating on the front sight for the rest of the minute. Try this a few times and you will begin to develop a position that is comfortable but stable. Do this 5 or 10 times each night and you will greatly improve your offhand shooting. (By the way, if you just practice holding like this, you may find that the trigger pulls itself sometime when you are exactly centered.) Beginners (and others) make the biggest mistake in positioning the head. As a generalization, you may lower your head onto the stock, but do not tilt your head onto the stock. Lowering is a motion towards your nose. Tilting is a motion towards your ear. Tilting your head causes imbalance, and that is a bad thing. Here is where compromise rears its ugly head. Most people cannot mount a service rifle up to their cheek and keep the head from tilting without a significant cant to the rifle. In bringing the stock to the cheek, the front sight post rotates from the 6 o'clock position to 5 o'clock or earlier. Your choice is to shoot with a cant (and I know some excellent shooters who do) or to tilt your head (ditto). The back-bend or arch in your back helps a bit here, because it offsets a bit of head tilt. Whatever you do, you should not feel tension in your neck With the AR-15, one common piece of advice is to touch the charging handle with your nose; this works for sitting and prone, but for most people this will cause tremendous neck tension standing as you stretch down and forward. Place your head naturally on the stock and let it lay there. Your 1 minute holding drill will point out to you if you are stretching your neck too much. Finally, the right arm position and tension have come in for reams of argumentation over the years. Some people like a high elbow, some like a low one. A high elbow induces tension and stability, but…well, you know the rest of the story. You may want to experiment with a higher elbow, but to begin with, let the elbow hang naturally, wherever it wants. The right hand is a different story; there area series of "musts" to be observed with the trigger hand, and these cannot be violated or ignored or you will suffer. First, the trigger hand must hold the rifle firmly. Unless you have a firm grip, sympathetic movement of the thumb will induce offsetting force onto the stock as your trigger finger moves. That is a bad thing, because the only thing you want happening as you pull the trigger is for the trigger to move. All else must stay exactly where it was when your brain decided to pull the trigger. So a firm grip is necessary, especially with the thumb. Your head is holding the stock down with its weight, and some people like to pull the stock back into their shoulder with about the same amount of force. I think you will find pulling the trigger easier if you are also pulling the rifle back into your shoulder. Note how with the trigger arm, tension and force can be induced. We can pull into the shoulder, grip the stock firmly, and even raise our elbow (which kind of digs the buttplate into the shoulder a bit more). As in all things, don't overdo it. I have found that if I exert a large amount of tension with my right hand and arm, I can shoot a couple of super shots, but then, all of a sudden, I jerk the trigger uncontrollably. That's why I offered the suggestion that the amount of force you exert roughly equals the force exerted by your head upon the stock; sort of a nice, easy tension that holds the rifle firmly without trying to move it anywhere. So there it is: your 1
minute holding practice at home has shown you how to find a
comfortable and stable position; furthermore, the holding drill
has helped you easily find your natural point of aim when you
set up for a match. All you have to do is align the sights on the target and pull the trigger without disturbing the sights. Bill Corcoran wtc928f@smsu.edu |