I was asked to come and do some bragging at your meeting. I`d never miss an opportunity like that. I am in no way a public speaker, so bear with me. A braggart yes, a speaker no.
 
I competed at the National Matches at Camp Perry in Ohio last month. Camp Perry is located about 40 miles East of Toledo, right on the shores of Lake Erie. The National Matches have been held since 1903. The 57th Congress passed a bill that set the foundation for the National Matches, by creating the National Board for the Promotion of Rifle Practice. Teddy Roosevelt was very supportive of the idea. The National Matches have been held at Camp Perry since 1907. These Matches attract most of the top shooters in Highpower Rifle, Bullseye Pistol, Smallbore Rifle and a few other disciplines. All different skill levels are represented though, if you can safely handle a firearm and are not otherwise restricted from shooting, you are welcome at Camp Perry.  It`s pretty much the pinnacle of the shooting season for most competitive shooters. In recent years, the matches have attracted 6000-7000 shooters. The National Matches last about a month, to accommodate all the different types of shooting. The different types of Highpower Rifle Matches last a couple of weeks.
 
The match I participated in was the President`s Match. It`s part of the Highpower Rifle or more specifically the NRA Service Rifle portion of the National Matches. It is a 30 shot match fired at 200, 300 and 600 yards. The course of fire is 10 shots standing in 10 minutes at 200, 10 shots from standing to prone in 70 seconds at 300, then 10 shots in 10 minutes from prone at 600. A few things make this match more difficult than some of the others. The reasons being, it`s almost always windy there, coupled with the fact no sighting shots are allowed, it`s a major event and it`s a very long day. The wind is stiffer there than at anywhere else I`ve shot. Fortunately, it`s a relatively constant wind, with the emphasis on relatively. Therefore, if you estimate the wind speed and direction correctly, set your sights accordingly, then watch and correct for changes, you are in a pretty good position to do well in the slow fire stage at 600. Because the 600 yard stage is slow fire, if your wind call is off, you can make a correction for the next shot.


At 300 yards, it`s a different story. There you set your sight correction as necessary, then you send all 10 shots down range, hoping they hit where you want. The potential for dropping several points is very great here. At 200 yards a missed wind call won`t beat you up too bad, and as with the 600 yard stage, you can correct on your next shot.

As for the targets involved, it`s a conventional round target, with a black center on an off white background.  At 200 and 300 yards the 10 ring is 7” in diameter. The 600 yard 10 ring is 12” in diameter. The  black of the target is reasonably large, so you can see them through open sights.
 
There are three different rifles allowed in NRA Service Rifle Competition. The M1 Garand, the M-14 or M1A and the AR 15. Original style open sights have to be used. The rifles have to maintain the external features of their military counterparts, with only a few exceptions. They also have to use the same cartridge as the military used or it`s civilian equivalent. Hand loads, different bullets etc, are allowed though. Most use a heavier bullet than standard, at least for the 600 line. They tend to buck the wind better. Triggers have to be able to lift a 4 ½ pound weight, before it releases the hammer. Internal modifications are pretty much unlimited.
 
Now that you have more of an understanding of the sport, I`ll go into the lucky day I had at the Camp. Fortunately, the winds were light and coming at my back at the 200 yard line, so I only had to contend with me, the rifle and the target and didn`t have to fight the wind to hold still. A 10-15 mph crosswind makes for a very nasty experience at 200. I also didn`t have to worry about having to move the sight left or right. I managed a 96 out of 100 there.

When it came time to shoot the 300 prone rapid stage an hour or two later, the wind had picked up somewhat and started coming in at more of an angle. I estimated I had to add about 4 clicks of left windage to keep my shots centered up. On my sights one click of windage will move the shot about 3/4 “ at 200, 1 1/2” at 300 and 3” at 600. I managed to get the wind call close enough to keep 9 out of the 10 shots in the ten ring for a 99 out of 100. I actually would have been better off with only 3 clicks of windage. This would have allowed me to shoot a 100. I was not complaining though, I was down only 5 points out of 200 with two thirds of the match in the can. After a couple hours or so, I got my chance to shoot at 600.

By this time, the wind had picked up a good deal more and started to gust. Not good news. I took my best educated guess and put on 12 clicks of left windage and fired. I managed a 9 only about 2” from left side of the 10 ring. I took 1 click off and was going along pretty good, firing 9s and 10s. I tried to fire as quickly as possible so as to avoid a wind pick up or let off. I thought to myself, hang in there and you`ve got it.

I`m sure you know what happened next, but I will tell you anyway. I broke what I thought was a decent shot and waited to see what the value was. It was a six! Uh oh, I said a few choice words, concentrated on the job at hand and managed to shoot 10s for the final 3 shots. You can say a few choice words on the firing line, because everyone is wearing earplugs. I did a little quick math and thought I should still make the cut.

As I was unslinging and getting out of position I turned to the young fellow who was recording my score. He had a blank look on his face as he said, “I`ve only got you down as firing 9 shots”. I said, “Oh no, I`m 100% sure I fired ten shots”. I put my ammo in a holder to keep track. I told him I had dropped a total of 9 points. He agreed that I was down 9 points, but he only recorded 9 shots.

We decided to talk to one of the officials. They radioed down to the pits to have the target pullers count the number of pasters covering the bullet holes that were on my target. I was the third shooter on that particular target, so when they replied, “We have 30 shots on this target.”, I felt I proved my point. He still claimed I only fired 9 shots. You basically are at the mercy of the scorer in this situation. The official said, “Well there is no way to prove you fired 10 shots.”  I did have with me two spare rounds, in case I mangled one upon loading or the rare chance when you get a bad primer. I was allowed to fire another shot. The conditions had changed and I fired an 8, dropping me two more points.

I waited for the cease fire to be called, then picked up my 11 pieces of brass and showed my scorer. When faced with irrefutable evidence that I had to fire an extra shot, do you think he would admit he missed one off my 10s ? Nope!

Somewhere down the line this guy must be related to my wife.

I was pretty steamed at this time, because going by last year’s scores, this would sink me. I then thought back to the 6 I shot and thought, “ Well you dummy if you hadn`t got all excited and shot a 6 you wouldn`t be in this position.” So if I didn`t make it I wasn`t going to blame him. My friend Jim Ward who took the trip with me, after finishing his day of shooting a relay earlier, had been watching this transpire, so I do have a witness.

We decided to go over to where the results are posted and face reality. It is aptly named the “wailing wall”. The results are tabulated super quick there, so by the time we got there, they were posted. Because of the tricky wind conditions that day, the cut off was lower than the previous year. I had made it ! I officially placed 83rd out of 1262 shooters, thus placing me in the top 100. Unofficially I placed 51st  which is in the top 4%, if you add the two points I was shorted, but that didn`t matter I would have settled for 100th  place, it`s all the same.


 
Making the President’s 100 had been my third and last big goal for NRA Service Rifle shooting. The first two were, Highmaster and Distinguished Rifleman. So driving 1100 miles round trip, taking 9 hours to shoot 30 shots or rather 31 shots in my case, was worth the effort.

I am told I will receive a signed letter from the President and a President`s 100 Medallion.