[BLOG] The Tide is Rising
I am sure some of you know that I shoot rifles competitively. If you have no idea check out my user picture and this video (blue jacket and black hat is me), currently the video for what I am about to talk about is not up but should be soon.
Last weekend, the 24th and 25th of October, was the Texas State Service Rifle Championship help at Camp Swift which is between Elgin and Bastrop. All you BBQ lovers in Texas should know where these cities are and if you do not for shame. There are matches held on the 23rd but I had work and school so I had to miss out.
The 24th, Saturday, was the individual matches where everyone gets assigned a target and relay to fire on. You shoot all day and compete against people who are in your classification(Marksman, Sharpshooter, Expert, Master, High Master), currently I am and expert but just a few percentage shy of being reclassified as a master. The classification system is done by the percentage of points you get for hitting in certain scoring rings out of the possible for the match, think of a dart board or archery target. At the end of the day everything gets tallied up, results are posted, and awards/money is handed out; you only get a few dollars for each award.
I have been going into every match focused on shooting 94% which is a master score because I really want to be master...I mean ALOT. I am young for the sport but I have been doing it for so long and know enough I should be shooting in that class. When I walked up to the line I had real goals I told myself I had to meet and I focused myself on them with the knowledge that I can do this, I know how to do this, its your time so PERFORM. I held up well throughout the day but I feel apart in the wind while shooting my 600 yard segment, the wind on that range is unpredictable and not every wind change is visible(trust me its not just me saying this). I finished the day with a 744 out of 800, master would have been a 752. I was disappointed but it was not a horrible score and I had been extremely consistent the rest of the day and hoped that it would put me towards the top of my class. I finished 5th out of 29 people, the two people above me had the same score but more Xs. Overall for all shooters I finished in the top 25, roughly 23 or 24, which is close to another big item...The Governor's 20. The 20 are the top 20 scores from the service rifle championship and they are recognized as the top 20 shooters in the state of Texas for that year. My dad and I both finished just below the cut so I told him we should start the Governor's 25.
On Sunday there is held what is called a LEG match but is it would be correct to call it an EIC match, excellence in competition. This is a match where you try and place in the top 10% of all the competing shooters for points("legs"), 6, 8, or 10, until you get 30 points along with a big leg which is an 8 or a 10 point. I have been shooting these matches since I started shooting roughly 9 years ago because even if you have no chance you help increase the numbers and increase the number of legs. I have been taking some ribbing from the guys that have been around me my whole service rifle career because I have zero points. That all changed. Strangely I finished 5th again and picked up a 6 point leg! The real effect of this still hasn't sunken in very much, there are just under 2,000 Distinguished Marksman since it first started in 1887. Some people shoot for most of their life and never get points while there are others that get started but can never finish. I want to be one of the few with this badge because it means you are the cream of the crop and you have put your time in to the point where others look to you for guidance and advice.
As a little side note, in the LEG match I shot a 193 out of 200 at 600 yards which was better than the top score for that distance the day before; a 192. The joke was I just drove faster than everyone else because people were making comments about the wind and I simply said its blowing hard enough from behind that the bullet will go faster and won't get pushed around enough before it reaches the target; in other words the sights would need to correction for the deflection that the wind will cause on the bullet as it travels. I actually kind of did this. I made my wind call and just shot, the only time I changed my wind correction was when it blew me out of the 10 ring and I didn't bother to try and make corrections before it moved me.
My other secret goal at most matches is to always shoot better than this junior girl named katty, I met my goal in both matches.
Last weekend, the 24th and 25th of October, was the Texas State Service Rifle Championship help at Camp Swift which is between Elgin and Bastrop. All you BBQ lovers in Texas should know where these cities are and if you do not for shame. There are matches held on the 23rd but I had work and school so I had to miss out.
The 24th, Saturday, was the individual matches where everyone gets assigned a target and relay to fire on. You shoot all day and compete against people who are in your classification(Marksman, Sharpshooter, Expert, Master, High Master), currently I am and expert but just a few percentage shy of being reclassified as a master. The classification system is done by the percentage of points you get for hitting in certain scoring rings out of the possible for the match, think of a dart board or archery target. At the end of the day everything gets tallied up, results are posted, and awards/money is handed out; you only get a few dollars for each award.
I have been going into every match focused on shooting 94% which is a master score because I really want to be master...I mean ALOT. I am young for the sport but I have been doing it for so long and know enough I should be shooting in that class. When I walked up to the line I had real goals I told myself I had to meet and I focused myself on them with the knowledge that I can do this, I know how to do this, its your time so PERFORM. I held up well throughout the day but I feel apart in the wind while shooting my 600 yard segment, the wind on that range is unpredictable and not every wind change is visible(trust me its not just me saying this). I finished the day with a 744 out of 800, master would have been a 752. I was disappointed but it was not a horrible score and I had been extremely consistent the rest of the day and hoped that it would put me towards the top of my class. I finished 5th out of 29 people, the two people above me had the same score but more Xs. Overall for all shooters I finished in the top 25, roughly 23 or 24, which is close to another big item...The Governor's 20. The 20 are the top 20 scores from the service rifle championship and they are recognized as the top 20 shooters in the state of Texas for that year. My dad and I both finished just below the cut so I told him we should start the Governor's 25.
On Sunday there is held what is called a LEG match but is it would be correct to call it an EIC match, excellence in competition. This is a match where you try and place in the top 10% of all the competing shooters for points("legs"), 6, 8, or 10, until you get 30 points along with a big leg which is an 8 or a 10 point. I have been shooting these matches since I started shooting roughly 9 years ago because even if you have no chance you help increase the numbers and increase the number of legs. I have been taking some ribbing from the guys that have been around me my whole service rifle career because I have zero points. That all changed. Strangely I finished 5th again and picked up a 6 point leg! The real effect of this still hasn't sunken in very much, there are just under 2,000 Distinguished Marksman since it first started in 1887. Some people shoot for most of their life and never get points while there are others that get started but can never finish. I want to be one of the few with this badge because it means you are the cream of the crop and you have put your time in to the point where others look to you for guidance and advice.
As a little side note, in the LEG match I shot a 193 out of 200 at 600 yards which was better than the top score for that distance the day before; a 192. The joke was I just drove faster than everyone else because people were making comments about the wind and I simply said its blowing hard enough from behind that the bullet will go faster and won't get pushed around enough before it reaches the target; in other words the sights would need to correction for the deflection that the wind will cause on the bullet as it travels. I actually kind of did this. I made my wind call and just shot, the only time I changed my wind correction was when it blew me out of the 10 ring and I didn't bother to try and make corrections before it moved me.
My other secret goal at most matches is to always shoot better than this junior girl named katty, I met my goal in both matches.
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