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Fred's
Articles
RWVA New Year Rapid-Fire Shoot Jan 1, 2005 (Report)
I must have arrived just as the star shoot/tank killer round was being fired. I gotta tell you -- it sounded TERRIFIC -- all of those rifles barking in rapid fire. Very, very cool.
Yep, continuing a tradition of greeting the new year the right way, with precision aimed rifle fire, a capacity crowd showed up Saturday, Jan 1, 2005 to ring in the New Year - enough that instead of the usual 3-man teams, we added a fourth man to create heavy teams.
New Years Day in this part of North Carolina was clear and mild, and visibility was great on the popups at 200, 300, and 400 yards. Except for one or two that were pretty hard to see, mere ghost-like images floating above the grass. But once they were pointed out, few guys really had problems hitting them. (Fred has been there when some really were invisible - poor light, wrong sun angle, even tall grass hiding em - and you fired where you knew they had to be, and mentally crossed your fingers, gaining new respect for your rifleman ability when they went down!)
The official start time was 1 PM, but as the crowd gathered, someone [it was Fred] observed there was no real reason not to open presents early - HE's always liked opening presents early - so shooting started an hour early, maybe even an hour-and-a-half early. Late-comers (the ones who came 'on time') simply infiltrated on the line with the shooters.
First up was sight-in at 25 meters, followed by unlimited rounds in 30 seconds to take out the small (3/8-inch!) star on a tank silhouette at the same distance. The one who took out the most star (invisible from the firing line - you simply aimed where you knew it was on the silhouette and cut loose...) was the winner.
That was the sole individual event, shot just before we started sighting-in on the popups out to four hundred yards.
The first team shoot placed the 4 shooters of each team on the line, with the entire popup range to knock down, unlimited rounds, naturally, and a 60-sec time limit (any team that took anything close to 60 was not gonna win). The time started when the popups on the bare range suddenly appeared, four each at 200, 300, and 400 yards, and the rifles started barking.
Second up was TEAM IN DEFENSE. Your team took its place on the line, and first the 400 popups came up. You knocked them all down, then the 300s came up and, when they were down, the 200s, simulating an advancing enemy. Unlimited rounds, time limit 60 secs.
Third was probably the highlight of the day for most shooters: the COUNTERATTACK EVENT. Your team starts on the line, prone; the popups come up as the clock starts, you knock em all down, then get up and advance downrange on-line as a team, followed by a safety officer. Along the way to the 100-yd berm, you stop twice and engage popups that appear, then climb the nine-foot-high 100-yd berm and clear the entire range of popups. The clock stops when the last popup goes down. Fastest time was slightly over two minutes for the winning team. The problem: The faster you huff-and-puff downrange, the less time you take - but the wobblier your sights on the target are. Steadiest position downrange is sitting, but quite a few kneel or even shoot standing, usually to their disappointment. Prone would be used more, except for the downhill gradient. It is a tough, challenging event, rapid precision fire coupled with rapid movement...
Each team fired each event three times, fastest time counting.
Team Echo swept the field on all three events, turning in winning times of 16.57 secs for the first event; 19.68 on the second, and 2:04:09 on the 'shoot and scoot' Counterattack.
However, for consistency, turning in the best average time for two of the three events, Team Charlie beat all: 19.5 secs average on the first event and handily scooping Counterattack with an average of just over 2:30 - that's two and a half minutes to knock down 12 popups from 200 to 400 yards, get up, cover 100 yards as rapidly as possible while stopping twice to knock down more popups at 200-300 yards, and finally knocking down 12 more popups, after scaling the 100-yd berm, taking up positions, and engaging over the top of the berm... Pretty decent shooting, huh?
While shooting was generally pretty good, a few shooters could certainly benefit from signing up for the Feb 19th RWVA Rifle Marksmanship Clinic. In fact, it would be a rare shooter who would not benefit from the Feb 19 clinic! And from shooting in the monthly RWVA Highpower Rifle Match (First Sat of each month, starts at noon) to not only practice marksmanship skills, but get those iron-clad zeroes out to 500 yards that serve so well when going up against the popups. Hope to see you at one or both! |
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