Rifle Team update

[Aragorn243]

Getting down to the end of the season. We are having a so, so season. Staying competitive but losing matches we should be winning and now running up against three tough teams at home to finish out. I hope we have a winning season. We will break even at worst.

They started out very well but I have seven seniors, senioritis set in and they can't stay consistent.

Some highlights. In a match last week, one of my shooters, a small girl, was under a minute with one shot left. Not a problem but she pulls the trigger on an empty rifle with 37 seconds left. She quickly loaded, got the final shot off and it was a 10. The other coach congratulated her. Same girl the next afternoon in practice and this is a wild one.

I have several kids, all girls, that have problems getting done in time. They have 15 minutes and they use all of it. In practice, I had all two of them and a third that usually doesn't have a problem shooting very slow. The one I'm constantly coaching through her time prodding her to move faster and I was doing so with her this day. They were shooting double targets which they have 20 minutes to complete. All three were still on the second targets sighters with 3:30 to go. I told all three to start. 2:00 minutes and all three still have six targets to go. This is a major problem for girl 2, nothing for girl 1 and slight issue for girl 3. So I concentrate on 2, ignore 1 and only half pay attention to 3. 2 gets on pace, 1 is fine and I check 3, She fired her 5th shot with 57 seconds left. I figure this is lesson time because she's going to lose 10 points for each target not shot. So I'm yelling out times, not giving her sight corrections because there's no time and the bugger is firing and reloading so fast I'm reminded of a cowboy in a western movie shooting the bad guys. She actually finished with 2 seconds to spare and not only that, SHE SHOT A 100 ON THE TARGET, PERFECT. Never saw anything like it. This is only the second 100 she's ever shot. Kids can do some weird things.

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[browningautorifle]

They have 15 minutes and they use all of it.

Lots of competitors do that, use all their time. We used to tell the troops if they had a minute and finished in 30 seconds without a perfect score, they were too fast.

[CINDERS]

At a comp at Swanbourne SASR range when we shot at 600 Yd Fig 11 we had unlimited sighters for 5 minutes then 10 minutes for 10 counting shots off a bipod no rear support.
I crammed 4 in the mag pushed them down and put one on top and chambered it for 5 rounds and waited it was a hot summer day at Swanbourne Range, mirage was awful switch backing badly I waited 3 minutes it's gotta change soon.
At about 3 min 30 seconds my scorer is getting anxious so was I, then it happened a steady left to right mirage I was lucky to have had both ways with my sighters so I put about 1.5 mil dot left on as my scopes are in mils and bolted the 5 rounds as fast as I could cycle the bolt.
All in the fives, conditions holding going single loading it was a case of chuck it on the floor plate and get onto target pronto, conditions for the single loaded rounds had eased a tad so back off to a mil left, all in the 5's with the second last round being a very scary on the line 5 conditions dropped off more on that one, was at 11:00 o'clock, my last shot a dead centre hit.
Time remaining 34 sec Score = 50/50 against 40 other shooters on the line I was the only perfect score as that slight drop off caught allot of ppl I just jagged it.........!

We were using electronic targets so you could really get wound up poking out the rounds, but I did put myself under some unnecessary pressure but that mirage was everywhere up, left, right, bubbling, typical Swanbourne.
So whilst loaded the shot recovery was quicker but when you have to get the rounds and place them on the mag floor plate this eats time I was holding 3 in my left fingers even then it takes time to re acquire the target after moving ones head around dropping rounds in, it was not fun. Average ~ 34.6 sec/shot sounds like eternity well it was at the start, not at the end!!!!!

The poor guy next to me with a 338 LM his mag dropped out and dumped his rounds in the sand.
He was being coached by the Police TRG sniper team leader who I did that 5 day shooting course with it showed that Glen's teaching paid off, guess he felt proud I know I did.

[Aragorn243]

Well, the last match was tonight, and we went from having a so so season to finishing second in the league. We won all three of our tough matches and one of the bottom feeders beat the team that should have finished second so you never know how things will turn out until they do. The second-place team beat themselves because the bottom feeder shot a 491 which is awful. We finished out with two 497's and a 496. Final record 10-4.

[MAC702]

What kind of shooting is this? CMP? Air rifle? 22s? What range?

[Aragorn243]

10 meter air rifle, prone only. We follow NRA rules meaning the jackets are adjustable rather than fit to the individual. A lot of kids share the jackets and the rifles as our supply is limited. We all got big budget increases for personal equipment during the Covid year, but we all had smaller teams then also. No sharing of anything but the rifles that year. They each even had their own mats. It was overkill. Now we are back to normal with larger teams. We use Walther LG 300 and LG400 rifles. The LG300's were all upgraded to LG400's over the years. They are getting pretty old. We have 4 brand new Blacktec rifles to start replacing them along with 3 wood stocked LG400's. 17 rifles total, 16 are operable, the last is used for parts now as we can't get some parts anymore. 7 are new or relatively new. They cost $1800 each now to replace so on a school budget we can only get one every few years. Booster club bought us one this year which was nice. First year for a booster club.

[CINDERS]

Can you not scope out ppl like Midwayusa or brownells or another big supplier to perhaps donate a new rifle or three or is that against the rules.
As you know some schools budgets are bigger than others its hard to share gear especially rifles it can in my opinion stifle a good shooter as if they have their dedicated weapon they get to know it.
I know when I was in the cadet rifle team every time we went from the school to practice for inter school comps I requested the same 303 rifle from the quartermaster when we went to the armoury to collect our weapons going to the range. (Be the first in line)
The regular army used to pick us up in a 6 wheeler canvas topped open backed the look on some following car drivers faces seeing us in the back with our No 1 MKIII's was funny as some were really aghast.

[Aragorn243]

Getting things donated is not against the rules but our school is fussy about who they allow to do it. It's weird, it's politics, we don't push things. Things can go away. They are very supportive of the team. The District Superintendent usually comes once a year to watch a little although he didn't make it this year. Our principal is the same And our budget isn't bad, but these are admittedly very expensive. We don't have the storage for one for every kid. I have 24 kids typically. 16 rifles, 15 of which worked this year, the 17th came too late to use this season. I might be able to get one more in the safe. We have a big *** Browning safe which is probably rated as a 24-gun safe as set up with shelves, 36 if we got rid of the shelves but we need the shelves. These rifles take up more space than a milsurp. They have high sights, extended butts with all sorts of adjustment do dads on them.

These are our new ones: LG400 Blacktec www.waltherarms.com

Our mid age ones: Walther LG400 | Pre-charged pneumatic Air Rifle | Airgun Depot

Our older ones look like the above only are blue



Back to the original question, the NRA gives out grants, several schools in our league got them but our school won't take it to the school board for fear of making waves.

[CINDERS]

So thats about $3800/Aud yes very nice weapons there well done to you and the team as it always is a team effort coach included.

[Aragorn243]

Oddly enough, I got an email last night with an offer to buy what is called an introductory competitive air rifle. a Daisy M853. Another local school has an ROTC program and they were hoping to start up a team but their politics wouldn't allow it. So they guy has been stuck with six of them. He asked our league if anyone would be interested in them. I am getting one this evening as they are supposed to be very accurate rifles and I need one for pest control here. They would not be competitive in our league I don't think. Accurate being relative, our rifles will put the pellets in the same hole if shot from a vise, the Daisy's will touch but won't do the same hole, a quarter inch group at 10 meters which is still pretty good. They are a pump action so don't need compressed air. I can train my grandson to shoot with it and can set up a little range in my basement.