The right of the citizens to bear arms in defense of themselves and the State …
Looks like Breda paid a visit to Camp Perry this weekend, where the National Matches are taking place as we speak. No word on whether she managed to steal any pens, but I do have to say, that AR-15 looks nice on her. I think she needs to get one. If she does, she can shoot in our gun blog matches.
Bitter offers a pretty snarky assessment of NRA’s Camp Perry Live blog. This is their first year trying anything like this.
A great article in the Boston Globe about Olympic shooter Stephen Scherer, which is very fair to the shooting sports, and presents it in a positive light.
The site and name I have chosen for our league is up and running. The summer match has been posted. If you wish to participate, or have any comments, feel free to contact gunblogrifles at gmail dot com. I will keep people abreast of some happenings here on Snowflakes in Hell, but consider our new web site to be the primary means we’ll coordinate these matches. You can feel safe in adding it to your RSS feed, as it will not be posted on frequently, except for match and league related items and news.
One thing I’d love people to do is to submit pictures of themselves shooting their rifles. I’d love to have a gallery so people who might happen to cross the site can see normal people enjoying the shooting sports.
Looks like NRA is live blogging Camp Perry this year. Gee, it looks like an awful lot of rifles that the anti-gun folks claim have no sporting use are being used for sporting purposes. For those who aren’t familiar:
The National Matches, considered America’s “World Series of the Shooting Sports”, have been a tradition at Camp Perry, Ohio since 1907. Each summer, the nation’s finest civilian and military marksmen and women square off for five weeks of rifle and handgun competition in a variety of formats and events.
I also love their logo for this year.
It looks like Firehand’s results got lost in transmission, so I had to do another revision of the June E-Postal results. I promise I’ll have my shit together for the Gun Blog Rifle League. For that, and for any future e-postal matches I might host, I think I might set up a separate e-mail to keep it separate from my normal blog traffic. Makes it less likely I’ll miss someone’s score.
I think Michael’s correct here that competition a useful training tool. Though, it looks like he’s speaking mostly of IPSC and IDPA, which I’ve had no experience with. Silhouette shooting is not really an adrenaline pumping game. Mostly taking slow, deliberately and carefully aimed shots. Nonetheless, I’ve had more than a few cases where I can knock animals down like there’s no tomorrow in practice, only to perform poorly once I get on the line. Knowing “this one is for the marbles” tweaks you up a bit, and you can’t hold as steady.
I do wish I could do IPSC competition, but the rules at my club make it impossible, and I don’t know any of the other clubs in the area that do it. I don’t really have time to drive out to rural Pennsylvania on a regular basis to compete. There is a local indoor range that does non-sanctioned IDPA matches, and it happens to be my favorite indoor range. Maybe I’ll have to give that a whirl at some point.
I think there’s a lot of clubs that are stuck in old ways. Practical shooting looks like it’s fun, exciting, and there’s a lot of folks who seem to really enjoy doing it. When I have watched the IDPA matches at the indoor range, I see a lot of young people getting into it. That tends to make me think this is a growing sport, whereas the traditional types of sports done at my club are mostly older guys. At 34, I’m pretty young compared to a lot of them. But I think to traditionalists, IDPA and IPSC shooting seem unsafe, and most of the clubs I’ve looked into have rules that prevent that kind of match from ever taking place. I tend to think clubs will need to adapt in this regard or face dwindling participation in organized events. I know one disappointment of my club is that, although we have 1100 members, hardly anyone participates in organized matches, except for trap events. Most people are just thinking of it as a place to plink every now and then. I suppose that’s fine, but I think different types of shooting sports might get more people involved, and help build a sense of community that I think is important in a shooting club. That requires gun owners to think different, and adopt new ideas, which I think we’re extraordinarily bad at. I think it’s more than just the industry that’s resistant to change. It’s a strong cultural inclination within the entire shooting community.
I thought it would be a good idea to get a list of participants in the league, so I could get an idea of how many participants we might have. But don’t worry, you can still shoot a match without signing up, and if you do sign up, and don’t have time to shoot the match, no worries. There’s always next season. If we get a scan or legible photo of a target, we’ll include you. But I thought it might be worthwhile to make a home page for the league, and list folks who are interested in participating, complete with a link to their blog.
I ask that if you’re interested, you leave me a comment with a valid e-mail and URL, and I’ll sign you up. Don’t worry about the e-mail, it doesn’t get displayed, but I might set up a mailing list for reminders and news on an occasional basis. If you have a blog, I’ll link you on the league page. If you don’t have a blog, no problem. We’ll just list whatever name or alias you want to use.
I think I’ve decided that match rules aren’t set in stone from match to match. As people get better, and we get an idea where people’s skills are, I’ll be open to creating different classifications to cater to more expert shooters. But in the beginning, I’m going to keep things simple just to see where we end up. I do want to keep things constant enough for these matches, so people can track how they improve from match to match, but I am open to mixing things up a bit. I already have an idea for a fun contest for the fall match.
Don’t be shy about signing up. Even if you don’t think you’re a very good shot, I can promise you, there will be others like you. I myself do not claim to be an expert marksman. The best way to improve is to get out there and do it, as much as you can. Improvement is sure to come.
I will be creating the league page, which will include the details of the first match, as soon as I feel I have enough participants. The match will end September 21st at midnight. I’ll continue hosting matches once per season, as long as there’s interest.
… can you be 56 and still be competitive at the Olympic level?
There does seem to be some interest in a gun blog rifle league, both in small bore and big bore, so I thought I’d start out outlining some rules, and seeing what people think. First the league is open to anyone. It’s just we’ll coordinate through blogs. Second, I won’t be too picky about equipment, since this is mostly for fun and bragging rights. But let’s get down to the nitty gritty:
Any rifle capable of rapid fire qualifies. Rapid fire is ten shots in sixty seconds. If you can do this with a bolt action rifle, knock yourself out. I would suggest a semi-auto though, with a magazine capacity of at least ten.
Other than being more lax on equipment. Target will be the SR-1 target. You can buy them at MidwayUSA here.
You will need a shot timer. A kitchen timer would work fine for this. Just as long as you have something that will beep when you hit your time limit.
Course of fire will be identical to NRA high power, but we’ll modify it a bit so we only have to use the SR-1 target:
We will have two classes for center fire rifle. One class for open sights, and one class for optical sights. Participants can enter in either or both classes, and results will be scored separately. Participants may make multiple entries in each class, provided a different gun is used.
Any rimfire rifle of .22 caliber or less. Rapid fire is not necessary for small bore competitors. Small bore competition will have three courses of fire. We’ll be using the NRA A-23/3 50 yard targets. Match will be 30 shots.
Again, one class for open sights, and one class for scoped rifles. Multiple entries can be made in a single class if different guns are used.
For both smallbore and center fire, we will generally follow NRA rules, though, I’m not going to get as picky about your rifle or scope. If your AR has a free floating barrel and a tricked out trigger, fine. But let’s try to keep it traditional in regards to positions, and equipment other than the gun. You’ll be able to use slings that are approved for NRA matches in positions for which slings are approved. Things that help artificially support a position would be out, such as arm braces, wrist braces, and the like. No bipods in the prone position, etc. We’re going to depend on the honor system, since this is meant to be fun, and help sharpen our skills. I’ll trust everyone will keep in the spirit of fair play and good sportsmanship.
I will propose the first match end the last day of summer on Sunday September 21st, 2008, with results being due in by midnight on that day. Thereafter, seasonal matches will end on the first Sunday after the end of each season.
Let me know what you think of my proposed plan. We’ll hash it out in the comments, and I’ll start taking info down for people who want to be part of the league. Perhaps I will make a seperate part of the site to track everything.