Originally Posted by
larrbeard
my introduction to the sniper match was in 2015 (i think). I had shot the hearst doubles that morning and my partner in that match was shooting with another guy from our group in the sniper that afternoon. But, while we were cooling down, his sniper match partner called – he had the gi trots and couldn’t get more than a few feet away from the pot.
So, i was drafted to be the substitute – under a different name. Since we had no chance of winning anything, we didn’t worry about it. I’d never shot the particular rifle we were using, but we grabbed those two lousy sandbags we were issued and made a nest; (168 grain hornady bthp, 46 grains h4895 – pretty much the standard recipe). I gave my buddy his sighter shots and i rolled over on the gun. Fortunately his eyes and mine focused the same, so we didn’t have to fiddle with the scope.
I stayed on the gun when it came time to shoot for record; my first shot was an 8 out at 9 o’clock. I recall telling myself “you aren’t going to win anything shooting like that”; so i settled down and the next nine shots were all 10’s; all around the clock and not an x in the bunch. I don’t remember the rest of the match, but we didn’t win or embarrass ourselves – even if i did shoot under an alias that day.
Next year, same gun – different partner. We shot well enough to just squeak into a bronze by three points or so.
The last time i shot the sniper (same partner as previous year) we were doing very well, and had moved back to 600-yards. Then - i missed a wind change and my partner shot a downwind 7 when he had been shooting 10’s. He couldn’t give me a good call on where the shot broke, and i told him “aw shux, just shoot it again”. He did and shot another downwind 7. That time he gave me a good call and i told him to hold mid-7 upwind (9-o’clock). He did and it was a downwind tight 9. So, by missing the wind change, i let him drop about 4 to 6 points – and as you know – in that match dropping 4 to 6 points moves you well out of the bronze into the cotton t-shirt medals.
Life has caught up with me and i haven’t been able to shoot for the last couple of years. Maybe next year…
