Day 2 of 4, 22 Caliber

Before

The Plan

• 6:00AM Up: One cup of regular coffee while surfing the net and reading the newspaper (online).
• 6:30AM Breakfast: oatmeal with a pat of butter, one hard-boiled egg with pepper, a small can of low sodium V-8 juice.
• 7:00AM Shower and dress for cool weather, lined bluejeans same as yesterday, fresh but similar thick cotton shirt, sweater with jacket on top.
• 7:20AM Pack gun box with primary (S&W Model 41) and backup (Ruger Mk III) 22 pistols with their respective ammunitions (CCI Standard Velocity in the plastic box and Federal Gold Medal Match 711B) in sufficient quantity for the 900 and the follow-up team competitions plus enough for alibi strings (120 + 30 rounds). Also take a small can of the low sodium V-8 juice.
• Switch to Northrop Grumman baseball cap for today. (I wore the Bill O’Reilly “No Spin” cap yesterday.)
• 7:30AM Drive to range in rush hour traffic.
• 8:30AM First shot.
• Before the NMC: Drink the V-8.
• Lunch: Probably a nearby Subway with some of the other shooters.
• 1:30PM 22 team competition NMC.
• Approximately 2:30PM Done. Record scores and head home.

After

Friday the 13th didn’t bother very many today. The weather was gorgeous, there was practically no wind, and by midday, most had shed their jackets and sweaters.

Starting at 8:30AM, two relays totalling almost 60 shooters shot the 22 caliber 900 before lunch. And beginning at 1:15PM, nine (9) teams completely filled the line for the team 22.

I was with one of the home club teams in the afternoon and shot 277-5, one point better than my individual NMC this morning with 276-5 but the morning also included my best ever Slow Fire, 94-2.

Also in the morning but in the second relay where I helped out along the line, one of the groups of military had reliability problems with their armory-issued S&W 41s and I’m quite certain every Timed and Rapid fire target had an alibi, often with three or four shooters from their ranks.

After the NMC but before starting the Timed match, they described their problems which boiled down to not enough “oomph” to reliably extract the spent round, clear it from the gun, pick up the next round cleanly and seat it fully into the chamber.

“Maybe some ammunition with a little more pizzazz would help,” someone said.

“Try oiling the top round so it seals better in the chamber and gives a stronger blow back,” another suggested.

While the last of the NMC targets was scored, shooters from the first relay offered up ammunition and cans of oil to the afflicted shooters and, although these measures didn’t cure 100% of the problems, the alibi strings and number of shooters in each was significantly reduced.

My score?

Why, thank you for asking. I shot an 823-15. Not bad, not bad at all.