Shooting the NRA High Power Rifle Championships: Day Three
Lewis Creek Shooting School 08.09.12
There is a certain kind of dread that exists in one’s mind when they know that they must endure something unpleasant. I have spent a very unpleasant day on the range at Camp Perry and, as I walked down Viale Range Thursday morning, I fully expected to be shooting and pulling targets in the rain. Neither is pleasant. I also suspected we might be put in a ceasefire, a condition where one stands in miserable rain, gear getting soaked while Range Control waits for sufficient visibility to allow us to safely shoot. On the plus side was the fact that this has been a great week of fun shooting with the finest sharpshooters in America.
On the third day of the 2012 NRA High Power Rifle Championships, I fully expected to get wet yet I was looking forward to the shooting and the people I’d be enjoying the day with. I wasn’t disappointed, I had fun and I was rained on. On relay three, I was to start my day in the pits. There were a series of alibi relays that slowed our morning and by the time I was getting ready to shoot, there was a light drizzle. By the time I finished my rapid fires, it had become a light rain. I was grateful for the ability of the Kowa TSN 883 spotting scope and the Bushnell Elite Tactical riflescope I was using to handle water with no problems at all. Except for the distortion caused by rain drops on the spotting scope’s ocular lens, there was no effect to the scopes at all. A simple wipe with a cloth removed the droplets of water and the Kowa was clear as a bell with no fogging. The same was true with the Elite Tactical riflescope.
It was also clear that I was out of practice for this sort of thing. My scores for the first three days have been dismal, though not the fault of my equipment. I had trouble getting into positions and acquiring a natural point of aim. During rapid fires, the scope bounces around and my pulse beat is clearly across the ten-ring. My scores aren’t bad for developing the zero on a gun owned for less than two weeks, but I’m hardly a threat for the others shooting the Any Sight/Tactical class.
In spite of the rain, I had a great opportunity to get a firm no-wind zero. The wind was dead calm, something that rarely happens at Camp Perry. Instead of taking advantage of great conditions, I further damaged my chances of a good finish on the 600-yard line. About half way through the 20 shots, I lined up on target 21 instead of target 22. This resulted in a miss, adding insult to injury. A crossfire is a rookie mistake that almost every shooter makes at least once, and I’m ahead of my lifetime quota. Once again, points lost that can’t be made up. Sadly, I have slipped another place in the point standings, putting me in fourth in Master Any Sight/Tactical.
On the bright side, as I was finishing up, the rain abated and fellow Carolinian John Friguglietti from Lincolnton, North Carolina was the shooter and I was the scorer. John shoots a Tubb 2000 and put down a stunning 200-14x for second place in the Air Force Cup. John had already won the Artillery Cup with a 200-17x.
Championship standings at this point have Carl Bernosky leading Sherri Gallagher for the Championship with David Tubb in the lead for the Any Sight/Tactical Championship.
Dick Jones is an award winning outdoor writer and a member of the Southeastern Outdoor Press Association Board of Directors. He writes for four North Carolina Newspapers as well as regional and national magazines. He’s hunted and fished most of his life but shooting has been his passion. He’s a former High Master, Distinguished Rifleman, and AAA class pistol shooter. He holds four Dogs of War Medals for Team Marksmanship as shooter, captain and coach. He ran the North Carolina High Power Rifle Team for six years and the junior team two years after that. Within the last year, he’s competed in shotgun, rifle and pistol events including the National Defense Match and the Bianchi Cup. He’ll be shooting the Bianchi, the NDM, the National High Power Rifle Championship, The Rock Castle AR15.com Three Gun Championship and an undetermined sniper match this shooting season.
He lives in High Point, North Carolina with his wife Cherie who’s also an outdoor writer and the 2006 and 2011 Northeast Side by Side Women’s Shotgun Champion. Both Dick and Cherie are NRA pistol, rifle, and shotgun instructors and own Lewis Creek Shooting School.
