by Erud on Thu Feb 01, 2018 11:56 am
The scoring rings on the 5V are pretty much identical to our target, except for the 300 yard one. The aiming black at 300 is huge, so lot of Americans have some trouble getting a good sight picture. Also, the 5-ring is considerably smaller than our 300 yard 10-ring, so Solid position and NPA is very important. In the World Championship matches the US has earned the bad reputation of losing way too many points at 300, then being forced to try to catch up at the longer ranges. Not a good strategy. The 500-yard center gets put on over a 600-yard face, so you also get a bigger aiming black than we are used to, but rings are same size as ours. All the other targets are the same sizes as ours.
Another interesting thing about the targets here is that sling and F-Class shoot on the same targets. There is a 1/2 MOA “Super V” ring inside the 1 MOA V-ring that serves as the F-class V. F-class scores the same in the 1-5 rings, but a V is worth 6, and the super V (or X) is the tie breaker or them. So, in a 7-shot match, highest possible score for a sling shooter is 35-7v, while F-class could score 42-7v.
The matches are all either 7 or 10-shot strings. We have 8 shooters on each target and are shooting 4 or 5 yardlines each day, so the strings need to be short to get everyone through. They have paid target pullers here, so not having to go to the pits saves a lot of time, but it’s still a lot of shooters to get through.
That 2 was pretty legit. I looked in the scope right after I broke the shot, and was terrified when I saw what the mirage was doing as compared to what it was doing before I shot. I was pretty relieved that the target even went down, and I half expected to see a miss come up. The changes are so fast here, I have never seen anything like it. It’s like a day with a tricky fishtail on the 1000-yard line up at Harris, but with 20+ mph winds much of the time. We broke out a ballistic calculator the other day when there was pretty consistent 24mph winds running. It turns out that a 5 o’clock tailwind is worth 9 MOA at 1000. So you can shoot a solid V when it’s straight behind you, and follow it up with a 2 on the next target 10 seconds later if you aren’t careful.
For those that don’t know, that’s US Team captain Norm Anderson in the picture. He is a living legend, having shot for the US Army Marksmanship and All-Guard teams for 24 years. He has been everywhere and won every major match, including the President’s 100 (twice), the NTI (twice), and the Mountain Man Aggregate at Camp Perry 4 times. He made the Palma 20 when he was 14 years old shooting an M14, then went on to make it through the Palma team tryout that same year shooting a borrowed bolt rifle. So yeah, he’s pretty awesome. I am squadded with him on the same target all week, and so far I haven’t done anything to embarrass myself. I hung right with him until the fateful 2 on the last shot that day, then I actually snuck past him by a point the next day! My elevation has been really good all week, and ive only had a couple of bad shots that cost me points. The rest have been missed wind. It’s been a great trip so far, 3 more days of shooting to go.