First
Annual OCV Invitational Rifle Match – June 2007 – The Results!
by
Black
Jack
Long
anticipation by elements of no less than six different counties throughout
southcentral, south east, and east central Michigan finally came to a very
satisfying end with the dawn on Saturday, June 23rd.
Adding to the satisfaction as folks arrived, the St Clair County
Citizen’s Militia leader, G2, hosted morning coffee for early arrivals who
were Black Jack, Irish, and Archangel. On
a side note, Camp Stasa is very peaceful at 0615 or so as nature wakes itself
(just a quick shot of bug juice with a high percentage of Deet makes sure that
some of nature doesn’t wake itself up by feasting on you, though!).
The
purpose of the match was to give active militia members a chance to compete
against each other in a friendly environment, test their rifles, and have a shot
at getting some quality field equipment to boot!
It was a challenging course design starting with the “advanced” AQT:
The “Fred’s M14 Stocks” large 6 inch AQT target at 100 meters
simulates a 400 meter silhouette. The
entire course is fired from 100 meters unlike the standard AQT, which as many
know, is fired from 25 meters. Big
difference! Very challenging, as the shooters were about to discover!
It’s so challenging that shooter’s who attain 160 points on the
advanced AQT earn an “expert” rating, while on the standard AQT, it takes
200 points.
The
weather was perfect! In fact, you
couldn’t have paid
for a better day!! The current
conditions of clear skies, about 75 degrees with a 5 to 10 mph breeze out of the
west made it comfortable for everyone attending. The range was in fair shape with the grass not too high (but
high enough to make it interesting for prone position shooting) with great
conversation and kidding between everyone as the norm throughout the coffee and
social gathering taking place as folks signed in.
As always, Bishop arrived right on time and humped in from the front
parking area. Corporal Punishment
and Viper arrived, bringing in tow a new friend:
Eric Isaac, owner of “Tactical Solutions” with a few examples of his
field gear available for purchase. He’s
able to get all the popular brands, so it doesn’t matter what you want, he can
get it! Without any solicitation at
all, Mr. Isaac generously donated a sharp looking black DPMS logo T-shirt to the
prize table, which was appreciated very much!
The
one question visible on some faces was obvious, “Who was going to win the day
and be “Top Gun”? Time would
answer the question for all…
Precisely
at 0900, I welcomed all the participants and thanked the judges and participants
for helping get the inaugural Invitational Match off to a great start.
I turned the briefing over to Bishop, who gave a very concise, very
professional safety briefing on range etiquette, safety, and signals to be used.
We
had two relays of shooters; the first relay posted their targets and the 2nd
relay enjoyed some coffee in the shade. Once
the first relay completed the offhand phase of 10 rounds in two minutes with no
sling or other assistance, the 2nd relay stepped up to the line and
completed theirs. Conducting the
relays also had a benefit to the shooters because their rifle barrels were given
a chance to cool between shooting phases, which helped accuracy stay more
consistent.
The
course went on with two magazine change exercises conducted from standing to
kneeling/sitting and then standing to prone, with both phases being conducted in
“rapid fire” mode, i.e., one round every 3 to 4 seconds on average.
The
last phase in the advanced AQT was the slow fire prone phase:
20 rounds in 23 minutes (which included prep time).
This is where all the shooters had a chance to make up for any points
they lost on the off-hand or rapid fire phase.
All the shooters learned that not taking your time on this phase of fire
can really cost you in points! I
heard more than one shooter later say, “I just gotta take more time!”
The science behind the slow fire is to take each shot as a separate event
and get a consistent groove of steps in firing the shot down pat.
Additionally, taking a minute between shots keeps the barrel as cool as
possible for as long as possible, which has two main side benefits:
1 – prolongs the inherent accuracy of the barrel and 2 – holds throat
erosion down to a minimum.
Final
scores were tallied, and the “rattle board” (the score sheet) was reviewed
by the shooters and judges to see who was leading after the first phase: it was
Corporal Punishment. He didn’t get over confident either. As an experienced shooter, he knew that anything could and
would happen in the following events!
Next
up: Battlefield Pick Up!
Each shooter started 50 meters behind the shooting line and at the
command of “Commence Fire!” would run 50 meters to the first of three rifles
loaded with 5 rounds each, would pick them up, fire, move to the next rifle,
fire, and so on until all rifles were fired, within 5 minutes.
No alibi shots, malfunction exceptions, or any other “normal” match
exceptions were allowed. It was
interesting for all involved. The
rifles used were a match grade M1 Garand, a “Tapco” stocked SKS, and a 1943
Enfield bolt action (with two different bullet weights mixed in each lot of 5
rounds). Irish took the top slot on
this phase.
Two
events down, one to go. Time to
break for chow. Corporal
Punishment, ever the man to step up whenever something is needed, provided
hamburgers, hotdogs, bottled water, and baked beans for anyone who was hungry
for the extremely reasonable price of $2 each.
It doesn’t’ get any more reasonable than that, folks!
The
entire gathering of judges and shooters enjoyed a “militia-style” restaurant
setting around the cleaning tables, with all sharing their perspectives on how
the match was going, what they had been thinking during the firing, and how they
could improve during the last event. After
an hour was up, I called the match back on, and everyone got ready to shoot.
The
last, and competition wise, the most dangerous phase was the “800 Meter
Accuracy” event. Each shooter was
provided a target that had 24 numbered two and a half inch circles on them. The rules were simple: From
the prone position (supported by packs if you wanted, but no bipods) engage as
many targets as you could within 5 minutes.
How many rounds used was up to each shooter.
There was a catch, though: Every
hit was worth 5 points – every miss was worth a negative 1.5 points!
Depending on how the shooter engaged, he could end up going from the lead
to the dead last if he wasn’t careful!
Well,
shooters started firing, both relays completed the course of fire, and I scored
each target with at least two other judges verifying the score (along with the
shooter!). Then it was time to
tally up the sub-totals from the earlier events and announce a winner.
Irish
ended up taking high score for the Accuracy event, but it was not enough to take
him over the top for “Top Gun”. Corporal
Punishment had a good lead after the “Advanced AQT”, but the last event did
him in.
Archangel,
from the Calhoun County Volunteers, took the honors of “Top Gun”!
Everyone gave him a round of applause and I gave him the “Travelling
Trophy”. His name or callsign and
county will be engraved on a tab, and his county (in this case, he will because
he’s the county leader) will keep the trophy until next year’s match.
He also won the Cold Steel Trail Tomahawk, a gallon of “Breakfree CLP”,
and a DPMS T-shirt from Tactical Solutions.
Corporal
Punishment took 2nd place and won the US Army Ka-Bar knife and the
Camelbak hydration system.
Irish
took 3rd place and won the USGI machete & sheath, the tactical
flashlight, and shooting glasses.
Hands
were shaken all around; everyone was pleased with the results and were emphatic
about continuing the match as a tradition for active militia members and groups
outside of the many events held for the general public.
After
the match, some cleaned weapons, some sat and joined us in a conversation with
Mr. Stasa, who came out to say “hi!” and talk a bit about shooting and the
critters that were starting to get inside his “meetin’ place”.
He’s a gentleman and thanked us for doing what we do as a militia
before he left.
Well,
that’s about it as far as the match goes.
We plan on doing this next year, so if you didn’t get a chance to come
out and compete against your fellow minuteman and have a lot of fun while you
were at it, maybe we’ll see you next year!