Battle of Machias

The Battle of Machias match was yesterday. I wanted to break the junior national record. It was 199-10X. My first string, I got a 199-14X! I was really excited to break a record with iron sights! The only sad part, is because I pulled that one nine!! As soon as I took the shot, I knew I pulled it. I was hoping that it would be in the ten ring, but it wasn't =(. I was so close to getting a clean, all shots in the ten and/or X ring!! I guess it wasn't my time to get one. My overall score was a 594/600, I had 30 X's total! I was also happy that half my shots were X's!!

~my target~

 In the middle of next month, I am going to New Mexico for the Spirit of America match. I will be there for nine days!  I am pretty excited to go there because I like going to matches that I have never been to before. When I get home, I will post about how it went, hopefully that will be good news =).

Camp Perry Palma

In the individual palma, my score was 439/450! At 800 yards, I dropped 1 point. I wasn't very happy with my 900, I dropped 8 points. The wind was letting off to the left, and I accidentally was favoring to the left. When the wind let off, I would get a 9, instead of a 10 or X. If I was favoring to the right, then when the wind let off, I would probably get a 10 instead of a 9. My dad noticed that, and when I was done shooting, he told me what happened. At 1,000 yards, I didn't favor left. I had my group more centered that time. I only dropped 2 points in hard wind! I couldn't stop smiling, because I had beat a lot of people that were better than me, and they were still happy for me!

I am # 70, so I got 70th place in that match, out of 205 competitors. I was competing against all the adults. I am shooting Palma Rifle, so, look under Division B, U.S. Palma rifle. You can click on the link below for the Palma Match results =)

http://www.nrahq.org/compete/natpdf/cp540-10.pdf

Camp Perry Team Match

I was on the USA National Under 25 team. Below is a pic of us at the end of the week. For the Palma team match, our team was called the USA U/25 Rachinski/Doney. I was the captain, and Andy Doney was the coach. He is right behind me in the pic. We beat the AMU (Army Marksmanship Unit) in the Palma team match, by 12 points! We were pretty happy about that! Our score was 1776/1800. We had 79 X's. An X is 10 points, just like when you get a 10, but it helps break ties. If someone had a 1776 with 78 X's, we would have beat them, because we had one more X. We had a great time =)

Camp Perry...Day 1

~lining up for counting~

Camp Perry was so much fun! It was about 90-95 degrees and 95-100 percent humidity for the first two days I was there. The last three were about 75-85 degrees and about 80 percent humidity. On my first relay, it was fishtail (the hardest to shoot in) winds, about 7-10 MPH. I dropped 7 points, but my first and second sighters were misses. At first I put WAY to much to adjust for the wind, then I tried something else that didn't work either. That was at 1,000 yards =). My second relay, I shot in rain and about 10-20 MPH winds! Our relay was getting ready when the line officer said there was 10 minutes until the rain and about 20 until the downpour. They told us to get out stuff ready and that there was 2 minuted until "prep time" (getting into position, dry-firing). As soon as we started to shoot, it started to rain! It was so hard to see the target!!! I had to do a frame hold, which is opening up you front sight so the circle goes around the whole target, not just the black part. This was at 1,000 yards also. It was really hard to see the target, then I was shooting, and I missed a big pick up in the wind and I had a shot way out the right. I adjusted for it, but it picked more and I got a shot in the same spot! It was still fun though =).

~me getting my ammo out~

Tomorrow is the day!

YAY! I am leaving for Camp Perry tomorrow night!!!!! I won't be shooting until the 14th, but I wanted to get there early.
I will be shooting on the National U25 team! I was really excited when I heard the news. I won't be shooting under a coach the whole time, I will be shooting most of it by myself. I will be in Ohio for a week, I hope that I have a great time =).

Busy month!!

    On Friday night, my dad and I put on a new front sight, called the Rightsight. After that, we took it to the range and sighted it in. I like it a lot! It is clearer than the other sight that I had. I used that sight in a match yesterday. In the pic, I have the one on the left.

Last week, I tried shooting with a scope on the rifle. It was a lot of fun! It felt weird to have a scope instead of the irons =). That was my first time shooting with a sling and a scope, but I would like to do it again soon!Below is a pic of what it looks like.

It has been a really busy month getting ready for Camp Perry! My dad did a lot of load testing (I did some too!), and I have been reloading all of my ammo. I will be there for a week, I hope it's not too hot!

P.S. Sorry I haven't posted in a while =)