New rifle, and last minute match.

   My new gun came on Friday the 24th, and I have been prepping my brand new Lapua brass for it. My dad and  I have been working on my prone position, so I'm more straight with the gun. My new prone position feels great! It still needs some work, but I am very happy with it. I also picked up my new Warner #2 rear sight, that Shiraz (who owns Grizzly) bought for me. I am very excited to shoot with it. On my new gun, I have a Barnard action, a Rightsight front sight, a Warner #2 rear sight, a McGee stock, and a Benchmark barrel, which was given to me by Benchmark Barrels. Thank you Shiraz for the rear sight, and thank you Benchmark for the barrel! I really appreciate your generosity, I love the rear sight and barrel!

   I was shooting it at Custer a few days ago, and I had a thought. Since my shoulders were now practically straight with each other, not my right shoulder a good 5 inches back, maybe I could load my gun with it in my shoulder. I tried it, and I could load my gun with it in my shoulder! I was really happy, because now, since I don't have to take it out my shoulder, my position can stay the same throughout my string! I had 10 rounds left, and I shot all of them without taking the gun out of my shoulder. I couldn't look through my spotting scope, so I had to lower it and move it closer to me. When I looked at my group at the end of my "string" I was very surprised, they were all in the X ring, except one or two shots! This was only my second time shooting the gun, and I haven't done load testing yet! I think this gun is gonna be a shooter!

   Today, I decided to go to a match on Saturday. I have to finish prepping my brass, and do load testing before tomorrow. It will be pretty crazy, but it will be worth it. I am pretty excited to see how I will do with my new gun.

   The stock on my new gun is unfinished, which means that it still had to be sanded down and have the finishing coat put on it. It is an offset, walnut McGee stock. I chose to try the offset stock, because I always get a bruise under my right jaw when I shoot, from having to tilt my head to look through the sights. It also hurt my jaw, because I would either have to shoot with my bottom jaw pushed to the left, or clamped tight so it wouldn't move.  With the offset, it's way more comfortable.

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Custer's Open House

Yesterday, I was shooting at Custer's open house to represent the Custer juniors. I was shooting my match rifle, and helping kids shoot .22s. When I had shot all of my ammo, I walked around and looked at the other shooting disciplines. I shot silhouette, then I tried shooting the Creedmoor position, both with .22s. They were both really fun! I want to try shooting the Creedmoor position again, it was kinda awkward and hard at first. But, it got easier once I fired a few shots.





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When I was done shooting prone, I got up and shot about 10 shots offhand. The gun is pretty heavy, about 12- 14 pounds. It is really fun to shoot offhand, and a lot harder than prone! It's harder because in prone, you have the ground, a sling, and a jacket for support. But in offhand, you are standing, and that makes you not as steady. When you shoot offhand, you don't use a sling. Here is a video of me shooting a couple shots (sorry it's sideways!) :

   There's not much going on right now except reloading for matches. I have the 600 yard State Championship this Saturday at Cascade, and I need to reload 90 rounds. The match is a 80 shot match, so we shoot 4 strings of 20 shots and 2 sighter shots. I really need 88 shots, but I always bring extra, and I have 20 or so rounds left over from Oregon.
   It will be a very long day for me, because Cascade is a 2 1/2 hour drive one way, and it is a long match. I am looking forward to shooting there, well I guess I always look forward to competing, because I love shooting! There's just something about it, I don't know what, but I just love it! I am VERY competitive, so maybe that's why? It's always fun, even when I don't shoot my best, because I'm doing something that I love.



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I just got a new rear sight! My old rear sight had 1/4 by 1/4 adjustments. That means one click on the elevation (up and down) knob moves me 1/4 minute, and one click of windage (left and right) moves me 1/4 minute. Now, on my new one, it is 1/4 by 1/8. My elevation is the same, but now, one click of windage moves me 1/8 minute. Now, I can fine tune my adjustments! I can also adjust the sight, so I can make it have 1/8, 1/4 or 1/2 windage adjustments.

I am getting a new rifle, and that's why I got a new rear sight. I am borrowing a rear sight right now, and I needed to have my own for when my new rifle arrives. I am going to have a Warner #2 rear sight, but I'm not sure when it's going to arrive, so my dad wanted to make sure that I had everything I needed.

Burden Memorial - Long Range Regional

For this match, I didn't shoot the practice day, like I did at Rattlesnake. I already had my zeros (elevation zeros, so I know what to have on for each yard line), so I didn't need to shoot the practice day. On day 1, was the first palma match. I shot ok, but I wasn't mentally in the game. During prep time of every string on the second day, I was getting mentally prepared, and thinking positive stuff (I am a great shooter, I only shoot 10's and X's, I am a great holder/ wind reader, etc.).The second day (the second & last individual palma), I cleaned 800 yards, a 150/150 with 10 X's. That was my first clean at 800 yards in individual shooting! I was very happy with how well the mental management was working so far.

At 900 yards, I shot a 148/150 with 10 X's. I dropped the 2 points from an 8 that I shot because I had too much pressure on the trigger when I wasn't completely ready to take the shot. I was devastated. But right after I took the shot, I took the rifle out of my shoulder, thought a bunch of positive stuff, and got ready to take another shot. I didn't even have to look through my spotting scope to know where my shot was, an 8 at 7:30 is where I called it. I was praying it would be a 9, but hey, now I will be sure I'm ready to shoot before I start applying pressure to my trigger =). At least I had something good to say about my string, I had 10 X's!

I was doing my best to forget the 8, because I didn't want to think about anything negative. Before my last string, which was at 1,000 yards, I cleared my mind of everything negative, and filled it with positive stuff, like my clean at 800 yards. I cleaned the 1,000 yard target for the first time, with a 150/150 with 5X's! I was freaking out, I just shot a clean at 1,000 yards! I was all smiles now, a 448/450 with 25 X's was my personal best. If I hadn't taken that one shot too early at 900 yards, I could have had a 450/450. Then, I would have been the youngest to ever shoot a 450! Just the thought of being so close was good enough for me.

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In the collage above, the purple score card was my clean from 1,000 yards. The pink score card was from my clean at 800 yards.