2025 CMP Regional Spring Matches

The 80 shot Service Rifle Match did not go well for me today. First off, I was not dressed for the weather. A cold front moved thru last night bringing temps today in the ‘40’s with more high winds, 15 to 20 mph with gusts to 25. I started to shiver about 1/2 way thru the match, chilled to the bone. It would have been fine without the wind. On top of that, I could not get in the prone position, something was just “off”. Couldn’t get my head lifted high enough to see thru the scope. Plus the shivering, my final stage at 600 yds suffered badly. After the first 10 round string I got up and repositioned my coat and sweatshirt which helped, but by then my vision was blacking out and I was too cold to hold the rifle still. 

The awards ceremony was held this afternoon for the Garand, Springfield and Vintage Military (GSM) Matches, the Vintage Sniper Match and a few others which I did not shoot in. I held on to my first place win with the M1 Garand and given a $125 gift certificate and very nice M1 Stock donated by the Garand Collectors Association. Also, surprisingly, I ended up 2nd place in the GSM 3 Gun Aggregate, just one point short of 1st place (I shot an 849 out of 900 point possible, winner shot 850).  We had 95 competitors shooting in the GSM matches. 

It’s sometimes difficult to pick yourself up after a poor performance, such as what I did on Tuesday with the No. 4. You just don’t know what the other fellow will do, or what mistakes he or she makes. So, it’s as Shamu says, the only important shot is the one you’re about to take, forget about the shots you already took.  

Tomorrow is another 80 shot Service Rifle Match, should be much less wind, although still quite cool in the morning.  My final match is on Saturday, shooting the No. 4 DCRA 7.62 in a 600 yard 40 round match. 

i think you did a marvelous job taking 1st in the M1garand stage of the game , 

as to the cold days experience , we all have a bad day from time to time , dont let it weigh on you tomorrows another day and a fresh start , treat it as if its the first day , start fresh and go for it , 

in my case we shoot six stages the first and four stages the second day , i walk away from each stage without looking back , im looking at the next one , they are all different unlike what your doing [more ;like sporting clays actually] so i never look back only forward , sometimes theuy go well , sometimes not , but theres always the next one to deal with , 

Get yourself warmed up and ready for the next one.

At our shoot recently, I knew the weather was going to be cold, I hate being cold, so I prepared for it by wearing my thermal long-johns and long sleeve top as a first layer. My motorcycling neck warmer as well, which was a really good idea. I was comfortable and warm all day. It certainly helps the concentration.

There is a 2x600 match going on right now, but my body just can’t take an 80 round (plus sighters) match and a 40 round (plus sighters) match in the same day.  That puts too much strain on my neck. The 80 shot match consists of 40 rounds in prone. And the 2x600 is also 40 rounds prone.

So, I’ve learned to know my limits. And even then, I find the second 10 round string in prone slow fire very difficult. 

I did fairly well with the “green rifle” today in the 80 shot Service Rifle Match, that is my olive green stocked Armalite National Match AR-15. I’m so glad I’m no longer chasing distinguished rifleman points, and now I can just relax and have fun. But, the day got off to a rocky start…

Got to the range early enough, which is a 30 minute drive from the campground. Parked the truck, pulled out the shooting cart and started loading gear. Opened the back door of the truck to get the rifle. No rifle. Left it in the camper. Checked the time, and figured that I might make it back to the range about 5 minutes before the match starts, so tore off back to the campground. Got the rifle, tore back to the range. Pulled out the cart again, loaded up, got the rifle, then went to get the package of score cards.  No score cards, left them at the camper!

The envelope of score cards includes stickers with your name, CMP Competitor Number, Firing Point Number and Relay Number.  Too late now to go back again. 

So, took the gear over to the firing line and confessed my stupidity to the CMP Staff.  Now, they really are a fantastic group of guys and gals, and they figured it out. They moved me to the second relay because the first was already in prep by this point. Amy gave me a blank card, from a different match format since they did not have any cards for this one and said to write down your score on the back of the card and sign it. So I did that, and got thru the match just fine and they have entered my score in the On-Line Tracker system manually. 

My score wasn’t great, a few of us dropped shots low into the 9 ring at 300 yards in prone rapid and we ended up holding the aim high in the 9 ring. Happened on both the prone rapid stages.  Neither of us could figure out what happened there.  

At that point, I realized too what went wrong yesterday in the prone slow position at 600 yards (besides freezing my butt off). I had set down my shooting mat at too shallow of an angle to the line of fire. I need to be at about 30 deg to the line of fire and it was more like 20 deg. This threw everything off, made the sling too tight, head too far back, couldn’t see thru the scope, it was all just wrong. Today was a much better prone slow result, first string just about cleaned it with one shot scoring a 9.9 for a total of 99-6x.  Second string opened up from fatigue and loosing focus, as it usually does for me. 

Ended up finishing in the top quarter of the pack. 17th out of 73 shooters. Not my best performance by any means, but enjoyed it nonetheless.

Tomorrow will be a fun shoot, the 2x600 (two strings of 20 shots prone at 600 yds) with the No. 4 DCRA 7.62 set up with a PH 5C rear sight and a AJ Parker “Matchmaker” front sight. I’ve got a good load for this rifle, so hope to do reasonably well, although I’ll be up against scoped modern Service Rifles. Not thinking at all about placing high, just want to shoot this rifle in a match. 

any idea who i might need to contact to set things in motion ? 

he is actually serious abot getting some great competitive events here 

Don't feel bad I have a cheat page in each of my logbooks for my sights,