Roving Shooter Visit to Camp Perry - Report 5
Subject: End of shooting
The last day of the individual long ranges saw us shoot the Palma course of 15 at 8, 9 and 1000 with unlimited sighters at 8 and 2 compulsory at 9 and 10. The wind was up for a change and it was cool so there was no mirage and with few flags there was a fair bit of guess work. Got 147 at 8 and 144 at 9, no 8s, but just loosing them either side in the shifts, from 3 to 6 minutes left. The 1000 was a good solid shoot with 145 to give an aggregate for the day of 436. My aggregate for the long ranges was 1235/1250. That was after 95 shots at 1000 and 15 at 8 and 9. The prize giving was held in the 800 seat theatre which is on the range. Ty Cooper was the top gun overall. The top three all received a Remington 700 rifle for their trouble as well as other prizes. They have some amazing cast bronze trophies as well as some fine silverware.
The last day of shooting was a coached teams match for 4 shooters over the Palma course. They shoot 2 shooters and then do a target marker change with the first 2 shooters going to the butts and the other 2 coming back and shooting. After 3 and 4 have shot they go back to 9 and shoot and then swap back with 1 and 2 who then shoot 9 and 10 before going back to the butts for 3 and 4 to shoot. No lunch break, you eat or snack as you go. I had a good day shooting 149.7, 148.7 and 148.4 for 445.18, which was only bettered by 7 others. The 900 score hurt as we lost the last 2 shots, they were on the waterline, but the 2 at 1000 were both nominated. We had some breaks but my shoots were shot in about 7-8 minutes. The conditions were the same as the day before with a frontal to quartering wind. About 30 teams took part. Top score went to Ty Cooper with 449, shooting the 1000 in about 4 minutes. I was shooting, appropriately enough, with the Bald Eagles, you have to be over 55 to qualify so just scraped in. The team was organised by Bob Churchill whom many of you at home may know. He came and found me wearing his Karori Club shirt.
The rifle is packed away and am trying to make sure my baggage weights stay under the 23 kg as the penalty is the same as an extra bag, $100 US.
Spent my last full day again looking at accommodation as well as doing some sightseeing on a sunny day. Last week when I had a day off it came in and rained and then we had a thunder storm. I was driving when it started and it got so dark, at 1 pm, you needed your lights on to see where you were going. Then it started raining so hard I got off the road and waited for it to settle down. I would think we got over 50mm in an hour. My whole time here the temperatures have been very pleasant with the days generally getting into the low to mid 20s with the odd day up to 27 to 28. At this time of year they can often get to about 100f which is around 40 along with humidity, which would be very draining with shooting and marking. Fitness would will be a factor if we get those conditions in 2015.
The last job is the 19 hours of sitting on planes to get home. I am going through San Francisco on the way home and not LA as the transit time in LA was a bit tight.
Camp Perry is a great place to shoot and I am certainly looking forward to returning here in 2015. I now know what the standard is that we will need to be at for the Palma, this trip has confirmed my earlier thoughts.
I have had a lot of help and assistance from Dennis Flaherty and Emil Praslick and have had offers of help for all manner of things for 2015. The Americans are going to put on a great show in 2015.
Malcolm.
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