Must Be Getting Old

Note to self: Don't pack for two trips at once. Couldn't find my stapler anywhere. I must have made three trips back to the house after engine start; forgot my foamies, then my shooting glasses, and then my .45 ammo. I should have emptied and checked my little range bag--then I wouldn't have gotten to the range to find out I'd left all but one of my 10-round .45 mags back at the house...in my other range box (packed already for the Big Match). Fortunately, the one magazine I did bring functioned flawlessly (it's now marked), so that will be the one with which I start all pistol stages.

The wind was blowing a light drizzle around when I got to the range. Desert Trails has a max range of 100 yards on the rifle range and a minimum range of 100 yards. The walk downrange to set up my target was slightly shielded from the wind by the side berms, but there was an opening between the sides and rear berms where the wind channeled through. I found some big rocks to anchor the stand. They worked.

Through trial and error, I found that my SOCOM-16 sights are on at 100 yards by rolling the elevation drum up 21 clicks from the bottom. My first magazine put everything into the A zone or a tad right; I was shooting at match speed from a carpeted block of wood. The match normally has sandbags at the long range shooting positions, so I was happy with the outcome. The wind had died by the time I started shooting, so I moved the sights two clicks left and fired another magazine. Those I sprayed up and down the A Zone, meaning I was careless with my breath control, but had done well enough for combat shooting at three times the range. During that string I noticed my elevation drum markings (which I'd never trusted, after my experience with my previous rifle), the pipper was right on 10! Those lovely people at Springfield sold me a rifle actually calibrated to the sights! This little nugget of goodness made up for all my absentmindedness earlier in the day! Well, I did have one failure to extract/eject...I used to have several of them using the Chinese ammo. I'll give the rifle a good cleaning tonight (and after every day of rifle shooting) and pray to St. Carlos of Hathcock that those won't occur during the match.

Update: Duh! The former Marine squadmate from last year reminded me that the 10 on the elevation drum was intended for 1,000 yards! He recommended I file the front sight down...I think I'll just keep my shooting to 300 yards or less. Next year, I'm going back to the Bushy anyway!