I haven’t taken the time to give the run-down of this year’s International Tactical Rifleman’s Championship. This is the third time I have competed in this event. First time was back in 04 with long-time hunting buddy, Steve Hugel. We used two XP-100’s, one for the carbine part, and the other for the long-range part, and I used a Glock 22C for the handgun part. We placed 27th, if I remember right, which was almost in the middle of the field.
Last year Wayne was my partner and we came in 12th place. Wayne had a bad hip and we still did well. Wayne had his hip replaced and we were more prepared than ever, as far as we knew. I felt more content about this year’s match than ever before. Well, “Murphy” showed up and gave us some lessons and disappointments.
One problem that showed up was something we thought we be to our advantage, only to realize it was a disadvantage. I had a 7” AR upper put together, thinking this would be great for the Gully Course & High Volume stage (the two parts make up one course). It ended up being so light it made off-hand shooting extremely difficult. Probably next year I will use the 16” upper for everything or get a 10-12” barrel, with maybe a heavier contour.
Another part of course #1, is shooting out of the war wagon. Basically a flatbed trailer with bench attached. Both of us shoot (carbine and handgun-Glock 17 for me this year) at the same time while we are being pulled by a truck. Targets run from 40-60 yards. No points taken away for missing and you get 5 points per hit. This is a great place to make a lot of points. One team received over 600 points on this one part. We borrowed two P-Mags (holds 50 rounds) of 5.56/223 Rem ammo. We had run one of them and it worked great. Of course, the one Wayne decided to use first had an issue and he only got three shots off, as it kept jamming. I hit 5 targets with the Glock. We should have proved both of them.
The kicker was course three, where to make a heartbreaking story short my picatinny base on my 7mm SAUM XP decided to come loose, during the third stage of course 3. During the first two stages, our RO said it was the best shooting had seen in the two days previous. Furthest distance I was shooting was right out to 800 yards and we hit everything in sight. The XP went from a precision rig to somewhere kind of close. With 40 points per hit on the LR targets and you get to shoot each target two times and -20 points for every miss or not engaging you can see that the points we lost was significant.
We came in 24th place this year. We learned some lessons, had fun, in spite of the frustrations. It was a lot better shooting the Glock than the 1911 I used last year. With the gun and the ammo being lighter it made everything easier.
I am still licking my wounds over this one, but I haven’t lost too much sleep over it this week. I guess the good thing is, that if you are going to have a series of things go wrong, it is good to have it happen over a three-day period than over three separate matches.
I am already thinking about next year, and how to improve.
If you note my post time, I couldn’t sleep, so I thought it was a good time, to get this post out of my system.
_________________________
Ernie (xphunter)
Live such a life that when you awake, Satan shudders & says, Oh no, they're awake!
Login
Gallagher .475 Sin
Top