A year of waiting, preparing, a new rifle and new bullet. Everything was looking good for a banner year for me and I was excited to be going. Sadly, it did not happen. We learned from Rick that the event would be cancelled due to the Corona Virus.
“V Ring” practicing at the Walter Cline Range
I decided there and then that I was shooting the match, even if I was the only competitor. The first thing I needed were targets. Since the only range with any distance available to me was the range at Friendship, I decided to make targets at half scale, as the Friendship range is only 500 yards. A quick check of my existing target backers and available paint, fifteen minutes with a spreadsheet, and we were making targets. They turned out well, I thought.
We planned to shoot the event Thursday, March 26th, as the weather looked the most promising. Arriving at the range we had a gentle warm breeze, light cloud cover, and an empty firing line.
We promptly started setting up the loading stand, my wife’s (coach) spotting scope, and my shooting mat. Then we began the long walk to setup the targets at 150, 300, and 500 yards. Once we had the targets setup, we began shooting. In shooting sighters for 150 yards, I was becoming perplexed as my math as not working. Knowing my 300 yard sight setting, I had come down 20 minutes thinking that would put me on paper at 150 yards, but I was very low. Adding elevation, I was getting really close to my 300 yard sight setting as I got onto paper and that was puzzling. At this point, I have to mention that Bob saved the day. Bob stopped by to see what we were up to and asked, “Why did you put the 150 yard target at 250 yards?”