A day off

Today is a day off, spent with the family.

Heading into London to see the Churchill war rooms and to have lunch in Covent Garden.

Then tomorrow at dawn, I'm off to Switzerland for a new jacket.

Today we shot 1000 (10 + 2), 1000 (15 + 2) and 900 (15 + 2) to finish the match. I swapped rifles for the afternoon and went back to my Lilja barrel. I now have solid zeros for both my rifles across most distances. Because the two have virtually identical performance characteristics, I have some confidence I'll be within +/- 1/4 moa on my initial elevation at all distances.

The winds here can be tricky and I have found it hard to judge exactly how much to put on or take off when there is an angle or intensity change. On the plus side, when I'm outside the 5-ring it is almost always by just a small fraction (1/4 minute). I think I lost most every borderline decision all weekend.

Undaunted though because I've held decent (1 MOA) to excellent (1/4 MOA) at all distances (with the exception of my initial 300 where I went on with the wrong elevation). The mounds are great, and soft and well kept. Flags are well-placed and it's not too far a walk with gear to either Century or Stickledown ranges.

The ice cream truck late afternoon is nice, though obviously I will have to refrain most of the time.

People here are lovely and have made me feel very welcome. I haven't had a bad experience in the last two days and I look forward to many more good days here before we all leave.

Tuesday is a quick jaunt to Switzerland to get a Truttman jacket made, and then back home Wednesday night. Early Thursday morning will be our first team practice. I have already met and shot with some of the people we'll be shooting against Friday (in the North London Rifle Club).

Here is a short film I made this morning of Stickledown range (900 and 1000) yds. I had to get used to the unusual sight picture.. The targets are quite a bit wider than Canadian or American targets and the earth berm in front of the targets means that one has more of a half or three-quarter moon sight picture than a completely round circle.

I was still able to shoot fairly well once I got used to it though.

Had a lovely day today. Got to the Armourer first thing and both my rifles passed the Rule 150 chamber check - and he had the same measurements I did. So huge relief that both my rifles are legal and don't need to be touched by a gunsmith. Today's relays were 300yds (10 + 2), 500yds (10 + 2), 500 yds (10 + 2), 600 yds (15 + 2). I had a bit of a dodgy start at 300 and I was hating life. I was blaming my head position, and the issue ammunition until I got off the line. Then I went to record my sight settings and realized I had left them on 20 (my elevation zero) rather than putting on 23 (the correct zero for 300yds). 500 yds went much better though the wind was quite difficult to read. I had to come up a good 3/4 minute from my normal elevation zeroes with my handbuilt ammo and I suspect that the GGG we've been issued is quite slow. As a coping strategy, I changed to my Krieger-barreled action - it is a tightbore barrel so will raise the pressures a little over my Lilja. Had a nice 2nd shoot at 500 - at least as far as elevation goes - and the elevation was with 1/4 minute of my Lilja barrel. So I guess slow is slow and the barrel ain't gonna make much difference. Finished at 600yds and had another excellent elevation shoot (kept 15 of 17 shots within 1/2 minute elevation) but was again somewhat flummoxed by the wind. I've determined that in swapping sights between my barrels I've lost a solid zero on my red sight (fitted to the Krieger). I've made a good educated guess to compensate and I will use this barrel and sight combo again in tomorrow's 900 and 1000 yd matches. Here's a video of Century range early this morning. Quite a lovely place to shoot. Temps in the low to mid-70s with a nice breeze. Perfect England.

Je suis arrive!

I have arrived. Had an excellent dinner here at Canada House (must.not.eat.dessert.) and am now off to the Surrey club with a new friend from the Vingt-Doux tagging along. My first detail is at 9:30 tomorrow AM. Have to be at the Armourer by 8am to have my rifles checked for chamber dimensions. Nervous about that one.

My UK phone number

Bought a UK SIM. I can be reached on: +44 7518 086800. Up 48hrs now.. Time to have a good pint and crash and tomorrow I should be on UK time when I wake.

It's Den Tag

It's the day.. Departing on Air Transat for the UK today at 1:15pm out of Vancouver, BC.

Very ready for this trip. All the bills paid in advance and banks notified that I'll be making charges overseas.

Thinking about Gaz's post about poor practice the last day or so. I've certainly run into that but much more frequently while shooting off concrete. I have a hard time with completely flat surfaces adjusting my position. Not so much with small bore but definitely will fullbore for reasons I haven't yet been able to discern.

Given that my ammunition is solid (and I haven't been experimenting) most of my postmortems suggest that poor practice for me is directly attributable to changes I've made in my rifle or gear. Too loose a butt plate, too tight a sling, buttplate raised too high.

So for me it's generally self-inflicted wounds.

Preparation is near complete

The last few months have been a study in how to prepare. This has been the most prepared I've ever been for a shooting competition. I've been shooting the new stock in every match and practice and have mocked up the same round that we are going to be using in the UK (2155, 2980fps, 2.800" OAL). I've had new barrels made with just the right jump to pass Rule 150 (basically the bullet cannot touch the lands in the barrel). I'm taking two different barrels, a Lilja and a Krieger. I've bought a second Warner Euro sight and obtained zeroes with both actions with their matching sights. I've purchased a new jacket, and shot on average 75-100 rounds a week the entire winter of live fire. For the last month, I've been shooting groups at the 300yd range all by my lonesome and plotting every shot (a really good exercise to build confidence and establish what you and your rifle can do by the way). I've lost 25lbs in weight, and had my eyes checked half a dozen times to get just the right prescription for both short and long range. I have two different sets of shooting glasses, and two different sets of contacts. I've spent the last five days making checklists, packing and unpacking, discarding gear (and arranging to borrow gear in the UK to replace it), getting local currency (in case I don't run into a working ATM on landing), arranging for the care of my Siamese, and having my team blazer fitted with badge and custom dress shirts made (it's the little things). Very little remains to be done. Notify all my credit card companies that I'll be in Europe for a month, pay bills in advance, keep looking for new employment, and book a short vacation post-Imperial somewhere in Europe.

Selection to the Team

First let me say, I had a terrible Nationals last year. I took my brand new stock (a System Gemini) and left behind my faithful (and heavy) Mastin stock. I had no end of problems. Chiefly because my grip was set in the wrong position (easily done because the Gemini is so adjustable and I hadn't really had enough practice). So I wouldn't be going along very well, shooting a lovely tight group with high x-count and then would throw a shot high left in the four ring. Consistently. Drove me absolutely crazy and I finished 75 spots down in the Grand Aggregate from my first year. Not nearly a good enough performance to make the Bisley team strictly on merit. But this being a World Championship year, most of the folks ahead of me on the selection list dropped out so that they could focus on going to the Worlds at Camp Perry in Ohio. So I made the team.