The North London

Well, that was very interesting.

We set up on 900 yds on Stickledown and then receive our ammo. It is NOT Imperial Meeting ammo. It is HPS ammo (very good quality) but it is loaded with 2156 bullets. This is the evolution of the 2155 that we shoot in the Imperial. It is "slipperier" and has a much shorter drive band. This means that our zeroes at long range are now going to be completely different as well as we worry that the different bullet profile may not match our carefully-selected chambers.

We proceed with the match and I'm the second shooter behind two of our best shooters (we shoot on two points at once), Serge Bissonnette and Jim Paton. Serge gets a 45 and Jim a 48 in testy right winds. I laid down, and in the words of Sandy Peden when I got up, had a "good shoot". A 48-7 which is near the top of the team list.

But I don't know this. That is, the Canadian system is really to have the shooter remove themselves from the mound and do a post-mortem on their shoot later. Sandy's comment to me means I did well, I just don't know how well.

I move to the 1000 yd line when it's time and follow Serge up again. This time he shoots a 42. Wow, I think. This guy is very good, there must be something wrong with his position or his rifle (it doesn't occur to me to question the ammunition).

I shoot - and I call every shot good - in the 5-ring - but for one. I get up with a 43-0. Devastated.

It is not until our formal dinner at the North London - absolutely first-rate by the way and home to some very good shooters - that I see everyone else's scores. I was lower mid-pack at 1000 in the team with only 1 person on the team getting over a 45 at 1000.

Normally, I would just attribute my poor result to a bad day at the office at 1000, but this was quite extraordinary.

Well, we'll not see that ammunition again in the next couple of weeks and I'll just tell myself not to let the result bother me. In the end, I think we had a very decent opening match and if I remember the scores correctly a 1000 consistent with our very good 900 would have had us in the running.

Everyone from the North London Club was very kind to us, the dinner was excellent and the conversation better, and the entire team has been invited to make use of their meeting membership at the North London.

Ran across this lovely old banner in the Club. I plan to go back sometime next week and look through all the pictures in their dining hall with a good glass of bitters in hand.