Imperial 7: The Corporation (1000 yds), 2+10

Occasionally one gets lucky. The last two years I had a 38/50 and a 32/50 at 1000. The first year, my foresight aperture broke in the middle of the shoot with inevitable adverse consequences. Last year I had heat exhaustion on the point from not drinking enough water and the 34C heat.

This year however, my detail kicked off at about 4:45pm. Typically the wind kicks up on Stickledown in the morning about 10:30-11:00 and continues very fiercely until 4:00 or so. So I was expecting reasonable winds (others who shot earlier in the day lost quite a few points.) As you can see from the plot, the wind bracket (the range from highest to lowest) was a very reasonable 1-1.5 minutes.

The one high shot out of my group (3) was because I believe that I "cooked" the round in the chamber. It was quite a hot day yesterday and my shooting partner, an elderly gentlemen from Yorkshire, was very very slow in the aim. The rule is 45 seconds from the confirmation of score on the last target and I swear he was taking closer to 3 minutes. This being early in the shoot, I hadn't quite figured this out, and I chambered a round when he went into the aim - so I could trust my wind call and shoot quickly when his shot value was displayed on the target.

But I waited and waited and waited. Whether I was impatient or I really did cook the round (overheat it and it's very sensitive to heat with the powders they use), I went very high, costing me a point.

The next to last shot (9) I left low because I was quite tired and when I saw the perfect sight picture I "snapped" the trigger rather than squeezing it gently and that left it predictably low.

That said, it was a pretty decent shoot for 1000 that really should have been a 49 without the errors. I continue to learn that this sport is about patience. On the plus side, I was well hydrated yesterday and seeing well - and obviously holding well.