Yesterday's matches

I had a very fine start to yesterday's matches with a 49-5 at 600yds. It was very twitchy wind on a coldish day with little or no mirage. So I had to depend on reading the faces of the other targets (looking for any preponderance of shooters leaving shots right or left out of the bull) and reading the wind flags. My one lost point was so close I almost challenged it. And I beat a friend of mine (who is an X - which is the top class here at Bisley, restricted to those who finish in the top 50 in the Queen's, the Grand Aggregate, or the St. George's). He said I earned it. Nice accolade.

The 900yd Admiral Hutton was a bit of a disaster. I moved off another shooter's mistakes (I was led to believe he was quite good and he couldn't read the wind worth a damn!). My mistake and will not do that again unless I'm fortunate to make one of the Finals (where everyone is about guaranteed to be a fine shot). I remained quite cheerful though - in spite of a 38.1 (out of 50!). This was the event that I nearly won last year and this year I'm likely to be in the bottom 20%. C'est la vie.

The final shoot of the day was late evening (7pm) at Century range (the short range which varies from 300-600yds). I had very little pulse and very little flag movement so was expecting a pretty good shoot. Indeed, it started that way with two Vs (highest possible scores) for my first two shots. About shot 5, I put one low right for a 4 (loss of one point). Thought maybe it was a triggering flaw - yanking the trigger - and tried extra double hard on next shot. And.. hit my previous spotter! So obviously something had changed in my position.

I brought the sights up half a minute and finished in the maximum points for a 47.4. A creditable score earlier in the day when it was very windy, but a bit of a tragedy at this time of day in these conditions.

However, this has pointed out a wee flaw that has been plaguing me now for a couple of weeks - sudden changes in elevation in an otherwise lovely group (you'll see when I post the plot sheets in an update). One of my coaches, a well-known Canadian shooter, has suggested that I should re-position my sling every few shots. The stretching out of the jacket and movement of the sling that comes with dismounting the rifle with every shot may be gradually altering my position. So I'll try that this morning at the final couple of preliminary shoots and see if it helps. I pray it does as the alternative is that the changing light here affects my eyes in a bit of an unpredictable fashion. So I'm fine if it's cloudy, or if it's bright, but shadows on a bright day can play hob with my vision (cataracts).