What a long 8 days! but hell, what an experience.
Firstly, I would like to thank those that helped make this trip the success it was, The Shooting Shed, Scot Country International, Extreme Performance, Sniper one and the FCSA(UK)
Three of us set of for New Mexico on the 1st July (The 4th team member left the week before to add in a family holiday in the US at the same time)
Arriving at Heathrow with the .50s was a slightly nerving experience, especially when BA decided that they knew nothing about the fact we were travelling with firearms! (Despite the fact we had phoned, checked, re-checked and confirmed that they knew prior to us leaving!) - the problem was heightened by the fact that they deemed the .50s as weapons of war and not sporting rifles - now this next bit may come as a shock to almost everyone here, but if it was NOT for G4S things would have been a lot worse, their supervisor (A young lad of Gurkha upbringing (his dad is a serving British Army NCO), he went above and beyond and dealt with BA on our behalf in a very professional manner and had the problem resolved in no time - thanks to his determination and by skipping out all the "middle men" and going direct to the head of BA security at Heathrow.
Rifles finally checked in, after being x-rayed and inspected by customs and it was time to chill before the 9hr 50min flight to Denver. No issues at Denver at all, very pleasant US customs officer was more interested in the size of the chamber and thickness of the barrel than anything else! We were made to feel very welcome and whisked through both border control and customs very quickly.
We had set aside an extra day to get acclimatised, zero the rifles and stuff some ammo, this was made all the more easy by the amazing generosity of the stalwarts of the FCSA (US) who had brought with them a whole host of reloading gear for our use, presses appeared from everywhere, quickly fixed to tables and tow bars of trucks! - auto powder dispensers were pouring powder, whilst bullets were being seated with some incredible seating dies - made by one of the FCSA members - turns out almost all of them used dies made by Martin Listt!!
The 1000yd range was being re-done whilst we were there and just over half of the 100 firing points had already been redone - very nice setup indeed. So rifle zero's checked and adjusted (needed 1.5MOA off our UK zero's) it was time for a BBQ and beer - again spoilt rotten by our hosts.
First day of competition saw us at the briefing for 6am! (yes 6am!) rifles weighed in and matches entered, 2 of us were shooting in all classes and 2 only in 2 of the classes, plus all of us were shooting in the Practical class (Yes PR with a 50!)
The PR took place at the 600yd point and consisted of 5 sighters (un marked) and then 15 rounds to score. The 15 rounds having to be shot in 10mins. Top honours went to the Barret team, who incidentally supplied all the ammo for the practical match!!
Friday saw the start of the match "proper" and it was again a 6am briefing for a 7am start, early starts were essential as by early afternoon the temperature was pushing well in to the 100s!!
The team shot well on the morning of the first day with Stuart shooting very consistently, along with myself - I was please to have shot 2 "greens" on the first morning (This is where the round goes through the previous spotting disc (1.5" circle disc) and our scores reflected on this. The wind was a total nightmare! - as those (Tim) who have shot at Raton will testify too, the wind flags all had a mind of their own! - flags to your right maybe showing a full value wind left to right, whilst the next flag would be blowing directly at you - no 2 flags ever blew in the same direction, with gusts in excess of 50mph being common through out the 2 days.
The afternoon of the first day saw Chris and Malcom swap roles (as they were only shooting 2 classes each they shot alternately, one shooting one pulling the targets!) - Stu and I had the luxury of having "paid" target pullers for our targets. That afternoon Stu continued to shoot well, but my rounds started going astray and I could not figure out why - there was no pattern to it! One would go left and then one go right!! (elevation remained constant) - this knocked me back in the standings quite a lot.
Saturday morning after scrubbing my rifle until it shone, put my first relay all in the bull, Stu continued to shoot well and push hard. I stayed with him all morning and shot my smallest group of the match just before lunch an 11.2" group, the smallest of the British team and a very respectable group. After lunch things started to go astray for me again!! - I just could not figure it out and was starting to get frustrated, when after taking a shot I noticed the windage drum on my scope was doing its own thing!! - I left the point mid relay - eventually found my toolkit in the car and managed to solve the issue, allowing me to finish that relay with 3 more bulls and drag my scores back up!! - turns out the high temperature was causing the screw on the drum to come loose and let it rotate under the intense recoil of the .50s! - big relief it was not down to my shooting :55:
The team did well though, finishing strong - we took 3rd (Stuart Gilbert), 4th(Me!!) and 5th(Malcolm Hurst) place in the international event, along with 5th(Stuart) and 6th(Me) in the Ironman competition (that is for those who shot in all 4 matches!)
A very long hard weeks shooting - I shot just over 300rounds of 50bmg in 3 days of competition.
Just a few photos of the week.
Left to Right Chris B, Me, Malcolm Hurst and Stuart Gilbert
My Rifle at the 1000yd point
Me shooting a relay
Team mascot showing us how it should be done!
Chris, Mal and Stu taking the P*
Chris and Stu zeroing
one of my groups on 74 and Stu's on 72
How the yanks do it! JB founder of the FCI (Fifty Calibre Institute and all round top guy!)
