I escaped work a little early today with the intention of squeezing some practice for a two-day run and gun shooting event I'll be competing in on the weekend of the 24th and 25th of October. I wrote about it here if you're interested.
With everything that's going on in my life at the moment it's been reasonably difficult to get much trigger-time although today I was able to get some time to finalise my preparation and test a couple things.
The competition isn't one I will take too seriously, although it's not in my nature to accept second best from myself and so I've spent a little time in the last few weeks trying to work up for the competition and give me the best opportunity to perform at my best; I always compete against myself, not others. Personal best is more valuable to me than placings on the scoresheet.
Due to the nature of the competition I'll be required to change magazines in mid-stage, very quickly, and some stages will take a minimum of twenty rounds to complete, with a few extra for contingencies, that means I'll be changing the ten round magazines twice; One inserted at the beginning of the stage, and two changes so a total of three magazines are required.
I've had to borrow a couple of magazines from a mate, which I don't like doing to be honest as I'm a self-sufficient sort of guy, and today in addition to some run and gun practice I was cycle-testing the magazines.
I'm using SK .22LR rounds on the weekend which I've tested in the rifle previously and have used to zero the scope - They work really well, are consistent and I'm yet to have a malfunction in the gun with them. Malfunctions cost time and as the competition is scored by dividing points gained by elapsed time on each stage so the faster one shoots the better. Jams and malfunctions are a competitors worst nightmare.
Cycle-testing is pretty easy; One simply loads the magazines full of rounds, inserts one into the rifle and cycles it, loading, ejecting, loading, ejecting, loading ejecting and so on until the magazine is empty. I did all three magazines in this way, re-loaded them with rounds and did it again. That's sixty rounds chambered and ejected and there wasn't a single magazine/miss-feed issue. So, I declare the magazines legit!
Of course, that's not enough for the G-dog and so I I tested them again. Yeah, that's my OCD kicking in.
I reloaded them and shot thirty rounds in quick succession, reloaded them and did it again. Not a single malfunction over those sixty rounds which makes one hundred and twenty rounds without fault in total. I'm was starting to feel confident.
After that I ended up practising a little more, shooting prone off a bipod and running and gunning also, all on small steel targets at ranges from 40-80 metres - Remember I'm talking about a .22LR rimfire round and it's a run and gun competition, practical in nature, so I won't be shooting at great distances like I do with my long guns.
After all of that I packed the CZ 515 up and declared my competition preparation complete - I simply will not have any more time before the event to shoot that rifle.
Of course, I wasn't just out at the farm for a practice so it was out with my culling rifle, a centrefire .243, and off I went to find something to shoot. It was a reasonably successful night with three rounds fired and three feral kangaroos down. Job done. I made some good shots tonight out to almost four hundred metres.
I took these images today whilst I was there, all with my Samsung S20 phone. It looks nice huh? I'm very fortunate to have access to this property. Opportunities, and properties like this, don't come up all the time and most other shooters would kill to get at it, permission to shoot on it...I'm very lucky to be trusted to shoot on it anytime I like - The only shooter to have the privilege.
It was a nice way to end my work day and whilst I'd like to shoot a little more before the competition I think I'm ready thanks to the testing and final moments of practice today.
Design and create your ideal life, don't live it by default - Tomorrow isn't promised.
Be well
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