Saturday, 2nd day of Shooting.

The NRA internet was down most of the day yesterday so this report is a day late.

There were 3 matches on Saturday. The Donegall 300 yards, Lovell 1000 yards and the Daily Telegraph 500 yds.

The 300 yard match was interesting with 2 to 3 minutes of wind and changing angles. Mike Downey and Jeff Cochran really hammered them and ended up with 50 points and 8 Vs each. Several of our shooters dropped points to angle changes and pick ups. I ended up with 50 points and 7Vs. I was feeling good until Downey and Cochran came off the line.

Next was the 1000 yard match and by then the wind had picked up substantially. I was able to hang in there and dropped one point ending up with 49 points and 3 Vs. Top three people had same score and I was Creedmored into second place. For those that do not know what "creedmored" means, when two or more shooters have the same score, they start from the last shot fired and work their way backwords. My last shot for record was a 5 and the other guy’s last shot for record was a V. Jeff Traylor did very well as well coming in 7th for the 1000 yard match. Of the top 10 shooters only two were from the US. Of the top 20, there were 7, so that was a very good showing.

I had a two hour break between the 1000 yard match and the 500, which was set to begin at 6:00pm. In the US we hardly ever shoot past 6:00pm, but here they schedule matches all the way till 7:00pm. By the time you are done, most of your teammates, who are shooting at different times, are dispersed and you cannot coordinate going out to eat or meetings and so forth. Anyway, there are vendor tents across the NRA building and I wondered around looking at some interesting things that they have. Most of their stuff is very expensive. I could not bring "Carb out" with me because of airline regulations and had to buy it here. 10 pounds, which is about $16.50. It costs about $6.50 in the US. Bumped into Dean Morris on the way back from the vendor tents and he had an interesting relay. He was the center shooter and the guys on either side of him did not speak English. To make things worse, neither one spoke the other’s language. Then add to that mix Dean Morris, a good ‘ol boy from Oklahoma. He might as well be from Mars!! You can just imagine the jovial conversation they had trying to figure out who shoots and who scores. 

Off to 500 yards. There were dark clouds looming and I quickly put on my raingear. As soon as we were called to the line, downpour! And yes, it was windy so you have rain going sideways (great for reading the velocity). Bisley is very windy range. In the 3 days we have been here the wind has not let up. This was a 15 shot match and I managed to squeak out the full 75 points with 11 Vs. Cochran had the same score as I did, but I creedmored him and ended up in 4th place. Competition is extremely tough as you have absolutely the best shooters in the world here. I came off the line in nasty conditions with a perfect 75 and 11 Vs and get 4th place. What’s up with that?

At 9:00 pm there was a blazer and tie reception put on by the NRA. It was drinks only. Met a few Kenyan shooters. They actually have two teams here shooting in the Imperial matches. One is the Army Team and the second one is the Police Team. Nice guys and very friendly. They were surprised at seeing a Kenyan born American shooter. Handed some pins out to them and they were very grateful.

Got back to the room and did the whole hair drying routine again with all the gear as well as the gun.

Top 10 scores:

Donegall 300 yds.

M Downey, USA, 58
David Kent, GB, 58
J. Cochran, USA, 58
J Traylor, USA 57
S. Balolia, USA, 57
IC Mowbray, GB, 57
D. Parr, GB, 56
MP Plug, Netherlands, 56
D Brough, GB, 56
J. Campbell, GB, 55

Daily Telegraph 500 yards.

D, Brough, GB, 87
A Brough, GB, 87
M Been, Netherlands, 86
S. Balolia, USA, 86
J. Cochran, USA, 86
D. Kent, GB, 84
W. Schozle, Germany, 84
J. Campbell, GB, 84
H. Mikera, Germany, 84
D. Stewart, Marquis, 84

Lovell 1000 yards.

W. Scholze, Germany, 52
S. Balolia, USA, 52
P. Hobson, GB, 52
JA McAllister, GB, 51
A. Brough, GB, 51
D. Brough, GB, 50
J. Traylor, USA, 50
CS Taljaard, S. Africa, 50
LP Fenlon, GB, 49
J. Brewer, USA, 49

I’ll try to do Sunday’s results later on today as well.