Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Today there was only one 300 yard match which is a precursor to the finals ie.. the top shooters of this match will shoot in the St George’s finals.

For me it was an early morning shoot at 8:00 am. The wind was dead. The weather was cool and overcast. Reminded me of the Plantation 300 yard range in Bellingham, WA where I shoot a lot of matches. First time since I got here the wind was less than 2 MPH. Less than ½ MOA change on my gun. It was a 15 shot match and I shot a perfect 75 with 15 Vs. As Coach Mead later said, even a blind Hog could have done that! Well it was good for first place with just one other person. Anyway that guarantees me a spot in the finals. Lot of US shooters in the St George’s finals.

The afternoon we practiced as a team at 900 yards and 1000 yards. I believe Jim Murphy did really well on his vertical hold, but then no surprise. If you want to win against him, he better have an off day and you be on top of your game. Had a meeting with the coaches and captain about tactics etc and went to the NRA building for my Internet experience. Its getting to be a daily challenge (hey – that sounds like match, sure feels like it). Just managed to squeak off the Sunday match results 2 minutes before they closed. Actually got there 30 mins before closing, but 20 minutes were spent trying to make their archaic system work. Doc Bock has figured out a way to make his Internet work. He stands with it just outside the door of the pavilion and gets enough bars to talk to his wife on that two way video thing. I even managed to say hi to her as I was walking by.

St George’s Stage One 300 Yards,

1. S. Balolia, USA, 90

DA Stewart, Marquis, 90

H. Kruger, Germany, 89
JM De Koort, Netherlands, 89
M. Downey. USA, 89
D. Morris, USA, 89
D. Kent, GB, 89
W. Schulze, Germany, 88
PW Medhurst, GB, 88
M. Been, Netherlands, 88

There are four matches tomorrow and a whole bunch of planning and general team business work to take care of.