This past weekend a friend and I competed in our first precision rifle competition at K&M Precision in Finger Tennessee. The competition was held on Sunday and we attended the Competition Prep course the day before.
95 shooters registered for the competition, but only 90 showed up. Most of the shooters were from the area or had shot at this facility several times before. I attended a Basic LR course at this facility in December 2015 so I had some familiarity but had not shot from the many barricades.
I finished #83 and there are many reasons for this. 1. I brought a new rifle with me that I had for only a week before the competition. I had some mechanical issues with it and it's back at my smiths. 2. I like using the 5 round AICS magazines and almost every stage was 10 round with a few 7 or 8 rounds. I knew this and figured I would have to complete mag changes. I ended up bringing one 10 round AICS magazine, but that became problem #3. 3. The 1 10 round AICS magazine I brought gave me feeding problems throughout the competition. I am running a 700 action in a McRee Precision G5. This one is in 6.5 Creedmore and is set up exactly like another rifle I have in 308. I brought both and for some unknown reason I didn't switch to that rifle when I knew it was GTG. 4. The McRee Precision stock was hard to load. I had to force my magazines into it. My other McRee does not have this problem. I plan on calling McRee when I get a chance and discussing this with them. 5. My biggest problem was my lack of skill and being "NEW" still. I have been to several courses and have attended training, but the above problems coupled with the competition pressure added up to a weekend where I did not shoot as well as I know I can.
It was very windy and that also didn't help. My inexperience with shooting from positions other than prone was also a limiting factor. I plan on correcting my equipment problems and working on my deficiencies and trying again.
95 shooters registered for the competition, but only 90 showed up. Most of the shooters were from the area or had shot at this facility several times before. I attended a Basic LR course at this facility in December 2015 so I had some familiarity but had not shot from the many barricades.
I finished #83 and there are many reasons for this. 1. I brought a new rifle with me that I had for only a week before the competition. I had some mechanical issues with it and it's back at my smiths. 2. I like using the 5 round AICS magazines and almost every stage was 10 round with a few 7 or 8 rounds. I knew this and figured I would have to complete mag changes. I ended up bringing one 10 round AICS magazine, but that became problem #3. 3. The 1 10 round AICS magazine I brought gave me feeding problems throughout the competition. I am running a 700 action in a McRee Precision G5. This one is in 6.5 Creedmore and is set up exactly like another rifle I have in 308. I brought both and for some unknown reason I didn't switch to that rifle when I knew it was GTG. 4. The McRee Precision stock was hard to load. I had to force my magazines into it. My other McRee does not have this problem. I plan on calling McRee when I get a chance and discussing this with them. 5. My biggest problem was my lack of skill and being "NEW" still. I have been to several courses and have attended training, but the above problems coupled with the competition pressure added up to a weekend where I did not shoot as well as I know I can.
It was very windy and that also didn't help. My inexperience with shooting from positions other than prone was also a limiting factor. I plan on correcting my equipment problems and working on my deficiencies and trying again.