CMP Games 2009 Preparation Notes

Gun Notes

Took the M-1 Garand, M1093A3 Springfield and Enfield No.4Mk1* to the range. Got them dialed in with good zeros at 200 yards.

The Springfield still makes the most amazingly small groups and my notes match the old notations about the tip of the front sight being slanted. Got a better picture for managing that in this pidgeon's little brain. LOL.

The Garand groups were bigger than I liked. It was making touching holes in the X for me when I tested it on the 100 yard range on Saturday but only 10 ring patterns on Sunday. Remembered on the way home that As-Issued Garands have aircraft carrier wide front sight blades. Need to line up on the center of the post. Found the old notes about making a pencil mark in my notes. Will do.

The Enfield rang around a 10 ring group. Was able to improve it by noticing that the rear aperture hole is bigger in the Enfield. Larger than the optically indifferent diameter of a target aperture. That means one has to put a little more attention to centering the front post in it to get it to shoot tighter. That should get me deeper into the 10 ring with this gun. It's pushing Sierra 174gr Match Kings over a moderate charge of H4895. Will have to run them over a chrono to make sure the SD's are happy.

More "to do's" with guns,

1. Need to take the M-1 Carbine out and shoot a refresher with it.

2. Need to decide if I want to work up a load for 80grs under either N540 or Varget instead of H4895 for the Creedmoor Cup.

Eyes notes (more precisely shooting eyeglass notes),

1. Move the glass frames so that the view is through the center vertical axis of the lens to take maximum advantage of the way the progressive lens is cut. Gets the best image clarity on the front sight.

2. It's critical to change the rotation of the lens slightly for CMP shooting. It's because of the shape of the stocks. Correct lens rotation is about 5-10 degrees further over in head position tilt versus where the lens should be for working with the AR-15. Plan to set it one way for the CMP phase AND MAKE SURE TO FIDDDLE WITH AND RESET IT AT 200 YARDS on Wednesday for the AR-15 before beginning the Creedmoor Cup phase.

3. When in doubt go for contrast. The yellow filter works best. No filter is very clear but more susceptible to light changes. The gray filter gets the eye more open but that seems to work against the objective of smallest apertures = sharpest views.

"If you can't see, you can't win."