Match, DURC open, Rathdrum, 22-11-09

I take back what I said - this was not going to be a good day. I woke up sneezing all morning and very cold. Getting set up was awful, the place was freezing, as usual. Having to get up at 7 to gready and into the range didn't help, but it could have been worse.

What annoys me most about my 576 overall, aside from the fact that my score is dropping, is that it was good shooting. It felt alright, everything was centered, recoil was nice, but it kept throwing 9s. And 9.9s in particular... Three in one string at one stage!

But anyway, enough of the ranting, it's not my style ;) Aisling was kind enough to take several pics of me in position later in the match, when things were getting very hairy so I can compare my position to the one I had in Fermoy. Looking below you can see that my left leg is very straight, compared to the kicked out one from Fermoy on it's right.

I did some experimentation when I got home last night on comparing the two leg positions and found some interesting results; kicking my leg out gives me a nice higher upper body position, which my set up is tweaked for, and throws the weight more evenly across my body, including onto my right arm, thereby leaving my left less painful. Also, while it lowers my left hand a little, it rotates my left elbow onto the comfy part, and drops my right shoulder so that the target height can be reached. Who knew!?

So, terrible score, but something valuable learned. Which is what it's all about, right? Journey being the goal and all that. There's still the Turkey shoot to go (not really shooting at turkeys, though there are a good few as prizes!), so I can still pull out a good performance. Oh, and remind me to eat a lot more in the days coming up to a match so I have some fuel to keep me warm/get through it. 45 mins of the shivers afterwards is like, soo not cool. Not when you're wearing thermals, certainly.

More training...

OK, so I said I wasn't going to train until next week. I didn't lie as such, just fell through on it.

Running this morning was the first time I've gone in a week. I'm very poorly disciplined at the moment for physical training, but I'm mostly blaming that on not having anything warm to run or cycle in and my bike does need a new bottom bracket...

Going for a run was not fun. At all. Wind is horrendous. I was in bits after the first 500m, never mind the other 3.5km that I scraped though. It was one of the toughest things I've done so far. Now, it might also be due to not getting enough exercise at the moment, but it was still pretty rough. Stupid wind...

Then, Dave said he'd open the range if I wanted to train with him, and I was covering for Aisling later on... So I went and did a bit. Not as nice as the day before, but I think if I hadn't played with my sight when switching from practice to shooting a 10 group then it would have been a hell of a lot nicer and without those nasty 9.9s slightly out. Again, roll on Sunday :)

Training, UCD/DURC

Well, despite the training last week the weekend didn't go so well so it's clearly time to ramp it up a little. Went to UCD on Tuesday evening for an hour or two there, followed up by a 40 shot match yesterday in DURC with Iain. Both left a bit to be desired, though when I felt right in DURC it went well. Also, I think that what I was doing when it felt right was pretty decent. Also, remembering what I did is a big step up...

Followed that up with some prone then yesterday afternoon. Shot two ten shot groups and one ten bull card. The first group was almost certainly 100/100, but a bit hairy at points, which won't do. The 10 bull followed and was a very disappointing 97/98 with a terrible 9 in there. The final group was shot over two targets with a gap in the middle and came to probably a 99 with some nice tight shots. Hopefully the higher targets in Rathdrum will leave me a little less pained at the end...

I'll crack into some more for today and call it a week at that, what with my trip down South for Friday and Saturday. Back late that night for the DURC open on Sunday morning. Fun times :)

UCD Air Open, 15-11-09

The UCD open i generally the first match that DURC sends novices to, and today was no exception. Also, it tends to be a match that sees most of the senior air rifles squad back in action. Though it wasn't my first of the season it was the first I had put some training into so I was looking forward to it.

During the week I spent a lot of time relearning how to shoot, which ended up going quite well, getting in some mid 90s strings, which was nice. I still haven't quite gotten back to my former comfort and consistency, but I feel more comfortable and stable than ever at the moment. Which, as usual, still isn't translating into a better match performance for me :(

My performance in DURC is going well, but, as I have discovered in the past, the targets in DURC are on the, shall we say, higher end of the requirements, not to mention the lighting... Anyway, UCDs targets are lower, which has zero problems that I wouldn't really notice as I tend to fall quite high in general. I'm heading out there on Tuesday to go for a training session then so we'll see how it goes then with a slightly lower position.

For a gratuitous photo of me on the line we have the one below;

If nothing else, the new jacket looks damn amazing :D We'll have a quick review of everything on Tuesday out in UCD and go from there.

Oh, and on the score side of things, I shot 540, which is getting better, but more importantly it was one of the best 540s I've ever shot. It did contain an 87 to start and an 84 to finish (crazy 5 out to the side...) but we shall ignore that for the moment. Yeah. I'm actually really happy with today, the groups were good, just in the wrong place. Until later!

Leinster Indoor Open 2009, Rathdrum.

I was feeling good about this match. So good in fact that something was bound to go wrong. Aside from having to turn up several hours too early to bring another shooter down it seemed like a good day. Oh, and forgetting about my cold which was killing me and leaving me incredibly dehydrated.

Whatever happened, it wan't good. Lying down in position was grand, it felt OK, no pain, nothing awkward. The result was different though. I couldn't keep the group tight enough. I don't know how many points I lost to 9.9s and 9.8s all throughout the match. I wasn't the only one either, both Kealan and Conor also dropped a lot of 9.9s, three in a row each at one point!

Keeping with my current tempo I rattled through sighters and the first 20 match shots in about 15 minutes. Rested and trying to get my head settled and back on the game I got back down again and started with 3 9s! With the inevitability that this was not going to be a good day settling in I just went for it and put in the rest of that block of 20 before getting up again.

The fifth card was a bit of a disaster, though I don't remember it being much different from the other ones. Finishing that one on a 94 was particularly poor, I had thought I was well beyond that. The last card being a 98 was decent enough however. It may signal that I need to take a little more time on each shot as I did rattle through them quite quickly overall, only slowing down a little on the last string.

Owing to two absences I also made it into the final where I was given a chance to redeem myself. I had done it before and with only 3 points between me and Conor with Mark and Kealan in between I knew there was some serious ground I could make up. So the pressure was on a little to prove myself and show what I could really do. Keeping my cool as much as possible I took my time a little more, checking my focus on the foresight for each shot, gently applying pressure to the trigger. It paid off, finally I was grouping well in the 10 ring, most of the shots being 10.5 or 10.5 and all right on the same spot. If I had a more accurate rearsight one or two clicks would have seen me putting in consistent 10.9s, which would have been very sweet. The end result was putting in a total of 103.6 and jumping from 7th to 4th in the final, almost overcoming a 5 point gap to take third but falling short by 0.9.

To make sure I got my €15 euro worth of shooting there was also a tie announced for 4th place with another DURC shooter, Mark who had a great final. I'd never seen, let alone taken part in a shoot off before so this was quite exciting, but a lot of a pain and very nerve wracking. Fortunately I had stayed in position for this exact reason, knowing it was always a possibility. A the order to load came my heart was thumping. I didn't think there was any way I could get this shot in with my heart rate about the same as it is climbing up a mountain. I heard Mark's shot go off and all the crap that I've ever heard about how much pressure there is when the other person has taken the shot and how difficult it is to overcome that hurdle flashed through my mind until I decided to Hell with it all and took the shot; 10.7, exact same spot as the last few shots :) Mark put in a great 10.3, just to make it more exciting for everybody else.

As it turned out, there was no need for the shoot off as the system had just not added up the decimal scores, meaning that I actually had 1.6 points over Mark anyway, but it was still a great experience. Learning that I can put in a 10.7 under pressure was well worth it.

Next time I shall try paying more attention to the lighting conditions on the day. I think it was a bit dark where I shot the match compared to the final, and the difference between the two could not be more marked. Good end to a bad day though :)

Fermoy Open, 25-10-09

First thing to say, while it might be far away (at the moment), it's a fabulous range.

Lovely lawns, proper brick clubhouse with ladies and gents toilets, hot and cold running water and a lot of different ranges for several different disciplines.

We had to leave here early to get down there for a reasonable hour, so it was on the road around 8 or so and down there for 11, after getting some epic breakfast rolls in the town. And yes, they do deserve a special mention :D

We got started with the shooting on our own little private range around 12 or so, with Pete, Aisling and Dave taking the first slots. Myself and Conor took the second lot.

Myself and Conor in position for our first detail.

My full position, complete with new jacket. Perfect fit :)

While we were beginning our details, on the other range, people started to finish up... The phrase, "bloody students" may have been uttered once or twice, but all in good fun :D

There were no wind flags put out, which is probably just as well as I may have been tempted to look at them once or twice. Ignoring the wind seemed to work very well, any shots out I can put down to myself. The first card was pretty spot on, a few points off but nothing huge. The second one was where problems arose. I got down slightly wrong which caused a lot of pain in my left arm which I stupidly chose to ignore. That probably cost me a good ten points. The end of that card after a reset and the third one were pretty good as well though, leaving a final score of 579. So, room for improvement, but it's more of a consistency thing which is easy to work on. Roll on 590!

Photos courtesy of Aisling Miller, DURC's current smallbore photographer :)

Training, DRC 18-10-09

So DURC finally sorted some outdoor training sessions and the venue is DRC in Wicklow. It's something that we've been talking about for some time and really needed to get going. Very few of us have ever had the opportunity to train outdoors and I must say I thoroughly enjoyed it.

We arrived around half ten or so, after a very amusing conversation at the top of Dave's road about how he wasn't allowed in to grab the targets due to some race thing... The day for once up there was nice and calm with overcast skies so there were no light changes. I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing, training is probably the better place to experience these things.

I wasn't sure until I was shooting whether or not to do some 3p practice. I decided in the end, once I was banging in the inner tens in prone, to move on and do standing and kneeling. Despite being my first time hefting the .22 into a standing position for the first time in over a year, it went OK. a score of 80 and 81, without sighting in wasn't too bad. The group mostly held the 8 ring, which is awful, but better than I have ever done. My progress in air rifle is standing to me now :)

As for the kneeling I seem to have hit upon an excellent position by chance! After an initial set up few shots the rest were grouped very tightly! The only thing I have to say about it is that the kneeling button hole in the jacket doesn't seem to work... It kept popping open, to the point where I just left it for the last five shots. Interestingly, the group shifted down and to the right when this happened.

All in all, it was a good day, followed up by some clay shooting for kicks in Courtlough. All signs are pointing to me having a good day tomorrow in Fermoy Rifle and Pistol Club in the People's Republic :)

BTW, I was going to put up pictures, but the card isn't that impressive at all. I'll try to get some from tomorrow and put them up instead. Laters!