Who Needs the Alps?

My first proper time spent in UCC was over the past two days. It's a lovely college and the writing course that I was at proved to be excellent: well taught; interesting content; and demonstrating the use of use : and ;.

What I had noticed before was the amount of hills around the city. However, walking around these isn't so bad, you only really notice them on a bike. And boy are they noticeable. Cycling along, nice and easy (well, giving it loads to prove to the drivers beside you that cycling is clearly a superior form of transportation), then bam, you're at the bottom of a cliff.

Now I know that I'm not the best cyclist, indeed, far from it. I also know that I'm not the best hill climber for my performance bracket. However, the severity of the climbs inside the city (!!) are something else. I wasn't used to that kind of thing at all in Dublin.

However, it does lend itself to some interesting speculation on training. Getting myself on a nice fixie, such as the Felt Dispatch which I have my eye on, would really push me to build a lot of fitness in this area.

This will of course not be happening until I get back from Germany. Word on the street is that I'll be leaving before two weeks in January are up, and gone for a good eight or nine months. That said, some alpine training, in an area like Schloss Ringberg below, wouldn't go amiss :D

Unfortunately, I'll probably be taking the Christmas and a lot of time in January off due to either having my bike in Cork, or, much more drastically, having given my rifles back to the club :( One of the really annoying things about this is that there are InterShoot qualifications going on as well. Based on how things were going up until last week I may actually have had some sort of a chance to at least get within spitting distance of the 573 required, which would be the main thing.

So, the plan has not been forgotten, merely delayed. Keep reading for more concrete plans, though I wouldn't expect them to materialise for some time yet. I'll keep having a look around for some decent training plans online and see what I can find. I'll share too, don't worry!

Bad Times

Well, the past while has been somewhat of a disaster. Between the hastle of trying to find a place to live in Cork and failing, going to Cork periodically, moving stuff from Dublin and a host of other things, including not having enough half decent gear to cycle in, I've done exactly nothing since cleaning my rifles last week.

I can feel all my hard work slipping away, hard work which I know isn't going to be easy to build back up again after Christmas. I'm thinking that going to Germany is going to be filled with plenty of running and cycling, if for no other reason than I've done so little here over the last while.

I'm tempted to brave the looks I'll get from my parents and bring the bike home over Christmas for some flatish spins in Roscommon, just to ease me back into it again. Since my leggings and UnderArmour top aren't going to be used for shooting for a while I may as well give them some use... I shall has to see about that. Either way, I'm not sure what I'll do with the bike when I'm in Germany, and I don't want to lose it after all this time either.

So, I'l try to get some training in, if only basic stuff. But don't judge me if I don't. It is Christmas, after all. Or at least it is according to the shops...

Rifle Cleaning, And Kit Return

Finally, the time has come to relinquish my use of DURC's rifles and kit. I spent around two hours today going through my kit bag, peli case and rifles to return all various bits and pieces to both myself and the club, which turned out to be no mean feat!

End result; the club now has an extra pair of pants and boots for use, as well as two extra rifles. It killed me to stick a Contact II onto M though, I really don't like those buttplates :D I spent the rest of the time running some oil through M and one, ONLY one, round of blue pasting 1. While I would of course love to have cleaned it more thoroughly, I just don't have the time.

The only regret I have is not having the time to shoot the rifles back in again. I had been meaning to clean 1 for a while to see if it brought the groups back in, but how and ever. That'll be the job of some lucky new DURC shooter. Well wear to them :)

Rathdrum Turkey Shoot, 6-12-2009

No, not shooting at turkeys, shooting for them! The turkey shoot is traditionally the last match of the calendar year and usually a bit of fun.

The scoring is based on the Macrae handicap system, which benefits those who shoot above their average, and drops points for shooting below it, thus making it in a competition where you really are shooting against yourself :)

Having sorted out one or two little things, notably weight distribution on my lower body and especially the left elbow position, just to the left of the pistol grip, I was looking good for the match. The sighters and first string were good, but then it started to get a little fuzzy with my right shoulder tensing and throwing shots left. I was having a lot of problems getting my right elbow consistent, which wasn't helping, and tensing in the cold. Things I need to work on obviously, but at least I know now. A 386 overall wasn't too bad, and the best raw score of the day.

Afterwards RRPC usually have a benchrest pistol match, but since we were the only ones there we decided to take part in that as well :D For my first time shooting .22 pistol the groups were really good, I just couldn't figure out how to sight the damn thing so they were all over the place. Seemed a bit of shame to launch Centre-X down a pistol, but what the hell :D

For the prizes I walked away with a turkey and a bottle of red wine, which isn't so bad at all! A glass or two with the RRPC lads afterwards made it a very sociable day all round :)

The day reminded me a lot of how shooting is there to be enjoyed, like all sport. Taking it with me to different levels and different places won't diminish that. People move on, but the memories remain, as do the bonds, the friendships and the rivalries.

This weekend capped off a four year career in DURC, which has had it's ups and downs, good times and bad. I've learned a lot, taught some, I hope, and will be continuing on with target shooting. So watch out, I'm on the other side now ;)

Squad Training, UCD, 5-12-2009

For the first of it's kind in some time, this ended up going incredibly well. The attendance was a bit poor, but that could have as much to do with the RO dinner being on the night before as anything else :P

The day was split into two parts, lectures in the morning and practical in the afternoon. It was coordinated by Ray Kane, of the Defense Forces Shooting Team, who is currently probably the best male air rifle shooter in the country, and focussed a lot on balance and relaxation. These are two things that I have been working on quite a bit lately, so it tied in well, and gave a bit more structure to the whole thing than I would have been able to on my own.

One of the most interesting things on the subject of balance was canting the head. This has always been a subject of much debate with myself, as I prefer a bit of a cant on my head and less on the rifle. Due to having a long neck and high cheekbones (exquisite, I know...) I have trouble getting down to the sights without tilting my head and being told, and shown, that this is OK, in moderation at least, was nice.

What I have found out in my own experimentation was that the major problem with canting the head is the manner in which it is done by many people. The instinct is just to shove the head forward and to the side in one movement, which pushes the rifle away and so changes the zero point and balance, resulting in an 8. My preference at the moment is to tilt the rifle and head together and then carefully drop the head forward. I find it gives a very relaxed head position, which doesn't strain my neck and is very stable.

So, for the results; not amazing, due to a lightened trigger (it got messed up during the week somehow and I've been trying to fix it since) so I kept snapping off 6s and 7s. Once it was fixed, towards the end, I stepped away and reset my zero twice, took one shot of each zero. 10.7 and 10.2. That's about all I need to know :)

Soup, Steak and Chocolate

Nom, nom, nom.

Tonight is DURC's annual RO dinner, with my plans being firmly on the above, plus some wine, possibly some beer etc. afterwards. It's going to be good. You know how I know? Because it always is. 'Cos it was good when I was at the same place for dinner two weeks ago :)

It's going to be a long weekend though, not-national-squad-but-kinda-is-training tomorrow at some unspecified time, possibly for a large amount of the day, followed by the Turkey shoot on Sunday in RRPC. Mmmmm, turkey.

Nom, nom, nom.

Air Rifle Training, DURC

Nope, yesterday was not enough for me, I had to come back for some more today. I decided to act on a few of the problems from yesterday, mostly my holding and balance issues.

To get better contact with the cheekpiece I dropped the buttplate another little bit, to the bottom of the carrier. I need to check that it's still within the rules, but I think it is. This lowered the rifle a little more to the target, which is another good thing, and also artificially raised the sightline.

I've all but given up on getting my head level, it's just not comfortable with the drop I have to the sights. It's much easier to cant it a little and deal with balance by making sure I sort that out with the the centre of gravity of the total system (me plus rifle) over the middle of my feat. Good practice on that one if nothing else. Or that's what I'm going with anyway :P

The end result of this is a more stable position that isn't quite killing my neck. Drilling out the 10 ring (more or less, there's always a 9) with a lovely steady hold is always a plus :)

On another note, here are some pics of my new jacket in the standing position courtesy of Sparks which show possibly a little too much material in the sides and on the left hip. Out with the knife and a needle and thread methinks <:o