Month: August 2009

If you’ve been following either my Twitter feed or Sebastian’s, you’ll know that I’ve recently taken up air pistol silhouette with him.  I have to admit, it’s fun.  I’m concentrating more on the fundamentals than I have with other types of shooting, and that’s always a good thing.  The fact is that the targets are so small, there’s really no room for error.  And boy, do I ever make errors.  (That is, I miss a lot. But even long time competitors miss quite a few, so I’m not too far behind.)

At one of the competitions, a fellow shooter who could probably shoot a pea at 50 feet mentioned the idea of breaking records.  How could I, as a new shooter in this sport who was just recently ranked as AA, break a record?  Easy, the women’s records are really low.  (Now I see the benefit in shooting having been traditionally a male sport! Makes me wonder if I really should have spent those years introducing women to shooting. They might be my competition now.  I kid.)

For example, in long run records, the women’s open sight record for turkeys is only 10.  Granted, I can’t fathom shooting 10 of them right now, but I hope to one day.  Then I just need to hit 1 more to break a record that was only fairly recently set (2008).  For pigs, the record is just 13 (also set in 2008).  While in chickens and rams the numbers are 15 and 17, respectively (set in 1993 and 1994).  Compare those to the non-senior men’s titles: turkeys 45 (set in 2007 by @slowstdy who we shoot with), pigs 45 (also set in 2007 by @slowstdy), chickens 29 (set in 1993), and rams 29 (another by @slowstdy in in 2008).

Sebastian’s club has multiple national record holders, and maybe I can help add to that if I actually give this a serious try.  (As in, I don’t wuss out on a competition opportunity just because it’s 90+ degrees with humidity to match after helping someone move big furniture the day before…)

Robert has some good ones.  His coverage of Camp Perry has been excellent, so head on over and just keep scrolling.

I have a guy at the club looking to sell an M1903-A3 Springfield, manufactured by Remington.  The furniture on it looks to be pristine, and it looks like it’s in really good shape.  Asking price is $675.  Good price for an M1903-A3 in good condition?

You could say I was on fire this match.  It sure felt that way with the 92 degree temperatures, with humidity to match.  After a really rocky start in the morning, which I will blame on the wonderful smell of Larry’s bratwursts on the grill distracting me, I shot a master score open sights.  35 out of 40.  Going into rams, I only dropped three animals, then dropped two rams.  That’s my third master score this year, which means I move from AAA to Master in open sight air pistol silhouette.

Any sights scores are still trailing.  27 out of 40 with the Mata Gallina.  On my open sight pistol, I have the trigger to the point where it’s decent.  I polished up all the surfaces on the .22, and cut the spring a little, but it’s still too damned heavy and creepy.  Crosman triggers are awful from the factory, but they improve with use even if you don’t do anything to them.  If you experiment a bit, you can generally get the trigger’s on them at least halfway nice.  As good as you can expect from a pistol which costs 150 bucks.

Larry’s brats were fantastic this match.  He got them from Rieker’s German Butcher in the Northeast part of Philadelphia.  I am definitely heading there next time Bitter and I have a cookout.