I achieved a goal yesterday at the National Matches, Camp Perry Ohio. That goal was to achieve Distinguished Rifleman Status and I set it in 2008. It took me four years, 112 matches held in four states, and about $40,000 dollars in expenses. But the highest cost was the time and effort. I'm 58 years old and fading in my abilities but I still have endurance, and that is what it takes more than anything else.
Yes you have to understand sight alignment, trigger control, and how to build a repeatable and solid position, actually four of them. But you have to be able to endure the elements, long days in uncomfortable weather, rain shine or whatever, the match goes on.
If any of you are interested here is the history of the distinguished rifleman badge, here is a link to the history http://www.odcmp.com/Competitions/In_Dis...r_2000.pdf
Bob
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Congrats!! That's huge!!!
You seek escape from pain. We seek the achievement of happiness. You exist for the sake of avoiding punishment. We exist for the sake of earning rewards. Threats will not make us function; fear is not our incentive. It is not death that we wish to avoid, but life that we wish to live. - John Galt
Congratulations Bob. You have done well.
Dave
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congratulations stokes, well done!
Excellent effort and result, Bob. We, as largely novice shooters-with some obvious exceptions, appreciate your endurance in responding to endless inquiries and sharing your wisdom and skillsets with us. Thanks for your many contributions-I'm a better shooter and handloader for it.
Outstanding!! That is truly an admirable achievement Bob.
I'm with bobke on this one, your shared wisdom is greatly appreciated!
Congrats and thanks for your insightful sharing of knowledge as well. This is a monumental achievement for a professional rifleman. I'm interested in what type of mental and physical preparations you make, aside from the focus on rifle and kit. For example, do you wipe your schedule clean before a match, and go into a zone with no distractions, start hydrating, eating certain foods, vitamins, etc.? I notice how much being hydrated helps me shoot better, or do anything better, for that matter.
Thanks for sharing this achievement with us!
ChellieWiles
Unregistered
So you had to "pay" for a distinguished marksmanship status? Any title I had to pay for isn't a title worth winner. Though, congrats either way.
Gotta pay to play, Chellie. Entry fees, travel expenses, guns, ammo, upkeep and on/on. I'd say most here don't subscribe to the entitlement philosophy-if you want it, you fund it!
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Bob:
Good work there. Guys chase those leg points for years. Not uncommon for a guy to spend five or ten years depending on the availability of Excellence in Competition matches in their area.
Normally, a guy who legs out for rifle heads towards the pistol side. I understand there are a bunch of guys who are Distinguished in one but very few in both. Might as well spend a couple thosand on pistols and go for it!
LR1955
Thanks to all for the congratulations.
Just to be clear, the money I mentioned was spent for travel, lodging, food, reloading components, equipment, match fees, and so on.
LR1955, I have a capable service pistol and a wad cutter gun, but I'm thinking of learning to shoot my match rifle properly first. My goals are the Presidents 100 and High Master, of course I'll still have to shoot my service rifle for the P100 but the Match rifle is for High Master, I can't see the iron sights well enough to make high master with the service rifle. Then I'll maybe seek the double distinguished with the pistol. I have two friends that have done so.
Bob
Bob-
Would you be up for sharing a minor amount of detail on the gun and optic selections you've distilled for your "go to" competition battery? Think a lot of us could glean some real wisdom from what it takes, gear wise only, to attain your select status. Thx.
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bobke Wrote:Bob-
Would you be up for sharing a minor amount of detail on the gun and optic selections you've distilled for your "go to" competition battery? Think a lot of us could glean some real wisdom from what it takes, gear wise only, to attain your select status. Thx.
I would second that!
In fact, I'd ask if you can take us through your whole setup, including reloading, shooting pad, coat, etc. !
I know you are busy, but a series of articles would be awesome. If there are things you would do differently in regards to prep, reloading, equipment, etc. that would be very helpful to avoid the same mistakes.
You seek escape from pain. We seek the achievement of happiness. You exist for the sake of avoiding punishment. We exist for the sake of earning rewards. Threats will not make us function; fear is not our incentive. It is not death that we wish to avoid, but life that we wish to live. - John Galt
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08-03-2012, 05:55 PM
(This post was last modified: 08-05-2012, 02:17 PM by LR1955.)
Bob's day in the sun!
LR1955
Glad to hear that your efforts have reached pay-off status...congrats!
I would be glad to help any competitors by conveying what I have learned, that is one of the wonderful things about the competitive shooting community, I've had competitors who were in contention with me volunteer helpful information. Many have helped me so I'm more than happy to help any one in return.
Let's start with the rifle, I built mine, myself but that is not necessary. The matches I am shooting require that the external dimensions match the A2 or A4 service rifles if it is an AR. I won't bother with others like the M1 Garand or M1A they can't compete along side an AR any longer.
The critical elements are the sights, barrel, sling, free float tube and trigger. The receiver choice is not an issue, upper or lower. But the critical component are well, critical.
Sights
The CMP service rifle rules require an A2 rear sight and nobody builds sights that will track truer than John Holliger's pinned A2 rear sight. I use an A4 upper with a windage adjustable "F" height front sight tower. It isn't absolutely required but if you use a pinned front sight tower you run the risk of your no wind zero, not corresponding to the mechanical zero by a lot. The end result can be insufficient windage adjustment at the 600 yard prone stage, and I'm not willing to accept sloppy alignment like you get with the Bushmaster, and Knights DCM uppers, it isn't necessary. Both White Oak and CLE make windage adjustable front sight towers that will allow mechanical zero to equal no wind zero within 1/4 MOA if you have the patience to adjust them. Practically speaking +- 1 MOA is acceptable.
The front post I use is the .072" National match configuration which tapers away born you .002" in both the vertical and horizontal plane. This provides a crisp and clear front post wide enough that any eyes can focus on it properly.
In addition to the width it is also critical that the sight have zero reflection and the only way to achieve this is with a carbide smoker, spray sight black buds up and changes your zero and rusts your sights. What you want is a Ray-Vin super smoker and a supply of carbide. Use a toothbrush to on the front sight and smoke it after any excess has been removed.
Barrel,
There are many good ones available, button rifled barrels cost less than cut rifle barrels because the manufacturing costs less. They are both capable of better than required accuracy but the cut rifle barrels are a better value. Wilson and Douglass are the most popular service rifle barrels and they cost $210-$290. Krieger, Satern and others are cut rifled and cost $400-$450 but last twice as long. A typical season of high power rifle shooting is 3,000 rounds, that means one cut rifle barrel or two button rifle barrels.
I prefer Krieger barrels in 1:7.7" twist with a wylde chamber. It is critical that the barrel be turned, profiled concentric to the bore. There are only two people I would trust to do this, Frank White of Compass Lake Engineering, or John Holliger of White Oak Armament. Frank will try to talk you into his chamber, the CLE chamber but he has reamers for the wylde as well and will chamber to it if requested, John uses the wylde primarily. The reason I suggest the wylde over smaller chambers is that if you are a serious competitor you will eventually find yourself on a National Trophy Infantry Team match. Six shooters engage eight humanoid targets with 384 rounds beginning at 600 yards prone with targets visible for 50 seconds to fire as many shots at your can according to the coaches load plan. Then you move in line with the other thirty or so teams to 550 yards where you hold up for the command to advance, then you run to the 500 yard line, drop into the prone position and load and make ready, usually with 30 round magazines and one inch shorter sling positions to keep your position higher and tighter. As the targets appear you fire as many rounds as possible according to the coaches load plan to insure hits covering any targets with a shooter malfunction on command, for all yardages a square equals six hits per target time the number of targets squared. At this point everyone is shooting their own ammunition but this is where the chamber becomes critical.
Soon after the targets go down the command advance is issued and this time you are moving 200 yard to the 300 yard line and using the F target, a humanoid nipples to top of head. At 350 yard you are held until all teams are ready to advance at which time the command "advance" is given and you run to the 300 yard line and drop to the sitting position and load a magazine loaded by your coax or captain with any saved rounds from team members. A wylde chamber will swallow any round, a CLE chamber will choke on a wylde optimized round. I found myself in this situation yesterday for the NTIT match and had to accept rounds optimized with a CLE chamber. I fired 12 rounds and got 12 hits from 300 yards sitting in 50 seconds which is more than ample time. One of our team members had a stoppage and had to advance to 200 yards with six rounds which is fired rapid fire standing. A wylde chamber would have prevented firing any rounds at 200 yards. The points are 4 at 600, 3 at 500, 2 at 300 and one at 200. CLE and AMU chambers are great but only if all team members are shooting them . Wylde chambers are great and will accept any rounds and still deliver .5 MOA at 600 yards.
Sling
I use a Les Tam leather sling which is custom built by Les in Hawaii. A Ron Brown is nearly as good and is available from Creedmoor Sports without the year or better wait of Les' slings. I have two Les slings and will order another this year, Les is old and no telling when they will be no longer available. Don't mess around with a Turner or similar, it your tempted for cost reasons just go with a cotton web sling it is better than the inferior leather slings. And it is the most critical of issues that your position be consistent, repeatable to the least fraction of an inch, so that muscles are relaxed and tension is born by the sling. Any muscle tension will translate to lost points, which you cannot afford.
Free Float Tube,
I use White Oak Armament tubes they work well but have a little more complicated attachment system than some. CLE tubes and others are less complex and more easily disassembled but have a weaker sling attachment and have been known to break the welds under tension. For this reason I have stayed with White Oak tubes, I have two of the White Oak and one of the CLE tubes, RRA, Bushmaster, Knight and others have free float tubes but I consider them inferior. Hand guards should be fiber reinforced for rigidity, stay away from the OD green and Dark Earth ones they are flimsy plastic and will flex.
Trigger,
This one is easy, choose a Geissele High Speed NM, don't even think about any others, the CLE, RRA, Milazo, Jewel, JP, McCormick, Extreme and similar are far, far inferior.
I watch as the triggers are weighed at the national matches every year, 1,200 triggers, Geissele 99%+ make the 4.5 minimum weight criteria all others 50%. The others wear and wear and are not repeatable, this is absolutely not acceptable.
I'm at the Cleveland airport ready to head back to Florida. When I find time I'll add things like Cart, Coat, under garments, Mat, Glove, Hat, Spotting Scope, Stand, Loads, and so forth.
Bob
Hi Paul, are you any relation to Dan Peloquin from Chippewa Falls Wisconsin, Cray Research Super Computers?
Bob
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