As usual NorCal didn't disappoint!!
This year was a bit different then past years and i think the changes worked out great.
This was the first year we drove up on thursday night instead of friday morning. The big change was the ability for all competitors to use the 1k range for practice after checking in and checking our 100yd zeros on friday morning. This was awesome because since getting married i haven't had a chance to make it up to NorCal in a long time to get any dope. I think it benefited all of the shooters and helped to level the playing field with the locals that shoot up there constantly. The 1k practice was ran just like the normal NCPPRC practice days only we skipped the 200yd line.
After practice we were treated to an awesome sandwich lunch. These weren't just normal everyday sandwiches!! They were like gourmet sandwiches that we were able to assemble ourselves with some awesome thick sliced meat and cheese. They definitely hit the spot!!
Then it was back to the 100yd short bay for the side matches.
The first one was a swinging platform. Very similar to platforms we've seen in other big matches only this one was a BITCH. The norcal guys built it a couple weeks ago to use in the match but used 4' tall legs and chains to suspend it (most platforms use 1.5' legs and chains). Becauze the chains were so long they found it was almost impossible to hit anything from it. They allowed people to game it even by dragging toes or whatever and it still proved to be too difficult. The decision was made to scrap it from the match because there wasn't enough time to shorten the legs and instead use to for the side match. The stage was something like this-
60 sec shoot time
1 shot
Starting port arms
Prone on platform
Nothing touching ground or chains/poles when you break your shot
Closest to center wins
I was like the 6th guy to shoot it. I drug my toes to slow the platform down when i jumped on and lifted them up after i got it under control and noticed if i sent my point of aim up to be almost at the end of the platforms swing, that if i waited 10 seconds or so the point where the swing changes direction and stops for a split second would damn near stop on my target if i was patient enough. This payed off because i broke my shot when the swing stopped on my red circle and i ended up almost hitting the 1/4" red circle. I believe i was the leader for most of the time as most people struggled to even hit the Shoot-n-c until about the 5th guy left happened to center punch the red. Oh well, it was a lot of fun to try and i was still satisfied with my performance.
The next side match was the best 3 shot group. The kicker was we all had to use the same Sako TRG rifle with one of the brand new Steiner 5-25x56 scopes mounted on top. The line for this stage took a lot longer. I stood there watching everyone get up from the rifle shaking their heads. The bipod was too tall, the rifle wasn't set up correctly to be comfortable for most shooters, and the barrel was practically glowing red from all the shooting. I thought many times about just skipping that one cause there was no way i had a shot at it. When it was my turn i got down on the rifle, gave it a few dry fires, and tried to make myself comfy. I sent 2 rounds down range and to my surprise they were touching. I figured it was luck and im always the type of guy to fuck up a good group with my last shot so i knew the 3rd shot was gonna be a major flier. After the recoil settled (yes i feel like a pussy when i have to shoot an unbraked 308) i looked through the scope to see this in the scope-
I knew right then that group was going to be good enough to win that side match. I walked away with an awesome pair of Steiner 10x42 Tactical binos courtesy of Steiner Germany
That evening we all went to Hooters (as usual) for some good drinks and laughs. It's always good to hang out with everyone. I honestly believe %75 of shooting these matches for me are about the memories made hanging with all the fun people. The shooting is just a bonus. Here's a video i took from the Hooters hula hoop contest lol-
Day 1 kicked off with a safety brief at 0700
My squad went to the Run-n-gun stage first. It was really fun stage! Don't be surprised if i talk Rich G in to doing a similar stage this month for PBR
Next we rotated with bravo squad and went to the short range. This evolution really kicked my ass. With the Bushnell scope i was using it doesnt get parallax free until 75yds and the mirage in this bay was ridiculous. So bad that i couldn't even see my bullet hits at 100yds. I don't know how you could ever practice for this type of shooting unless you had a 200yd bay that got mirage as bad as this one does. It was frustrating for me. I always have matches where i start slow but after 1 or 2 good stage i can kick it in high gear and make points. For this evolution i just couldn't even buy a good stage!!
After that train wreck for me was over with we went to the 1k range. This year we only shot 800-1k. 15rds at each distance so there was a good opportunity to make or loose a lot of points. I've been getting pretty confident in my wind reading the past couple years when i shoot in Sac and this time i was on point. I was making awesome calls and my shots were going where i predicted them to almost the entire time. in fact out of 15 strings of 3 i only blew 2 strings with bad calls. My whole goal was to keep everything on the paper. This game plan led me to a 2nd place overall ranking in the long range evolution at the end of the weekend! Unfortunately after my shit show performance in the morning i didn't make up enough points to get me in the top 10.
I blew 1 string at 1k and i can almost swear it was due to the smell of those damn ribs that we could smell on the shooting line breaking my concentration!! Seriously this lunch was off the hook!! I'm not gonna say much else about this because this picture pretty much explains it all-
Day 2 started at 0700 with another safety brief.
My squad was on the steel range. I started slow AGAIN. This time due to a .2 zero shift that took me 4 stages to correct. (Many other shooters complained of zero shifts on day 2. Bryan Y of Team GAP said his Bushnell shifted a full mil!!!). After i caught my shift i began making hits. I was pretty bummed too because this type of COF is totally my style. All of the stages were VERY challenging but totally doable. I felt it was the perfect balance.
After all was said and done i barely managed to scrape off a 15th. The spread between 5th-20th is very small. I think back to all those points i gave up on the short range and wish i could get a mulligan but as we all know with Precision Rifle shooting if we all were allowed mulligans the results at the end would still probably turn out the same.
I feel that this match was like all the other matches i've shot in NorCal. They deliver!! NCPPRC goes above and beyond to make sure all shooters are well taken care of and that all sponsors are given as much exposure as possible. NorCal is by far my favorite venue to shoot at. Between the good company and the awesome competition i always leave having had a great time.
Thank you to the NorCal crew for sacrificing blood, sweat, and lots time with your families to deliver such an awesome match to us shooters!!!
Special thanks to Francis "The Animal" for helping get my 2014 TBRC rifle going in time. It's a 6 Creedmoor and i think i might stick with this caliber for a few barrels. I'm really enjoying it so far!!
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