10 things I noticed about The Texas State Rifle Championships this year

[Chesten_Hesten]

1. What with work and all nowadays I need a full day of just shooting to get my focus and bring my game to the competition proper. I pooched my chances in the first 20 minutes of the match. Second day came back strong but wtf, didn't matter.


2. One of my Buddies, A Black Cop from San Antonio once had to protect and escort the Ku Klux Clan through a herd of Protestors during a parade in downtown San Antonio. Ha ha, that must've been a Kodak Moment!


3. Another buddy revealed his brother recently confided to him the that he had had drunk sex with a midget back in college!


4. In conferring with another fellow shooter about how best to deal with switchy wind at 600 yards said, the best thing to do is determine, (estimate) the hardest direction of the wind. For instance a wind running hard 9 O clock to 3 O clock, and adjust the windage so that the center of bullet impact is set to the 3 O clock side of the 10 ring. Because if you set it this way, you'll get 10s at 3 O clock, and if the wind suddenly lets off you'll have a safety net of close to 2 minutes where you'll still be in the 10 ring, as opposed to centing on the X ring where if the wind drops you'll be out in the 9 or possibly 8 ring. I asked him how this worked for him, and he said great, Until I adjusted the sights opposite what they should have been, and then fucked up and cross-fired!!!


5. In the last three years my agg score has been within 3 points, and each year about 15 points off the win. Some-Fucking-Thing has got to change!


6. Most of the guys make large investments for equipment and supplies. One guy said he has a $20,000.00 stash of ammo and components to insure he can practice and compete for several years to come. I buy $500.00 worth and feel i've broken the bank. Must need to re-evaluate the economics of doing well!


7. Due to certain rule Changes for rapid fire stages, bolt guns are now at a disadvantage. Bolt guns are what I've used for 17 years. now I need to dump the fucker to get a AR match rifle to stay competitive. MORE SHIT TO BUY!


8. Personal Habits of fellow travelers are worth consideration. I had a great combat pistol shooter travel with me to shoot the State Rifle match. the nasty motherfucker bought some cheap ass peanut butter, and two cans of smoked clams and crammed it into the peanut butter and then squirted honey on top of that and sat there and tried to eat that shit. It looked like Baby shit and puke mixed together! I had to tell him to get the fuck away from me with that shit..

9. Girls are on even ground with guys in a Rifle Match. Some of the junior girls out shot a good bit of the field. The pussies didn't beat me though so I'm ok with it!


10. One of the goons who shoots has a site where he crams photos and talks bullshit about stuff, Match pictures are there.

http://blackforkblog.blogspot.com/20...mpionship.html

http://blackforkblog.blogspot.com/20...onship_25.html

& the guy who won the State Championship this year, won convincingly and deservedly.

Oh yeah,

10.5 The match was held on a military base; they were having natuional Gaurd Training or something cause there was a lot of Machine gun fire and Boom Bombs going off, When they played the Star Spangle Banner before the Match, the Machine gun fire in the distance really added to the impression.

[jerrylundergard]

Thanks for the report, I hope to do this kinda thing one of these years.

Im curious, what kind of rifle were the top people using, remmy 700s, ar 10s, ar 15s? Sounds like the semiautos are the way to go now. Im assuming everyone is using 308?

Im really craving a nice 308. Ive got a 7.62x39 AK rifle and absolutely love it and would like to keep it but not sure if Ill be able to keep it and sink in over a grand on the rifle Ive got in mind. Im looking at the DPMS LR 308 classic (20 inch barrel). Just not sure if I want to do that or just go for the remmy 700. Do you have any opinions on that? Thanks

[Chesten_Hesten]

Couple of links for Florida:

http://www.northfloridashooting.com/

http://www.floridashooting.com/

Haven't looked there, just know its a High Power Oriented site in Florida.

Most of the folks used Ar15s in Service Rifle Config. Most popular round is defintely 223.

I shot a 7mm08 Model 70 Winchester for 17 years, but finally switched to a 223 in 2007 because the Ammo for the 708 was costing $1.15 a shot. Couldn't afford to practice.

Tradition Bolt guns with Stripper Clips are at a disadvantage now because the new Rapid fire rules say no ammo in the gun until targets are coming up. A magazine is way quicker and easier to slap in an AR that fiddle farting with a stripper clip. So in my estimation, (me personally) the best gun is a one of these two things:


They're cheaper to feed and easy to shoot and damn accurate.

This is the type of bolt guns you see now:



But the fucking things are $4500.00!!! You know how many 1st rate Ar15s you could have? Divide by 4 that price!



To the Question of the AR10 upper. I've know 5 different people who have them, and all five sold them either because the things would periodically jam, or something or something or something.. They all seem to leave a bad taste for the owner. I've never had one, just passing on the second hand info.

You can have a good bolt gun built, but figure, $450.00 for McMillan Stock, $250.00 for a Krieger barrel blank, $240.00 for a Benchrest Qaulity fit and chamber, $350 for the action, (Used at a pawn shop or want ads) $600.00 for a good scope. a few extra $100.00 for extra bits and pieces, plus about $1.00 a shot for match ammo.

Then you have a world class rifle capable of 1/2 inch at 100 yards, great hits at 600-800 if you have the place and the zero.

I already own a 30'06, so what I'm thinking of doing for a all around 0-600 yard rifle is buying one of John Holliger's Flat top varmint uppers, Probably 20 maybe 24 inch barrel:
http://www.whiteoakarmament.com/ Goto complete upper and scroll down a bit.

And using 77grn sierra matchkings with 24.5 grns of AA2520, loaded to just fit in the mag, and run with that. Its a fine round, and will sock the hell out of alot of stuff, be easy and cheap to shoot. Hitting is much funner than looking at a rifle that's too expensive to shoot much.

Or better yet, go get yourself a ruger 10/22, buy a stainless clark barrel and bell and carlson stock, and volquartesen trigger and a Burris black diamond 6X24 or leatherwood 6X24, or Konus 8X32 buy some Steel 22 sihoulettes, and set them up from 25 to 200 yards, and whamo instant long range practice! Gun will cost you about $1100- $1200 with scope and all but you'll be able to hit a golf ball at 200 yards, and 200 yards is easier to fined than a 600 or 1000 yards range.

Just and idea.

Most of this stuff is expensive, but its cheaper than racing, and most of it is a one time cost, you won't wear the 10/22 out in 100,000 rounds. Think of the fun!

[Merrill]

Did you see any Ruger mini-14's out there? I have always wondered how a mini-14, modified by these guys, would perform in competition against the AR's.

[Lord of Lies]

Those are all different animals. What do you want to do with the rifle? Keep the AK and buy something else for precision shooting.

Remington 700's are nice, but if you want to save some money and get a rifle that's just as good, look at the Savage 10FP.

Originally Posted by jerrylundergard

Thanks for the report, I hope to do this kinda thing one of these years.

Im curious, what kind of rifle were the top people using, remmy 700s, ar 10s, ar 15s? Sounds like the semiautos are the way to go now. Im assuming everyone is using 308?

Im really craving a nice 308. Ive got a 7.62x39 AK rifle and absolutely love it and would like to keep it but not sure if Ill be able to keep it and sink in over a grand on the rifle Ive got in mind. Im looking at the DPMS LR 308 classic (20 inch barrel). Just not sure if I want to do that or just go for the remmy 700. Do you have any opinions on that? Thanks

[Chesten_Hesten]

Did you see any Ruger mini-14's out there? I have always wondered how a mini-14, modified by these guys, would perform in competition against the AR's.

No mini14s.

Mini14s have the same gas system as an M1-Carbine. You can get one to shoot accurately for about 5 rounds, then as things begin to heat up, the accuracy, (compared to an AR15) will dwendle down. Slow fire stage is for 20 rounds, by thet time the mini14 is hot and slinging bullets all over the target. I owned a mini14, looked into the accurizing, and decided against it. I used to shoot and M1A back in the early 90s, and they have a better gas system than a mini14, but M1As loose out to Ar15s too cause of all that clunky shit hanging around underneath the barrel.

If you have a mini14 and like it, I'd leave it as is, cause if you spend a bunch on it the results maybe underwhelming.

AR15s are so good, (for accuracy in a High Power Match) that 95% of the line uses them these days. Its not for nothing....


Another idea for: jerrylundergard

Find some guy with a used Competition Boltgun. Sometimes you can get them for around $700.00 and they'll already have spent all the dough for truing and facing the action, and pillar bedding in the stock and all that. See the Bolt Guns have like I said falled out of fashion so there's many an old 308 bolt gun lurking around in High Power Competitor's closets.

here's some more misc. links

http://www.nrahq.org/compete/highpower.asp

http://www.illinoishighpower.org/

[Merrill]

Originally Posted by Chesten_Hesten

No mini14s.

Mini14s have the same gas system as an M1-Carbine. You can get one to shoot accurately for about 5 rounds, then as things begin to heat up, the accuracy, (compared to an AR15) will dwendle down. Slow fire stage is for 20 rounds, by thet time the mini14 is hot and slinging bullets all over the target. I owned a mini14, looked into the accurizing, and decided against it. I used to shoot and M1A back in the early 90s, and they have a better gas system than a mini14, but M1As loose out to Ar15s too cause of all that clunky shit hanging around underneath the barrel.

If you have a mini14 and like it, I'd leave it as is, cause if you spend a bunch on it the results maybe underwhelming.

AR15s are so good, (for accuracy in a High Power Match) that 95% of the line uses them these days. Its not for nothing....

I believe you have just convinced me to look for an AR15. I do not own a mini-14, I was just curious about their performance. Thanks for the input. What do you think of the Rock River Arms stuff? Bushmaster? I have seen a few for sale locally for reasonable prices. Or is White Oak the way to go?

[Chesten_Hesten]

ls custom sells a DPMS DCM upper.

http://www.alscustom.com/shop/index.php?cat=119&shop=1

Scroll down and look for DCM upper. It used to be $550.00

Another place I've bought from is PK firearms. Bought a mid length RRA upper. Accuracy was OK. All I can say for it.

John Holliger Puts together a fine product though. He's nationally ranked as a shooter, and has a reputation. This years Texas State Match was won with a white oak upper.

He has two sites, (don't know why) here's the one with a bit more info as to his services:

http://www.whiteoakprecision.com/info-about.htm

http://www.whiteoakprecision.com/uppers-service.htm

http://www.whiteoakprecision.com/info-reloading.htm

http://www.whiteoakprecision.com/uppers-varmint.htm

And then:

http://www.whiteoakarmament.com/ Its his parts shop I guess.

John Sells a tuned RRA trigger for $120.00 A buddy of mine bought one and it was probly the one of the best AR triggers I've felt.

So basically you can get most any lower and then just get a good upper assembly from someone like Holliger.

I'm getting ready to sell my Match Bolt gun and buy a Match Upper from him with a Kreiger barrel, (these are like $940.00 I think) And probly one of his varmit uppers maybe the 24 inch, maybe the 20 I'll have to call and axe him some technical shit about it.

Last year I won one of his barrels at the State match, (raffle) I just got around to shooting it Monday. I put my cheap and easy load, 77grn Matchking with Accurate 2520, (ball powder that measures easy, I never check it) I shot a 10 shot string prone with a sling on reduced targets and got 6 Xs and the rest 10s. X ring at 100 yards is 3/4 inch in diameter. The barrel wants to shoot.

Probly can't go wrong getting the upper assembly from John.

My opinion...

[Merrill]

I might put my own together then. There's a gun show at the end of June here. Hopefully lowers aren't sky high.

[Lord of Lies]

The frenzy buying that started around election time has finally started to die down. Lower's are mostly available again, see Aim Surplus for an example of prices:

http://www.aimsurplus.com/acatalog/Receivers.html

AR lowers are pretty much created equal (except for some of the crap from Olympic, Vulcan, etc.) as there are only a couple of companies that make the actual forgings (then various companies take the forging and do the final mill work to make a lower). There are also billet lowers (Sun Devil, POF, Larue, etc.), which are nice (1 of my lowers is a Sun Devil) but usually more expensive.

Originally Posted by Merrill

I might put my own together then. There's a gun show at the end of June here. Hopefully lowers aren't sky high.