and lets's not forget that we were under a tornado watch and the winds were gusting to 45 mph!

we had a military bolt action match at the tusco rifle club today.

for the first relay i borrowed a $35 turkish mauser (1942, it was a very good year) and some turk 8mm ammo and went to work. a great prone followed by a better-than-usuall rapid prone had me hoping i could finish in the money.

alas, my usuall "awfulhand" showed up for the finishing stage...and i ended up scoring way down in the basement (one of these days i'll learn to shoot standing up!).

i started a second match with my winchester m75, u.s. property/cartouched cmp match rimfire rifle...just as an experiment.

i haven't shot a .22 at 200 in many moons...so, i cranked up the rear sight and let 'er rip.

crap! despite the rifle having a perfect 50' zero (indoor league), by the time i cranked it way up to 200 yards and the brutal wind was thru with me...i was striking the target 3 to the right of mine!!!!

aaaarrrrrgggghhhhh!

NEVER shoot a rimfire in a hurricane!

Shot a 216 with a 2moa M39 today.

i sucked only slightly less...ended up with a lowly 222. and that, only because i can usually crank out prone shots like a machine.

when i stand up, it all goes to hell.

yeah, green, there were 30 second to one minute intervals in which we were standing there...just holding our rifles waiting for the gusts to subsides...followed by a mad rush to get off a couple of good shots.

even in the 'calm', 2"-6" of left hold was needed to stay centered.


mao, this was a borrowed mauser. i left mine at home and was hoping to shoot rimfire on a calm day! boy, did i guess wrong.