WW1 club match
Took a friend to shoot in a club match today. The focus was WW1 rifles but the would let you shoot WW2 bolt guns if related to a family of guns from WW1 (1903A3 versus 1903). These are laid back matches and a good time to introduce a new shooter to Military rifle shoots.
I loaned him a good shooting 1903A3 with 23 handloads it likes. 3 sighting rounds 20 rounds prone strong side 15 minutes. It was very hot today and the bull was black. With the Mirage we could not pick up spotting rounds in the black. But that is generally a good sign. However he made a rookie mistake. Putting it in and/or pulling it out of the gun case the sight ladder got moved to 800 yards. I was shooting a m1917 during the same flight. Of course being a mentor of everything I told him I forgot to tell him to double check the sight ladder. You know where this is going. He shot a awesome 5 inch 23 shot group in the tin number plate above the target. He had fun and we both learned something.
I shot 188 out of 200 with the M1917 using a new load (47 grains 8208, 168 grain SMK Fed 210 primer standard OAl no crimp, run out less than. 02) This load runs 50fps faster than the same load using Varget but thePOI moved 2 inches right and slightly higher. I dropped most of my points by sliding some in the 8 ring just right. The group was good so I'm going to keep working this load.
I also shot the trapdoor using black powder which drew a crowd. Two X rings but the rest went low in the 8 and 6 ring. I was using cream puff loads and holding high. For 200 yard shooting I'm going to have to work up a better load.
A K31 Swiss took the match with a perfect 200. 1903 variants were the main rifle. A few GEWs, Enfields, and K31s. Followed by two M1917s and my loanly trapdoor. All in all a good day.
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