I shot in the florida National Guard TAG match. I didn't do nearly as well as I had hoped.
I was ranked #10 out of 47 combined rifle and pistol.
It was my first match and I learned some things that I'll remember for next year.
1) just because the orders and flyer say food will be provided, don't believe it.
The first day we rolled out at 0700 and the chow hall had 300 people in line at 0600 when I stopped by so I skipped breakfast. I didn't get an MRE until 1600 and I was really hungry.
2) Practice helps
I hadn't shot for a couple months before the competition and it really hurt my scores. I kept saying I was going to get to the range, but stuff kept coming up.
3) It helps if you shoot the same weapon every event
My unit had to share our 8 pistols with another unit and my first sgt ended up with mine after the first match and never gave it back. I only shot one round with my pistol and the other 2 were with two different pistols. At 25 meters the second pistol grouped about 5 inches left and a little low, and the 3rd pistol grouped 7 inches low. At least the first sgt got top gun. yay for him!
4) Spend some time picking the best weapons out of the armory
We got issued weapons straight out of the rack, instead of getting issued the weapons that we usually qualify with. Wedidn't even have a chance to check triggers or upper/lower reciever tolerance. I was given 12 rounds of ammo to zero the previous weekend, and it was a mix of 55 grain and 62 grain ammo.
5) KD ranges are different than pop up ARM ranges or 25M zero ranges
It was the first time I ever shot at a KD range and it really is different. It was hard to distinguish the black targets against the dark pines in the background, and the distances were harder on my eyes than the smaller sized targets on a zero range or the better contrasting targets on a ARM range.
I guess that's the biggest things. I'm going to pull this thread up next year and remind myself before we shoot again.
I was ranked #10 out of 47 combined rifle and pistol.
It was my first match and I learned some things that I'll remember for next year.
1) just because the orders and flyer say food will be provided, don't believe it.
The first day we rolled out at 0700 and the chow hall had 300 people in line at 0600 when I stopped by so I skipped breakfast. I didn't get an MRE until 1600 and I was really hungry.
2) Practice helps
I hadn't shot for a couple months before the competition and it really hurt my scores. I kept saying I was going to get to the range, but stuff kept coming up.
3) It helps if you shoot the same weapon every event
My unit had to share our 8 pistols with another unit and my first sgt ended up with mine after the first match and never gave it back. I only shot one round with my pistol and the other 2 were with two different pistols. At 25 meters the second pistol grouped about 5 inches left and a little low, and the 3rd pistol grouped 7 inches low. At least the first sgt got top gun. yay for him!
4) Spend some time picking the best weapons out of the armory
We got issued weapons straight out of the rack, instead of getting issued the weapons that we usually qualify with. Wedidn't even have a chance to check triggers or upper/lower reciever tolerance. I was given 12 rounds of ammo to zero the previous weekend, and it was a mix of 55 grain and 62 grain ammo.
5) KD ranges are different than pop up ARM ranges or 25M zero ranges
It was the first time I ever shot at a KD range and it really is different. It was hard to distinguish the black targets against the dark pines in the background, and the distances were harder on my eyes than the smaller sized targets on a zero range or the better contrasting targets on a ARM range.
I guess that's the biggest things. I'm going to pull this thread up next year and remind myself before we shoot again.