Saturday, August 18th, the Antwerp Conservation Club held a bench rest rifle match. A bench rest match is one of the easiest rifle matches to get started in competition shooting. All you need is a rifle and ammunition, most clubs have sandbags you pile up on the bench, sit down and get comfortable, and fire your rifle while the rifle rests on the sand bags. Sounds just way too easy to shoot a high score, right? Remember to keep an eye on the wind flags as the wind does push your bullet around in flight, and as your rifle’s barrel heats up with every shot, your point of impact will be different then your point of aim. And don’t rush yourself… all of this is easier said than done.
The 7 competitors that gathered to try this shot high power rifles at 200 yards and rimfire (22lr) at 50 yards. We gave our competitors 30 minutes for unlimited sighter shots and 25 shots for record, the 25 shots were fired 5 shots per target. The targets for the high power guys were 5 inches in diameter with a 10 ring the size of a quarter and the rimfire targets were just over 3 inches with a ten ring being the size of a dime.
With a possible score of 250-25X (there is a tiny x ring inside the 10 ring used for tie breaker). 1 rimfire competitor and 1 high power competitor broke in to the 200’s, while the rest of the competitors shot an average score of 125-0X. This should tell you this match does take skill and will humble you. But please don’t let this stop you from ever trying your first competitive rifle match – you may win, you may lose, but you will learn a lot and make some good friends.
Our next rifle match in September will be “this old gun” a 40 shoot, 100 yard offhand match for guns designed before 1918. We thought why not a match for those old guns that come out of the safe very often,we can shoot some fine old guns, talk about them and have a fun relaxing match at the same time.
Tickets are available for our fall rifle raffle. We are raffling off a WW2 M1 Garand. More information can be found at antwerpconservationclub.com
