Burden Memorial LR Regional

[milanuk]

Two days of fun in the rain (as opposed to having the sun and wind suck the life out of you the weekend before @ Rattlesnake) just outside of Portland, Oregon at the Douglas Ridge Rifle Club. It was supposed to be *three* days, with the team match on Monday, but the weather turned nasty and by common assent the team match got scrubbed in favor of staying dry-ish.

If Rattlesnake is a desert setting complete with blowing tumbleweeds and blistering sun during the summer, Douglas Ridge is the antithesis. It looks like someone took a 100yd wide by 1000yd long swath out of Sherwood forest, and carpeted it liberally with lush green grass. The range is not as tame as it looks, as due to some tree trimming down range between the 600 line and the pits, wind *can* get in and blow the bullets around. The problem is... none of the flags show the wind reliably due to their location (right next to the tree line, and significantly *below* the top of the trees), and both wind and mirage lie more often than not on this range. For not having the 'big' wind that Rattlesnake or Raton do, I'd sure rather shoot either of those ranges any day! At least the winds there are more 'honest'.

Day one (Saturday) started out kind of wet, and as the day progressed the sun came out and so did the mirage. As the mirage came out, so did the howls. Common comments were people wondering aloud about how the flags and mirage agreed only infrequently, and usually didn't indicate anything intelligible when they did. Lots of people lost points to mystery elevation - shots would suddenly drop out the bottom for several rounds as the shooter corrected incrementally higher and higher, then all of a sudden whatever was going on would reverse and the shots would go right where the shooter was aiming (high). Darrel and Tanner seemed to be the only ones immune to this plague; I finally gave up on my plot sheets as useless and pounded the last half of my 20rd A/I string downrange in about 2 minutes (if that) with marked improvement in score, albeit way too late. Tanner won the overall F-Class match that day, just his second F-Class match ever if I'm not mistaken. Darrel Buell was just a tick behind (with a Savage 12 F/TR in .308, no less), setting a new Nat'l Record for the Palma course of fire (800/900/1000yds).

Day two (Sunday) was more of the same. The mirage wasn't as pronounced, as it rained off and on all day, but never very hard. Enough so that some folks had to pound their bolts open after letting rain get in the ejection port to the chamber area, or on their waiting rounds. Last weekend it was sand in the chamber, this weekend rain... *Everybody* got bit by the vertical on Sunday, even Darrel.


Anyway, on to the details:

                BURDEN MEMORIAL LONG-RANGE CHAMPIONSHIP
                      Douglas Ridge Rifle Club
F-CLASS               Barton, OR

                   ****************************************
                                 INTERIM RESULTS
                          SAT PALMA   IK ANY IRO  SUN PALMA   1K ANY ANY  Grand AGG.

          -------  OPN MA  -------  
STEVEN ZOCK         OPN SS 441-18  1MA 191-3       442-17  1MA 191-4       1265-42 *MW*
CHRIS DODD      G   OPN EX 433-16      192-6   1MA 441-19      193-6  *MW* 1259-47  2MW
RON HERMS       S   OPN EX 424-10      179-7       444-18 *MW* 192-5   1MA 1239-40  1MA,HiSr
MARK ANDERSON       OPN UN 430-6       182-2       427-14      191-4       1230-26  2MA
BARRY PROST         OPN UN 423-7       181-1       430-9       190-6       1224-23     
MIKE R MOORE    S   OPN SS 405-3         DNF       426-6       183-3       1014-12     
TANNER FURNISS      OPN UN 444-19 *MW* 195-8  *MW*   DNF         DNF       639-27      
CHARLIE HAWKINS     OPN UN   DNF         DNF       388-2       175-0       563-2       
          -------  TR  MA  -------  
DARRELL BUELL       TR  UN 444-14  1MA 187-2   1MA 430-11      191-1   1MA 1252-28  3MW
JOHN WEIL       S   TR  UN 426-15      183-3       432-10  1MA 190-5       1231-33  1MA
MONTE MILANUK       TR  UN 425-11      183-2       429-9       186-3       1223-25     
PAUL REIBIN     G   TR  UN 427-13      185-1       431-8       179-1       1222-23     
STANLEY C PATE      TR  UN 411-15      183-6       429-9       185-1       1208-31

For what its worth, Tanner... Last year Chris Long (aka 'techshooter' ) did pretty much the same thing. I drug him out to his first F-class match in Wenatchee in October '06, then he went to Rattlesnake the first time in May '07 and got tossed about a bit in the wind. The next weekend he went down to Doug Ridge for the Burden match and won it handily... *with* an AD during prep time that took 10pts off his score right off the bat

Personally I think you're better off not spotting the field 10 pts at the start of the match.

Now you get to tell *me* how the heck you avoided the vertical gremlins on Saturday I have to go back there in August for the PNW Int'l and need all the help I can get on that one - it's Fullbore (pair-fire) so no 'machine-gunning' the target to beat the wind.

 

[Flybuster]

Well Monte, It's kinda like this. You have to pray, and then go to church the next day

Seriously, I think it may have been the location of the target. Think about it... I came in First, Chris Dodd Came in second....Darrel Buell came in first for F/TR We all three were on the SAME TARGET...

 

[Flybuster]

The target that we were on was target #2. It's the closest to the trees on the left side of the range. There is a small cut through the trees, where the wind channels through diagonally across the targets. This is where the vertical comes from, theoretically. Target two would have more shelter than the middle targets.

This was actually my 3rd F-Class match. Though, my first was last summer and I used my 25-06 Ackley. Jeff Williamson was there and a 4 other guys.

 

[milanuk]

Hah! I love it! I'll have to hound Darrell with that one (about getting the 'easy' target)

I'm not sure if the results from Sunday would sustain that one... Darrell was still on the end, and Ron was in the middle of the line (there was a whole separate rodeo going on there - Ron blew a bunch of primers in the rain, and eventually jammed up his gun - and Chris was standing there yammering at him 'I told you...' while Ron bellered for a cleaning rod and then got mine stuck in his barrel...) It was kind of comical, but Ron managed to recover and get back on track to win the F-Class portion for Sunday. I have a hard time believing 6-10 feet difference in position on the line has a significant effect on score - then again, it's about as valid an idea as anything else I've heard so far!

I had my own 'issues' going on where I was using a load *other* than my preferred one - partly because I hadn't gotten my shipment of bullets yet, and partly because I didn't want to make a special rush order to get enough 155 VLDs just for this weekend - figured I'd do okay with the regular 155 BTs. Problem was my scope maxed out at about 30-1/2 moa up, and I was forced to hold another two moa up into the 7 & 6 ring - not the most precise of aiming points. I eventually found a spot on the target that I could use as a repeatable aiming point, but it was too late by then. The old Service Rifle technique of 'frame hold' doesn't work so well at this level of precision. Definitely *not* using that load again. It shot okay, but not as tight as the 155 VLD or 155.5 BT do, and I'm squeakin' for elevation with a .308 as it is.

The thing that just bakes my noodle about the whole vertical thing is this: at another range in western Washington with just hideous mirage, I've laid behind the gun and literally watched the mirage boil up towards 1 o'clock (asphalt roof below the line of sight down range), and had to hold off almost a minute down towards 7 o'clock. Then when the wind dipped down into the bowl the range sits in and blew the mirage off, I saw the target snap back to where I was actually aiming at the center of the X, and then as the wind died off, the target drifted back up towards 1 o'clock again to where I was aiming the same place as originally. But I had not moved the gun the entire time! The mirage was boiling enough that it displaced the image of the target so that where I 'saw' the target wasn't really where it was. Kind of freaky!

Anyway, it makes a certain amount of sense - boiling mirage rises and moves the target image 'up', and I had to hold low. Fine. So... Saturday & Sunday I watched the mirage boil 'up' and I had to hold *up*?!? Same thing with the wind flags... mirage boiling up, barely tilted, and flags blowing right to left intermittently... but I had to dial on 1.5-3 minutes to the *left* to center up.

Typical Doug Ridge, observed effect on the bullet is completely bass-ackwards from what it looks like it should be... except for when it isn't.

 

[Flybuster]

Here's the Major on the 1000 yard line..

Four Canuk's in a row!!

 

[Flybuster]

Ron called tonight and told me all about the comical yelling fit him and Chris had..lol..

Yeah, well I thought Darrell was the one telling me about the cut in the trees and diagonal winds..

Here's me after the final stage, 20 rounds and 5 sighters makes for a hot barrel.

So, can anybody shoot the International match in August. Isn't that the one where the Scotts bring their Irish buddies?