Well, sod.
That about sums up the match. Not too much went right today, from start to finish. Woke up a half-hour late, skipped breakfast, got to DURC to pick up my rifle and kit only to run into a snafu over keys and such and as a result landed in the UCD carpark at 1020 for a 1030 detail. Prep time started at 1030 and instead of being sat there at the line in full kit ready to go at the start of prep time, I didn’t even make it into all my kit before we were ten minutes into the match, and there wasn’t enough time to stretch out beforehand so I’m in a bit of pain tonight. Next time, I collect the gear the night before and go straight to UCD if it’s the first detail I think.
Sighters didn’t start off too horribly. I adjusted the buttplate slightly as the targets in UCD are a bit lower than they were in Kuortane. That went well, but I was still seeing the odd flier in the sighters and was chasing tens for the last three or four sighter shots. First match shot was around forty minutes in, and so I was running right from the get-go (and I only made it through the sixty shots with around 20 seconds to spare or thereabouts).
And right from that get-go, problems showed up. The position didn’t feel quite there; either I was doing the demented ballerina routine with my hip swinging forwards or my lower spine was collapsing downwards (hence the lumbar pain tonight). There’s no support from my jacket anymore at all. Jozef was right, it should have been chucked out ages ago. It’s also now about a size too large for me. Time to buy a new one.
The trigger is too far forwards and I’m stretching to get there, so I might be dragging shots out of the ten when triggering. Well, that was on the to-do list from Kuortane anyway I guess.
The major problem though, was that the cheekpiece isn’t right. I have no decent cheekpiece weld, just inconsistent contact. I need to bring the cheekpiece more over towards my face and tweak it a bit until I get it consistent again. I’ve already done some work on that, I’ll do more on the range in DURC tomorrow.
I wouldn’t mind checking the sights as well. It’s most likely the cheekpiece causing the problem but I feel like I can’t trust it’s adjustments anymore. Even if just for the sake of peace of mind, I’d like to check them.
I need to clean the barrel, tube, and just about everything on the rifle. The trip to Finland seems to have dislodged lots and lots of dirt and dust.
The new kitbag I got for Kuortane isn’t working. The two-half design sounds like a great idea, but it’s really just a pain in the proverbials. I’ll see if I can’t order a large cricket gear bag online.
Time to hit PhysioNeeds.ie and get a pair of the DynAir balance pads and maybe a swiss ball for core stability training at home.
I need something other than Powerade for isotonics. It’s just giving me a headache. Half apple juice, half water ought to be good enough, I just need a decent water bottle.
Must go buy Air Rifle Shooting online.
I need to sort out the buttplate carrier plate the way Jozef pointed out.
And I need to make up a better set of blinds (translucent/opaque plastic?). Cutting up paper targets works for a temporary measure, but it’s not quite right. And I need to wear both the headband and the MEC visor, the visor is too tight otherwise.
Eye tests are needed!
And I need to pull the 4.2mm foresight element I was using – there’s something wrong with the plastic at the top and there was horrible distortion around the edge of the foresight element. If I’d had five minutes during the match, I’d have yanked it there and then and replaced it, but there wasn’t enough time. I might order some Centra High End elements, that distortion was quite distracting and might be worth a few quid to get rid of it.
All in all then, that was a horrible day. Qualifying for the Irish Team to Intershoot is right out the window (and through the building across the street at that), but on the positive side, I’ve got a few weeks to work with and a list of things to do to fix the problems I saw. Fingers crossed, the next match should be much better (hell, it’d have to be – it’s rather hard to shoot worse than 531 without breaking something!)