A trip to Nationals

Post date: Aug 7, 2015 2:57:52 PM

We always read stories about going to Nationals and what it would be to go to Camp Perry, What do i bring what I'm going to do when I get there... Well we do have one of our local Club members made the decision to do exactly that. Dough have family close to the area and decided to kill 2 birds in one shot and with minimal gear took off on his new adventure...

By Douglas Harvey

Just a few weeks ago I made my first trip to the National Rifle and Pistol Championships at Camp Perry, Ohio. Right up front, I will simply say that I didn’t win any medals, but my scores continued to improve. My introduction to competitive shooting came in 2003 when I found myself on the Alaska Army National Guard Marksmanship Team as a pistol competitor shooting the M9 Beretta. In 2004 I found myself competing at the All Army Marksmanship Matches at Fort Benning. Back then, getting paid to shoot, and getting to travel were the biggest benefits going. Then in 2005 I got deployed in support of OIF/OEF/Joint Guardian and spent the next two years at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany. When I returned in 2007 there were deployments to Mongolia, professional schools to attend, and in general, with a war on, there were not opportunities to shoot. I retired in 2010.

In 2013 I started thinking about what I wanted to do when I retire from my current job. I started looking into shooting again, and based on an article in a firearms publication, I registered with the Civilian Marksmanship Program, bought an M-1 Garand and a pile of surplus ammunition, joined the Alaska Rifle Club (because some of my former National Guard Colleagues were members too), and started shooting again. ARC was perplexed that I would drive down to shoot with them, and wondered why I didn’t shoot in the Fairbanks area, so they put me in touch with 21 Mile Rifle and Pistol Club. Instead of switching clubs, I just started shooting with both.

I went to the CMP Western Games near Phoenix in October 2014 and spent three days shooting every day. While there, I took the Garand/Springfield new shooter clinic. When I got back to Fairbanks, I joined Tanana Valley Sportsmen’s Association where I spent the winter both shooting on, and constructing their indoor range. During the winter I practice with air rifle and .22LR on the indoor range at 50 feet on the principle that marksmanship is marksmanship, and that with more practice will come improved performance.

I shot with 21 Mile on December 21^st (shortest day of the year!), 2014, had two matches at Birchwood in the Anchorage Bowl, and then, feeling less than prepared, flew to Cleveland, Ohio and then drove to Port Clinton and over to Camp Perry where I signed in for the matches. The next day I arrived at the Viale Range for squadding at 930am. This is where the experience begins to get interesting. On this day, there were six morning relays of shooters on Viale Range, and 6 afternoon relays as well. Viale range has 150 positions on the line. That’s a lot of competitors. Especially when you consider that right next door on Rodriguez range there are the same number of relays shooting simultaneously on a 100 position range. As a competitor, you have to follow the relay schedule. You work the pits, you score other competitors, and of course you shoot your match. From showing up for squadding to packing up and going back to the hotel went from 10am to 430pm. Have good walking shoes… going back and forth from the line to the pits and to your car is a lot of mileage on a 1200 yard range.

I then had two days off while the Springfield/Vintage matches were held. On the 4^th day, I was on the line at 7am for the National Trophy Match. This is an all-day event held on both ranges with a total of around 1100 shooters. The day after that, I shot in the President’s 100 competition, which was another all-day event with around 1200 shooters. You get to meet all sorts of people from all over the country. You get to see all sorts of interesting gear. If you are the lone competitor from the Last Frontier, everyone wanders over to ask you questions about your 73 year old battle rifle (with its brand-new Krieger barrel) and your 30 year old surplus ammunition and the “weird” Campways folding stool that you dug out of your garage where it collected dust for the last 35 years (If Campways stopped making them, they better restart, everyone wants one now).

At events such as these, especially the hot humid ones, you get to see things you rarely see in Alaska. While scoring another competitor, I actually got to see the shock wave from his rounds punching through the mirage and found I could score his target pretty accurately without seeing the bullet holes (it looks like an expanding doughnut of steam). You get to meet new people, see new gear, and shoot events that you don’t get to do locally. At the National Championships, you can go to “Commercial Row” where all the major vendors have shops set up. You can find hard to get parts, buy ammo, or even have an entire rifle or pistol designed and built for you.

I will be going back to Phoenix October of 2015. It would be nice to not be the “Lone Competitor from the Last Frontier”. Anyone up for a trip?

Doug Harvey

North Pole, Alaska

Doug took some videos and will link them here pretty soon