I did not shoot at Perry this year

which is fine. I have had a myriad of things to deal with this summer, none of which I will get into on a public forum.

For the past couple of years the teams have been using optics, quad rails and the like which is certainly a change. The price of an M-16/AR 15 type service rifle has soared if you want to stay competitive with the teams. The price of the optics alone has exceeded what most of us have put into our entire rifles.

For a lot of us that means we simply can't afford to keep up anymore.

However, those of us that are Old School iron sights shooters are permitted to use our old iron sight rifles which for me is fine. I don't shoot the President's 100 anyway. I'm more of a Garand Match/local club kind of guy. 

I have wondered over the years when the technology duel would seriously begin and sure enough, it happened. I saw it coming a few years back when the services switched to the ACOG systems. These sell on the civilian market for about $1700 a pop. That's more than most shooters have in an iron sighted rcompetition service rifle.

Service rifle shooting was the way to go for someone on a budget which is a part of why I avoided building a serious match rifle or a space gun. Micrometer sights are expensive and so is custom gunsmithing. Out of the box service rifles were much more affordable and a piece out of the box was certainly good enough to take a person to Master or even High Master if one carefully hand loaded.

It is what it is and the ACOGs are actually a pretty good deal for GI Joe as they make it easier for them to engage the enemy which is what military rifle shooting is all about. I can't slight it.

I also have to keep in mind that the CMP has to mirror current service rifle updates because military competitors SHOULD be using what they carry. It's really not right to make service people have to learn how to use antiques to compete in matches that are supposed to reflect current trends.

I suppose I can still compete on a club level with my old iron sighted rifle. Actually I could compete at Perry with it. They do permit irons.

Incidentally the Garand, Carbine, Vintage Sniper and Military Bolt Gun matches still are very affordable. One can get a pretty good shooting Garand from CMP for the thousand dollar range and compete with it.

For what it's worth the CMP Garand match is pretty much a no/low pressure match and is a lot of fun to shoot. A lot of clubs have Garand matches, too.





To find out why the blog is pink just cut and paste this: http://piccoloshash.blogspot.com/2009/12/my-feminine-side-blog-stays-pink.html NO ANIMALS WERE HARMED IN THE WRITING OF TODAY'S ESSAY