I attended the 2016 CMP New England Games, signed up for 3 GSVMM matches and 1 Carbine match.
Got there Thursday afternoon in time to check in and drive down to see the last 2 relays of the afternoon GSVMM match. The High Power range was about a 10 minute drive down a gravel road from the registration and barracks area. There were a number of other ranges and areas along the way as this is an active army base.
Picture from afternoon relay. Some of you may recognize these guys. There are 20 firing positions with pits downrange.
http://i.imgur.com/DdESaZR.jpg
The afternoon relay ended and I went to check out my room. You could pre-register to sleep in the barracks for $10 a night. I was expecting open bays, but instead there were single or double rooms. Mine was a double, but the room wrapped around a stairwell so that offered some more privacy as the beds were in different corners of the room. This is a pic of my "roommates" area. He was from the Poughkeepsie, NY area.
http://i.imgur.com/nsxYH9h.jpg
Next morning was the Garand match for me. I was on relay 1. Shot a 265 and ended up with a Bronze. They say that off-hand wins or looses a match, and this was definitely the case for me. 92 slow prone ( I re-adjusted my sights a few shots in after shooting a few for score), 93 rapid and 80 offhand. My off-hand usually always goes wide for the first few shots then I suck it in.
They moved the matches pretty quickly with 10 minute pit change between relays 1/2 and 3/4. When working the pits for slow fire, the pit boss expected 10 seconds or less between pulling, pasting and scoring. Once you identified the backstop area for your target, it wasn't hard to determine when one came downrange. And since 2 guys each are working a target, it was easy to get into a routine.
The cool thing about the 200 yard range there was it was totally open. So the rifles made more of a diffused boom noise vs a sharper crack I tend to hear shooting in local clubs because we're shooting from an enclosure. It sort of felt like being on a WW1 battle field.
The Carbine match was next but I had time between to run into the CMP Sales area to look at what they brought. They had service, field and M1 specials, also Rack Grade M1 C's and D's. Last but not least they had a bunch of drill rifles. Was hoping to score a 1903 with a c-stock but they only had 2 03A3s with scant stocks. Price for 03 drills rifles was $150. The drill Garands were interesting. They really did a good job making sure they wouldn't fire - welded op rod tracks, plugged barrels, welded boltfaces and gas cylinders. Two of them had really nice GAW stocks and they all had lock bar sights. At $360 each it's not worth it though. As for the working M1s, they had 2 really nice HRA service grades. One with it's original barrel, and another with a LMR barrel from 1955 (maybe original)? They had a few field grades with lock bar sights, but I didn't see anything special. They also had a crate of the HXP spam cans for sale too, along with other accessories.
Sales Table : http://i.imgur.com/3GY9AiA.jpg
Drill Rifles : http://i.imgur.com/4ddtU5G.jpg
Carbine Match had 27 shooters, so 3 lines. 5 SR targets were setup downrange for each course of fire (10 sighters, 10 slow prone, 10 rapid prone, 10 rapid sitting and 10 off-hand). I shot a 325, my rapids were horrible. The match winner shot a 380 something, a guy from Western Mass. As for the carbine mags, you could only load 5 rnds/mag, so each course of fire (slow or rapid) had a mag change. Carbine match was a lot of fun.
Carbine Match : http://i.imgur.com/BdqTW3B.jpg
Sat morning match. I was going to shoot my 03A3 twice that day but a friend offered to loan me his 1917 for one of the matches. My only experience with a 1917 rifle was picking one up for 30 seconds at an LGS a few years ago. I was just using the battle sight and during the 5 sighters I was shooting the 7 ring with a 6oclock hold, so I upped it to center hold and was shooting 8 then went 12 oclock hold and was shooting in the top of the 9 ring. There wasn't much more I could do so I rolled with it. I shot amazing groups, but mostly in the 9 ring. Shot a 260 which was the cut off for Bronze in the Vintage class. I need to get a 1917 now, very fun rifle to shoot. For ammo I used my Garand loads (47.0varget under 155) as the 03 ammo I brought was neck sized to my 03. Usually for bolt gun I do one less grain.
Getting ready with the 1917 : http://i.imgur.com/ue5uvLm.jpg
I partnered up with my bunkmate that day, here he is shooting Garand offhand : http://i.imgur.com/JcyJlTs.jpg
Afternoon match I shot 1903A3. This is the rifle I am the best at shooting with and saved the best to last. 96 slow prone, 94 rapid (I shot one 8, and freakin' called it). Was hoping for a Silver, but my first 2 offhand shots were a 5 and a 6. Beats a miss, but hard to recover from. Sucked it in and shot a 78, for a 269. The silver medal cutoff for 1903 was 272, I think.
Throughout the course of the 3 GSVMM matches, I observed Garands, 1903/03A3, M1A, quite a few 1917s, 303 Enfields and K98s. Wouldn't be surprised if someone was shooting a K31 for Vintage either. Also every so often you would hear the army firing something _really_ loud in the distance.
They also held pistol and 22 matches but I didn't participate or attend any.
Sat night was another awards ceremony. Franco won a number of golds along with #1 for 3 and 4 gun aggregate. They had a raffle which included a 22 Savage rifle and 45 Colt pistol. All and all a great time. Mark Johnson from CMP got up to say a few words and announced they would be coming back next September 20-24. 155 shooters attended this year. There was a Vintage Sniper match this morning which I did not attend.
Got there Thursday afternoon in time to check in and drive down to see the last 2 relays of the afternoon GSVMM match. The High Power range was about a 10 minute drive down a gravel road from the registration and barracks area. There were a number of other ranges and areas along the way as this is an active army base.
Picture from afternoon relay. Some of you may recognize these guys. There are 20 firing positions with pits downrange.
http://i.imgur.com/DdESaZR.jpg
The afternoon relay ended and I went to check out my room. You could pre-register to sleep in the barracks for $10 a night. I was expecting open bays, but instead there were single or double rooms. Mine was a double, but the room wrapped around a stairwell so that offered some more privacy as the beds were in different corners of the room. This is a pic of my "roommates" area. He was from the Poughkeepsie, NY area.
http://i.imgur.com/nsxYH9h.jpg
Next morning was the Garand match for me. I was on relay 1. Shot a 265 and ended up with a Bronze. They say that off-hand wins or looses a match, and this was definitely the case for me. 92 slow prone ( I re-adjusted my sights a few shots in after shooting a few for score), 93 rapid and 80 offhand. My off-hand usually always goes wide for the first few shots then I suck it in.
They moved the matches pretty quickly with 10 minute pit change between relays 1/2 and 3/4. When working the pits for slow fire, the pit boss expected 10 seconds or less between pulling, pasting and scoring. Once you identified the backstop area for your target, it wasn't hard to determine when one came downrange. And since 2 guys each are working a target, it was easy to get into a routine.
The cool thing about the 200 yard range there was it was totally open. So the rifles made more of a diffused boom noise vs a sharper crack I tend to hear shooting in local clubs because we're shooting from an enclosure. It sort of felt like being on a WW1 battle field.
The Carbine match was next but I had time between to run into the CMP Sales area to look at what they brought. They had service, field and M1 specials, also Rack Grade M1 C's and D's. Last but not least they had a bunch of drill rifles. Was hoping to score a 1903 with a c-stock but they only had 2 03A3s with scant stocks. Price for 03 drills rifles was $150. The drill Garands were interesting. They really did a good job making sure they wouldn't fire - welded op rod tracks, plugged barrels, welded boltfaces and gas cylinders. Two of them had really nice GAW stocks and they all had lock bar sights. At $360 each it's not worth it though. As for the working M1s, they had 2 really nice HRA service grades. One with it's original barrel, and another with a LMR barrel from 1955 (maybe original)? They had a few field grades with lock bar sights, but I didn't see anything special. They also had a crate of the HXP spam cans for sale too, along with other accessories.
Sales Table : http://i.imgur.com/3GY9AiA.jpg
Drill Rifles : http://i.imgur.com/4ddtU5G.jpg
Carbine Match had 27 shooters, so 3 lines. 5 SR targets were setup downrange for each course of fire (10 sighters, 10 slow prone, 10 rapid prone, 10 rapid sitting and 10 off-hand). I shot a 325, my rapids were horrible. The match winner shot a 380 something, a guy from Western Mass. As for the carbine mags, you could only load 5 rnds/mag, so each course of fire (slow or rapid) had a mag change. Carbine match was a lot of fun.
Carbine Match : http://i.imgur.com/BdqTW3B.jpg
Sat morning match. I was going to shoot my 03A3 twice that day but a friend offered to loan me his 1917 for one of the matches. My only experience with a 1917 rifle was picking one up for 30 seconds at an LGS a few years ago. I was just using the battle sight and during the 5 sighters I was shooting the 7 ring with a 6oclock hold, so I upped it to center hold and was shooting 8 then went 12 oclock hold and was shooting in the top of the 9 ring. There wasn't much more I could do so I rolled with it. I shot amazing groups, but mostly in the 9 ring. Shot a 260 which was the cut off for Bronze in the Vintage class. I need to get a 1917 now, very fun rifle to shoot. For ammo I used my Garand loads (47.0varget under 155) as the 03 ammo I brought was neck sized to my 03. Usually for bolt gun I do one less grain.
Getting ready with the 1917 : http://i.imgur.com/ue5uvLm.jpg
I partnered up with my bunkmate that day, here he is shooting Garand offhand : http://i.imgur.com/JcyJlTs.jpg
Afternoon match I shot 1903A3. This is the rifle I am the best at shooting with and saved the best to last. 96 slow prone, 94 rapid (I shot one 8, and freakin' called it). Was hoping for a Silver, but my first 2 offhand shots were a 5 and a 6. Beats a miss, but hard to recover from. Sucked it in and shot a 78, for a 269. The silver medal cutoff for 1903 was 272, I think.
Throughout the course of the 3 GSVMM matches, I observed Garands, 1903/03A3, M1A, quite a few 1917s, 303 Enfields and K98s. Wouldn't be surprised if someone was shooting a K31 for Vintage either. Also every so often you would hear the army firing something _really_ loud in the distance.
They also held pistol and 22 matches but I didn't participate or attend any.
Sat night was another awards ceremony. Franco won a number of golds along with #1 for 3 and 4 gun aggregate. They had a raffle which included a 22 Savage rifle and 45 Colt pistol. All and all a great time. Mark Johnson from CMP got up to say a few words and announced they would be coming back next September 20-24. 155 shooters attended this year. There was a Vintage Sniper match this morning which I did not attend.
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