Bisley - Day 2:

Day two started with a bit more sun and tamer winds. It didn’t take long however for the general overcast grey to settle in again though. Winds were fickle and blustery and as the day wore on they only got worse, in fact 800 was interesting, 900 was daunting and 1000 was just brutal. The only upside was that the rain held off all day.

 

 

The wash up was as follows:

800 yards (15 + 2 sighters):

I shot a 74.8 with which I was happy with.

 

900 yards (15 + 2 sighters):

Shot a 73.8 which I was really happy with given the wind conditions.

 

1000 yards (20 + 2 sighters):

Shot a 80.3. This is where it was really interesting… Watching some of the earlier relays shoot, I saw scores of 2’s and 1’s pop up regularly!! Some of the big boys took a few hits!! Misses weren’t unheard of either in the massive wind shifts. I glanced at some of the frames up the line and there was a row of about five 1’s at one stage! I’m just looking at my range notes as I type and I can see there was one point where the wind shifted so much that following on from a 4, a following big pick up which blew me from the bull out to the 1!! From there from a setting of 6 minutes left, I went to 8 left and aimed off another ½ left which got me back into the 5…. All in the space of about 30 seconds…wild!! The highest hold off I had was 8¾ left for a V. That represents a lot of movement for a 7mm 175 SMK when coupled with those drop offs…

Thus overall and with field of 145 international competitors:

 

For the combined 800 yard agg over the two days I finished 29th.

 

For the combined 900 yard agg over the two days I finished 8th.

 

Overall day 2 agg finished 20th.

 

Picked up a silver for a second place in the 900 on day 2.

 

Finished 39th in the Grand Agg. (Given that the unavoidable need to reload with Hodgdon powder cost me 2 points in vertical, it could’ve been 28th).

 

So overall given the quantity of quality competitors from around the world and the resources that is being thrown at this by some of the teams I’m very happy to be where I am in the standings and to pick up a gong out of a 145 strong line-up at the 900.