So me and a couple of
pals drove out to Merritt, BC this weekend......that's sort of where I just
want to stop writing because it was so demoralizing, lol!
From our last trip
out to Merritt, I got a little over confident in my shooting abilities and my
equipment. Me and a buddy were hitting steel with very little effort at
750m, so we decided to skip 500m, and 750m going straight to 1,000m and 1,330m
this trip. Except this time, there was
one very big variable – nature.
Our range.
100m for zeroing.
1,000m
1,330 (could have gone further but we figured we'd warm up with 1km first then move out further to get that 1 mile shot....needless to say, it didn't happen this day.
The sky was overcast
and the temperature was cold, but the weather report indicated that it would
warm up by noon. I was unprepared as the
weather in Richmond had been sunny and warm the last few weeks, and had been
t-shirt weather for the longest time. In
Merritt, not so much. I was
underdressed, and to top it all off, didn’t sleep particularly well the night
before. We decided to save a couple of
bucks by parking at the local Timmy’s instead of getting a motel room or
camping out, lol, so we might change that up a bit next time.
Of course, it had to start raining. It started off as drizzle, so Jay put his
canopy up. The drizzle eventually turned
into straight rain, and the wind of course turned it sideways blowing it right
under the canopy. Our trucks parked
behind us provided us with some additional shelter, but by the end of the day,
I was soaked, my shooting mat was soaked, my bags were bogged down and all my
rifles were wet.
I managed to duck out intermittently to snap a few photos
when the rain broke, and for one brief moment, we thought the sun might come
out……but it didn’t. I completely
misjudged the weather and the elements when I was packing my gear. I figured I’d save room by leaving a lot of
my wet/cold weather gear at home, and I didn’t even bother packing a change of
clothes. Next time, I’ll be better
prepared. As my buddy Jay said, better
to have it and not need it than need it and not have it.
This vid gives you a little idea of what the wind was like. There were times where it was worse and at one point, our tent nearly lifted off the ground. The rain also came and went....mostly came and stayed until we packed up and left, lol!
The last three are a couple of cool videos of me trying to hit the gong at 1,330 meters....no hits, lol!
Jay managed to hit the target stand at 1,330m :)
Anyway, Jay and Colin both managed to make hits at 1,000m,
and Jay even got one at 1,330m, but I came away empty handed. Not a single hit at 1,000m and nothing at
1,330m. Some occasions I was close, but
a miss is a miss. I think the next time
we’re out there, I’ll have a better appreciation for weather, for my personal
comfort as well as performance behind the rifle.
