Here the author is firing offhand during the last string of the match. Note the jacket and shooting position, which draws on relaxed skeletal support.

Thankfully, champion shooter Dennis DeMille—general manager of Creedmoor Sports (creedmoor sports.com, 800-273-3366)—took pity on me and overnighted me one of Creedmoor’s excellent jackets, along with a good leather military-type sling. Scott had his glove and mat from his days as a competitive shooter, and I was covered for accessories.

Springfield had kindly offered to lend me an M1A Super Match Rifle for the event, and shortly it showed up at Turners Outdoorsman (turners.com). Unfortunately it had a flash suppressor, which isn’t legal in California, so Turners sent the rifle back to Springfield, where the ’smiths spun off the flash suppressor and replaced it with a compensator. Back it came, and on July 22 I walked out of the store with the rifle. My flight to Perry left August 3.

Hornady, Black Hills and Federal all sent me a quantity of .308 match ammunition to sort out the rifle and practice with. At the Angeles Range (angelesranges.com) the first ammo I fed the Super Match was Hornady’s 168-grain A-Max. I settled in to get used to the rifle at 100 yards. After a couple of sighters I fired a sub-inch group in the X ring right off the bat and then moved the target to 300 yards. Off a Sinclair Benchrest I was able to keep all my shots in a four-inch 10 ring.

With limited time and considering the excellent performance of the Hornady A-max ammo, I set the Black Hills and Federal match ammo aside for later testing and focused on getting to know the rifle with the Hornady fodder.

The Saturday before I left, Dennis Santiago—one of a dozen or so Civilian Marksmanship Program M1 Garand Master Instructor certificate holders in California—was kind enough to meet me at a private 1,000-yard range to work on form and do some drills to prepare for the rapid-fire stages of the event. High Master shooter Jeff Mendoza, having shot Distinguished with both the M1A and AR-15, joined us—along with his friend Al Morita, a Master shooter.

Quite honestly, without the assistance of those three gentlemen and the CMP-style instruction Dennis provided, I’d have been at sea when I arrived at Perry.

The morning of the M1A match dawned gray and drizzly. At 6:40 a.m. I parked as close as possible to the range and unloaded my gear. I figured out pretty quick why everybody had carts as I slogged across the wet grass to the firing line.

The target face seems large up close, but hitting the 2.5 inch X ring - unsupported - from 300 yards is quite a trick.

Several competitors didn’t show, due to the rain, I imagine. With great efficiency the range officers organized the 500-plus remaining shooters into new squads and sent half to the pits to pull targets. I was squadded with Eugene Spears, an excellent shooter who had been competing at the National Matches for 15 years.

When my turn came I lay down on my sopping mat, covered my open action with my hand and waited for the call “ready on the right, ready on the left, all ready on the firing line!”