Eugene Spears, the author's squad partner, shoots rapid-fire sitting from the 300-yard line.

Five sighters were allowed. I took four, felt pretty good about my sight picture, stated that I was shooting for record, and promptly shot an eight. Almost relieved that I’d got that out of the way, I settled in and shot a long string of nines and 10s with a fair scattering of Xs mixed in. Twenty rounds later I had a score of 189 out of a possible 200.

Another departure from standard procedure in the M1A match is that shooters begin rapid-fire strings “in position” rather than starting from a standing position.

The rapid-fire sitting position was the only position I had not been able to build to my satisfaction. With limited time to practice I ended up simply using an open position rather than the more stable, but also more difficult, cross-legged position, and it showed in my score. Ten shots later I had shot a dismal 76 of 100.

Relays were reversed, and the sun came out briefly as my squad partner and I walked to the pits and pulled targets. The heavy cardboard backing was flimsy with rain, and the faces themselves were so wet that the adhesive loosened and the targets sagged. We smoothed out the wrinkles and hoped they wouldn’t fall off entirely.

It rained in bursts, and the wind came up as we made our way back to the firing line over an hour later. I watched my shooting partner fire his prone rapid-fire string, made some mental notes, and took his place. The wind was up slightly and I took my sight one click right, knowing I would have no time to adjust if I were wrong.

When the targets came up out of the pits, I locked the front sight at six o’clock on the bullseye and squeezed, gulped a breath and squeezed again. When my action locked open I pawed the empty magazine from the gun and slammed home the fresh one, dripping with rain.

I could have taken more time, but I was used to starting from a standing position and had built a rhythm around that. I finished with 15 seconds left, scoring 91 of 100.

The wind was up a bit when it came time to shoot offhand, but I felt like a beetle nestled into his shell in the wonderfully supportive Creedmoor shooting coat. I was so steady, in fact, that I almost matched my sitting score, firing a 75 out of 100.

Detail of the M1A Super Match sights. Precision adjustable in 1/2- minute increments, the authors reference hash-marks are visible.

Our scorecards were almost too wet to write on, but we added up our scores and signed our cards. I finished with 431 out of a possible 500.

If you’ve never been to Camp Perry during the National Matches, it is well worth going. Commercial Row is a long line of buildings that are taken over by various manufacturers for all or part of the matches, and I’ve never seen such an array of match-grade firearms and parts.