Good days start early and end late...

The day dawned clear but cool, birds chirped announcing the imminent arrival of the sun and...There it is now, just cresting that hill in the distance, its first rays casting a warm golden light outwards heralding the beginning of a new day...

...That's not how my day started! My day began somewhat less majestically.

I struggled to get out of bed this morning due to a day lived to excess only the day before. You can read about it here if you're so inclined. My body was a little worse for wear from being contorted into unfamiliar positions and odd shapes and this morning it wanted nothing more than to lay in bed in a coma-like sleep until about 10am. It wasn't to be of course, however I certainly wasn't up chirping with the birds and greeting the first rays of sunlight. Far from it.

Today I had only one task which was to verify data on some new rifle rounds I'd made which was penciled in for 9:30am at a mate's farm. Fortunately he sent a text saying he had trouble lambing, that's a sheep giving birth if you didn't know, and so I got an extra one hour. It sort of sucked as I was up at 7am anyway though. Oh well, not to worry. I occupied myself out in my workshop a little then headed off to my buddy's place in the hills for some shooting.

Today I was fortunate to get my whole program completed as far as the verification went. This process is one where the shooter verifies the elevation input to place a round repeatedly on target at various ranges. Today I shot at 100m to confirm my zero point then 400m, 650m and 770m (770m = 842 yards). In my ballistics software we recorded the elevation input required to hit each steel gong 3-4 times and that true's the data to that range also giving a muzzle velocity reading. So, what that means is when I seek a field firing solution (FFS) prior to making a shot later on my ballistics calculator has the correct and true data with which to make the calculation. It means accurate shots. Anyway, it all worked out well today and I was on song with some excellent shooting.

One thing we determined today was that I have to use my reading glasses to shoot accurately now. It's a bummer but just the way it is. Without the glasses I have difficulty seeing the reticle (crosshairs) clearly which effects the overall shot. Oh well, I guess I'm almost middle-aged now and it's going to happen eventually right? (I'm 49 years old, so yeah, almost middle aged.)

Above you can see the rifle I was shooting and one of the locations we shot at. The target I am shooting at from this position is round and just under 11 inches in diameter, that's about the size of a human head. It's placed right up on the top of the highest hill you can see. (You will not see it with the naked eye of course.) That was the 770m shot.

Below is a shot I took with my phone, not the gun. We have had a very dry start to the year and it was nice to see some green vines popping out so I grabbed this shot. These vines are my mate's, the grapes from them will be sold to a wine manufacturer for, you guessed it, wine.

I was pretty pleased with the shooting today. It means I can safely shoot to at least 770m with this new round I made up knowing all my data to calculate the FFS is correct. It means I can place shots repeatedly at that range in groups the size of my fist. I'm happy with that sort of accuracy.

Of course after shooting there is...Cleaning. I should be doing that right now to be honest but I'm writing this instead. Gun cleaning is not something I enjoy and so I tend to avoid it where possible. I'll be doing the task tomorrow though and will clean five of my guns all at the same time. I figure if I have to get smelly with solvent and gun oil I might as well do several. I'll probably do a little blog on it but don't expect anything detailed as I'll end up with solvent and oil everywhere. It's not the sort of thing I ever do cleanly. Cleaning is messy work for me when it comes to guns.

Anyway, it's just after 5pm (1700) here and we are off to meet some friends for dinner. Faith is coming along tonight which is nice. I'm actually off to inspect a gun range and work out some stages for a nighttime shooting competition I'm running with some buddies which should be good. It's a practical rifle competition and we will be setting up moving targets, glow in the dark targets, ones that light up under blacklight and a stage where the shooter has to shoot using his/her own torch. It's going to be a hoot. We will also run a handgun version the following week as well so I'm looking forward to actually shooting that one myself rather than being an official. So, tonight is a meal at the pub then after dark we'll hit the range and determine some stage course-of-fire's parameters.

Thursday 25th April is ANZAC Day here so I'll be at the dawn service so it'll be a 4am wakeup. I'll be catching up with some military buddies to commemorate the day after the dawn service and hoist a few drinks for those we have lost...Then it's off to clan guns...To all you Aussie's I hope you're attending an ANZAC Day event and to everyone else...Well, I hope all is well and you're getting the most from your week.

Design and create your ideal life, don't live it by default - @galenkp
P.s. If anyone wants to hit me up on Discord: @galenkp#9209