Rifle Team Weekly Happenings 2022-10-09

Hi Everyone!

I hope that everyone has had a great week.  With the temperatures getting colder it's time to start finding winter activities.   Don't like the cold and looking for something to do 1-2 evenings per week?  Why not come down to the SDC Rifle Range?  Now featuring Heat™.

I usually miss sending this message on October 9th, and this year has not been the exception - But why is October 9th so important to me?

Well.  It's celbrated by more than me.  It's celebrated by the majority of the competitive shooting community.  When you write the date out in a short format you end up with 10/9, or 10.9.  In the target shooting sports when using decimal scoring 10.9 it is the highest possible value that a shot can be assigned.  It is in itself a perfect shot.  We train our entire lives in the pursuit of being able to consistently make the "perfect shot".  But it's more than just being able to make that shot.  It's about the process, time and dedication that goes into potentially making that shot.  Rifle has been in the modern Olympics since the beginning in 1896.  It's been featured in all but 2 summer quads (1904 & 1928).  It wasn't until the late 60's and early 70's we started seeing international events with records that could never be beaten...  only tied, but there's still events both NRA and USA Shooting without perfect scores assigned to them.

But 10.9 day should mean just as much off of the range as it does on the range.  Always striving to improve ourselves; finding and working on our own imperfections.  We aren’t perfect, we never will be!  But every day we should strive for perfection and know there are always things we can do to get better, at whatever that “thing” is. So Let’s strive to be 1% better everyday!  Try to achieve a 10.9 in everything in life you might accomplish.

Range Time This Week:

• Monday 6pm - 10pm
• Tuesday 6pm - 10pm

What we will be working on this week:

• This week we will be bringing everything learned over the past few weeks and preparing for competition.
  • For anyone that hasn't reached this point, no worries.  We've got other stuff to work on and play "catch-up".
• For anyone who has not shot yet  (It's never too late to start!)
  • This week you will be working through a combined "This is A Rifle", "Intro to Standing"  as well as start of practice Air Rifle assembly and end of practice disassembly.

Homework - Read the Rulebook

• Because of some major deficiencies in how the SDC handles Range Safety, you never learned important things such as basic firearm safety (Which we touched on during "This is a rifle") and range commands.
• These basic, core foundations are not only critical when we start traveling and shooting competitions at other facilities, but they are also critical at our own facility during practice and general range time irregardless of what organization is using the facility.
• The WIRC targets are shot under NRA rules.  Our competitions aren't shot under "block time"; I can't give you a chunk of time and say "go".  So Range Commands are used by the match personnel and officers to tell you, the competitor what is going on and what you should be doing.
• Range commands are covered by section 10 of the NRA Rulebooks and section 6.11 of the NCAA / USA Shooting rulebook
  
  • So here is the NRA Smallbore Rulebook.   Please read rules 10.1 -> 10.7 (Pages 24-27).  We will be practicing this this week.

If you are interested in joining, come down to the range and try us out!  It's never too late to start!

Upcoming Items:

• Next week we will start shooting our October competition targets. (Air Rifle).  And then Smallbore the week after.
  • I realize that most of you don't feel you're to the point where you feel comfortable competing.   I respect that but I really encourage everyone that can to participate.  This is a multi-month competition.  While you might not take the highest overall score you might improve enough to get most improved.
    • You only have 5 years of collegiate eligibility.  Don't waste an entire year just because for just one month you felt like you weren't good enough.  Just try your best.  That's all you can ask from yourself.  You'll get better as the season progresses!
• Air Rifle and Smallbore will each take around 2.5 hours including 15 min equipment setup and 15 min tear down time.   Once a competition for a discipline (air or SB)  is started, it must be finished.  Any unshot targets will be marked as DNF ( 0 ).  So please try to plan your time.  If you will be showing up with a time constraint please let me know ahead of time.  We can try working around it.  It could be something as simple as getting your equipment out and set up for you ahead of time or putting things away for you if you need to take off early.
  • We will start the shooting sequences at approx 18:15, 18:45, 19:15, 19:45, 20:15, 20:45 (Starting after 2045 you might not have time to finish).  Please show up at least 15 minutes early to get equipment setup.
• We will be having an organizational membership meeting on October 19th from 1830-2000.  Location and meeting agenda will be announced in a few days.
  • It's important to show up for these meetings.  This is where we do things like pass bylaws and approve spending.
  • We have a minimum member attendance requirement (Called a Quorum) that needs to be met in order for us to do anything.
• Save the date - It looks like we will be going to Jackson, MI on the weekend of December 3rd to compete against the University of Michigan.  More details will be released next month.  (Departing Friday AM, Returning Sunday PM)

Thank you for your attention, and have a great week!

GO HUSKIES!
- Zach