Day 4

Today, the team started with a bit of a ‘lie in’ (7:30ish wake), something of a rarity on tour! Having arrived late last night, it wasn’t until today we could appreciate the beautiful surrounding that would be our home for the next few days. Sited on the edge of Lake Erie, most of our chalets offer spectacular views across the lake, and spacious balconies from which to watch the sunrise or sunset with a cold beer.

While on previous days the team has been completing activities in unison, today was the first day that we split down into our groups according to vehicle. Each vehicle was given the opportunity to shoot distances of their choice this morning at Perry, in order to get zeros and a general feel for the slightly different ‘string shooting’ technique, whereby there is a single firer on each target as opposed to two or three at the same time. Most groups decided to skip the 300 yard shoot, (Which would have meant a much earlier start!) opting instead for a shoot at 600 and 800 yards, although in reality most only made it to 800 yards. This enabled us to get a little experience at short range, while also getting experience and zeros at the slightly foreign 800 yards distance (at Bisley we only tend to shoot 3,5,6,9 and 10). For those that have shot at Camp Perry before, the range has improved a lot as there are now several full rows of flags and the firing points have had a lot of work done on them.

Driving into Camp Perry, two things immediately strike you: it is a range where the targets are incredibly close together, with no butt stops, making the possibility of cross firing much higher; it is also a very open range which, without targets and wind flags, might remind you of an American links golf course. All in all, it makes for a fairly uniform shooting experience across all targets: whereas at Bisley we often find that range number impacts wind conditions, at Perry it seems like everyone is served the same challenges during a team match.

Unfortunately, we haven’t got any team or individual scores to report to you today. The only thing to really note is that, like Borden, the mirage seems to be fairly truthful and the wind flags were less informative. We also had the opportunity to top up on shooting supplies on the range as Perry has a series of commercial shooting supplies stores. This meant some members of the team purchased gloves, shooting jumpers and other supplies such as cleaning fluid (yes, rather mundane).

As shooting practice was finished by this afternoon, we took the rest of the day off to go shopping for essential supplies. Most of us visited WalMart to stock up our various chalets with crisps and beer (essential foodstuffs for top athletes) as well as more sensible things for breakfast and lunches. The rest of the afternoon was spent taking some much needed time to relax, and decompress from the rush of the last 3 days.

In the evening, we had the pleasure of BBQ-master Tom Drysdale cooking up some American sized steaks for a team BBQ along with the BCRC Goodwill team who are shooting at Perry as well. With Jane Messer and Henry Day providing the supporting cast of sausages, chicken, potato salad and so on, we were treated to a huge spread of meat and a healthy amount of wine to help us finally settle in to our accommodation.

Individual competitive shooting at Perry starts first thing tomorrow morning… We’ll keep you posted.