DCRA day 2
After a hearty Best Western breakfast, all buses departed for the range at 8am, ready for our first full day’s shooting in nearly a week.
This morning was the Gooderham competition (the equivalent to the pre-Grand Century competition in the Imperial), our first shoots in yards (500 and 600) which led to much debate around elevation movements between metres and yards. In addition to this, the flags on A-range are considerably lighter than on C-range (the main long range where the ORA meeting was held). The threatened fishtail wind blowing towards us this morning was in reality more steady, with up to a minute bracket at 500x, coming from the right, and about a minute and a half at 600x, moving through zero but readable on the mirage.
The Captain led the way with 100.16, one V-bull short of the four way tie shoot for first place. GBRT recorded six other scores of 100 – full team scores are found in the usual places.
Lunch in our air-conditioned classroom led to the opening of the annual fly challenge. Stu Young is currently leading with two brace (although he has yet to confirm the male/female pairings) – plenty of time yet.
This afternoon was the turn of the Army and Navy Veterans, a 15-shot shoot at 900m in testing conditions – light was in and out leading to a mirage which was not always visible and wind ranged from a half left to just over 3 right through the diarist’s shoot. As if this wasn’t hard enough, the Captain decided to handicap himself by starting off with his 800m elevation. Luckily his first sighter miss was enough to alert the Adj who was shooting alongside and was spotted swiftly amending his foresight ladder… 
The challenging conditions meant no “possibles” for GBRT (only six across the range) with three of the team scoring 74, led by Graham with a very creditable 74.6. Special mention to Oli who also scored 74, despite having a broken ejector which meant he had to put a rod down his barrel after every shot to get the empty case out. A visit to armourer Crispy beckons….
A relatively early finish tonight with all back at base by 5.30. Tonight will see a rerun of the Youngs’ BBQ fillet spectacular. Lollipop awards yet to be announced. All short range tomorrow, with the start of the Grand Aggregate in the afternoon, after the conclusion of the Champlain aggregate (all the pre-Grand shoots). Forecast for tomorrow looks clear, with a light breeze from the right.
