Perry thoughts

Walking through ankle deep mud that smelled like a pig farm to shoot embarrassingly bad targets after trying to sleep on a moldy mattress in a hut with standing water on the floor really is much more fun than sitting at this computer today.

yes!

LOL!,

While I did have fun and enjoy myself at Perry, I find my self questioning whether or not I will go again next year.  The mud didn't bother me too much, it made things interesting.  The wind didn't bother me at all, it helped keep me cool enough where I wasn't suffering.  The smell of pig pooh was tough to stomach, but didn't bother me that much.

The bad shooting, well, that seems to be a habit for me at Perry.  I think I need to figure out why I shoot so bad there and work on fixing that before I can fully enjoy the camp Perry experience. Perhaps next year I can get some more outdoor shooting practice in before going to Perry.

Luckily for me, I got a touch of the stomach flue, but that didn't hit until the last day. Made for a worrisome drive home and am still recovering from that.

Oh well, maybe in about two weeks, I will start planning for Swamp Perry 2014.

Chris D

My second year at Perry was filled with so many accomplishments.  I am so thankful for that.  Made new friends and reunited with old ones, shot well under pressure, won my class, made the P100, and shot with three world class shooters and won the Oglethorpe Trophy for Ohio!!


 On Tuesday morning at Camp Perry I camped out in front of Frerking Custom and bought a new Wadgun from him. I currently use a basically stock Range Officer. A number of old Masters told me to buy one now while I was young and my scores were quickly improving. "You will definitely buy points, the gun is holding you back!" They have shot next to me and scored me so I took their words to heart.  On Tuesday, Wednesday and Thusday evenings, I went to my home range and practiced with it. Broke a cardinal rule of competition and used that gun at Perry thinking that for sure my 50 yard scores would improve. 

For my own records I separate my matches into percentages.  What was my 30 round percentage on the long line and what was my 60 round percentage on the short line.  At Camp Perry (for CF and .45) my long line percentage went down (88%) and my short line percentage went up to 97.6%!! That is High Master! 

Camp Perry has made me reorganize my goals, but mainly left me wondering what I need to do with the nut behind the trigger to get him to shoot better long line scores. 

I took a one day vacation from shooting yesterday. Today practice begins again! 

P.S. The very first person I spotted at Perry was on commercial row amidst crowds of people. The tall figure of Rob Kovach and his boonie hat stands out!!

HAHA thanks for noticing me!

Great shooting by the way.  Maybe one day I will be joining you with all the other top shooters!

This was my first trip to Camp Perry and all the stories about the weather, the ranges, the wind..... well, lets just say none of them sound like tall tales now. Lots of lessons learned. Came down with pneumonia and missed the .45 match. Good news is the fine people in the Port Clinton ER dosed me with enough antibiotics to stun a mule. I can't say enough good things about the ER staff. And from a 25 year Army vet, I salute those fine young soldiers of the Ohio National Guard. A job well done.

Given all the conditions at Perry, even shooting my worst target, it was better than a day at work.

Well, I now have my official Camp Perry mud boots. I''ll be back for 2014.

The two times i went to perry, 2002 and 2004 were mostly good weather years, a little windy in 02 but what we didnt have was equipment failure that seems to happen every year now. If the people in charge dont address these issues soon many may decide to skip the nationals all together. There was big discussions last year about this but another year passed and nothing appears to have been done as the ranges went down even more this year seems like. Its a shame that what should be the showcase for our sport is in such bad state of repair.

This was my first Perry (shot my first bullseye match on 5/5/13) so my goals were basic, I met most of them and learned a lot.  Being a new shooter I got many words of encouragement and was very impressed with whole event, even with the mud, which I believe helped me keep position better LOL.

Spent a ton at commercial row, bought a nice Kimber 82G at the CMP store and it's a tack driver!

I'll be going again next year with much bigger goals in mind!  Time for some dryfire practice!

Dave

I am sure that this idea has been posted before, but, I just have to wonder why they don't set up the smallbore canopy and have movable target frames for the shooters to move back and forth between 25 and 50?  At least the shooters would be out of the sun, rain, and subsequent mud.  I realize the extra cost, but surely shooter comfort would encourage more people to go to the Nationals!  By setting up where the smallbore shooters will be the following week, they could utilize the same target frame pipes at 50 yards that the smallbore guys use for their frames.

Many things were discussed last year , electronic targets, rebuilding the ranges and so on but nothing has come of it as of yet. I dont think shooters mind the old style at perry, shooting in the open like it has always been done there but the equipment should be in good working order. Millions are spent on Olympic venues that are mostly discarded after the short time they are used i dont understand why perry cant be updated its really sad.

DavidR wrote:Many things were discussed last year , electronic targets, rebuilding the ranges and so on but nothing has come of it as of yet. I dont think shooters mind the old style at perry, shooting in the open like it has always been done there but the equipment should be in good working order. Millions are spent on Olympic venues that are mostly discarded after the short time they are used i dont understand why perry cant be updated its really sad.

 Money.  We love a sport that doesn't attract money.  We're lucky that a venue is willing to host it at all. 

I wish we could get a full line at Butner for the Eastern Games.  The rifle portion is now the second largest rifle match in the country behind Perry.  But, we had room on the pistol line with only 50 spots.

yes everything comes done to money. As historic as camp perry is, looks like the state of ohio would want to fix it up, that along with the NRA and govt could get it done.

Such a sad situation.  I was in the area on business the week of Perry and stopped by to check out commercial row for the first time.  Being new to the sport I was in heaven seeing all the equipment and even some .22 ammo.
I ran into one of the members of the club i shoot at, he was carrying a fan for his shelter in hopes of drying it out a little.  He did seem i good spirits though.
I worry that the sport is dying and will be difficult to stay involved with in the future do to limited number of matches and participation.
Has anyone seen improvement in participation or looked into ways of increasing participation?

The eturnal question.

Dave C.

DavidR wrote:yes everything comes done to money. As historic as camp perry is, looks like the state of ohio would want to fix it up, that along with the NRA and govt could get it done.

 The nationals cost the NRA money every year. They probably can't justify putting a lot of money into something where 500 or so folks participate for 1 week a year, not when the vast majority of members don't give a hoot about bullseye pistol shooting. The OHNG would have the same problem. Yes, I'd like to see the improvements, but unless bullseye pistol shooters decide to contribute a substantial amount of money to get it done, it will remain a pipe dream.

Camp perry is used for more than a week, many other venues are held there,not just bullseye the NRA should pony up the cash to fix it up. If asked im sure everyone would pay a extra fee if it was for renovations.

Also my second trip. For some reason my normally reliable (if unspectacular) long line performance evaporated. I can't even blame the weather because I did the same at Canton.  I have to say the wind bothered me more than I would have expected. It seemed to feed the 'chicken finger' syndrome.

Did come away from the trip with one nugget that will stay with me. At Canton I heard an 'experienced' shooter describing bullseye to a new shooter thus "it takes 5 minutes to explain, takes a lifetime to master and you'll make nothing but friends on the way". I kinda liked that. Though I suspect I'm going to need functional immortality to 'master' it

DavidR wrote:Camp perry is used for more than a week, many other venues are held there,not just bullseye the NRA should pony up the cash to fix it up. If asked im sure everyone would pay a extra fee if it was for renovations.

I agree, but I thought we were talking about improving the firing line for bullseye pistol shooting.

The post above mine, was what that was directed at, camp perry is used alot more than by just us, so if it bad for us and we are first to shoot each year just think about the guys getting sloppy seconds and thirds

Even with the mud it was a great time. we were lucky we had a dry hut
left a lot of money at the shops. and at Andy's. Two new guns from Frerking custom
4 points in the M9 match I will be back. as far as the future of Bullseye everyone
bring your friends to a match let them use your guns teach them they will get hooked:D 
 and check the air gun range that is great

45 MIKE wrote:Even with the mud it was a great time. we were lucky we had a dry hut
left a lot of money at the shops. and at Andy's. Two new guns from Frerking custom
4 points in the M9 match I will be back. as far as the future of Bullseye everyone
bring your friends to a match let them use your guns teach them they will get hooked:D 
 and check the air gun range that is great

 I had to camp out in front of Frerking's before he opened Tuesday to make sure I got a Wadgun! Travis does good work.

I will have to wait 9 to 12 months for my Frerking wadgun
but my Marvel lower is on the way:)