Features

Hello DEGS! I have published the match schedule for 2016, and if you're anything like me, you can't wait for the first match! Notice that our first match will be on 26 March this year, which isn't the 3rd Saturday. We had to push it back a week because we will be holding the banquet on 19 March--more info on that to follow!

In the meanwhile, here is something to tide you over.

Rifle manufactured, assembled and test fired at the Springfield Armory

Recently, DEGS had a table at the Greenville gun show, and wow, was that a great experience! We talked to a lot of people, many of them with the same vintage rifle itch shared by our members. A few had great stories to tell about their experiences with the Garand, especially when it came to rifles passed down in the family. And a few others had questions about the care and operation of their M1. Of course our favorite answer to that question was "join us on the range, and we'll find someone who can help you out!"

Here is a nice article from the NRA about what we do at DEGS. Of course most of our shooters start out with the M1 Garand, but we also have several passionate foreign military rifle shooters. And many of us find that the VMR category is a good reason to dust off rifles that haven't seen the light of day for a long time.

"Shooting consistently good standing is a matter of rounds down range, with a thoughtfully executed goal."

The third stage of a CMP Garand match is the offhand stage, where the shooter is required to fire ten rounds from a standing position without the aid of the sling or any other supports. But if you hang around one or two of our matches, you'll likely hear a shooter call the third stage of fire by the nickname "awful hand." Sooner or later, you'll also hear someone point out "Matches are lost in the prone position, and won in the offhand." All of this points to the Catch-22 of offhand shooting: it is a serious challenge for new and experienced shooters, and yet no shooter can be competitive without a great standing score.

Which brings us to the content of this article, written by Carl Bernosky.

Properly configuring the sling is one of the most important steps to accurate position shooting, but it's also one of the things that new shooters find the most daunting. Here's a great article with detailed instructions on how to use both the leather and web slings. Hopefully, it take some of the mystery out of the process!

Proper configuration of the Service Rifle Sling article

Another great reference if you want even more info is Glen Zediker's book Slings & Things. Although his highly informal writing style can be a bit unusual, he offers several ways to configure the leather sling and examines the pros and cons of each.