We all went up to the High School Rifle Team Regional Finals this weekend in Fairbanks. Kids from around the interior competed in both air and smallbore (.22) rifle shoots over two days. Matt did well, coming in around the middle of the pack with a 495 in smallbore and a 521 in air rifle out of a total of 600 points possible. Not too bad considering he’s only been competitively shooting for a couple of months! The match is scored electronically, with each target at 50 feet out. The targets are about the size of a half dollar. They shoot 20 rounds prone, 20 standing (off-hand), then 20 rounds kneeling. They have exactly 2 hours to complete the match, including any rounds they use to sight in their rifles. Most of the good shooters hit around the 8, 9 or 10 ring (bullseye). Normally the real competition is to see how many “9s” and “10s” they can hit. To be competitive most of the hits need to be in the 10 ring. That is like hitting the dead center of a silver dollar at 50 feet, over and over and over again in different positions while holding a rifle. Truly amazing - to say that these kids are marksmen is an understatement! All I see is a little black circle downrange...
The driving to and from Fairbanks was a little hairy, with the roadways still ice covered from last week’s freezing rain. Temps were in the low single digits and it was also snowing yesterday, so all in all it was typical Alaska driving for December...
Forecast for the interior of Alaska for the next few days is partly cloudy skies with temps of -10 to -20F. Balmy!
Until next time...