900 yd shoot-off at the World’s in Bloemfontein South Africa 1999. One sighting shot and 3 for record. Iron sights and sling…7.62/308 w/155gr projectile. Wind peaked at 13-1/2 minutes full-value from 3 o’clock on the rear sight, then dropped off to 4MOA. The wind built real steadily and then held at full velocity for long enough to fire 4 shots. Unlimited time for the shots to be fired and the rangemaster handed each shooter 4 rounds of the host country’s ammo.
3 of us on the line had fired a score of 150-11X (20″ 10-Ring and 10″ X-Ring) for the prior 15 shots. The Nat’l champ from South Africa fired a score of 150-13X and won the match outright.
They gave the command to fire and the wind was building. Both shooters to my right started firing, but I waited for the flags to show full velocity. My sight was set 13-1/2 MOA to the right (121.5″ of deflection). Once the flags showed peak velocity and the mirage was racing across the target face, I executed the most perfect dead-center X that I could muster. Only….my target never went down. With that much wind blowing, a person could at least see the dust from the impact. We called for a mark and I asked my scorekeeper who was watching through a spotting scope: “Did you see anything at all…?”. He did not.
I grabbed my front sight to insure it was tight and I twisted the rear sight. All was tight. I grabbed my magnifying glass to check my elevation and windage settings…all were perfect. What in the hell went wrong?? My ONE sighting shot was spent and the next shot was for record….
The only thing that I could think of was to take my sight back to the windage setting from when we finished the 15 shot match. It was 12 MOA right wind and it was the only logical thing to try, even though I was 100% certain the wind had sped up since then (according to my wind meter).
I took 1-1/2 MOA of right wind off the sight, checked the flags and broke a solid X. The target came out of the pits with an EIGHT out the left. I put that 1-1/2 MOA back on the sight, checked the flags and fired another good X. This time the target came up with a tall X at 12 o’clock. I closed the bolt as I came off of my spotting scope and looked at the flags. They were dropping. BUT, we were in the center of the 150 target range and I knew it would take a while for that condition to hit my firing point. I got on the sights and broke what I thought was a solid 10. I had to do it fast and there was no time for perfection. My last shot must have gone high through the 6″ spotting disk…a 12 o’clock TEN!
The shooter to my right was a former US champ. He fired three EIGHTS in a row for his record shots and a score of 24-0X. The shooter on the far right was the reigning New Zealand Nat’l champ. He fired a score of 28-0X. Not sure how, but my 28-1X won the shootoff (for 2nd overall) out of 650 shooters.
To this day, nobody knows if my sighting shot was a squib round or if the projectile just blew up on the way to the target. It sure felt like it had proper recoil…nothing unusual. But, it wasn’t until the flight back to Miami that I began to think it all over in detail. I was handed 4 rounds of ammo. What if my sighting shot had been one of my record shots…?