Shot a long range silhouette match today (200, 300, 385, 500 meters) and lost my cool. I shot my NMA2 Service Rifle (iron sights) and this is a team firing point match. Blind draw start, I drew 300m to start. Shooting a known good load, fresh barrel, good dope and zeros.
The ground was soft due to rain a couple days before and cool temps. I took relay two, once I got to the line I put a few shots at the sighting target to confirm my dope and no dust or splashes readily visible. First shot was a called miss, that's fine. Next 3 shots on the sighter I knew were hits as I could hear them smack. My spotter on the first one was filling out the score sheet, second shot he didn't know I had fired and looked over at me with a blank look, third shot he flat out said he never saw it! I began to get irritated and moved on to my string for record as the unlimited sighters are during your 10 minutes. First target for record is a miss, my spotter says "juuuuuust missed that one." That's it. No direction, no correction, nothing. Next target I hit, he tells me "didn't see where it hit, but it doesn't matter, it went down." Ugh. This match they put bonus targets between #2 & #3, a 1moa disc. I could barely see it with iron sights! I shoot, he tells me "11 o'clock." I ask how far out, he says "not a lot."
By this time I've given him a piece of my mind, and lost it. I rapid fired the remaining rounds at the first suggestion of a sight picture, essentially just putting them in the burm. Hit 4.
I tell him I need to know #1) hit or miss. That should be the first word out of his mouth. #2) shot placement in inches or minutes and clock position. This then gives me the basic information to ask follow up questions like what's the mirage doing, how's mid range wind, etc. His response, "I keep forgetting you're shooting iron sights and you can't see all this."
So, once I calmed down and realized that I really can't fire my spotter, he got a bit better by the next relay. Worst part of it, I was only 5 points out of first place in my class even after throwing away 8 shots! He's been my spotter for maybe 15 of these silhouette matches or so now and I have pretty much always shot in open class with optics so he relied on me spotting myself as well as him spotting for me, so I guess he got used to that.
Once things settled down I said to my spotter, "Dad, can I still ride back home with you?" Lol, sometimes family makes things tougher in competition...
All things considered, with my dad getting ready to retire in a couple months and not being as able as he once was, it was still a damned good day at the range, and he'll still be my spotter next time.
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