October 2026 (1) - Flipbook - Page 44
With ammo matched to the ri昀氀e at the Lapua facility in Mesa,
AZ, and a dope book dedicated to the ri昀氀e, the hope is that having
documentation of all rounds sent downrange will help build my
konowledge base and re昀椀ne my spotting skills.
BPCR, which will be a 45-90
this year.
The day started o昀昀 well.
My spotter was Jimbo Terry
and I was shooting with Brian
Ha昀昀ey and Manny Malendrez
on my relay. We started on
the chickens and I got three of
them, which was good enough
to keep me in the running. Most
BPCR silhouette shooters typically don’t hit very many chickens, but one shooter stood out.
Bill Huxtable hit seven chickens, which was by far the best of
anybody that day. I really need
to improve my o昀昀-hand shooting!
We went on then to pigs,
turkeys and rams. I scored 10,
nine, and nine respectively.
This gave me a total score of 31
points which in the end tied me
for third place with Jen Oliva.
There was also a tie for second
44
place in the iron sight division. Therefore, we each had a
shoot o昀昀. Jen is a Grand Master
shooter and hit two of her chick-
ens while I failed to connect.
Losing out to somebody with
her level of accomplishment is
nothing to be ashamed of and
I’m happy with my fourth-place
昀椀nish although I do want to get
better.
The biggest thing to
understand about the shooting matches is that it’s not you
against everyone else. It’s you
against yourself. The job for you
as a shooter is to consistently
place your shots right where
your spotter says they need to
go. Jimbo and I used a system
where I would vary my hold on
the target according to the wind
condition. This saved us the
hassle of turning scope knobs
during the match. We were
able to get excellent shot control
and save ourselves time and we
guarded against the risk of turning a knob the wrong way in the
heat of the match. If he said to
hold on the snout, I held on the
snout. Hold on the butt equals I
held on the butt. This is what it
Here’s an example of a spotter providing perfect feedback to his
shooter. This creates a picture in his mind of exactly
what’s happening.
October, 2026, Issue #4
