35Whelen
posted this
07 January 2009
Gun Junkie wrote:
My advice is to shoot upwind of the other shooters. You'll spread lube smoke across the line.:D If you're a friendly sort try some of that orange lube or something else that smells good, if not use the stinky stuff and you'll cause those downwind to lose points as they try to bury their noses in their rifle stocks:P
Finally, back to answering your question, check the rules they run their matches under. I think a foriegn military rifle qualifies under a 3.1* something rule. I can't recall which one and if they don't include that rule you may not be able to use the K31. You might have to buy a Springfield:D
Hope you have a blast!
Gun Junkie
I've shot several of our local HP matches and to my knowledge there's no velocity requirements. The turnouts are usually quite small, so we don't even have separate classes. Everyone shoots together. Aside from the first which I shot with a borrowed Garand, I've always shot with a bolt rifle of some kind. One match, I had trouble with my rifle, so my buddy loaned me his Pre-64 Model 70 Heavy Barrel 30-06.:shock: Talk about ACCURATE!!! I shot the 600 yd. reduced bull with it and scored a 96 with 4 X's.
You may run into some difficulties in the rapid fire stages. If you have any of the clips for your K31 then you should work out ok. Although the ones I got have a lot of cardboard to them and I don't expect them to hold up for very long. I've actually never tried to use one. Again if you're not expecting to score high, just single load on the last 5 of your rapid-fire strings and accept the loss of a few shots if they call time on you. I'm thinking you'll need to roll the rounds into the magazine to let the bolt come forward (then again, I may just be dreaming that....it's been a long day).
I fired two matches last year both with the K-31. One with GP-11 ammo, and the other with jacketed handloads. I have some of the cardboard strippers, but since I own two K-31's, I just load the magazine out of the second rifle and use it for reloading during the rapid fire stages. The K-31's are incredibly fast to operate. The first match I fired last year, being WAY out of practice (and a little nervous), I really rushed through the rapid-fire stage. So fast in fact, that after I fired my 10 shots during the first sitting stage, the guy keeping time leaned over and said: “Slow down Greg....you just fired your 10 shots in 40 seconds....” He was standing directly behind me watching because he was quite intruiged by the K-31. The second match was a 50 round, vintage rifle match in which I won 1st Marksman with 364- 3X.
I think regardless of your score you'll get a lot of respect for using a bolt-gun and then more for using cast.
I think using a bolt, especially an old military bolt does command respect. All the guys I shoot with shoot AR's. One them is always chiding me about “coming over to the dark side” and shooting an AR. But, I have little use for a rifle that cost upward of $2000 whose only purpose is to punch (tiny) holes in a piece of paper. To me, the competition is less about winning and more about the comradery and becoming a better rifleman.
Oh...and regarding the Springfield, I bought a rebuilt 03A3 last year, but with a K-31 that will do this:
...I have a hard time getting interested in another rifle at the moment!
Thanks for all your help, GJ!
35W