First 2700

I shot my first 2700 this morning. For those who don't know, a 2700 is a match in which you fire 270 rounds. It's broken up into three guns (.22, center fire and .45, although it appears that most people simply use their .45 for both of those last two), 90 rounds and 900 points for each gun. This is broken up into 20 rounds each of slow, timed and rapid fire and the "National Match" course, which is 10 rounds each of slow, timed, and rapid fire. (Don't ask me why things are set up this way. No doubt there are good historical reasons for it.)

I did two things wrong in this match, things that pretty much anyone with any competitive experience would have advised against. What's worse is that those two things were really the same: I used new/untested hardware in a competition. In the first case, it wasn't really a problem. The S&W Model 41 I picked up yesterday shoots better than the .22 I had been shooting, and I was happy enough with my performance. In the second case, it was pretty much a disaster. For center fire and .45, I was using a borrowed gun and using my own reloads in it. While the owner has no problem getting it to feed semi-wadcutters, I had no end of trouble getting it into battery for each string. The gun cycled reliably once I started firing, but no matter whether I used the slingshot method or the slide stop, I had little luck.

OTOH, I got to shoot 270 rounds this morning, which makes for a pretty good day in my book.