Camp Perry 2008 Interview with David Waters

This is your 4^th year in a row at Perry.  Tell us about it…
The visit started off great, with an uneventful arrival to Perry (opposite to last year).

Accommodation?
The main difference this year to last was how few Australian’s went.  The biggest reason for this was rise in travel costs, due to fuel prices, and that Camp Perry Lodging didn’t have any beds available to us.

We only made it at all thanks to the CMP.  I had to email Gary Anderson directly to ask if there was anything that could be done.  Gary put us on to Christie, Shannon and Cherrie, who sorted us.  We owe them great thanks – they are marvellous people.

The CMP have promised us support to ensure housing next year, so please, all, make the effort to book your place.

What matches did you shoot at Perry?
I shot the “National Matches” only.  I didn’t shoot any “games matches”, as the time during the games was spent catching up on jet-lag and shooting some “other” guns.

Favourite match?
Still, for me, the Presidents 100, just in front of Rattle Battle (NTIT).  First match off the rank, the nerves, uncertainty, and self expectation while battling tiredness, jet-lag and the conditions.  It is a true test for the international traveller/shooter.

What about the people there?
We love going back to see old faces, spend time with long distant friends, and making new friends.  They are all fantastic people, and all make us very welcome.  There is no place like it for the Australian shooter!

What was the best thing about Perry this year?
1) Being there – at all cost.

2) The number of juniors shooting (and outshooting many adults).

3) The services and civilians shooting hand in hand.

4) Teamanship between all the US teams, the interstate competitive rivalries.

5) Common skills and match practice between all the competitors (give instructions once, and they do it, well).

6) See the people and friends we only get to see once per year.

7) Perfect weather for the whole 2 weeks.  A first time for me.

8) John Siglier, NRA President, making a special mention of the Australian contingent at his honorary presentation night.

What about Perry didn’t you like?
1) The uncertainty of accommodation.  Travelling half way around the world, at a cost of several thousand per person, it is very important to have piece of mind that a bed to sleep in is waiting for you.

2) Again, the numbers of shooters for NRA week down on CMP week.  The NRA matches are sensational and offer something for every shooter, so I believe all shooters should compete equally across both.

3) I would prefer the “Games Matches” be put at the beginning or end of “The National Matches”.   Clashing games matches with national matches, or having games matches days at the expense of, or between, national matches days is costly to travellers who went for the “main event”.

4) Knowing that there is no chance the great Charlton Heston would show up...

What surprised you the most?
The weather.  It was perfect.  Not hot, not humid (hardly), and no rain.  The weather is probably the main reason why the matches all ran so well, and finished earlier than I recall on previous years.

What disappointed you the most?
2 things:

Costs of travel.  Air fares this year were $3600 return alone.  But the costs for the rest of the trip were down considerably thanks to the ground work of previous years, and our very good friends in the US.

To find out that Sgt Ken Bain USMC (aka Big Unit, aka2 Scary Big Unit) will not be returning to Perry as the Marine Corp shooting team armourer due to reassignment.  Perry will definitely not be the same without him.  He has been a tremendous help in the past, and always made us welcome.  Bain, to the Australians, has been the salt of America.  Thanks, mate.

What home comfort did you miss the most?
Nothing.  I mean, we are in the USA shooting the National Matches at Camp Perry, Ohio.  What is there to miss?

Those you would personally like to thank?
I thank Glenn Edgard and Clint Greenwood, of Texas, for again being good friends, and  helpful people. 

Doug Giraud was a fantastic help to the team, selling over 100 shirts to help raise money for team costs.  Doug still makes, and sells, the BEST scope stands in the world, and are standard issue to our team.

Bob Laird, Jim and Debra of Akron, who, as shooters, went out of their way to help us save some money on car hire by lending our team a FREE fully insured vehicle.  This was a most outstanding gesture, and a very much appreciated one, by all.

Gary Anderson, Christie, Shannon, Cherrie, Laurie, Kendra, Christine and everybody else of the CMP, for the accommodation, drinks, food, fun, and making us feel welcome.

What did you want out of Perry this year?
After mixed results over the last couple of years, I wanted to:

-         Make the Presidents 100 CMP week.

-         Earn 10 Leg points in the NTI CMP week.

-         Earn High Master NRA week.

Describe your daily shooting experiences:

- Friday, 25^th July                    Spare Day
We arrived late Thursday, and spent the night in a hotel close to the airport.  We met with Bob Laird, a fellow friend and shooter based in Akron, who has been a tremendous help to us in the past, and this year had organised through another fellow shooter for a lend vehicle that we could use while there.  Many thanks to Jim and his wife Debbie for the fantastic help.

We left Cleveland Airport Hotel around 9am heading for Perry – a 1.5hour drive, in Jim and Debbie’s Buick mobile.  We stopped along the way to experience the $8 American breakfast that would feed 2 people.

We arrived at Perry, got our accommodation sorted, and went to the Port Clinton shops to get our food and necessities – food, spares, any retail therapy goodies....

Unlike previous years, we had our triggers weighed well ahead of time in case there were any problems making the weight.  There were none, thanks to the help of Ken Bain, the Marine Corps shooting team armourer (and Camp Perry legend).

- Saturday, 26^th July                Spare Day, and the Texan’s roll in...
We had a morning of walking commercial row.  Spent lots of money.  It was great fun, and an eye opening experience, as always.

Clint and Glenn, from Texas, rolled in, and brought our guns.  We collected, dry fired and headed for the local range for some close range practice (check sights etc).

Doug Giraud showed up this day, who makes the Giraud scope stand, case trimmers, etc.  We helped him unload his truck, then dumped 180 shirts to for him to help us sell...which he did without a hesitation.  Doug had his son John with him this year to help.  Many thanks to Doug and John who again did a tremendous job to help us out.

- Sunday, 27^th July                   Squadded Practice.
Early in the morning, we hit a local range for some pre-practice practice.  We fired rounds to get a solid windage zero, then did some position practice.  I shot a 10 shot standing string for practice, and shot a 97.4.  I was ready for the big game.  We packed up around 10am to get back to Perry for Squadded Practice.

Squadded practice began at 11am, which was 200 slow fire, 200 rapid fire and 600 slow fire.  It is a fantastic opportunity to get good zero’s for the non-sighter matches, and to get used to these fantastic guns which we wrongfully are not allowed to use back home.

- Monday, 28^th July                 CMP Presidents 100
This is one of the major 2 days shoot will travel from all over the continent to contest.  6 relays of shooters over 250 targets, the math says it all.  NO WARMUP OR SIGHTERS, this match will test the best of them.

Standing, I had a couple of major problems shooting.  Not sure how, but I developed a bad habit of full staging the 2 stage trigger.  This habit bit me 3 or 4 times during the string.  I just could NOT break the habit.  The trigger on my rifle is weighted for a heavier first stage, so the 2^nd stage is lighter.  Now I know this was NOT what caused my bad habit, but something in me would not have me taking up the first stage.

Full staging a 2 stage trigger standing is the worst position to develop this terrible habit.  But to make standing worse, I then cross fired, shooting a 10 on the other target.  I finished standing with the lowest 10 shot score I have ever shot at Perry.

My shooting for this day was disgraceful.  I could not hit the side of a barn.  I don’t know what happened – I just couldn’t get my act together.  After a disappointing effort last year, and the previous 2 years, I was hoping for a good result but shot the worst I have in 3 years.

There were no excuses.  Everything felt good, I did my normal routines. After the standing slow fire, it was a case of using the rest of the day for zero’s and practice.  The results for rapid prone and slow prone proved it...

I finished in the bottom 50% - some 600^th plus.  Disgraceful, considering the last 2 years I finished just out of the 100.

1168 Competed.

- Tuesday 29^th July                  CMP National Trophy Individual
Wanting a better day the yesterday, the P100, I had a reason night sleep, and had plenty of routines on my mind to try and settle myself into good procedures, practice and hopefully have the results follow.  Well, not so.

Like P100, I kept full staging the trigger during standing, and again I cross fired standing (another 10 on the next target).  The nightmare continued.  I did hold the rest of it together though, shooting sensationally well, which was a sign of good light.

Again, last year I earned 10 leg points, but this year, I was way out of the running.

My concerns of me losing any of my shooting abilities were beginning to grow.

1106 Competed.

- Wednesday 30^th July             CMP Hurst Doubles
I shot this year with Clint Greenwood of Texas.  Clint is a very good friend, and a big help to me for shooting.  So shooting with Clint was not only fun, but an honour.

Unfortunately, neither of us shot very well, so we weren’t particularly happy.  However, again I failed at the standing by continuing to full stage the trigger, and out of the ordinary failed at the 600.  This result, following on from the previous 2 matches, I was now very worried about what was going on with me.  I didn’t have a clue, and had no idea where to start to correct what I was doing.  At least, I didn’t cross fire.

232 Teams competed.

- Thursday 31^st July                 CMP National Trophy Teams
Like last year, we had members off doing other things, so we needed a couple of ring-in’s to shoot with us.  The Australians were asked to keep an eye out for potential honorary members to shoot with us during the early matches in the week.  We managed to bring in 3 good shots.  They were (in alphabetical order) Jeanelle Westrom, Nick Mowrer, Sara ?????.  They joined the Australians of David Waters, Grant Dawnson and Paul Feeney.

We had a very good overall team result, given that the team is aggregated based on the grade of each shooter.  As an open club, out of competition, we won the category.

Again, I shot terrible.  The worst yet.  I shot a 468/500, which is the lowest score I have ever competitively shot overseas.  Now, I was worried...and frustrated.

Tomorrow is Rattle Battle, and I was very excited about this.  I think when not shooting well, that prone is the best position to go on the mend from, so was looking forward to pounding down lots of ammo, in the prone position...

We need to especially thank Ken and our junior helper who both pulled targets for the Aussie team, and earned themselves some handy cash and an Aussie team shirt.

(Results not listed)

- Friday 1^st August      CMP National Trophy Infantry Teams (aka Rattle Battle)

This is the best “fun” day of CMP week, and a special day in the heart of Aussies, who just can’t shoot these international matches in Australia due to the stupid gun laws.

Like last year, this year, I shot for the Texas “Gulf Coast” team.  This was again another honour, and a treat.  I love shooting with my mates from Texas, and being part of a well drilled team that is lead by a very experienced Marine, Walt.

I shot sensationally well.  I can’t begin to explain how happy I was with how I shot.  After the week of horrible shooting, I don’t know what happened this day.  Nothing for me had changed.  I was on a high, perhaps a little puzzled, but would have given anything to shoot Rattle Battle again.

Proudly, it was the highest result every shot by the Gulf Team, and was some 300 points higher than last year.  Hopefully I will again be invited back next year.

(Results not listed)

- Saturday 2nd August                        Spare Day
After so much in the previous week, we all decided to use this day to sleep in, rest, go to town, eat out, walk around and do more retail therapy.  We didn’t disappoint...  We finished the day going out to dinner with the Texans, and eating Andy’s home made ice cream (which is fantastic).  However, we did go to bed early, for a big day tomorrow...

- Sunday 3^rd August                 Spare Day (Machine Gun Day)
We woke at 5.30am, to hit the road at 6am for Pennsylvania, where we were to meet with some good mates and shoot full auto machine guns.  What an AMAZING experience, and the most amount of time anybody can have with a machine device.

We arrived at Tim’s place around midday.  We helped him pack the car with guns covered in drewl and tears, and headed for lunch, catching up on old times, before heading to the range.

We shot M16’s, MP40’s, 1919 belt fed, etc – we had an amazing time.  We also had Tannernite, which explodes when shot.  What amazing fun.

- Monday 4th August              NRA Rumbold Team Match
This is the start of NRA week.  It also means the beginning of matches that start with sighting shots.

The AR’s stuck around, but we were joined by shooters of very expensive and sophisticated match rifles.  It is an amazing sight of engineering perfection.

Also, the top service shooters were joined by the top match rifle shooters, such as David Tubb, Norm Hourle, Dennis Demille, Ron Zerr and Carl Benovski.  Watching how these shooters prepare and operate is an an amazing experience.

We were again very lucky, to have Nick Mowrer join us to make up the numbers for our team.  Nick shot very well, and finally I also started to string together some very good results, easily shooting a High Master result.  Was this finally the beginning of me shooting reasonably well.  Could I achieve my dream of finishing NRA week with my High Master card?  Time would tell, but I was off to a good start with a 492/500.

- Tuesday 5^th August               NRA Individual Day 1
What a turnaround from CMP week.  Not the best of starts, but a major improvement.  I was off to a good start, and couldn’t help but think that my 3^rd goal for the Perry trip could be possible (High Master).

- Wednesday 6^th August           NRA Individual Day 2
My good shooting continue.  I kept ‘em in the X...

800 aggregate after 2 days was 775.22

- Thursday 7^th August              NRA Individual Day 3
OK, now I am getting nervous.  High Master is looking possible, and I am still shooting amazingly well.  What changed?

Thursday finished and we were invited to the Camp Perry clubhouse with the NRA President, John Sigler, to honour Nancy Thomkins, and David Tubb for their contributions to High Power Rifle.  We had drinks and nibblies, and the Australians were mentioned high on John’s opening speech.  It was a great achievement that all the Australians can be proud of.  Thanks John.

800 aggregate after 3 days was 787.21 (my best ever)

- Friday 7^th August                  NRA Individual Day 4
Waking up Friday morning had me eager for getting back to the range.  I opened the door of my room to see the wind howling.  OH NO!  And the things that took place this day were sure to test my patience.

First string was 200 standing, and I made sure I did lots of breathing and dry firing, trying to pick the conditions.  After a 183, and a very silly cross fire (after holding the black all week), I was very disappointed, and could feel High Master slipping away...fast.  But, I did see and hear lots of shooters complain about poor performances, so I didn’t feel as bad as my poor performances CMP week.

I was first up to shoot 300 rapid fire, which I had 5 minutes until prep time while the range staff moved the range equipment.  I was very hungry, so thought I’d eat a sandwich and banana.  Well, 3 bits of the sandwich, and I began to choke.  I could not breath at all.  I immediately panicked, and tried to clear my throat by drinking sports drink.  This sports drink came straight out through my nose which was very painful.  I began to run for the Medics (behind centre line) which, somehow, I coughed up the blockage.  By this time, I am sore, in pain, my nose is running, my eyes are watering and I kept sneezing.  Prep time was 1 minute away.  Yep, today would be a cruel day.

I shot the 300 rapid, while sneezing a couple of times during the string, with eyes still watering, and having plenty of trouble sighting.  I did ok, but dropped lots of points (6) which was very upsetting...it seemed High Master was gone.

The last string of Camp Perry, 2008, was the 600 slow fire.  The wind would not let up – it was switching, and tricky.  I only put 2 shots out into the 8 ring, and shot 3 9’s on the frist 10 shots.  I managed to clean the last 10, as I started to settle down after the chocking, and could concentrate a little more.  With 1 shot to go, the realisation that Perry was OVER for 2008 hit me, and I got very nervous.  I said to my score “last shot of Perry, let’s make this one an X”.  It came up a 10.  Oh well...

800 aggregate after 2 days was 769.26          (horrible!)

How was your overall performance?
CMP week was very painful.  I just don’t know what went wrong.

I was sure that the terrible performance of the last day of NRA week would see me finish only a Master.  I was guttered.  But after some couple of hours of the last shots of Perry, I visited the score room where I saw I finished 49^th overall, with a 2331.69X, which is 777 average, meaning I scraped in, with no points to spare, into High Master.  A very uplifting and pleasing result.

I am now the only Australian, and I think international intercontinental visitor, to be classified High Master by the NRA at Perry, and finishing 49, I am the highest ever finishing visitor to the National Matches.  I am very happy with my NRA performance.

What did you learn?
The realisation at how disappointing Australia is for gun laws, and the lack of freedom our forefathers died to protect.

Will you be back to Perry?
Absolutly.  Next year...  Roll on 2009.