Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Air Rifle.




This morning, I discovered an entirely new piece of the competition to be involved in, air rifle.

The air rifle is a .177 pellet rifle with rounds that travel at approximately 28 feet per second.

I was able to practice standing and shooting at 10 meters. This may sound easy, but trust me it's not.

The pellets are extremely sensitive to motion and even the slightest tweak of my torso would cause my shot to be off by a few inches.  

The targets are about two inches in diameter and are simply a black circle inside of a tan barrier.

Due to some of my anxiety, I tend to shake a bit. But when I learned about my breathing a bit more and realized that when in competition I would be able to take over an hour for 40 shots, I was relieved.

After about 20 practice shots, I began to dial in my body positioning, breathing and sight picture.

I am definitely no Marine, but I plan on giving those boys a run for their money in May should I make the Air Force team.

I am still very tired from a lack of sleep, but as each day here in Colorado goes by, I feel a sense of team that is so very rewarding.

As a civilian now, I struggle sometimes to find those around me that I relate to.

I love my job and the friends I have made with my civilian company, but being able to surround myself with fellow combat veterans, sharing a common goal, and forging new friendships, is one of the most rewarding aspects of being invited to participate in these games.

Even if I do not make it past the selection camp, I can say that I gave it my all, I worked as hard as I could and fought to become a valuable member of this team of Veterans.



No comments:

Post a Comment