RDA Rifle Match – The Debrief

RDA Rifle Match 2018 – The debrief

So I returned Monday from Slovakia where I shot my first Rifle match of the year, the RDA Rifle Match 2018 which is also the Slovak National Championship.

16 hours drive through Germany and the Czech Republic … It’s far and long especially alone to drive.

The 15 stages were nice, lots of bobbers, with mini IPSCs and non-shoot, 2-3 frangibles and mini poppers.
The match is drawn on 2 different ranges:
The Lower Range (which seems to be an old quarry) where one drew the stages 1 to 10 with a maximum distance of the targets of 50m.
Two stages required shooting in Weak Hand for the right-handed ones with one foot on the fault line and twisting to acquire the targets and for the other one had to be completely lying down on the ground.

The upper Range, where you had to go through a career in operation to access the RDA (Raid, Defense Academy) shooting range and long-distance stages.
As usual it took me several stages to heat me (diesel requires :-)), my AR15 worked to perfection, no incident, I must say that I broke a lot just before the match!

I really fucked up two stages, or I completely forgot my strategy at the beep of the range master (it’s clear on the videos …), lack of luck one of the two was a 40 shots or I could get more points 🙁
No worries on the long distance, on the 12 shots at 300m I put that twice, once for a popper engaged a little fast 🙂 and on a paper for insurance. The other six shots of the stage were to shoot at targets at 70m.

On the other hand the stage at 200m (the last of the match for me on Sunday morning) is very badly spent. We pulled the situation on a barricade (see the upper range video) and on the fault line. No other way to see the targets, you could either stand up or kneel. I chose the second option (anyway I was too small to shoot standing by leaning on the barricade 🙂
I had set my Swarovski Z8i bezel on the benchmark 200m, I was on my shot and ammunition (validated at range a few days previously). There was a bit of headwind. Obviously during the shooting it’s not like during the reconnaissance I had a position not stable at all, I could not stabilize myself to align the targets at 200m, I had to change along the way but this is not the problem. Once stabilized I shoot the first bobber and immediately pass on one of the papers and surprise the bobber is still standing !! I was sure of my shot and with the telescope in magnification 8 I made him a “bottom of the eye” to the bobber. Like a donkey, I shoot eleven shots before I get him down, two German shooters told me that I touched it 10 times, they heard the impact, I was not sure, and behind my telescope I did not understand anything and I was passionate because the only thing I was sure of was that my shot should hit … Once on the ground I pull the 2 papers, move me on the situation in the middle to shoot 3 flat metal at 60m, one round for each, then I draw the right situation equivalent to the one on the left or the bobber did not want to fall. On the right, he falls right away. In the end on the 4 paper targets at 200m I do 4A and 4C. At the end of the shot, I told the range master that the bobber did not want to fall, he told me that I had to shoot too low in the foot … .As I aimed the paper targets in the same way I will have have C, D or miss at the bottom of the target !!!

The German shooter who passes behind me, stops after five shots on the bobber and asks for a calibration … The range master calls the Match Director, no calibration gun and we see them touching the bobber at 200m … He gives a reshoot to the shooter! And me … ..This will teach me not to think and ask for calibration … I keep my tons of seconds too much and find myself at the bottom of the ranking for this course!

There was 9 DQ on the match ….

I finished 66th out of 158 in Overall Open Semi-Auto with 61.67% and 8th out of 26 in the Senior category with 71.02%

A little disappointed, I wanted to be 70% in Overall … We will say that this is the first game of the season … 🙂

The overall results of the RDA Rifle Match 2018 here
The results Category of the RDA Rifle Match 2018 here
The Results of RDA Rifle Match 2018 Stages

Video of stages 1 to 10 at Lower Range

Video of stages 11 to 15 at Upper Range