This section deals with selecting or handloading the proper ammunition for your M1 rifle,

getting the rifle zeroed correctly, and performing target marking duties in the target pits.

The best factory ammunition for match shooting at full distance is the commercial match ammo readily available from the major manufacturers. A 168-grain match bullet usually is the primary load. Federal Cartridge Co. also makes a .308 load with the 175 Sierra Matchking and may also market this bullet in its .30-06 match ammo. The 175 has superior wind-drift resistance at 600 yards compared to the 168. If you can get your hands on some, this is the ticket for 600 yard shooting. GI M2 .30 ball with the 150-gr bullet will work at the shorter ranges but has insufficient accuracy for the longer distances, and also lacks the wind-drift resistance of the heavier bullets. Military match ammo, either in 7.62 (.308) or .30 (.30-06) uses a 173-grain Lake City Arsenal full-metal-jacket boat-tail. This will be superior at 600 yards to the M2 ball round. Recently, Lake City has been loading GI 7.62 match ammo with Sierra 168 Matchkings. The 7.62 M118 "special ball" ammo, issued to snipers, and the .30 M72 match, still use the 173-gr. FMJBT. This bullet will be out-performed by a commercial match bullet at 600 yards due to much tighter tolerances of weight and balance. Get what you can and test it out at the longest distance you have available to shoot. Remember that 100-yard groups will almost certainly be meaningless in extrapolating 600-yard performance.

A good service-grade M1 may only be capable of about 3-MOA groups. However, the 600 yard distance not only magnifies any accuracy failings in ammunition, it invites the use of ammo with better wind-bucking ability. Try to use some on any stage in excess of 300 yards, even though you think the rifle may not shoot up to it. The 175-grain bullet alone can save you one to two points on every 600-yard shot where you miscalled the wind! My own scores went up significantly when I started using them.

If you’re a handloader, you have it easier. Just stay away from bullets heavier than about 180 grains, and powder slower than IMR 4320. The gas system of the M1 will be over-pressured by either or both of those components, risking shearing of the op-rod and possible injury to the shooter. Medium-weight bullets and medium-speed powders are the ticket. IMR 4895, IMR 4064 and similar speed powders will produce the best results, as will the 168-175 grain range of match bullets. Desired velocity range should be about 2550-2600 fps. Make sure the overall length of a round will fit into the magazine if it is intended for rapid-fire. The slow-fire single-loaded rounds sit at the top of the magazine and may function at a slightly longer length. Be certain they do. Full-length resize your brass and do NOT use benchrest primers, the cup metal is too thin, for reasons detailed below. Avoid commercial hunting ammuntion, primarily because you have no idea how fast or slow the burn speed of its powder is. A rough rule of thumb is to shake a cartridge next to your ear; if it seems there is a big air space inside it probably has a smaller charge of faster powder. If the airspace inside seems very small, chances are it is loaded with a heavier charge of slower burning powder. Obviously one cannot make any intelligent decisions as to the actual load based on this; so, best bet is to use GI ammo or load your own. Most commercial match ammo should be designed with M1 and M1A rifles in mind.

An important safety consideration when using the M1 rifle in single-round loading is to not let the bolt slam all the way home on a cartridge manually placed in the chamber. The firing pin has enough free-float that it may slam-fire the primer, especially if commercial primers are used. Military primers are extra-thick to prevent this. A slam-fire may take place when the bolt is not fully locked, blowing it open and giving you a face full of unpleasantries. Ease the bolt about one-third of the way closed. Then let it slam shut by itself. This will reduce bolt speed enough to avoid a slam-fire while still allowing it to close into the fully-rotated locked position. I have had one slam fire while

shooting offhand. No damage was done except to my score, since the round went into the ground about 15 feet downrange and the range officer insisted it be counted as a miss!

One way of avoiding this is to obtain a "sled" clip. This is a clip designed to click into place in the magazine and stay there even when the bolt is open. You pry it out to remove it. It functions as a set of magazine lips, allowing you to place a single round directly into the magazine (actually into the inserted sled clip) just as though it were, say, the magazine of a bolt-action hunting rifle. When the bolt is released, the tension of the clip holding the round produces enough resistance to slow down the bolt speed as the bolt chambers the cartridge. This usually prevents slam-fires – but not always. My slam-fire

described above took place while using a home-made sled clip. Perhaps mine does not

grip the cartridge as tightly as desired. The safest method is to use a sled clip for single

loading and ease the bolt partway shut before releasing it.

The purpose of the following section is to get you to the line in your first match with your sights set as close to where they need to be as possible, and to allow you to change your sights for each subsequent stage with confidence that you’re dialing in the correct settings. This is the first step to understanding the function of sight settings and zero.

The second step is to realize that the settings you used to start the stage may not be the same as the ones with which you finish. Assuming that you found you had to make corrections after firing your sighters and possibly also during the record shot string itself

in order to get good hits, it is important that when you finish the stage, you count your elevation clicks down to bottom and write them down, as well as the windage scale position. If you finished the stage with good hits on this setting, then this becomes your starting sight position for the next time you shoot this stage. (Please remember to run your elevation back up to where it belongs for the next stage!) Also realize that local conditions of sun angle and brightness can cause changes to your sight setting.

This experience-determined zero for each stage helps you shoot your sighters closer to the X for each stage, which helps you get a more confident zero with the two shots allowed than if you were way off to start with. Try to keep track of what you’re doing to your rear sight for every stage. With only two sighters allowed, you have little room for gross errors.

In discussing sights and corrections, the usual terms are "clicks" and "minutes." A click is just that – turning the rear sight knobs one "click." The distance the sight actually moves is expressed in "minutes." This is a "minute-of-angle" (MOA), which is one-sixtieth of one degree of angle (as in 360 degrees in a circle). A click may be a quarter-minute on a match (bolt) rifle, a half-minute on a match-grade service rifle, or a full minute on an unaltered service rifle. The M1/M1A sights are designed to move the bullet impact one minute for each click of the sight mechanism in elevation and windage. A minute is about 1.05 inch at 100 yards. It increases proportionately with distance, so one minute at 300 yards is 3.15 inches, at 600 yards it is 6.30 inches, and so on. The trick to becoming comfortable with sight adjustments in highpower is to learn to think in

minutes-of-angle. Study the dimensions of the target scoring rings and translate them into the correct number of sight click adjustments. It’s really quite easy.

Be advised that while an elevation click (left knob) is a very short rotation distance of the knob, a windage click (right knob) is a full quarter-turn. Make sure you move each knob appropriately.

For the 200-yd stage, assuming you are using the six o’clock hold, you will be aiming at the lower edge of a 12.5" black bull and hitting center, from both offhand and sitting positions. This zero is obviously best achieved by doing exactly that. If you do not have access to a 200 yard or further range, you can establish a preliminary zero by using a 6-o’clock hold on a 6-inch diameter bull at 100 yards. Your shots should hit roughly at the top dead center edge of the bull (12 o’clock). At 200 yards, this translates to roughly about the same divergence of 6 inches. The above works for a .308 and for a .30-06. This 100-yd method is not perfect but will work to get you very close. If you use it, you may find you'll have to make a click or two correction while shooting your sighters at a match. This final setting of number of elevation clicks above bottom and windage change from center is what you want to write down. Zero your windage by setting the rear sight scale on center zero, then loosen and slide the front sight sideways until you’re on as close as you can get. Within one MOA is good enough. This represents about .008" of front sight traverse.

Once you get a preliminary zero off the bench, you should test it in offhand, sitting, and prone position. Your shooting position affects your zero; your standing zero may not necessarily be the same as your sitting zero. The sling tension plus the greater resistance of your body to recoil in sitting or prone may cause your zero to change. So, starting with the preliminary elevation and windage zero gained from a solid benchrest, try shooting in standing, sitting, and prone (in that order) and see what you get as a result. You should follow that order because that is how the match progresses. Once you get a real standing zero, you need to learn what changes to make from that zero to reach your sitting zero. Then you learn what changes to make from the sitting zero to get your proper prone zero. Keep in mind this test does not include the elevation changes necessary as you change distances. You may find little or no difference in your various position zeros, but you should at least check. Write down both the absolute settings (such as: +8 elevation, 1 left of center) as well as relative changes (such as: from offhand to sitting, come up 1 right one). This way you will know what changes to make from one stage to the next; plus, if your settings are totally fouled up, you can go right to the correct absolute setting for that stage. Colored lines on the elevation knob and windage scale can help you determine at a glance whether your sight is set where you need it to be.

When switching from the 200-yard line to the 300, you will need to raise the sight three clicks (minutes). When going from 300 to 600, come up 11 to12 minutes.

By having your zeros known for every stage, you can always go back to a "known" position after you have added and subtracted numerous clicks for wind, had your sight drop, forgot whether you raised it for the next range, or threw your rifle into the water hazard in disgust. Remember, you only get two sighters per stage in a standard match!

A friend who didn’t check his elevation setting this way when he changed from 300 yards to 600 yards, found he had added the total number of clicks for 600 yards rather than just the correct number of come-up clicks. He used his two sighters and several of his record shots just getting back on the target (Ouch).

You will either be scoring and marking each shot individually in slow-fire, or letting the shooter fire ten at once in rapid-fire. Just remember when you are supposed to be doing one versus the other. The pit is slave to the firing line (hence the pit pig name). You do what the line commands because you are there to serve the shooters. You must have eye and ear protection in the pits; the sonic crack of the bullet's passage overhead is about as loud as a .22 pistol going off next to your ear. If the bullet should strike the spindle of the shot marker in the previous shot hole (a not-uncommon occurrence), wood or plastic slivers will be blasted out in all directions. If a bullet hits the earth berm uprange of the pits, dirt and gravel will be blasted against the target face and bounce back to rain down on the puller. There is no danger of being hit by the bullet itself since you're essentially underground in a trench with a concrete and earth berm between you and the firing line. Just don't decide to climb up and stick your head up over the berm in front of a target!

This is for the slow-fire stages and also for the two sighters prior to the rapid stages. You mark and score each shot.

Watch your impact area. This is the spot on the dirt bank where your shooter's bullets will hit when he shoots at your (his) target. Don't watch the target; you won't be able to see the hole appear. When dirt flies, pull the target and put the 3" spotter disk in the new hole (white side showing if the hole is in the black and vice versa – "integrating the spotter"), paste over the old hole with the appropriate color paster (black on black, etc.) and move the 6" scoring disk into the appropriately-marked score value hole on the edge of the target frame. From the lower left corner, moving counter-clockwise, the positions are X, 10 (bottom center), 9 (lower right corner), 8 (right-side center), 7 (top right), miss (top center), 6 (top left) and 5 (left-side center). If the hole just barely touches the next innermost ring it counts as the higher value. Double check your spotter and marker positions and run the frame back up.

If you can do this in six seconds, you are a "distinguished pit pig." This is important because the shooter in slow-fire mode has one minute per shot, and you are using up his time! Good pit service is the mark of a good competitor and is a courtesy to your fellow shooters. If you are slower than ten seconds, speed it up. Pay attention to your impact area, don’t B.S., and have your pasters ready. Pretty simple really. If you are at a range where they use the old paddle waving-system, ask the guys there how it works.

Rapid-fire uses a totally different method of scoring. Remember that this is preceded by two slow-fire sighters, so make sure you don't revert back to the slow-fire method when rapid-fire begins after the sighters are fired.

After the sighter shots are fired and scored, you’ll clean up your target and raise it to the half-mast position. When you will hear the line command for "ready on the right ... ready on the left ... the line is ready," the pit boss will command "Stand by your targets." When the line boss tells the shooters "You may fire when your target appears," the pit boss will have a maximum of five seconds to get the targets up. He will command "Targeettss ... UP!" On the word UP (and not before) you all run them up and step back so you do not reflexively grab and pull the target down when the first shot hits dirt. The pit boss starts his clock when the last target reaches its full-up position. It will take 10 to 15 seconds for the shooters to attain position and begin firing.

In rapid-fire, you are responsible for counting the shots on your target. You do this by watching the impact area and counting the dirt sprays. This is important for several reasons. First, the shooter may not get all his or her rounds off in time. You have to corroborate this. If the shooter on an adjacent target shoots your target by mistake, you will see eleven (or more) bullets hit the dirt behind your target. Also, you have to square your impacts with the number of holes in the target. If the shooter swears he or she got off ten shots but there only are nine holes in the paper, something is wrong. Two shots may have gone through the same hole (not impossible) or he cross-fired onto another target (always possible). It's possible that he might fire his last shot just as you pull the target down and it goes over the top. In that case, you may or may not see the dirt spray.

Also, when you are on the line scoring a shooter, you have to watch and count each shot. Therefore, every person manning that firing point has a round count for that event.

Near the end of the prescribed time period for the stage, the pit boss will command "Stand by your targets." As he comes to the last seconds of the countdown, you'll hear "Targetttsss ... Down!" On the word Down (and not before!) pull that baby down. They all rise and drop together.

You score by first counting the total number of holes. If there are ten, you're fine. Fill in the holes with the small 1" plugs making sure you integrate the color. Take the supplied chalkboard and write how many 10's, 9's, etc. the shooter got, hang it up on the left side or the target and run it up. If there are anything other than ten holes in the paper, don’t touch the target. If you have excessive or insufficient hits, call for the pit boss because there is a specific marking procedure to use and it varies depending on the situation. Buy yourself a highpower rule book to learn the proper procedures. Basically, you need to determine whether the shooter crossfired on another target or failed to get all his shots off in time, or whether another shooter crossfired on your target.

Proceed to Part 3