I forgot to give an update in May Monthly Match. I had made only 10 impacts at the April match which I won the Rookie Division, and raised that to 14 impacts for the May match, which was good enough to hold onto 2nd place in the division, lagging the leader by 2 impacts, but only by 2906 points, so if I had not blanked all 5 shots on the 2913 target, i would have stepped into the lead. Alas, Silver it was for me... Improving by 4 Impacts from April to May saw my score increase by ~4,000 points.

I wasn't able to shoot the June Monthly match because I was shooting a Pro Series PRS match the same weekend, but I entered into the Heavy Division Match as well as the Rookie Division this weekend, to allow me to practice with my proposed teammate for King of 2 Mile in September. Both days this weekend, I impacted 18 targets, increasing 4 again over my May hit count, but I raised my score considerably - I was 32,000 and change on Saturday, and increased further to 33,000 and change on Sunday, more than doubling my score from May, and tripling my score from April. I earned my first "5 for 5" challenge coin by hitting all of my shots on the 1892 yard plate - 1.8moa at 1.1miles - on Saturday, and then today, on Sunday, I hit the 2911 yard plate for the first time in competition (I had in practice and training, but not before in 2 match attempts), connecting twice on that high value target out of my 5 shots. Out of 35 shooters in my 2 divisions over the weekend, only 7 of us hit the 2911 plate twice or more - only 2 of which hit it 3 times. In the Open Heavy division, I ended up 12th out of 30, and I again won my Rookie Division - decisively this month, winning by 6 impacts and 12,000 points, which gave me a huge point spread towards the Finale standings over the rest of the field (their race points are their percentage of MY score, so I earned 100pts, while I pushed second place clear below 66%, and pushed the 5th place guy who is my only close competition left in the points race down to 44%).

Placing 12th out of 30 in Open Heavy was less decisive, as I only gave up 3 impacts to the winner, but lagged by 6,000 points (as rare as it is, both the 2nd and 3rd place finishers hit 22 targets each, 1 more than the winner, but Tim hit the more valuable targets than did the 2nd and 3rd place finishers). But being in the top half, JUST out of the top 1/3 of these talented shooters at this point in my experience is an extreme honor - to place among and even ahead of King of 1 Mile and King of 2 Mile champions at my 3rd match was quite a ride over this weekend!

To give an idea of the conditions, the heat was actually lower than expected for this time of year, but still a challenge to manage. On Saturday, we fought 20-26mph gusting winds, and on Sunday, the wind was lower, 10-16, gusting 18, but much more variable and swinging back and forth from full value right-to-left to 8 o'clock behind us. My hits on the 2911yard target today needed 26 FEET of wind correction, for a 7 o'clock wind coming over my left shoulder (and 297ft of vertical correction, for those interested)...