There were 5 relays all together. I was on the 4th, and the wife was on the 5th and final relay. At the start of the shoot, I sent my wife to the pit to help with the scoring while I remained with the first relay to assist my friend who came down from Sacramento for his first shoot ever. Midway through, my wife came back from pit duty with a very encouraging report. She told me that no one broke through the 200 points because most went for the head for maximum point. I asked my wife "who has the highest points?". She told me it was Matt T. That did not surprised me. Matt is one of the premier shooter at the Desert marksman with several championship notches on his belt. In short, he is the guy to beat. Matt score was 175. I asked "how about the Harris brother?" ( last year champion). My wife told me that they're behind Matt. I told my wife "Good job Honey" and gave her a kiss.
This changed my strategy a little. I don't need to get maximum point by shooting the head. I can be conservative a bit by shooting only at the torso and get 200 points and then let my 338 Lapua do the talking the next morning for the 1K shoot.
I fired my first 18 shot with my 308 and felt good about it, even though I had no way of knowing how I did since the hit was not being broadcast. I decided to fire the last two 178 grain A-Max to the head in the hope of getting more points, but after the first shot I decided to go back to the torso. I just thought I'd better not waste 10 points if i missed the last shot, because that could be the difference between winning or losing. It turned out that the shot had hit the zombie squared in the forehead. That shot made the difference in the final outcome later on.
After the shoot when the winners was announced, I was surprised to hear my name called as the winner with a score of 190. What was surprising was a 15 year old girl shooting her Dad's 308. She snuck by Matt T and took second
place with 185 points.
My wife and I went back to our hotel room for the night with confidence of my chances winning the championship the next day. I figured, I can afford to give up 14 points from Matt T and still be able to win the Championship. He was the only person within a striking distance to beat me. To do that he has to clean the course. All I needed was to score 186 and the championship was mine. I totally discounted the 15 year old with a 308. I figured, she doesn't stand a chance with the condition being what it was with wind gusting between 4 to 8 miles an hour.
Big mistake.
She was shooting on the same relay as me. I told my wife to watch how she's doing because I only have 5 points on her. She can be a problem for me later.
Half way through my shoot my wife told me "you better pick it up, she is on to you" "Damn" I said.
But in the end I only gave up 1 point to her and 1 point to Matt T. I did not win the back to back but the championship was mine. I scored a total of 196 points. Matt and the 15 year old scored 197 respectively. The score did not even won the 1k shoot. The 3rd place finisher in the 1 K shoot was 198 with the first and 2nd place finisher scored 199 respectively out of possible 200 points. My buddy Frank posted his best score ever at 192 but that did not even make it to the top 10. What that tells you.
