I live in Missouri now, and one thing that is very different from Iowa is that precision rifle competitions are alive and well here. Check out the
Missouri Steel Tactical Facebook Group and you'll find a very active club of like minded folks. I couldn't be happier with the gun culture down here.
My post today isn't about the Missouri gun culture though, it's about my experience at the precision rifle match I attended this past weekend. The Rolling Hills Gun Club near Mack's Creek Missouri hosted the event. We shot at distances of 250 yards all the way out to 900 yards and everything in between.
There were 60 shooters, which is the most of any Missouri competition in the history of the club! Due to the large number of people, the match directors decided to divide everyone into squads. Squads in this context means that you evenly distribute the people and send each group to the various stages in a rotation. As each squad completes a stage, they rotate as a unit to the next stage, and the next. The system worked fairly well ensuring minimal down time.
One of the most challenging stages for all squads was "the rope" stage. This barricade was far more difficult than it appeared. Typically you can lean forward into the object you're shooting off of and get some level of support, but here the rope offers very little stabilization. The distances don't really matter, but I think these targets were engaged at approximately 250-300 yards.
A few of the other barricades were kneeling behind a bench, propped up on a tank trap, prone on a platform, sitting on stairs, and kneeling behind some stacked culverts. Each one provides a new opportunity to discovery just how little you know about precision rifle dynamics. I discovered a lot this weekend!
The biggest challenge for everyone at this match was the wind. This is typical of long range shooting of course, but wind is not as difficult to figure out when it's constant and from only one direction. The winds at Rolling Hills were coming from at least 3 different directions with 3 different velocities. This rendered tech devices, such as the Kestrel weather meter, basically worthless for wind calls. After a complete miss of my 400 yard cold bore shot, I figured out, in theory, what the wind was doing. Hits came a little easier for the rest of the day.
It's always a bit intimidating shooting in a competition along side some of the best in the industry. George Gardner of GA Precision, and a few of his employees, also competitors, were there. George has been a part of this game for a long time and easily pulled off a 4th place finish. In comparison, i've only been shooting competitively for about a year and I finished 29th. There were a few other guys competing that are nationally ranked in the Precision Rifle Series. They finished ahead of me as well. #sigh
I did learn a few things about my gear. I learned that I need a bag or barricade pad for the front of my rifle. Resting my folded bipod directly on top of non-flat objects doesn't make for a very stable firing position. Having a bag up front would help immensely. I learned that slings are a vital piece of kit for anytime you need to be able to pull some downward pressure on the front of your rifle. I also learned the hard way that Kelbly's actions are not the most durable when it comes to rough tactical matches. I'm not here to smear them though, so i'll just keep those comments to myself.
All in all it was an excellent match and I'm pleased with my performance for the most part. As always, I need more practice shooting from various positions and barricades. I also need to start working off of a timer. First to get my internal sense of timing figured out, and second to add that additional stress that seems to render my brain a pile of mush during matches.
Three weeks until the next match. #practice
- ME
