Ah yes, cross fire...
I remember wayyy back being told by a CF rifle coach that the high/low thing was designed to prevent a 'buddy' from helping you out. Yeah, I know.
That pic of me is artfully placed and the caption works well with the subject but let's please remember that that moment in time had nothing to do with crossfire.
To all you new guys sitting on the fence....I get it. I was there too, most of us were. My first year I just came by the range on match day and checked it out. Talked to some people. Everyone I spoke to was really laid back, informative and welcoming. I wish I'd been entered.
My first year as a competitor was awesome. As a newb you get TONS of help from everyone, although that's not much different as you progress either. People here are just nice. Sure, there's usually some cool prizes...sometimes really really cool...and peer recognition (bragging rights) in this event motivates too but it still manages to remain friendly.
And speaking of prizes, there's usually something nice for everyone, frequently worth more than the entry fee. Some years the last place competitor has taken home prizes worth hundreds of dollars
Practice for the match, as you will find, pretty much comes down to shooting at 100m for most and as mentioned, using Ed's Dots is popular. Basically thats shooting at 3/4 inch circles at 100m. 20 dots to a page, one shot per dot. You can do that at almost any range. Is it nice to practice shooting further...absolutely, and if you can get your scope values for 200m that will help predict your sight in for 300-600 but many, many people get their 200-600m settings at the range the day before the match.
Other than that, you can practice the positions required in the course of fire. If there's any sitting or standing, that can be new for some people, as is the use of a sling. Everything else, the shooting off a roof or using your partner as a rifle rest, the moving targets, etc., are all kinda difficult for most people to do outside of the match.
And that's a cool thing! That's one of the reasons you come, because you just can't do this stuff anywhere else. My first experience doing all that was here and since then I've heard almost every new person say the same, usually followed by '...and it was soooo cool.'
If you have a buddy to do this with then awesome but, as others have said, if you show up solo you will get paired up. One of the most successful partnerships in recent years resulted from two guys getting paired up a few years ago.
Go to the website and click on the match reports. They give a pretty good idea of what to expect. Then, since you're there, download the entry and the course of fire. You know you wannna...
and give your neighbor a better scores
. It also confuses the score keeper
Place targets on the sand berms to practice target acquisition.
These ones in the picture are at 300m.
