My posting on the Berger South West Nationals was popular so I decided to add this. If the story is to long just skip to the pictures.
I hope this story encourages new shooters to get into competition. If you get the chance just go for it. Everyone is very helpful, I hear even more helpful if you end up shooting on their target (I didn’t though).
Back in November my long time shooting partner convinced me to join him in competing in the Berger South West Nationals in Phoenix. At that point my experience was limited, I had competed in a Sierra match and the Manitoba Provincials with a fair bit of practice in gravel pits at 600 yards. I decided to join him with reasonable expectations of my performance at the match. My goals, get all shots on scoring rings, get all shots on scoring rings on my own target, learn as much as I can and decide on what components will make up my next rifle.
I arrived in Phoenix with 650 rounds and my “out of the box” Savage FTR .308 ready to give it a try. Over the month all rounds were fired and I had to borrow a rifle and an additional 60 rounds for one practice day after the Berger match.
If you live in the Old Scottsdale area of Phoenix, as one shooter I met did, you can have access to three long range facilities, all 25 minutes from your home.
Our first match was at the Phoenix Rod and Gun Club South East of Phoenix on Feb. 5th 60 rounds at 500 yards, unlimited sighters. All of the competitors were great to deal with extremely helpful and made us feel at home. We met German Salazar (pronounced Herman). Just google the name and you will quickly find out where he stands in the long range shooting world. A great guy and a wealth of knowledge, over lunches after matches I learned more about everything from primer design to what makes up a good FTR rifle than I could have in a month of reading. He kept us two Canadians out of trouble busy with matches and practice over the month. Please consider checking out his site “The Rifleman’s Journal” a great resource for long range.
German Salazar
Phoenix Rod and Gun Club - 500 yard area
Some interesting barrel ends they get to use in Arizona. Nice and quiet shooting next to him!
Next match was the Berger South West Nationals at the Ben Avery range. A public range covering 1650 acres where pretty much every type of shooting discipline except biathlon takes place. I even got to see balloons shot with a handgun from a horse going as fast as it could around a track. Cost to shoot for a day is $7.00.
The Berger match consisted of one day of clinics including a session on bullet design and characteristics by Bryan Litz of Berger Bullets and a wind clinic hosted by Mid Tompkins, U.S. F class head coach followed by 5 days of competition. I met my goals of staying on target and managed to place 5th master at 600. The rest of the match I will just say was a learning experience. We also got one practice afternoon the week following the Berger match and the week following that we competed in a local match at Ben Avery. (see other posting for more pictures and video)
The final 500 yard match was at the Rio Salado Sportsmans Complex, North East of Phoenix. All the advice and coaching I received paid off, I managed to pull off a second place in FTR – 583 8x.
Rio Salado - 500 yard range area
There was lots of eye candy for long range shooters. This open gun was delivered along with a FTR rifle from the same builder to a shooter I was squadded with during the month, see German’s site for more info on it, he has an article on them. Still had the tag on it when he gave it a try at Ben Avery practice and the results were great.
Summary:
You can shoot long range every week around Phoenix. Check out the Arizona Desert Sharpshooters site and have a look at their calendar. I have met shooters from all over the US and I am looking forward to returning next year. German has tried to convince me that I should stay longer next year shoot more and take in the Barrett Jackson car auction (spectator status only).
I have four pages of notes on things I have to work on.
I also had made up my mind on the components of my next rifle when one appeared for sale at the last match. If everything goes well I will be importing the rifle through Prophet River.
An added bonus through discussions with German Salazar, he has now joined Gun Nutz as “GermanS1”.
I hope this story encourages new shooters to get into competition. If you get the chance just go for it. Everyone is very helpful, I hear even more helpful if you end up shooting on their target (I didn’t though).
Back in November my long time shooting partner convinced me to join him in competing in the Berger South West Nationals in Phoenix. At that point my experience was limited, I had competed in a Sierra match and the Manitoba Provincials with a fair bit of practice in gravel pits at 600 yards. I decided to join him with reasonable expectations of my performance at the match. My goals, get all shots on scoring rings, get all shots on scoring rings on my own target, learn as much as I can and decide on what components will make up my next rifle.
I arrived in Phoenix with 650 rounds and my “out of the box” Savage FTR .308 ready to give it a try. Over the month all rounds were fired and I had to borrow a rifle and an additional 60 rounds for one practice day after the Berger match.
If you live in the Old Scottsdale area of Phoenix, as one shooter I met did, you can have access to three long range facilities, all 25 minutes from your home.
Our first match was at the Phoenix Rod and Gun Club South East of Phoenix on Feb. 5th 60 rounds at 500 yards, unlimited sighters. All of the competitors were great to deal with extremely helpful and made us feel at home. We met German Salazar (pronounced Herman). Just google the name and you will quickly find out where he stands in the long range shooting world. A great guy and a wealth of knowledge, over lunches after matches I learned more about everything from primer design to what makes up a good FTR rifle than I could have in a month of reading. He kept us two Canadians out of trouble busy with matches and practice over the month. Please consider checking out his site “The Rifleman’s Journal” a great resource for long range.
German Salazar
Phoenix Rod and Gun Club - 500 yard area
Some interesting barrel ends they get to use in Arizona. Nice and quiet shooting next to him!
Next match was the Berger South West Nationals at the Ben Avery range. A public range covering 1650 acres where pretty much every type of shooting discipline except biathlon takes place. I even got to see balloons shot with a handgun from a horse going as fast as it could around a track. Cost to shoot for a day is $7.00.
The Berger match consisted of one day of clinics including a session on bullet design and characteristics by Bryan Litz of Berger Bullets and a wind clinic hosted by Mid Tompkins, U.S. F class head coach followed by 5 days of competition. I met my goals of staying on target and managed to place 5th master at 600. The rest of the match I will just say was a learning experience. We also got one practice afternoon the week following the Berger match and the week following that we competed in a local match at Ben Avery. (see other posting for more pictures and video)
The final 500 yard match was at the Rio Salado Sportsmans Complex, North East of Phoenix. All the advice and coaching I received paid off, I managed to pull off a second place in FTR – 583 8x.
Rio Salado - 500 yard range area
There was lots of eye candy for long range shooters. This open gun was delivered along with a FTR rifle from the same builder to a shooter I was squadded with during the month, see German’s site for more info on it, he has an article on them. Still had the tag on it when he gave it a try at Ben Avery practice and the results were great.
Summary:
You can shoot long range every week around Phoenix. Check out the Arizona Desert Sharpshooters site and have a look at their calendar. I have met shooters from all over the US and I am looking forward to returning next year. German has tried to convince me that I should stay longer next year shoot more and take in the Barrett Jackson car auction (spectator status only).
I have four pages of notes on things I have to work on.
I also had made up my mind on the components of my next rifle when one appeared for sale at the last match. If everything goes well I will be importing the rifle through Prophet River.
An added bonus through discussions with German Salazar, he has now joined Gun Nutz as “GermanS1”.
