Meaford Long Range Steel Challenge (2-day PRS points race match)

Threw it in with the scores on the Google drive (post #136). We shot stages 1-12, then the ones in the amended sheet. 18 stages total. Original plan was 24, which was a bit ambitions for a first time.
 
I'm going to offer a bit of advice on a few things I saw people doing that was working against them as I find time to post it.

1) Read the target descriptions and their distances.

We had a little trick in the fence stage (one of the ROs told me I have no soul for doing this). The two humanoid silhouettes below were placed nearly in line with each other. This gave the illusion of the small one (F1) being way behind the large one (F3), if they were the same size.



But, the small one was at 313 yards, only 25 yards behind the large one, which was at 288 yards. People were firing WAY high on the small one... :evil:


2) Have your come-ups handy so you can reference them on the fly and trust it on your first shot at the target.

This would have save a lot of people on 1). Side winders and wrist coaches are nice, but you can just use some wide masking tape stuck to your forearms for this.


3) Be economical in your movement.

It took a lot of people a lot of time to get their first shot off because they were digging mags out of their pockets, etc... Have the mag in your hand and insert it as soon as the front of the rifle is supported on the barricade.


4) Use your body to build support.

Use the bags you brought, or at the very least use your body. When you're kneeling at a barricade, you raise the opposite knee you would raise for an unsupported offhand kneeling position so that you can put your elbow on it and use it to build support.

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5) Learn to use your reticle in conjunction with or in place of your turrets.

This is why people use FFP scopes in these matches. So that they can use their reticle on any magnification in place of the turrets. Its not about ranging at any magnification. The power the reticle subtends at in an SFP scope is not always ideal from the field-of-view standpoint. If you want to use SFP efficiently in these matches, you have to be able to adjust your hold-off accordingly. In many stages you either won't have time to use your turrets or you may not be allowed to. At the K&M match this year, we had to shoot 5 targets from 700 to 1200 yards without adjusting our turrets. I always have a plan for hold-overs/hold-unders for every stage. It may not be obvious till you get to the stage or are shooting it (this is where the smaller mil numbers pay off - having to quickly calculate hold-overs/unders on the fly).

6) Finer distances in dope tables and different tables to match the air density.

Targets are at odd distances, so if you're going to use a table printed on paper, the range increments can't be much coarser than 25 yards. You can't shoot one of these matches with trajectory tables that jump in 100 yard increments. You also need to adjust for changes in the air density over the day. This isn't something you need to worry about when you have sighters, but it is when your first shots count. A ballistics calculator that lets you calculate things in real time is an asset in these matches.


7) Learn to spot your own shots, particularly your own bullet swirl.

This is why people run brakes and low recoiling catridges in these matches. It's so that you can see your own swirel/splash, which isn't easy, much less so when shooting off of a barricade. Splash is good, but you often don't get any if your target is in the middle of the field as many were.
 
I was the scorer on "de-fence". This was my first time at an event like this. I enjoyed watching the guys shoot.

I was impressed with the PGA team, (the guys in brown with their names on the back of the shirts). They were all polite, professional, and all of them came up to the 3 of us working that stage and shook our hands and thanked us for RO'ing. That was very impressive to me. Many other shooters did the same. To all of them, I say "Thank You!"

If I was offering advice, it would be: Pay attention to the briefing first, glass the target second.

Many shooters on this stage misunderstood and shot the COF incorrectly, therefore it cost them points because they hit the wrong target in the wrong order.
 
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