Just signed up for my first PRS event. Gravestone in January. Wish me luck and send a prayer LOL. Words of encouragement are welcome.
PRS-Here I come! Follow my progress.
- Thread starter scissorhands
- Start date
It's a great range with a lot of beginner friendly targets. You'll have fun. Check your zero and dope in the morning. If something isn't right, ask for help then and there. Focus on good stable positions and trigger presses. You'll time out a lot and that's okay. I'd rather get 5/5 and have ammo left over than 6/10 personally.
Tell the shooters in your squad and RO that you are new to the sport. Watch how experienced shooters approach each stage and ask for help if you need it. Most of all, have fun, and write down some notes after the shoot on things you want to work on before the next one.
You're going to suck. You should watch some videos of actual matches and stages on YouTube. The MDT team makes some great informative videos. If you go into it with zero expectations, take all of the advice you get, even if it sounds crazy, contrary to everything you think you know about shooting, just listen. You're going to get humbled, hard and fast. We've all been there. Be safe, have fun, be a sponge, and have no expectations, because you're going to suck. Your first prs match is like the first time you had sex. There's gonna be lots of confusion, potentially some yelling, you'll end up with strange fluids all over your clothes, and you'll have way more misses than hits. Good luck.
Maybe some informative videos would have helped you in both of your previous endeavors....
Yes, I agree. That's why I'm giving them advice that I wish I had been given.
I probably wouldn't be banned from that Walmart in Jonesboro Arkansas either.
I just recently did my first match at Fossil Pointe and plan on being at Gravestone in January as well. Honestly all I can say is be ready to be a complete sponge, let RO's and your squad know you're new and they will help you tremendously. It's a whole different environment then just being at a busy range. Go in wanting to have fun and learn, hell I placed 4th to last out of 29 people and I had a BLAST.
I have about 65 stage videos that can help you understand what you might be shooting at Gravestone (see link below). I shot their December match and it was awesome. Good, fair, COF with no real surprises. I'm planning on shooting the Jan match to get ready for the 2-day in Feb. There are about half the stages with 45 degrees+ of swing between targets, so practice that. I've also attached the COF from December to give you an idea of what to look out for, even though the Jan match will be in a different area of the range. You can drive from stage to stage, so I left my buggy home in Dec. As stated above, check your dope and plan to have a "cold weather" profile in your ballistics device/app, I had to adjust .4mil at 900yds while checking zero and DOPE that morning since it was 27 degrees. Bring warm clothing as well. Hope this helps and good luck!
Well, 1st match is in the books. It was a windy match and it wasn’t very forgiving. Ended up shooting 54.79%, I did ok for my first match, but of course wanted to do better. I left a lot of points on the table and have room to improve.
My very first stage I completely zeroed! Nada! Zip! Eventually settled down had a 7/10 stage and two 6/10 stages with a few lesser than stages. My highlight came from my second to last stage where I went 11/12 on a coyote at 630 yards and a pig at 780 yards, near then far, 6 positions off the rocks. Almost cleaned it, but pulled my last shot at the buzzer.
I learned a ton and had great help from Thomas and Don. Thanks fellas!
If you haven’t been to Gravestone, GO! It’s an awesome facility. Go join! Go support! Go shoot!
~Rob
p.s. I zeroed my last stage too
My very first stage I completely zeroed! Nada! Zip! Eventually settled down had a 7/10 stage and two 6/10 stages with a few lesser than stages. My highlight came from my second to last stage where I went 11/12 on a coyote at 630 yards and a pig at 780 yards, near then far, 6 positions off the rocks. Almost cleaned it, but pulled my last shot at the buzzer.
I learned a ton and had great help from Thomas and Don. Thanks fellas!
If you haven’t been to Gravestone, GO! It’s an awesome facility. Go join! Go support! Go shoot!
~Rob
p.s. I zeroed my last stage too
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Good job, I was able to make it out there and watch for a few hours. Nice place. Can't wait until my gun comes in, I'll be there.
Sounds like you’re getting the hang of it faster than me at least, it was my 2nd match and I shot a 47%, I keep rushing my stages bad. I need to get me a mdt timer so I can actually visually see that I don’t need to rush. I’m the guy completing stages in time with only a handful of impacts and some stages only 2-3. Where is if I can take my time I could probably get 7-9 impacts but not finish in time but that’s still a better score at the end of the day. It’s a learning curve for me but I love it. Good luck to you on your PRS adventure man!
Slow hits will always be better than fast misses. Also, if you think you can get 7-9 impacts by slowing down…..doing that consistently, you’ll find yourself with some top 20 finishes.
I don’t see it as being impossible. But I am still very new and learning a lot everytime I go out to compete or even just to practice. I dove off into a deep dark black hole getting into PRS and I’m loving it.
There is definitely a lot going on, then we had the wind. I also didn’t take my time and missed because I didn’t focus on my trigger squeeze. I could spot my misses, but I didn’t take my time to measure in my reticle ( something I’m going to work on). I would just make a correction and it usually wasn’t enough or close to the original shot.
When is your next match? Are you doing the 2 day?
Yeah that wind was killer especially on the truck bed stage cause of the direction of fire difference from the left to right targets. And my next match will be a new PRS/NRL facility down in Worthem TX at Freestone Shooting Complex on February 1st, as for the 2 day I will not be attending the 2 day.
there will pretty much always be wind
measuring is the way to go, but if you forget, make bold corrections. if you forget to measure but did see you were off the edge of a plate (say .1 or .2 mrad), for most targets you're better off making a correction 3/4 the plate width than only 1/4 the plate width
First 2 day "pro match" in the books (2nd match ever).
I shot the Gravestone Cowtown classic this past weekend, what a fun event. Thanks to the staff and all the RO's making it a smooth weekend.
I ended up shooting 61% for the 2 days and actually cleaned my very first stage, ever! I came close to cleaning a few more, but ended up with 9's. I bombed a few stages, mainly because I wasn't sure what to do with my wind holds. Anyhow here's the scores.
Stage 1: 9/10
Stage 2: 6/10
Stage 3: 3/10
Stage 4: 9/10
Stage 5: 0/10. This was a TYL@ 828 3:00 wind
Stage 6: 3/10
Stage 7: 7/10
Stage 8: 8/10
Stage 9: 5/10
Stage 10: 9/12
Stage 11: 6/10
Stage 12: 7/10
Stage 13: 9/10
Stage 14: 2/9 very switchy wind for me during this stage
Stage 15: 10/10 CLEAN!!!!!!
Stage 16: 7/10
Stage 17: 3/10
Stage 18:7/10
Stage 19: 8/12
I shot the Gravestone Cowtown classic this past weekend, what a fun event. Thanks to the staff and all the RO's making it a smooth weekend.
I ended up shooting 61% for the 2 days and actually cleaned my very first stage, ever! I came close to cleaning a few more, but ended up with 9's. I bombed a few stages, mainly because I wasn't sure what to do with my wind holds. Anyhow here's the scores.
Stage 1: 9/10
Stage 2: 6/10
Stage 3: 3/10
Stage 4: 9/10
Stage 5: 0/10. This was a TYL@ 828 3:00 wind
Stage 6: 3/10
Stage 7: 7/10
Stage 8: 8/10
Stage 9: 5/10
Stage 10: 9/12
Stage 11: 6/10
Stage 12: 7/10
Stage 13: 9/10
Stage 14: 2/9 very switchy wind for me during this stage
Stage 15: 10/10 CLEAN!!!!!!
Stage 16: 7/10
Stage 17: 3/10
Stage 18:7/10
Stage 19: 8/12
Well done! Give me hope for my first match. Likely will be in Texas as well.
Message me if you do it. I live about 50 minutes from CCC in Navasota. I shot my first many there in December, it poured down most of the day. I enjoyed it but the rain made it even more difficult for me. I had planned on shooting my 2nd match there Saturday but it’s supposed to rain of course so haven’t decided for sure yet. My concern is having time to clean my gear before going out of town.
Count on it! I have one more factory ammo to try next week. Once settled in on one ,I’m gonna load up and train heavy for that match.
I'm going to try and make the March 8th match, and probably make the April 12 match as well.
The journey continues. I’m on my way to K&M for the 4 day comprehensive rifle course. Let’s go!
Congrats man! I have that course saved as an open tab on my laptop. Live an update when you can
But just like porn hub, just bc you see it done in a video doesn’t mean that’s how it’s done in real life. LoL
where are you based out of? I just started my journey last year and was able to make (2) matches at Fossil Pointe. Did ok but biggest hurdle is getting comfortable with wind calls and trusting the numbers.
I'm in the Dallas area, if I can get all my ducks in a row I am gonna be heading out toward Mount Pleasant this weekend to shoot a match at White Oak Creek.
Love to hear your experience after. I need to load in a May thru July match before taking a break ahead of the grind. I’ll check the site to see what they have there.
Back from the 4 day comprehensive course at K&M. Was a great 4 days of learning, everything from ballistics to getting a good zero. All the instructors were very proficient and very encouraging, never once did I feel like I was being talked down to. We shot everything from 400-1200 including movers at 300 and 500.
Ended up winning the "Top Shot" coin.
Ended up winning the "Top Shot" coin.
congrats! Based on any of your prior training experiences, would you recommend them over any others? Maybe why?
This was my first formal training. I wouldn't hesitate to take another class from them. There were 15 or 16 in our class, all from different levels and proficiency. We had 4-5 instructor between all of us, so the teacher to student ratio was great. They train to the level you are at and make you better. The course does include lodging at the bunkhouse, but you bring your own food.
Thanks! My toss up was them or rifles only. Happy to hear a good referral
Just wrapped up with the match at White Oak Creek, guys out there running the place are top notch and the facility as well was pretty nice, LOTS of switching winds all day long and a few mistakes on my part like dialing wrong but shot better than my last match so can’t ask much more of myself since I can see improvement. Oh BTW check the round count needed for a match and how much your bringing cause I just grabbed what I had loaded off the bench thinking it looked like about 100 rounds but fell just 6 short
guess that’s what I get for trying to get everything loaded at 11:30 the night before… all in all it was a great time and will definitely be going back.I am signed up for Twisted Barrel regional on March 8th in Little Rock. It will be my first match ever. Nervous and excited. Waiting to hear back on my registration confirmation.
Any advice on one day regionals for a newbie?
Any advice on one day regionals for a newbie?
Don’t worry about your score, just be safe & have fun
Tell the MD and your squad you’re new
Make sure your first isn’t your last. You don’t have to love PRS, hell it’s ok if you hate it… but you won’t know after one match
Aaaand if you think you’re in love after one match, understand/don’t underestimate the cost of PRS
Twisted Barrel is a really good facility for a first match
Tell the MD and your squad you’re new
Make sure your first isn’t your last. You don’t have to love PRS, hell it’s ok if you hate it… but you won’t know after one match
Aaaand if you think you’re in love after one match, understand/don’t underestimate the cost of PRS
Twisted Barrel is a really good facility for a first match
Thanks for that feedback. Agree on all points...especially the cost. Already a good used car's worth! lol
Yeah I’m 3 matches down and already got a dasher being built by MPA, but honestly for what you’re getting and then with the PRS member discount you get, it’s a lot of rifle for the money I feel like. And honestly I plan to continue to shoot my 6.5 CM a lot just to get the practice with a more recoiling rifle. The 6.5 I’m shooting is about to go under the knife after the Freestone match next weekend to get a new Bartlein thrown on it by Alamo Precision.
I feel better hearing that. I haven't shot a match yet, and I'm building next season's rig already. Staying 6.5 CM but trying a PVA Osprey in 7.5 vs the proof 8 I'm on now. and going to an ACC elite chassis vs the Magpul PRO 700 I'm learning on now. Moving me action over.
Just go have fun and break good shots. Don’t worry about the timer, ask for help, and don’t get discouraged. Shoot a stage and if you only hit 3/10, try and hit 4/10 on your next. Relax, you’re only in competition with yourself.
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