After driving home 10 hours and sleeping til 10 today to recoup, I thought I would post my impressions of the match,
I consider myself an "average" shooter in this venue, I have shot multiple disciplines for many years, but long range for a little over 2 years, this was my third "bigger" match.
Here's my thoughts..... o
I think it was a very, very good first match at this location, Joe and his staff had to work their butts off to set the match up, clearing half mile long firing lanes through the woods, building hides, etc. etc. I can't imagine the amount of effort required just to get all the stages ready.
Joe and his staff of RO's were very professional and courteous throughout, tough where they needed to be and worked and froze their butts off so we could have a good time.
The Rockcastle facility is unique and has the potential to be the best of it's kind in the world, for all venues of the shooting disciplines, from sporting clays, three gun, long range, etc, etc.
The prize table was outstanding, kudos and much thanks to the sponsors for their generosity.
The match was VERY challenging, both the shooting and the elements.
The elements are uncontrollable, they are what they are. If you had to shoot the Red Barn stage (like me) the first morning with the wind at full value 20-30 mph and someone else shot the next day with 2-3 mph wind, well, suck it up and cry when you get home, cuz that's the sport we chose.
The shooting layout IS controllable by the match director and was very tough, the AVERAGE shot to hit ratio was somewhere around 8 to 12 percent. Most people I talked to and shot with shot around 90-110 rounds and the average number of hits for the whole match was in the 6 to 13 range.
I came in 19th in the Military Class and hit 12 targets the entire match, I shot around 110 shots, so I hit 10.9% of the targets I shot at and placed in the upper third of the pack.
Ten of the top shooters hitting 20 or more blows my mind, but even that is only a 20% hit ratio if they shot 100 shots!
Tough Match!!!
I consider myself an "average" shooter in this venue, I have shot multiple disciplines for many years, but long range for a little over 2 years, this was my third "bigger" match.
Here's my thoughts..... o
I think it was a very, very good first match at this location, Joe and his staff had to work their butts off to set the match up, clearing half mile long firing lanes through the woods, building hides, etc. etc. I can't imagine the amount of effort required just to get all the stages ready.
Joe and his staff of RO's were very professional and courteous throughout, tough where they needed to be and worked and froze their butts off so we could have a good time.
The Rockcastle facility is unique and has the potential to be the best of it's kind in the world, for all venues of the shooting disciplines, from sporting clays, three gun, long range, etc, etc.
The prize table was outstanding, kudos and much thanks to the sponsors for their generosity.
The match was VERY challenging, both the shooting and the elements.
The elements are uncontrollable, they are what they are. If you had to shoot the Red Barn stage (like me) the first morning with the wind at full value 20-30 mph and someone else shot the next day with 2-3 mph wind, well, suck it up and cry when you get home, cuz that's the sport we chose.
The shooting layout IS controllable by the match director and was very tough, the AVERAGE shot to hit ratio was somewhere around 8 to 12 percent. Most people I talked to and shot with shot around 90-110 rounds and the average number of hits for the whole match was in the 6 to 13 range.
I came in 19th in the Military Class and hit 12 targets the entire match, I shot around 110 shots, so I hit 10.9% of the targets I shot at and placed in the upper third of the pack.
Ten of the top shooters hitting 20 or more blows my mind, but even that is only a 20% hit ratio if they shot 100 shots!
Tough Match!!!