C.O.F. Ideas from 200-1000 yds

[wbrenner]

This is the forum I expected to read about many different shooting challenges and courses of fire. I have checked out many of the big competition sites, including the NorCal site, and the mammoth sniper challenge site. They have detailed info on various shooting situations in their matches. It's good reading.
Most of what is posted about all the competitions in this forum revolves around logistics.
I would like this thread to be a scenario library where someone looking to set up a local match or a backyard shoot could browse and possibly find something they hadn't thought of themselves. I'll start out with the c.o.f from one of the backyard shoots I hosted.

-W

 

[wbrenner]

Re: C.O.F. Ideas from 200-1000 yds

Scenario: This course took up one summer night after work to fire with 4 shooters.

1. 100 yd timed shoot.
No one knew this was coming. They pulled into my driveway, got out of their trucks, and I said they would be timed to see how long it took them to get whatever gear they needed to the line and make a 100 yd shot starting NOW!
(times varied greatly on this one!)

2."Almost" cold bore shot @600 yds

3.3 rds @ 200 yds offhand

4. 3 rds 300 yd Prone 1 moa dot after a "short run"

5.3 rds @300 yds any position unsupported

6. Barricades
8 rd. Slow fire. 2 standing, 2 kneeling, 2 sitting, and 2 prone shots @ 200 yds. To get us used to the ackward positions needed to fire through the ports. (I used Viking Tactical's barricade pattern.) It's on the internet.

7. Man vs man barricades.
1 minute prep. Rifles and ammo are staged to the left of the barricade. Shooters walk 20 yds away. When signaled, both get to their rifles and fire the same course as listed in #6. First man to hit all his targets wins.

8.Bottle races.
We shot water filled bottles from 200-600 yds. Man vs man. each guy gets two bottles at each range:
200, 300, 400, 500, 600 yds. Shoot close to far, and far to close. We used an explosive target for the final target to
"clearly indicate" that the winner had connected.
Great for reticle holdoffs.
9.Command fire
I'm not sure how many rds we fired at my 600 yd steel, but this one was pretty fun. One guy counts down and all 4 of us fire on the same target, at the same time. Not particularly difficult, but waiting to hear the impact, and getting 4 hits within a jillasecond had us all laughing like a bunch of kids.

10. Clean up, drink beer. No time limit, unlimited beer.

So many details have been left out, but this is a pretty good outline of what happend that night.
I'll post more some other time.

-W

 

[riffraff]

Re: C.O.F. Ideas from 200-1000 yds

wbrenner -

Great idea for a thread. I will post my contributions below...if the links don't work, then I will manually write them up on a follow-on post (I may be computer-challenged!).

<a href="http://www.screencast.com/t/oWIZxxiL8EWv">Designated_Marksman</a>

http://www.screencast.com/t/oWIZxxiL8EWv


<a href="http://www.screencast.com/t/iAsdu8CEcpyH">rangeDollarDown</a>

http://www.screencast.com/t/iAsdu8CEcpyH


<a href="http://www.screencast.com/t/mAL8S5k3">rangeLaserZigZag</a>

http://www.screencast.com/t/mAL8S5k3


<a href="http://www.screencast.com/t/bjfx3YP0W9">rangeTacticalMarksmanRules</a>

http://www.screencast.com/t/bjfx3YP0W9

<a href="http://www.screencast.com/t/v0sSGB49r">rangeTacticalMarksmanRules2</a>

http://www.screencast.com/t/v0sSGB49r


Hope this works,

riffraff

 

[wbrenner]

Re: C.O.F. Ideas from 200-1000 yds

Riffraff,

Holy hell, I thought this thread was dead. The links worked great. Good Ideas. Just getting even common courses out in print is gonna help people looking for ideas. I'll get another one typed up soon.
Thanks!

-W

 

[riffraff]

Re: C.O.F. Ideas from 200-1000 yds

W -

Glad you liked them. I 'borrowed' the scoring system from a precision rifle school website (can't remember which one). I am a relative 'newbie' to the sport, but was looking for ways to achieve my own training objectives, which are '<span style="text-decoration: underline">multiple targets at multiple odd distances, in minimum time</span>.'

I shoot in Missouri, and have only done a couple of matches with the great guys at Big Piney Sportsmans Club...F-Class and Tactical matches out to 600 and 800 yards in 100-yard increments.

These COFs were an attempt to develop a practical drill to practice manual ranging, laser ranging and DOPE chart development to gain proficiency at intermediate distances.

The target sizes could be varied a lot depending on winds and timing restrictions and club members' proficiency.

I shoot LaRue OBRs in 5.56 and 7.62, so am more interested in 'area' targets in minimum time than in getting the last 1/8th inch of accuracy....but it would be reasonable to tighten up the standards.

Here is another link with some info:

http://www.accurateshooter.com/competition/nor-cal-tactical-bolt-rifle-challenge/

Looking forward to seeing any other ideas.

Cheers,

Buzz

 

[Gnzrme]

Re: C.O.F. Ideas from 200-1000 yds

I'll contribute some COF's... If you goto www.caprc.com/targets you will find alot of our COF's and some of the common targets we shoot...

Enjoy

 

[peaceatwar]

Re: C.O.F. Ideas from 200-1000 yds

A lot of good CoF recommendations here. Only thing its missing IMHO is movers and hostage targets. Some of my favorite shots have been those taken at movers.

 

[wbrenner]

Re: C.O.F. Ideas from 200-1000 yds

10-4 on the movers. We don't have pits to run movers in my backyard. We were thinking maybe of a real nice remote control truck or something with some good control range to drag a helium balloon around the range. Other than that, I'm at a loss for getting moving targets going. I'm all ears for ideas that don't cost lotsa$.

 

[peaceatwar]

Re: C.O.F. Ideas from 200-1000 yds

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: wbrenner</div><div class="ubbcode-body">10-4 on the movers. We don't have pits to run movers in my backyard. We were thinking maybe of a real nice remote control truck or something with some good control range to drag a helium balloon around the range. Other than that, I'm at a loss for getting moving targets going. I'm all ears for ideas that don't cost lotsa$.
</div></div>

My solution to this for .22 was to attach ballons to a remote control truck. I try to visit the kmart/walmart after xmas and pick up a few low end ones. You can use an antenna can(pringles can) to boost the range on your transmitter. A fun drill is to call the color the of the ballon and have the shooter shoot that balloon.

Another good shooting drill is to put up a deck of cards(Minus Jokers) and have the shooter pick a card from the deck, run to the firing line and engage. +5 points for correct card, +10 points for headshot, -10 points for wrong card, -5 points for hitting no card.

 

[Sumpter Steve]

Re: C.O.F. Ideas from 200-1000 yds

I've got a few that I will jot down and add in the near future.

 

[kraigWY]

Re: C.O.F. Ideas from 200-1000 yds

One thing I use to do in my LE sniper classes, would be to take a 4X8 sheet of plywood and cut a window in it.

Inside the window I'd tie, loosely, two different colored balloons. One bad guy, one good guy.

Because the balloons are tied loose, they are blowing around, crossing each other.

Different ranges from 50 - 300 yards, you have to hit the bad guy balloon without hitting the good guy balloon.

 

[wbrenner]

Re: C.O.F. Ideas from 200-1000 yds

Has anyone got more ideas for movers? I'd like to get a mover target at long range to practice leads. I won't even mention some of the crazy ideas we've tossed around. Well, what the hell. Let's say it involved a target mounted on a trailer, a loooong cable, and a 4 wheeler. That's crazy, right?

 

[peaceatwar]

Re: C.O.F. Ideas from 200-1000 yds

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: wbrenner</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Has anyone got more ideas for movers? I'd like to get a mover target at long range to practice leads. I won't even mention some of the crazy ideas we've tossed around. Well, what the hell. Let's say it involved a target mounted on a trailer, a loooong cable, and a 4 wheeler. That's crazy, right?</div></div>

Well if we are talking crazy. I have shot a club(no pits) that has an elaborate pulley system set up. It takes 2-3 people to shoot enjoyably but essentially you set up targets at a specified distance. Lets say 100 yards. You then Run a pulley system that makes a large oval (Like your standard nascar track) and you have the targets move back and forth by running a line, preferably thick rope or chain, out to the distance. Then you have one person operate the chain and the other shoot. Depending on how elaborate of lengths you took this to you could easily have a mover path back and forth 25-50ft. Make sense?

 

[fargo007]

Re: C.O.F. Ideas from 200-1000 yds

An important piece of advice I could lend is to make stages fun, and attainable for the newer shooter. This sport won't grow if all that is presented are extremely difficult one-round stages at very small targets.

I did the helium balloons tied together at 100Y too. That is a fun one.

Personally I like stages that make the shooter invest in their ability by making a choice. It lets the newer guys have a chance at some points too while still giving the ninja his opportunity to score big. e.g. - The last match our CBS shot was at 500Y. Either at a full size IDPA steel for 50 points, a 14x8 for 75 points, or an 8" circle for 100 points.

Another example I have done is a cold bore KYL stages at long distance. The further out you go, the more money you make.

A team match we ran, we separated shooter and spotter. The spotter had to choose the CBS target based on his interpretation of his team-mate's skill. We called the target on the radio, the shooter engaged it.

"hey - why do I have to shoot that one at 900Y and he gets to shoot the 500Y one?" Should have heard the chin music on that one ... 'Shaddup. We'll explain it later.'

One I got from the Mayberry guys is to publish a range card of all the steels which are identified by letters (not in any order) and when called the shooter has seconds to hit two of them (or one).

King of the hill: Shooters are paired randomly for any fixed number of contests. Flip a coin to see who calls the shot. Caller fires first. If he hits it, the opponent must match the hit. If they both miss, it's a loss for both of them. If they both hit, the opponent now has the call. Any target, any position. Contest is over when one shooter is bested by one round. Guys who won get paired with other guys who won for their next one. Guys who lost get paired with other guys who lost.

Non-shooting stages where there are problems to solve are really nice to give the staff a break to relocate targets, add stuff up, change barricades, etc. Examples would be scaled milling, or observation drills where there are objects visible they have to find. Keeps the momentum going for the shooter even if it's really down time.

Paintballs - 100Y and 200Y. 5 shots to hit it. Points for the hit go down with every shot fired. Or let new guys start with 10 shots and give them half the stage value.

Jungle Run (From Miker, EvilOne at Reade) - One of my favorites. A furious dash through a pretty nasty obstacle course in the woods leads to 5 shots at 700Y, all on a clock.

Shooting it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AM3zZO_52LU

I went back and ran it again so you could see what it looked like:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uaib2YE6uq0

--Fargo007

 

[seanhagerty]

Re: C.O.F. Ideas from 200-1000 yds

RiffRaff, You have some great ideas. If you have a spot to shoot them, let me know next time you go at them. I would love to come play.

I shoot at BigPiney too.

Sean

 

[riffraff]

Re: C.O.F. Ideas from 200-1000 yds

Sean -

Sent you a PM with my contact info.

Good shooting,

riffraff (Buzz)

 

[wbrenner]

Re: C.O.F. Ideas from 200-1000 yds

I would agree with Fargo007 that it's better to have targets that new guys can hit. Everyone wants to know where they're spending their money. In other words, everyone wants to know WHERE they are missing too.
I've got some pretty large steel targets hanging at longer ranges. The games rarely are to hit just the steel target, but a specific size shape, or animal that is painted on the steel. In this way, when someone misses, The bullet still peels some paint somewhere, and allows the shooter to correct. Or if there is a BIG miss, it's easier to guess which direction to correct.
(The area we shoot in is usually thick green orchard grass)

 

[wbrenner]

Re: C.O.F. Ideas from 200-1000 yds

One game I discovered on the net somewhere is "Rifle Golf".

I'll set up any number of targets (holes) all around the farm. The ranges don't matter, but I set them up from 300-950yds.

The object here is to have the lowest number of rounds (strokes) to hit the orange dot painted on the large steel targets.

Targets are all at differing ranges, and every hole may be played from a different spot on the farm. You may shoot one from East to West, then a different target North to South, and another from West to East. This insures that wind calls may never be the same from shot to shot.

Guys usually can hit the big steel, and generally get a hit on the orange dot in another round or two.

 

[riffraff]

Re: C.O.F. Ideas from 200-1000 yds

Lots of good ideas. I like the idea of larger targets, and painting a target zone with a stencil in a different color, so that misses are easier to analyze and learn from.

Here is another training exercise for practice in using holdovers in time-critical situations:


http://www.screencast.com/t/xwd4C27uC