A co-worker and myself decided we were going to take the plunge and compete in the aforementioned competition between Cheyenne and Laramie WY. It was both of our first competitions, though a little over a year ago, I went to observe a match and took pictures.
I was squadded with my co-worker and two other guys - couldn't have asked for better squad mates! They were helpful, supportive, and darn good shots too! Good people.
I would say I was a victim of a lack of preparation more than gear or the conditions (it was breezy and mid to high 30s with snow moving in just as we were finishing up). With ammo as expensive as it is, I don't get to shoot nearly as much as I'd like. Then, when I find ammo like the AAC 140gr SMK, it goes out of stock for a month or more.
Thankfully, I'd saved up 120rds of the AAC 140gr SMK, which was enough for the COF for this competition (I believe 86rds was the total possible). However, I didn't have a local enough range to go out and get DOPE for the various ranges. This hurt me dearly.
The COF was nice and varied - no two stations were similar. Big tree, rocks, wood tank trap, tires, modified prone, etc. and all at various distances. Kudos to Sam Carlson, the event coordinator. Guy works hard and hosted an excellent event!
For those of you who do this often, this is going to sound incredibly stupid (and I agree) - I did this event without any DOPE. lol
I literally just guessed on my reticle as to what holdover I should use. I'd listen to what the spotter would say and tried to adjust, but with two rounds/target, if I wasn't on the first time, the second shot wouldn't be too great. I did manage to hit the farthest target at 900yds once. I knew it was zeroed at 100yds, but that was it.
So, in the end, I wound up hitting 11 targets out of 86 while my coworker managed to hit 12 out of 86. I also accomplished my goal of not being last! I was next to last. lol Not surprising since I was literally guessing with my reticle. I don't know if you can see this link but here's the Practiscore table. I'm Jordan Sampson - https://practiscore.com/results/html/fa1a67bb-aeb0-43ae-80dc-404db01f467a?page=class-combined
So what did I learn? I learned I had a really good time! The event had a lot of great people with fun stations. I also learned that I need to dig into my reticle and the like and start working up some DOPE so I'm not guessing anymore (I'm pretty amazed I managed to hit that 900yd target doing this...). I also made the mistake on the last station, which was shooting from the bed of a pickup truck with the rifle on the top of the roof, of not using my shooting bag. For some reason I thought I could just go up with the bipod and no bag and just shoot - bad idea. Too much motion so all of my shots were around the targets rather than on.
Thanks for reading and I hope I can help those of you who are considering doing this with being more prepared than I was.
I was squadded with my co-worker and two other guys - couldn't have asked for better squad mates! They were helpful, supportive, and darn good shots too! Good people.
I would say I was a victim of a lack of preparation more than gear or the conditions (it was breezy and mid to high 30s with snow moving in just as we were finishing up). With ammo as expensive as it is, I don't get to shoot nearly as much as I'd like. Then, when I find ammo like the AAC 140gr SMK, it goes out of stock for a month or more.
Thankfully, I'd saved up 120rds of the AAC 140gr SMK, which was enough for the COF for this competition (I believe 86rds was the total possible). However, I didn't have a local enough range to go out and get DOPE for the various ranges. This hurt me dearly.
The COF was nice and varied - no two stations were similar. Big tree, rocks, wood tank trap, tires, modified prone, etc. and all at various distances. Kudos to Sam Carlson, the event coordinator. Guy works hard and hosted an excellent event!
For those of you who do this often, this is going to sound incredibly stupid (and I agree) - I did this event without any DOPE. lol
I literally just guessed on my reticle as to what holdover I should use. I'd listen to what the spotter would say and tried to adjust, but with two rounds/target, if I wasn't on the first time, the second shot wouldn't be too great. I did manage to hit the farthest target at 900yds once. I knew it was zeroed at 100yds, but that was it.
So, in the end, I wound up hitting 11 targets out of 86 while my coworker managed to hit 12 out of 86. I also accomplished my goal of not being last! I was next to last. lol Not surprising since I was literally guessing with my reticle. I don't know if you can see this link but here's the Practiscore table. I'm Jordan Sampson - https://practiscore.com/results/html/fa1a67bb-aeb0-43ae-80dc-404db01f467a?page=class-combined
So what did I learn? I learned I had a really good time! The event had a lot of great people with fun stations. I also learned that I need to dig into my reticle and the like and start working up some DOPE so I'm not guessing anymore (I'm pretty amazed I managed to hit that 900yd target doing this...). I also made the mistake on the last station, which was shooting from the bed of a pickup truck with the rifle on the top of the roof, of not using my shooting bag. For some reason I thought I could just go up with the bipod and no bag and just shoot - bad idea. Too much motion so all of my shots were around the targets rather than on.
Thanks for reading and I hope I can help those of you who are considering doing this with being more prepared than I was.
