The match today was definitely a learning experience but a lot of fun. Met some good people and everyone was more than willing to lend a hand. Gonna list out each piece of gear and what I learned through using it and what I feel I liked and disliked about each one.
Rifle - Desert Tech SRS A1 6.5x47 lapua. Not the ideal setup by a long shot but faired better than I thought. Being a short rifle it seemed easier to handle around some of the stages with limited space than others. The bad for the rifle started with the fore end coming loose right at the start of the match which made it a bit tough to get steady. Didn't even attempt to shoot the part of the match that required shooting with your weak side. Overall the rifle did a little better than I thought it would and hopefully with the 6GT barrel that should be here soon it will be better and help with seeing the impacts.
Bags - Wiebad fortune cookie and Tab gear support bag. Used both bags during the match with the support bag during the prone stages and the fortune cookie everywhere else. Only Issue I feel could be improved is the fortune cookies performance on wider barricades. Anything over 3 inches wide the bag didn't want to sit completely level on the top. Possibly change out bags to an Armageddon game changer or the tactical udder.
Bipod - Harris 6-9 with Area 419 arca adapter. Worked good, no complaints at all. A wider leg bipod would have been steadier but I'm not sure on the difference that would have made.
Dope - Hornady 4DOF iPhone app. Seemed to work good. I was unable to get chronograph data or data out to distance until the sight in the morning of so I had to play around with the setting to get it somewhat close. Next match will definitely require the dope out to distance at a minimum. A kestrel unit would be nice to have but on a somewhat limited budget the Hornady app will work just fine for now.
Backpack - In my backpack I carried around way more stuff than I needed to. Because the vehicles are parked so close I would leave everything but my ammo, bags, wrist coach, phone, snacks and water. carrying around a small tool kit and cleaning kit was definitely unnecessary. The bag itself I would change to be a smaller hunting backpack or something with more and better accessible pockets.
Stuff I didn't have
Enough water - The temperature was around 90 during the hotter time of the match and I should have brought more water. Keeping a cooler in the vehicle with a pack of water will be the move for the next match if its anywhere that hot out.
Clothing - Jeans and a t-shirt. Long sleeves, shorts, large hat, and sunglasses for these hot matches would have been nice to have. Could feel my eyes getting tired as the sun got above and started getting a slight headache right at the end of the match because of the exposure.
Suppressor - Being Canadian and my first time around suppressors, seeing just how big of a difference they make compared to a muzzle break, I am 100% gonna switch to running one as soon as possible.
Tripod and binoculars - Looking through both a set of Leica geovids and an older set of vortex fury's, range finding binoculars are definitely on the list of things to purchase with a solid tripod setup.
