First post here, here's my story. I'm 66 years old with bad knees. I'm not new to shooting. I've shot USPSA pistols for 15 years and made A class in production, limited, and open. I still shoot pretty well but it's tough keeping up with the younger guys. I saw some YouTube videos on precision shooting and am very interested. I have a decent rifle (RPR) and scope (Vortex viper pst gen2). I want to try it but wonder if I'm kidding myself. It looks like a young man's sport. I don't see any older guys on YouTube. I don't have a kestrel, bags or sling and have only shot out to 300 yards. I hate to invest in more equipment and find out I can't get in and out of position fast enough nor can I hold stable. Am I kidding myself? What would you do? How can I come up with proper dope without a Kestrel? Thanks and sorry for long post
No fool like an old fool
- Thread starter Meyersmp
- Start date
What is your goal?
Shoot to place or shoot because you enjoy it,
You’re not gonna place outta of the gate, that is unrealistic, but you can still participate, learn something and enjoy yourself.
Be realistic in your goals and things tend to work out better.
Shoot to place or shoot because you enjoy it,
You’re not gonna place outta of the gate, that is unrealistic, but you can still participate, learn something and enjoy yourself.
Be realistic in your goals and things tend to work out better.
As far as goals, I don't expect to be a strong contender, but I'd like to eventually be respectable, say 7 or 8 out of 10 on average? Not sure if that's possible. Really I just want to compete and have fun. I know there's other precision disciplines, but I like the excitement of prs type shooting
There's plenty of old guys shooting PRS. It's just the youngins that preen on YouTube.
Stages aren't that long. The movement within a stage is not rigorous, and many (most?) matches have minimal distance between stages. The most physically intense part of this discipline is lugging the rifle.
Honestly, where I see the older guys struggle is in flexibility. You don't need to be a yoga instructor to shoot PRS, but you do need to be able to go prone from standing, and perhaps back again, while on the clock. Getting comfortable in a kneeling position with bad knees can be a challenge. Shots that are too high for kneeling but too low for standing can try old joints and tired bones.
Stages aren't that long. The movement within a stage is not rigorous, and many (most?) matches have minimal distance between stages. The most physically intense part of this discipline is lugging the rifle.
Honestly, where I see the older guys struggle is in flexibility. You don't need to be a yoga instructor to shoot PRS, but you do need to be able to go prone from standing, and perhaps back again, while on the clock. Getting comfortable in a kneeling position with bad knees can be a challenge. Shots that are too high for kneeling but too low for standing can try old joints and tired bones.
That is a perfectly attainable goal and you don't need a pile of gear to attain it.
I'm almost 67 and am affected by significant lumbar osteoarthritis and a couple of other physical limitations. I can't "run and gun" either, but I enjoy PRS matches immensely.
You have a rifle and scope entirely suitable to try a match or two. TRULY - you do NOT need to buy a pile of stuff to try out the sport. Far and away, the best investments you can make - whether you compete or not - are a decent bipod followed by a single bag. It's hard to go wrong with a Harris HBRMS (swivels notched legs, 6-9") bipod and a GameChanger (or similar) bag. Total for the two, new, is well under $250 and you may well find them cheaper on sale. Beware knockoff bipods. Just sayin'.
You'll also want to learn to use a good ballistic calculator on your phone. I have tried several and prefer Strelok Pro, which is a screaming bargain at like $12 in the Apple or android app store. There's a whole section here on SH about them.
In my experience, 500-600 yards is enough range to develop your skills for competition and to learn to use your ballistic calculator. I have easy access to 550 yards, which is where I spend the great majority of my practice time. Less often, I'll drive 80 minutes to the 1000-yard range to which I belong. I will say that 800-1000 yard targets are more difficult for me in wind and mirage conditions, but really most of the targets in matches are 300-750 yards.
@hlee is right about flexibility but it isn't a show-stopper. I have limited range of motion in my right knee. It takes me a relative eternity to go from prone to standing an kneeling is out of the question. I think there was one stage of one match where kneeling was required for part of it. The RO just let me stand for that piece of it. I practice to find workarounds for props which challenge my range of motion limitations.
I've been shooting all my life and competing for half of it, but precision rifle competition started for me in summer 2017. I took a couple of classes, the second of which was a day-long 1x1 where the instructor and I worked on how to best approach PRS-style positioning with my physical limitations.
What he told me, backed up by my experience in several PRS-style matches since then, is this: if you know your rifle and can hit targets at various ranges from comfortable positions, you're already ahead of the 20-30% of people who show up at matches and don't know their rifle well.
If I go to a regional match and place in the upper 50th percentile of the typical 100-120 entrants, I've had a very good day. Even on days where I finish toward the 75th percentile, I have a good time, and typically I did something really silly along the way (examples: dial wrong elevation setting, engage targets out of order, can't FIND a target because I wore a tinted lens that made it disappear, leave my chamber flag in on a mounted-start prone stage....).
If you go to a match, and especially if you have access to a range where PRS shooters practice, you should definitely feel comfortable (courteously) approaching shooters and asking questions. One range where I compete offers wrist bands to new shooters, so ROs and squadmates are more "hands on" helpful. Many people really helped me out, lending bags and other bits to try as I came along. More than once, I have spent the majority of my range day helping a newbie. As others helped me.
Enjoy.
Here's a curve ball for your interest: rimfire and rimfire PRS-style matches. Then 300 yards is a gracious plenty, where a gnat fart or stray cosmic ray moves your bullet....
The first thing to remember is go and just have fun . Second is all the other shooters wil be more than happy to help you . All you really need is the rifle and scope you all ready have maybe a bipod and rear bag . Remember the only one that you have to please is your self.
I’m not exactly young and don’t have near the time to practice as is needed to be competitive in the top echelon, but can tell you that being very familiar with your rifle and load and being capable of hitting what you aim at are more critical than being young. True enough, the younger hot shots tend to dominate the top spots, but I’ve seen some senior shooters do really well including 1st in regional matches. They practice, have a competitive mindset and take the tome needed to make hits.
Just get out there and shoot some local matches. You won’t regret it.
Just get out there and shoot some local matches. You won’t regret it.
I shoot to have fun.
I don’t have the time, funds or body to be competitive nor the will.
I’ve done lots of fly casting competition done well in them but I’m getting kinda old for it.
The amount of hours I have in practice is astronomical
Training is painful for me so I’m probably just going to coach now.
I enjoy that more now anyway.
I don’t have the time, funds or body to be competitive nor the will.
I’ve done lots of fly casting competition done well in them but I’m getting kinda old for it.
The amount of hours I have in practice is astronomical
Training is painful for me so I’m probably just going to coach now.
I enjoy that more now anyway.
I'm 73, and have a few performance affecting debilities. I shot the LR competitions on a sometimes basis and really liked it, but was never a genuine threat to the upper placing shooters.
I loved it anyway, and to make it interesting, I chose myself as my most serious opponent. For reasons I need not go into, I kicked my own butt, both ways, all the time. I had a difficult competitor whom I could always beat if I did my due diligence ("Well Greg, that other Greg just whupped yer butt..; so wadda ya gonna do about it?"). Better than last time is the win.
I stayed away from the more physical move-and-shoot regimes because I was never physically up to the peaks of the challenge after my second bout with Lymphoma in the mid-1990's.
But for the stationary regimes; I could bench up, squeeze the bag and shoot mighty small. I still do, and shot in National LR F T/R up until age 71, again, not especially competitively. They called me a Grand Senior. Little did they know...
If you must win, you're going to find that your age is not your best friend, but not your worst one, either.
The physical aspect of prone shooting can be very taxing for heart/lung impaired shooters. But it's doable if you're already doing the things you need to do to stay fit and healthy regardless of your pursuits. I wasn't, so I retired. But if I had, I'd likely still be slugging it out on the mounds and in the pits. I still shoot informally on a regular basis, off a covered bench, sometimes several times a week. A couple friends along can make all the difference.
Aside from the physical aspects, if you don't handload, you should. It can make all the difference to a fairly well equipped and fairly well trained and disciplined shooter.
And if you haven't dealt with your potential for Cataracts, do so. It's an easy fix, and the improvement can be vast.
Dope without a Kestrel? Learn to read the Mirage.
To learn how to shoot beyond 300yd, shoot beyond 300yd. It's what all the rest of us had to do. My first shoot beyond 300yd was at 1000yd in my first National Comp. Talk about a confidence builder...; even if you're dead last, you've accomplished plenty.
Greg
I loved it anyway, and to make it interesting, I chose myself as my most serious opponent. For reasons I need not go into, I kicked my own butt, both ways, all the time. I had a difficult competitor whom I could always beat if I did my due diligence ("Well Greg, that other Greg just whupped yer butt..; so wadda ya gonna do about it?"). Better than last time is the win.
I stayed away from the more physical move-and-shoot regimes because I was never physically up to the peaks of the challenge after my second bout with Lymphoma in the mid-1990's.
But for the stationary regimes; I could bench up, squeeze the bag and shoot mighty small. I still do, and shot in National LR F T/R up until age 71, again, not especially competitively. They called me a Grand Senior. Little did they know...
If you must win, you're going to find that your age is not your best friend, but not your worst one, either.
The physical aspect of prone shooting can be very taxing for heart/lung impaired shooters. But it's doable if you're already doing the things you need to do to stay fit and healthy regardless of your pursuits. I wasn't, so I retired. But if I had, I'd likely still be slugging it out on the mounds and in the pits. I still shoot informally on a regular basis, off a covered bench, sometimes several times a week. A couple friends along can make all the difference.
Aside from the physical aspects, if you don't handload, you should. It can make all the difference to a fairly well equipped and fairly well trained and disciplined shooter.
And if you haven't dealt with your potential for Cataracts, do so. It's an easy fix, and the improvement can be vast.
Dope without a Kestrel? Learn to read the Mirage.
To learn how to shoot beyond 300yd, shoot beyond 300yd. It's what all the rest of us had to do. My first shoot beyond 300yd was at 1000yd in my first National Comp. Talk about a confidence builder...; even if you're dead last, you've accomplished plenty.
Greg
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It's a bitch gettin' old, no doubt. My club started a benchrest silhouette competition for us greybeards, but some youngsters come out & play, too. NRA Chickens at 500M, 20 rounds, two benches. Did fairly well for a one eyed fat man 
