I'm curios to know how many people commenting in this thread have actually shot a hunter match, or are they just bitching to bitch? If you don't have a decent rangefinder and binoculars, you suck as a hunter, period. There's no targets at any match I've been at that couldn't be cleaned with a factory Tikka, Rem, Savage, Bergara, etc. Equipment and time management has been the name of the game for matches I've attended. NRL has a loaner program for people to borrow rangefinders, rifles, and other equipment needed to compete. I'm not sure how people are bitching about an equipment race when the NRL is providing the equipment, all you have to do is ask.
The only piece of equipment that is kind of sucky is the tripods. From my experience, 90% of targets can be engaged without a tripod. I hope MD's will take the tripods into consideration when designing their course of fire, i.e. make stages that don't require a tripod to be competitive. I will say a bipod that extends to a sitting height is very helpful. A 13-27" Harris is more than sufficient. Any prone shots could be taken from resting on a pack rather than a bipod. I found my Atlas CAL to be an unnecessary piece of equipment that I won't be running on my rifle this year.
Lastly, I don't understand the comments about the CF barrels. There is no requirement to shoot in light class. If you want to run in light class, a CF barrel is nice. If you don't want to run light, simply shoot in heavy. 16 lbs should not be an issue. If you can't make it under 16 lbs, you've got a modified benchrest rifle; time to rethink your priorities because these matches aren't for you.
These hunter matches, along with the CD matches comes closer to encompassing shooter's skill as a whole. If you attend a match, you will likely see well known shooters struggle with time and equipment. If you're used to having targets pointed out with exact range, three foot of movement to a prop to throw your gamechanger on, and being able to watch the shooter in front of you to get wind calls, you're shit out of luck.
Is there refinement that needs to be done? Yes, absolutely. If you're crying about equipment holding you back in these matches, I have news for you; it's you, not the equipment.
Lastly, I've heard rumor that the NRL Hunter One matches will have little to no emphasis on prize tables. I really hope this is true. Nobody would be crying about gear if they didn't see someone pulling a better prize then them off the prize table. Prize tables need to go away. They're cancerous. The only problem I've seen at hunter matches were team Leupold guys pulling Nightforce and Vortex scopes off the prize table. That's a great look for Leupold, let me tell you.
I did see a Nightforce team member donate his prize to a 14 year old new shooter. I'll be 100% honest, I was going to get a 3-18 MK5 to run this year, but after watching their "representatives" at the match, I'm steering clear of Leupold. Rant over.
