Re: Thunder Valley Precision - Ohio 2011 Schedule
I'll add my kudos to the guys at Thunder Valley for a really good Newbie Shoot on Saturday. I had a great time and was impressed with all the great people. Since no one else has described the new shooter's day in any detail, I'll try to describe the process.
The first step was to get a very precise zero at 100 yards. I guess it is possible to work with a different zero, but setting it a 100 yards seems to be a very good idea particularly if you have a zero stop elevation turret.
After getting the zeros down pat we proceeded to longer range targets from 100-1000 yards. The purpose is to build a “dope table” of bullet drop data every 100 yard out to 1000 yards. This was an iterative process using ballistic software and the data gathered by shooting the 12 inch square targets. I'm not sure how this went for everyone else, but I had a pretty good set of dope that I verified out to 600 yards on my own and then had some spotting help on the 1000 yard target. My table was gathered on a 30 degree day and was predicting about 2 minutes of excess drop at 1000 yards. It took about 1.5 hours for 15-20 people to complete the process.
We then went up to the first stage of the intimidator course. This stage is the longest of the course and is an “oh shit” moment the first time. The first shot is at 563 yard on the crest of ridge followed by 950,1165 and 938. I'll brag a little and say I touched the bottom corner of the 1165 (lets not discuss the two 900 targets). We were lucky at this stage to have light winds that were pretty much at 12 o'clock. This stage took what seemed like a long time, but everyone was learning the shooting routine, learning the spotting process and learning to understand the spotter's calls. It was time well spent, but you will need to understand that everyone needs to get the same opportunity to learn and it will take a bit of time. At this stage the course time limits were basically ignored.
The second stage is a bit shorter and went a bit faster since everyone understood the process. Time limits were still not enforced, but some people shot the course under the limit. It was interesting that at this stage a couple of people had scope issues and could no longer adjust their turrets. They continued shooting with surprising success based on “hold off” calls from the experienced spotters. I embarrassed my self at this stage by nearly not finding one of the targets. I don't know it the course was designed this way but the point of view from the prone shooting position obscured the land marks I used while standing to find the target.
At the third stage has two short targets and they started putting some time pressure on all the shooters. We were also informed that the fourth stage would be strictly timed with no help from the experienced spotters. I don't know if it was more cross wind than at previous stages or the time pressure, but the short targets were harder for some shooters than expected. The stage was shot quickly and I think most teams were under the 8 minute time limit.
The fourth stage went very quickly with most teams making their shots under the time limits. The wind had picked up by this time and was blowing at 10-15 mph when we shot. I made my one good wind call of the day on the first target estimating a 5 moa right adjustment and ringing my shot. Some of the teams had the spotting process under control while others were not as good. My shooting partner was a much better spotter than me and I wasn't as much help as I should have been. I think we both hit the first and last targets and I think he hit one of the middle “valley targets”.
Marcy