What The Joes Use: Top PRS Actions of 2019

precisionriflecomponents

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Minuteman
Feb 20, 2019
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I've been a longtime fan of Precision Rifle Blog's "What The Pro's Use" series, but always wondered what the most popular PRS products were at the local level. Over the course of 2019 I teamed up with WPRSC to collect data on 626 different shooters participating in PRS matches across the midwest.

The first subject covered: Top Rifle Actions

Next up: Barrels!
 
Yes, thanks Op for the time & effort.
I believe ARC are relatively new to the PRS scene in comparison to many of the other actions mentioned.
It appears that ARC have made some considerable impression.
I find this comforting as I am in the process of a rifle build with the ARC archimedes action.

Regards..........Barelstroker
 
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I think this is pretty cool, especially considering that PRS has a stigma attached to it that you need some uber-rifle to compete. This shows how much diversity really exists and that a lot of people just run what they have, or put together what they can afford.
 
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I want to know who the other 30 guys are running AI’s. At the monthly WI match there are only 4-5 regular AI shooters, and I’m having a hard time imagining 30 of them up in MI.
 
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Hopefully Josh will chime in to clarify. If that was the case then I don’t understand the point of the data. I shot 5 matches, so 5 of the AI data points are me?

The “What the Pros Use” series takes the top 150 shooters (or whatever it is) and each person is one data point for each of their gear categories.

Maybe if I Shot an AI with a Vortex one match, and at the next match it was an AI with a NF, then there are two unique data points for AI when there should be one?
 
“This data was pulled from 626 registered shooters that participated in WPRSC events over the course of the 2019 match season.”

So...626 registered shooters actually means ~150 unique people, many of whom shot more than one match. I get what he’s going for but that data is very misleading. There aren’t really 69 people with Impacts or 36 people with AIs, there were 69 times that an Impact was registered at a match, and 36 times an AI was registered. We don’t know if that was 69 people with an impact that shot one match, or 10 people that shot seven matches.
 
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“This data was pulled from 626 registered shooters that participated in WPRSC events over the course of the 2019 match season.”

So...626 registered shooters actually means ~150 unique people, many of whom shot more than one match. I get what he’s going for but that data is very misleading. There aren’t really 69 people with Impacts or 36 people with AIs, there were 69 times that an Impact was registered at a match, and 36 times an AI was registered. We don’t know if that was 69 people with an impact that shot one match, or 10 people that shot seven matches.

It makes more sense to break it down into averages
 
So, other than idle curiosity, what's the point of these lists? Monkey see monkey do?

It was just three years ago that I was researching PRS and trying to figure out what rifle and gear I was going to need. The "what the pros use" was ok but not great for a new guy since that article series features pros who are sponsored and use the sponsor's products.

If you're new and wondering what the average shooter is using, this is much more relevant for helping determine what's needed to get set up especially if you are on a fixed budget. If you're experienced, then yeah it's just curiosity for the most part.
 
I want to know who the other 30 guys are running AI’s. At the monthly WI match there are only 4-5 regular AI shooters, and I’m having a hard time imagining 30 of them up in MI.
Feel free to shoot me an email at [email protected] and I'll shoot you the spreadsheet data I have on AI shooters.

Ken didn't forward me any names, so I can't tell you who they are (just what they're running). It's probably worth noting that each listing is from a unique registrant, so if 10 shooters ran AI's in 4 matches, 40 unique registrants would fall under the AI product category. If one shooter ran an AI in 2 matches, and a different action in 2 other matches, the results would be equally weighted between the two action types. Quite a few shooters ran multiple rifles over the course of the season (myself included).
 
My backup is an LRI-Rem700. Only got an Impact because I had my 20moa Badger rail come loose after a match. I like the one piece action bodies, but the LRI Rem 700 runs as good or better than my Impact, but that's LRI's magic. Them damn heavy Razors need the integral rail underneath!
 
It is interesting to look at what shooters outside the top 100 use, since that is less influenced by sponsorship etc.

One resource people may not be aware of is the PRS website itself. When any member joins for either the club series or the full national series they get a profile page with a gear survey. The PRS website provides a full list of the results of those surveys, continually updated as shooters update their profile pages. Its on the www.precisionrifleseries.com website on the home page, just scroll down. You can look at actions as well as all the other items that shooters use.

Here's a screenshot of what actions are being used across the nation by all PRS member shooters. As you can see there are hundreds of respondents.


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