We had a great crew and team effort.
Our stop in Colorado to check drops and tune BCs if necessary was well worth the time just to confirm our dope was accurate with the DAs, we were able to stretch out to 2 miles there.
Monday arriving in Raton, NM we checked in and then went to the range to confirm zeros - average DAs were running 9000 give or take - free speed compared to WI. Then after zeros we went to the location of the KO2M course of fire staging and shooting line area and spent a large portion of the late afternoon just studying the target locations in the mountain side, mapping the info to hard copy, ranging the target locations and angle, and the majority of the time was studying the terrain and effects of the wind - note most of the trees on the mountain are cast solid they just don't twitch much after living everyday in the wind unbelievable solid.
Tuesday Day 1 - qualifying
Ed - 375 Snipetac
Spotter - myself
Ed was the lucky guy that got to start the whole show off #1 shooter, it was chaos at the shooting position we had 20 or 30 minutes to check the conditions reset any data necessary while the TV camera crews were getting set up, so when it came time Ed was a little wired - just rushed a little without being able to lay down position the rifle to targets adjusting bipods and settling down, but he shot dang good with all the pressure and switching winds.
Kirk - was WI now lives in SD - 50 Cal
Spotters - Garrett and myself
Kirk was around number 5 to shoot the first morning he was using a 50 cal that Garrett brought along and was assembled the week prior, He had a good time shooting even though there was some funky stuff as he walked his bullets close but just couldn't connect. The guns shoots tight it was probably a little bit of nerves, maybe some up drafting going on, Kirk was also shooting a rifle he did not have a chance to get much trigger time behind as was trying to get comfortable behind. He still is an excellent shot without a doubt.
Garrett - 50 cal
Spotters - Kirk and myself
Garrett was only a few shooters behind Kirk, Garrett got set up confirmed all the target locations while in his shooting position and commenced firing we were getting a little wind switching going on called corrections and Garrett followed through hammering the steel- 50s are nice for seeing impacts. He had a great run and was at the top of the score board at the end of the first day qualifying. Excellent job!
Wednesday Day 2 - qualifing
Jeff - 375 Snipetac -Ed's 375, I was not trusting the mechanics in my 375 VM2 with the extraction issues
Spotters - Ed and Kirk
I believe I was shooter number 9 that morning I got into position everything felt good we had a little more switching wind then the day prior to deal with. Everything went well the only target that I really struggled with was the 1543 yard - I had solid aim points but the impacts were dancing vertical, afterwards Ed and I were evaluating everything and figured that a cause for the vertical dancing just over or under the target was moreso the angle and weight transfer to the bi-pod on that particular target - because of aiming down and lower to the 1543 versus the Coldbore and others. We may have been transferring weight to the legs and causing some vertical chatter. It was cool to walk away hitting the cold bore and all the rest of the qualifier targets required
In the two days of qualifying for a spot in the top 10 out of 49 shooters that pulled the trigger
Only 4 shooters hit the 1st shot - 16" Coldbore target - 1691 yards
Only 1 shooter tore up the paint on every target in the course of fire - 1691 - 1543 -
1722 - 1888 - 1953 yards
The Finale!
2667 - 3028 - 3368 yards
Garrett was around the 7th in line to shoot after the random draw for firing order.
Spotters - Kirk and myself
We were dealing with some good tail winds switching around, Garrett got settled in and fired, we were unable to confirm an impact at first to the rounds going high and into the brush above the target. - cause? Updrats from the wind hitting the mountain face and possibly a tweak done on the scope mount, we definitely could see how the changing updrafts from the tail winds were pushing up and dropping our point of impacts - this was a day of luck, science and shooter/equipment some folks had a lot and some a little wind - just another great day of pulling the trigger. Congrats Garrett with finishing 5th!
Everyone shooting the KO2M had at least 4 TV camera's focused in on them and interviews after shooting- supposedly they will have a series on the KO2M on Discovery Channel
Cap
We learned a lot with our pre shoot testing in Colorado and then utilized that info and worked as a group - team to study the elimates - Ed alone had hours of sitting in a spotting scope studying brush, trees for wind calls when needed to the point of reading a wind "gust" in the mirage. We really came together as a team to make this all happen.
Oh Yeah ------ Rock on Field Firing Solutions!
Cheers
oneshot.onehit