PRS Match @ The Lead Farm

[fishing4sanity]

My three sons have all been interested in Precision Rifle Series matches and have shot at club and national matches. One of my sons has started hosting matches as a way to give back to the sport. I've been helping him come up with the course of fire and setting up for the last couple of matches - I had no idea how much work it takes to run a good match. This past weekend he hosted his third match at The Lead Farm and had 61 shooters at the match. Here are some pics that represent each of the ten stages.

 

[Nick87]

Pretty cool! Thanks for sharing

 

[fishing4sanity]

With all the work that goes into these matches it's nice to see people enjoying themselves, even when the stage kicks their butt.

Stage #10 had them crawling through a series of old onion boxes, shooting multiple targets, from multiple ports, in 2 minutes. I only photographed one smile there. I jokingly told my son we may have to burn those old crates due to the language I heard coming out of them, still everyone seemed to enjoy the stage.

 

[mdeerjunkie]

Looks like a great time!

 

[fishing4sanity]

This isn't hunting, but there are a lot of nice rifles and scopes at these matches, and a few brands that I know are popular here on the forum.

It's also nice to see the next generation coming along in hunting and shooting sports.

The trophies and the winners. (Third place had to leave as soon as the match ended, so he's not in the pic.)

 

[JLS]

Cool stuff.

 

[Dan O]

Looks like a fun match. What were the ranges of the targets?

 

[Tradewind]

Some interesting rifle setups there

 

[fishing4sanity]

Looks like a fun match. What were the ranges of the targets?

308 to 1,220 yards. Here's the course of fire that might give you a better insight to the match, if you're interested.

 

[rtraverdavis]

That is some really cool stuff, @fishing4sanity. Great photos—I really like looking at all the different rifles.

 

[Irrelevant]

Super cool.

So dumb question, who keeps track of the scoring and how?

 

[fishing4sanity]

Super cool.

So dumb question, who keeps track of the scoring and how?

At National level matches they use ROs (a range officer or two assigned to each stage) to call out hits/misses and record the score. Most Club level matches are self-ROed. The shooters are typically broken into squads of 5 to 7 shooters; when one guy is shooting, one or two are keeping the time and score, while one or more are watching through spotters/binos to call out impacts/hits. Most matches have an iPad or Kindle with each squad so at the end of the match it's faster & more accurate (hopefully) to tally the scores and placement. The match starts with the squads spread out on the various stages of the match and hopefully everyone finishes at about the same time.

 

[F250]

Some of my old poachers would have scored well shooting out the window of that truck !!

 

[marksjeep]

Great stuff. Thanks for posting up the pics.

 

[Fire_9]

Great stuff stuff. If wish everyone that bashed the long range stuff would go shoot one of these matches. They are a ton of fun and very eye opening as to what you need to work on as a shooter

 

[Dan O]

Thanks for the info. Looks like a fun course and a challenge to boot. You would really have to learn to dope the wind. Bet that opens a shooters eye's more than anything.

 

[fishing4sanity]

Thanks for the info. Looks like a fun course and a challenge to boot. You would really have to learn to dope the wind. Bet that opens a shooters eye's more than anything.

Windy days will definitely shake out the experienced shooters from the pack. Reading mirage and the experience to recognize what terrain features are likely to do to the wind flow/direction make a big difference.

 

[npaden]

So a hit anywhere on the target counts the same? What kind of scores are winning and what would be considered "good" or normal on a shoot like this? Do some targets count more or less than others? Looks like there are 95 shots total. That's a lot of shooting and some of those stages sound like you would need to settle in pretty quick especially with some turret twisting in there. Do the shooters get the rundown before they get there so they can have the turret twists already calculated out ahead of time?

Pretty neat stuff.

 

[MThuntr]

What are the common cartridges you guys used at this last match and if know bullet weights?

I really want to build a 6 Dasher or similar and play these games (as if I didn't have enough expensive hobbies)

 

[fishing4sanity]

So a hit anywhere on the target counts the same? What kind of scores are winning and what would be considered "good" or normal on a shoot like this? Do some targets count more or less than others? Looks like there are 95 shots total. That's a lot of shooting and some of those stages sound like you would need to settle in pretty quick especially with some turret twisting in there. Do the shooters get the rundown before they get there so they can have the turret twists already calculated out ahead of time?

Pretty neat stuff.

Yes, a hit anywhere on steel counts as 1 point and in this league all targets are 1 point. There's a squad that started on each stage, all targets are painted to begin, by the end some will have no paint left anywhere. By later in the day it's very difficult to tell where a target was hit, so a hit is a hit. In this match each shooter knew the distances before they started and have time to calculate turret dials or reticle holdovers. I have shot matches where ranging has to be done on the clock or even on the clock only using your scope reticle. There have been a few first time competitors at each of our matches, as well as very good & experienced shooters. It's a tough balance, but we try to have a few stages that will really challenge the best guys but not such a hard day that a newer shooter leaves feeling like he should have just thrown his ammo out the window on the way there and went fishing instead. This match was 95 shots possible, at least three stages where the majority ran out of time (to really test the top guys), but hopefully everyone leaves wanting to come again. The top three finishes were 85, 84 and 82 points, with the mid-pack being about 50 to 55 points.