2025 NRL Hunter

I get flagged more at a public range than I ever have at a PRS or NRL match. I’d go as far to say I have rarely gotten flagged at matches and people are normally reminded pretty quickly if they are.

Now hunting, and public ranges. Drives me nuts.

Bullets that leave the property causes loss of access. The guns we are shooting can send a ND a long way. Iv have a much larger appreciation for where my bullets are going since shooting matches.

My thoughts growing up with one in the chamber and changing some habits after starting to shoot matches.
 
Formidilosus said:
The issue is that term is being used for more than that. It’s being used for anytime someone closes the bolt when not aiming directly at a target- whether or not the muzzle is pointed at the target.
Click to expand...
I don’t have as much of an issue with this, because it is fairly venue and Md specific. Ranges have been lost in WI for ND above the intended berm. Not enough wide open spaces and topography. It’s unfortunate but I do understand why it is done.

The safety manipulation part is justifiable. It’s not like hunting, my safety really is never on at a match, because my bolt is either open or I’m on target about to shoot.
 
Anyone go from a carbon to a lighter contour steel that’s fluted? If so what contour, muzzle dia, and what kind of flutes?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
I shot the OK match this weekend and it was my NRL Hunter match. It was an engaging and challenging weekend. Here are some observations.

NRL hunter pulls way more from PRS shooters than western hunters. My squad was heavily skewed towards PRS experience with only casual eastern hunting experience. The existence of Open heavy 16 lb weight limits and the same for the team division makes this worse. Lots of 15.8 lb rifles rolling around. The universal statement was that no one was actually hunting with the rifles shot in competition.

If you want to train for hunting shoot the skills division because the competitive individual division will have you wasting way too much time on the clock looking for targets and if you shoot team the 2nd shooter may not even get to shoot plenty of stages. This happened to a squad in our group where the 2nd shooter didn’t fire a shot until stage 4 running out the clock.

No one is running a hunting frame pack at these matches, they are running much smaller packs with guns and tripods obi linked to the shoulder straps and maybe do not run bino harnesses. They are starting stages with rangefinding binos clipped into the tripod. If the tripod isn’t obi linked to the pack they put a pipe into the side pouch to quick pull out the tripod. A guy in our squad told me he sold his Exo for an ebelestock day pack for these matches. A bit more physical challenge and miles covered would be welcome and force some more realistic gear choices.

Time management and gear management is like 80% of the competitive side of these matches. It’s great to get the pressure to shoot on the clock and build positions but there is a lot of gaming going on. For instance you have to start a stage with tripods collapsed but what that means for a 4 section tripod and a 2 section tripod is wildly different. You can’t start a stage with a 4 section tripod extended out to the length of a 2 section tripod collapsed.

Finding steel targets on the clock is a different skill than glassing up a deer. It’s a big part of these matches. Once again skills division eliminates this step if you want to work on hunting shooting skills.

The safety standards are well intentioned but oddly applied. No RO has a uniform application of the concept of sky loading, you can get a DQ’ed on a stage for tripping while running to the start flag and breaking 90 degree cone of fire with a chamber flag in but then you see 2 groups walk in front of 10 rifle barrels stored on the line. It was a very safe match but what was emphasized versus impact/risk were often odd choices.

It’s a cool series and I plan to shoot another match. There are some artificial challenges and some real world hunting challenges.
 
Kurts86 said:
I shot the OK match this weekend and it was my NRL Hunter match. It was an engaging and challenging weekend. Here are some observations.

NRL hunter pulls way more from PRS shooters than western hunters. My squad was heavily skewed towards PRS experience with only casual eastern hunting experience. The existence of Open heavy 16 lb weight limits and the same for the team division makes this worse. Lots of 15.8 lb rifles rolling around. The universal statement was that no one was actually hunting with the rifles shot in competition.

If you want to train for hunting shoot the skills division because the competitive individual division will have you wasting way too much time on the clock looking for targets and if you shoot team the 2nd shooter may not even get to shoot plenty of stages. This happened to a squad in our group where the 2nd shooter didn’t fire a shot until stage 4 running out the clock.

No one is running a hunting frame pack at these matches, they are running much smaller packs with guns and tripods obi linked to the shoulder straps and maybe do not run bino harnesses. They are starting stages with rangefinding binos clipped into the tripod. If the tripod isn’t obi linked to the pack they put a pipe into the side pouch to quick pull out the tripod. A guy in our squad told me he sold his Exo for an ebelestock day pack for these matches. A bit more physical challenge and miles covered would be welcome and force some more realistic gear choices.

Time management and gear management is like 80% of the competitive side of these matches. It’s great to get the pressure to shoot on the clock and build positions but there is a lot of gaming going on. For instance you have to start a stage with tripods collapsed but what that means for a 4 section tripod and a 2 section tripod is wildly different. You can’t start a stage with a 4 section tripod extended out to the length of a 2 section tripod collapsed.

Finding steel targets on the clock is a different skill than glassing up a deer. It’s a big part of these matches. Once again skills division eliminates this step if you want to work on hunting shooting skills.

The safety standards are well intentioned but oddly applied. No RO has a uniform application of the concept of sky loading, you can get a DQ’ed on a stage for tripping while running to the start flag and breaking 90 degree cone of fire with a chamber flag in but then you see 2 groups walk in front of 10 rifle barrels stored on the line. It was a very safe match but what was emphasized versus impact/risk were often odd choices.

It’s a cool series and I plan to shoot another match. There are some artificial challenges and some real world hunting challenges.
Click to expand...

I think some of your observations are due to the match you attended. For instance, one of the best and very popular packs is the Kifaru 357 mag which is a great hunting pack. You also see a lot of Exo, Stone Glacier, and Kifaru frames with various bags.

As far as gaming goes, I think people need to remember that it is indeed a game. Each person has to decide what they want out of the match and not worry so much about everyone else.

Instead of complaining about how people are using gear I wouldn't hunt with, I have tried some of it out and have switched some of my hunting gear based on things I've learned. And I hunt with the exact same rifle I compete with.

Regardless of gear rules, the same top shooters will win the matches. They win because they are better, period.
 
Justin Crossley said:
Instead of complaining about how people are using gear I wouldn't hunt with, I have tried some of it out and have switched some of my hunting gear based on things I've learned.
Click to expand...
I have done the exact same thing.

Everyone also needs to remember that NRL was just like PRS before they started NRL Hunter. NRL stopped their race gun series to run just the Hunter series. So, NRL Hunter was created by PRS-style shooters using the find, range and engage style of the Competition Dynamics series.
 
100+ competitors and 20 (some are 16 and some are 24) stages simply takes a long time. That's just for the amount of daylight available and any weather conditions that can delay. That doesn't account for the number of RO's necessary to actually run the event.
 
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