2025 NRL Hunter

[JDMBEND]

Guessing you shot Laramie?

Shot a one day at COSSA Bend, Or.

 

[JDMBEND]

I wish there were more spots at each of these matches.

We have one day matches on the second Saturday every month and PRS on Sunday in Central Oregon.

 

[SkeeterMcgiblet]

Looking for an individual slot for the matches below, please let me know if you have a spot up for grabs. Shot my first 1 day match over the weekend and I'm pretty hooked. Thanks!

Battle of Rattlesnake Butte, Co
Buffalo Bills Revenge, Wy
Burris Colorado Extreme Hunter, Co

 

[JDMBEND]

Looking for an individual slot for the matches below, please let me know if you have a spot up for grabs. Shot my first 1 day match over the weekend and I'm pretty hooked. Thanks!

Battle of Rattlesnake Butte, Co
Buffalo Bills Revenge, Wy
Burris Colorado Extreme Hunter, Co

I see openings pop up in the NRL Hunter Facebook page.

 

[SkeeterMcgiblet]

I see openings pop up in the NRL Hunter Facebook page.

I just put out a feeler there as well, thanks!

 

[DoveBlaster]

What needs to be adjusted?

NO mandatory Friday check-in. Have a power factor "stage" setup throughout the course, where you will also weigh in.... If your gear isn't right that's on you and your not shooting for score. Not hard to weigh your gun at home/ check speeds at home. Friday should be optional. It makes the "2 day match" 3 days or more depending on travel.

 

[id_jon]

NO mandatory Friday check-in. Have a power factor "stage" setup throughout the course, where you will also weigh in.... If your gear isn't right that's on you and your not shooting for score. Not hard to weigh your gun at home/ check speeds at home. Friday should be optional. It makes the "2 day match" 3 days or more depending on travel.

Idaho match last year had all check in stuff on Saturday morning and it ran really well. ROs still shot Friday. I think they're doing the same this year too.

 

[ID_Matt]

NO mandatory Friday check-in. Have a power factor "stage" setup throughout the course, where you will also weigh in.... If your gear isn't right that's on you and your not shooting for score. Not hard to weigh your gun at home/ check speeds at home. Friday should be optional. It makes the "2 day match" 3 days or more depending on travel.

The match directors of the Idaho match have been experimenting with just doing a saturday morning check in and it seems to be working fine. It is nice to have quite a bit of time to double and triple check your gun, but the extra day for friday check in sure eats in to vacation time.

 

[Justin Crossley]

NO mandatory Friday check-in. Have a power factor "stage" setup throughout the course, where you will also weigh in.... If your gear isn't right that's on you and your not shooting for score. Not hard to weigh your gun at home/ check speeds at home. Friday should be optional. It makes the "2 day match" 3 days or more depending on travel.

I totally agree with this and have been asking for it for a couple of years.

 

[wind gypsy]

Needing to take friday off in addition to burning a whole weekend for a match sucks. Heck I went to a casual club level match yesterday and left before the last 2 stages just because it felt like a waste to spend the whole day there for the amount of shooting done.

Bummed that all the 1 day matches in IA aren't happening this year like last.

 

[Kurts86]

I’d love to see the entire match be 1 day. We had to show up Friday for check in for an hour of actual content that was scheduled for 3 hours. There goes a vacation day. Saturday we were done shooting 10 stages with 4+ hours of daylight left to come back Sunday to shoot for 4 hours. No one was in a hurry to start awards ceremony so we left early to relieve the child care at home. I understand the weekend is social for some people but it’s double the time period it could be. This could also allow 2x the shooters on the course over a weekend making the events more profitable.

The administrative parts of the match were not particularly streamlined from an organization or time management perspective. The stage explanation and maps were hand drawn magic marker on poster board. The location for check in, weigh in and shooting was not marked, etc. Coming from an endurance sports racing there was not very modern or evolved event management. You can even go to certain sporting clays tournaments and you can shoot that many positions in half a day.

Stage to stage wait time varied wildly throughout both days telling me there are some gaps to be optimized. Signing up for squads is a cool idea but there is probably an optimal ratio of individual, skills and teams per squad. Some squads had 3 teams and others have none. Maybe I’m impatient but the waiting aspect of match shooting has always driven me crazy. Spare time to shoot matches is very hard to come by.

 

[Lawnboi]

What needs to be adjusted?

I was saying it more as a generalization, that things will change as competitors adapt to the challenges. I’m fairly happy with the current rule set. But if I were to provide some feedback it would be similar to above.

-Eliminate the Friday check in. It’s a waste of shooters time. Or atleast make it optional. Throw a party Friday night for the guys traveling a long ways instead.

-I’m still not sure I like the power factor setup. I understand it but at the same time it would be nice to shoot my actual hunting gun regardless of if it’s a 223 or something big. That said I kind of understand power factor if only for ROs being that we are normally shooting big animal shaped steel.

That’s about all I got. If I was an MD I’d do whatever I could to make it impossible to use a triple pull. But I’m not, so I won’t complain.

I do however think it’s time that nrl put more effort into a one day feeder series. We are seeing them take off in some places. Looks like the 2 days this year really filling up fast, that’s good news.

 

[bajeep93]

I was saying it more as a generalization, that things will change as competitors adapt to the challenges. I’m fairly happy with the current rule set. But if I were to provide some feedback it would be similar to above.

-Eliminate the Friday check in. It’s a waste of shooters time. Or atleast make it optional. Throw a party Friday night for the guys traveling a long ways instead.

-I’m still not sure I like the power factor setup. I understand it but at the same time it would be nice to shoot my actual hunting gun regardless of if it’s a 223 or something big. That said I kind of understand power factor if only for ROs being that we are normally shooting big animal shaped steel.

That’s about all I got. If I was an MD I’d do whatever I could to make it impossible to use a triple pull. But I’m not, so I won’t complain.

I do however think it’s time that nrl put more effort into a one day feeder series. We are seeing them take off in some places. Looks like the 2 days this year really filling up fast, that’s good news.

What’s the problem with the triple pull?


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[Lawnboi]

What’s the problem with the triple pull?


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The price. I’m lucky enough to have access to one but won’t be using it. 2lbs on the end of the rifle would mean I’m shooting every stage that’s not prone tripod rear

 

[KY_coop]

I went to the match Kurts86 wrote about( my first competition) and while I understand the points you made and somewhat agree with them. Me and my wife had a blast and are ready for the next one. We made a 10 hr drive. Not having many close to where i live , I kind of knew what I was getting into.

 

[bajeep93]

The price. I’m lucky enough to have access to one but won’t be using it. 2lbs on the end of the rifle would mean I’m shooting every stage that’s not prone tripod rear

I do not have a triple pull. I only have a double pull. I want to learn to make do with what I have. It may net be optimal. learning to use it and be able to build a position with what I have. It is part of the learning and practice for what you will be using when hunting. Shoot off of your tripod if you need that much height. I am only there to better my self and use the gear that I have. I could borrow a triple pull to use in the nrl. But that in no way will help me with getting familiar with my gear that I will be using when hunting.


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[Justin Crossley]

I’d love to see the entire match be 1 day. We had to show up Friday for check in for an hour of actual content that was scheduled for 3 hours. There goes a vacation day. Saturday we were done shooting 10 stages with 4+ hours of daylight left to come back Sunday to shoot for 4 hours. No one was in a hurry to start awards ceremony so we left early to relieve the child care at home. I understand the weekend is social for some people but it’s double the time period it could be. This could also allow 2x the shooters on the course over a weekend making the events more profitable.

The administrative parts of the match were not particularly streamlined from an organization or time management perspective. The stage explanation and maps were hand drawn magic marker on poster board. The location for check in, weigh in and shooting was not marked, etc. Coming from an endurance sports racing there was not very modern or evolved event management. You can even go to certain sporting clays tournaments and you can shoot that many positions in half a day.

Stage to stage wait time varied wildly throughout both days telling me there are some gaps to be optimized. Signing up for squads is a cool idea but there is probably an optimal ratio of individual, skills and teams per squad. Some squads had 3 teams and others have none. Maybe I’m impatient but the waiting aspect of match shooting has always driven me crazy. Spare time to shoot matches is very hard to come by.

I agree with most all of that. Sounds like you shot a really bad match though. Each match is run by different match directors and they can vary quite a bit depending on who is running them.

 

[Lawnboi]

I do not have a triple pull. I only have a double pull. I want to learn to make do with what I have. It may net be optimal. learning to use it and be able to build a position with what I have. It is part of the learning and practice for what you will be using when hunting. Shoot off of your tripod if you need that much height. I am only there to better my self and use the gear that I have. I could borrow a triple pull to use in the nrl. But that in no way will help me with getting familiar with my gear that I will be using when hunting.


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This is exactly why I’m not using a triple pull in two weeks. I couldn’t see myself hunting with it on the rifle I’ll be using.

It’s an awesome piece of equipment. And it’s earned its reputation for a reason.

 

[Justin Crossley]

The triple pull bipod is one of the best things to come from the NRL series in my opinion. I hate the price as much as anyone which is why I didn't get one until I could get a Black Friday deal. But there is no doubt it will lead to competitors coming out with options that are cheaper while pushing the limits.

The Gunwerks bipod is a good example and so is the Tricer. The RYDR-9 is also a good option at a fraction of the price.

 

[schmidty3]

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.

I shot it as well. My second one. I placed 9th in OH, roughly ~12th overall.

I use a kifaru reckoning stuffed with a moving blanket.

I never used a tripod. And only used my tall harris bipod two or three times. If I could go low prone I shot off of my pack with a rear bag. My outside perspective is that dealing with legs is too inefficient, especially when each position could cause you to have to adjust.

Shooting was hardly ever the problem. Time management, finding targets, and knowing when to cut bait on the target you couldn't find was.

I was shooting a stock tikka ctr in a bravo chassis and silencer. Landed at 14.5#.

If I knew that ram was going to be my shot in the field...id probably select a heavier gun!

That ram with the vital zone at 800 was a doozie. Most people never saw it. Took me too long and I ended up rushing the first target. Started shooting with a minute 30 left. Got the deer kn the 2nd, and somehow landed a first round hit on that ram, then ran out of time on the move. I think the average score on that stage was a 2 or less. Alwine got a 4.

If a man just cut bait. Took his time and shot the deer. Skipped the ram. And took his time and shot the deer again. He would've tied the highest score in the stage. Then had time to look for the ram.


All that to say.... I disagree a bit. Doing all that on the clock and increasing efficiency.....I really wouldn't want to be getting shot at by me at this point. I'm a way better hunter (efficient shooter) after just 2 matches.