MeatInTheFreezer
FNG
- Joined
- Jun 21, 2023
This is my recap of my first rifle shooting match of any kind, hopefully others in the same boat can learn from this and be encouraged to try one. Before doing this I didn’t personally know anyone who shoots in matches and I didn’t personally know anyone who would be at the event I signed up for. “You got nothing to lose when no one knows your name”…as the song goes.
Big thanks to @kharb22 for answering a ton of my questions in advance and being so generous with your knowledge of these events.
Bottom line up front;
I had an excellent experience and would highly recommend an NRLHunter match to anyone who wants to be a better rifle hunter and shooter.
NRLHunter match I attended; Colorado Extreme Hunter presented by Burris - March; 15, 16 and 17 – 2024. Almost 2 feet of wet snow came a day before the match. This made things challenging but very realistic from a hunting perspective. The match was in hunting type terrain in the foothills of Colorado’s front range – very realistic hunting stages. I heard from multiple experienced competitors that this was the hardest match they had ever competed in from a target finding standpoint. The snow made things more challenging – good!
Division;
I signed up for the SKILLS division, therefore I was not competing for official points but just there to learn. Doing so allows you to watch a stage before you shoot it, find targets in advance and have a buddy coach you during the stage. I found all of the Range Officers to be extremely supportive and helpful because I was in the SKILLS division. Signing up in the SKILLS division allowed me to spend my 4 minutes at each stage building positions and shooting rather than spending a bunch of time finding targets and then not getting to shoot much. I wasn’t afraid to tell folks that I had never done this before and was there to learn. Skills division is also a cheaper cost.
Squad and Overall Atmosphere;
On check in day I signed up in a random squad which included; one skills div. (me), one team of 2 and 4 individual shooters. Your squad # determined what stages you would start at each day. I traveled with my squad from stage to stage. This is a great format which allowed me to learn from a team and from the individuals. Little did I know, I was in a squad with the individual shooter who would win the Open Heavy Division and the Overall for Individual. He was a great guy who helped me when I had a rangefinding/data issue. My squad was a great group of guys who were SUPER helpful and welcoming. I borrowed gear, watched them shoot, took feedback, received help, gave fist bumps and generally had a great time. I was blow away at the lack of ego within my squad. The comradery was so great. Huge thanks to my squad for teaching me a ton and showing me what it looks like to compete at a high level with a smile on your face.
My Gear;
I have one long range gun. I shot my Gunwerks Werkman 6.5PRC with a 5-25x56 Revic scope with a ballistic elevation turret specific to the round I shot. My gun has a 2 port muzzle brake and does a tremendous job of managing recoil. Most competitors had a muzzle brake on their guns, some had suppressors. I shot the Hornady 147gr. ELD-Ms and my shooting system shot lights out! I had an ARCA plate mounted mid-stock which I used for attaching to tripods – this worked great. For my gun I have two different bottom metal set ups; for hunting I use a top load, 3 round hinged floor plate bottom metal, for the match I used a magazine fed bottom metal to use 7 round mags. Since you have to wait to load your gun until your 4 minutes has started on the stage, I didn’t want to waste a bunch of time loading ammo with the hinged floor plate setup but some people did and they made it work. The 7 round mags worked great and fed super smooth. I used my Gunwerks BR2500 rangefinder to glass targets and get my shoot to ranges. I made my own armboard for drawing a map of target locations and associated ranges. While most people had rangefinding binos, I did just fine with my BR2500 and never used my regular binos. I did this so I didn’t have to switch back and forth from binos to rangefinder – this proved to be the right choice. During various stages I borrowed an RRS tripod with Anvil 30 head from another competitor behind me in line and this proved invaluable to my experience. I have an Atlas bipod, schmedium game changer and a squishy armagedon bag. I used my EXO pack quite a bit in different positions. There was water at every other stage but I brought my own snacks, etc. A lot of people wore knee pads which was a good idea. I wore my First Lite pants with knee pads – this was the ticket. I cant recommend those pants enough.
Shooting Positions and Ranges;
Unpainted steel targets were approx. 250 yards to 760 yards. The crazy snow eliminated a couple stages with longer ranges. To be successful I had to shoot prone off of my bipod and my backpack, lots of shooting off of a tripod, some shooting off of manmade features and also shooting off of designated land features like stumps. The snow eliminated a lot of rocks and other features that could have been utilized. Tripods had to be utilized a lot more because of the snow. I shot off a tripod kneeling, with my gamechanger between my butt and legs/feet – got this great tip from another great shooter. I felt super steady with this tripod set up out to 500ish yards. Shooting prone I was able to get impacts on targets out to 760yds.
My main takeaways;
On check in day that had an experienced teacher giving a quick overview of how the match worked, information about placards and target sequences (left to right, near to far) and other great info for a first timer. This was super helpful.
Before the match I watched a bunch of youtube videos other NRLHunter competitors have posted, this was very valuable.
Before the match I did a lot of dry fire practice to include managing my gear and workflow to include understanding my wobble zone in various positions, this was very valuable.
Before the match I practiced shooting in multiple positions, on the clock, out to 250 yds since that’s all I had. It only takes 5 seconds to prove an idea in the field that you thought would work in your basement. There is no substitute for realistic field training, under pressure, on the clock.
I need to work on landmarking targets so I can pick them back up quicker. I need to work on re-locating my target with the naked eye, line it up on the top of my scope and then get back into the scope, on target.
I shot way less ammo than expected. Maybe 4-5 boxes? My gun was dialed prior to the match and I didn’t do any zeroing at check in day.
I thought the same thing going in but the match reaffirmed that I will limit myself to 500 yards or less on big game animals this coming hunting season, in favorable conditions. Likely 350 yards or less in less favorable conditions. I didn’t talk to anyone at the match who bragged about shooting animals at 1000 yards. Most limited themselves to reasonable ranges when hunting.
I will compete in another NRLHunter match in the future. It was great to see where my skills stood in a group of other hunters and shooters – it can be too easy to live in your own head. I was happy with how I stacked up in my division and overall across all divisions. Thanks to the match directors, range officers, fellow competitors and the team at NRLHunter for putting on these events.
Thanks for reading.
Big thanks to @kharb22 for answering a ton of my questions in advance and being so generous with your knowledge of these events.
Bottom line up front;
I had an excellent experience and would highly recommend an NRLHunter match to anyone who wants to be a better rifle hunter and shooter.
NRLHunter match I attended; Colorado Extreme Hunter presented by Burris - March; 15, 16 and 17 – 2024. Almost 2 feet of wet snow came a day before the match. This made things challenging but very realistic from a hunting perspective. The match was in hunting type terrain in the foothills of Colorado’s front range – very realistic hunting stages. I heard from multiple experienced competitors that this was the hardest match they had ever competed in from a target finding standpoint. The snow made things more challenging – good!
Division;
I signed up for the SKILLS division, therefore I was not competing for official points but just there to learn. Doing so allows you to watch a stage before you shoot it, find targets in advance and have a buddy coach you during the stage. I found all of the Range Officers to be extremely supportive and helpful because I was in the SKILLS division. Signing up in the SKILLS division allowed me to spend my 4 minutes at each stage building positions and shooting rather than spending a bunch of time finding targets and then not getting to shoot much. I wasn’t afraid to tell folks that I had never done this before and was there to learn. Skills division is also a cheaper cost.
Squad and Overall Atmosphere;
On check in day I signed up in a random squad which included; one skills div. (me), one team of 2 and 4 individual shooters. Your squad # determined what stages you would start at each day. I traveled with my squad from stage to stage. This is a great format which allowed me to learn from a team and from the individuals. Little did I know, I was in a squad with the individual shooter who would win the Open Heavy Division and the Overall for Individual. He was a great guy who helped me when I had a rangefinding/data issue. My squad was a great group of guys who were SUPER helpful and welcoming. I borrowed gear, watched them shoot, took feedback, received help, gave fist bumps and generally had a great time. I was blow away at the lack of ego within my squad. The comradery was so great. Huge thanks to my squad for teaching me a ton and showing me what it looks like to compete at a high level with a smile on your face.
My Gear;
I have one long range gun. I shot my Gunwerks Werkman 6.5PRC with a 5-25x56 Revic scope with a ballistic elevation turret specific to the round I shot. My gun has a 2 port muzzle brake and does a tremendous job of managing recoil. Most competitors had a muzzle brake on their guns, some had suppressors. I shot the Hornady 147gr. ELD-Ms and my shooting system shot lights out! I had an ARCA plate mounted mid-stock which I used for attaching to tripods – this worked great. For my gun I have two different bottom metal set ups; for hunting I use a top load, 3 round hinged floor plate bottom metal, for the match I used a magazine fed bottom metal to use 7 round mags. Since you have to wait to load your gun until your 4 minutes has started on the stage, I didn’t want to waste a bunch of time loading ammo with the hinged floor plate setup but some people did and they made it work. The 7 round mags worked great and fed super smooth. I used my Gunwerks BR2500 rangefinder to glass targets and get my shoot to ranges. I made my own armboard for drawing a map of target locations and associated ranges. While most people had rangefinding binos, I did just fine with my BR2500 and never used my regular binos. I did this so I didn’t have to switch back and forth from binos to rangefinder – this proved to be the right choice. During various stages I borrowed an RRS tripod with Anvil 30 head from another competitor behind me in line and this proved invaluable to my experience. I have an Atlas bipod, schmedium game changer and a squishy armagedon bag. I used my EXO pack quite a bit in different positions. There was water at every other stage but I brought my own snacks, etc. A lot of people wore knee pads which was a good idea. I wore my First Lite pants with knee pads – this was the ticket. I cant recommend those pants enough.
Shooting Positions and Ranges;
Unpainted steel targets were approx. 250 yards to 760 yards. The crazy snow eliminated a couple stages with longer ranges. To be successful I had to shoot prone off of my bipod and my backpack, lots of shooting off of a tripod, some shooting off of manmade features and also shooting off of designated land features like stumps. The snow eliminated a lot of rocks and other features that could have been utilized. Tripods had to be utilized a lot more because of the snow. I shot off a tripod kneeling, with my gamechanger between my butt and legs/feet – got this great tip from another great shooter. I felt super steady with this tripod set up out to 500ish yards. Shooting prone I was able to get impacts on targets out to 760yds.
My main takeaways;
On check in day that had an experienced teacher giving a quick overview of how the match worked, information about placards and target sequences (left to right, near to far) and other great info for a first timer. This was super helpful.
Before the match I watched a bunch of youtube videos other NRLHunter competitors have posted, this was very valuable.
Before the match I did a lot of dry fire practice to include managing my gear and workflow to include understanding my wobble zone in various positions, this was very valuable.
Before the match I practiced shooting in multiple positions, on the clock, out to 250 yds since that’s all I had. It only takes 5 seconds to prove an idea in the field that you thought would work in your basement. There is no substitute for realistic field training, under pressure, on the clock.
I need to work on landmarking targets so I can pick them back up quicker. I need to work on re-locating my target with the naked eye, line it up on the top of my scope and then get back into the scope, on target.
I shot way less ammo than expected. Maybe 4-5 boxes? My gun was dialed prior to the match and I didn’t do any zeroing at check in day.
I thought the same thing going in but the match reaffirmed that I will limit myself to 500 yards or less on big game animals this coming hunting season, in favorable conditions. Likely 350 yards or less in less favorable conditions. I didn’t talk to anyone at the match who bragged about shooting animals at 1000 yards. Most limited themselves to reasonable ranges when hunting.
I will compete in another NRLHunter match in the future. It was great to see where my skills stood in a group of other hunters and shooters – it can be too easy to live in your own head. I was happy with how I stacked up in my division and overall across all divisions. Thanks to the match directors, range officers, fellow competitors and the team at NRLHunter for putting on these events.
Thanks for reading.
