What keeps you from LR competition shooting?

[Leaf Litter]

NRL Hunter is not benchrest. It couldn't be farther from it. You can use your hunting gun and the gear you use on a western hunt. All you need is a pack to carry your stuff, a way to find and range targets, ammunition and gun. A bipod and tripod are very, very helpful. You don't "need" anything else.

Anything and everything you do in a Hunter match is what you'd do when hunting. Yes, you may choose a different position on an actual hunt but the positions you're given in a match are identical to a position you may see when hunting. In other words, you can't shoot the match all prone or off the top of your pack. Although, if you don't have a bag for a rock you can use your pack.

NRL Hunter has three divisions: factory, open light (less than 12 lbs) and open heavy (less than 16 lbs.).

I have changed completely my hunting setup after having shot these matches for over two years. I've seen how effective I am at hitting targets at distance. It's increased my minimum comfortable range and also decreased what I thought I could do on a hunt. Shooting on a square range at steel is a whole lot different than shooting across the country in varying terrain, environments and weather in hunting scenarios.

Although it's not in this thread specifically, you often see folks saying they won't do NRL Hunter because it's a gear race and there's no way they can compete. Honestly, nobody will be competitive in their first year. The guys at the top have been shooting these for years and no amount of gear will make a newbie good at these matches. It's practice and experience.

You tried to downplay it, but there's no way around the fact that NRL is a gear race. Bipod, tripod and rangefinder alone will usually be north of $1k for entry level equipment and closer to $3k for equipment that is any good.

I shot an NRL One event this year and if I didn't go with a friend that lent me his tripod and rangefinder binos, it would have been an absolute waste of time, barrel life and ammo. I won't say I didn't enjoy it, but you must buy the ticket to take the ride.

 

[parshal]

I suspected most hunters already have a bipod, rangefinder and binos. It's usually the tripod the most don't have. I'd never again go hunting without a tripod now that I've used it.

They have loaner tripods and most other stuff at the two-day matches. So, you don't have to buy anything unless you really end up wanting to do it more.

 

[Raider4044]

I suspected most hunters already have a bipod, rangefinder and binos. It's usually the tripod the most don't have. I'd never again go hunting without a tripod now that I've used it.

They have loaner tripods and most other stuff at the two-day matches. So, you don't have to buy anything unless you really end up wanting to do it more.

Yep, and most shooters are more than happy to let you use or try out any of their gear. It can certainly get expensive, but most of the gear you need will end up being used for a lot more than just matches.

 

[parshal]

,,, most of the gear you need will end up being used for a lot more than just matches.

Everything I use in a Hunter match I use hunting with the exception of the bipod. I don't take one hunting. In the matches it's more of a kickstand.

 

[mj23polaris]

There are a lot of preconceived notions about competitive shooting mixed in with some lame excuses also.

There's a lot of "club" PRS matches out there. I found 2 series/league that runs matches near me almost year round. Ones center fire and other 22.

I shot my first with 556 mk12 clone bc it's all I had.

Shot even more with a 6.5 gas gun and held my own. Building a bolt gun this winter to use next year.

If you show up with nothing but a rifle and open mind and are humble with your abilities guys will literally make you use their gear to help you make better shots. Don't have a kestrel guys will give you wind, need help with a ballistic solver they probably use it or have used it. Cant see you miss guys will call shots.

Hell need to barrow a rifle I had a guy offer if I pay for the ammo I could shoot his rifle.

Nrl hunter has loaner rifles.

Morgun king shot his first match with a 7rem mag. Look him up he's arguably one of the best in the world now.

If you live out east there is literally gas gun series/matches regularly and i reach out to them asking them to come out west bc we need.more out here. ARs are cheap and can be accurate on the cheap ammo is cheap AAC 77g and honady frontier.

One match NRL hunter or "PRS" match will make you 10x the shooter you were before and show you how bad you suck.

PRS has a few classes for rifles, NRL hunter has open classes, my local club series doesn't care.

Go shoot a match be humble



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[Whitey375]

The only place with real matches is 2.5 hours away, the rest are much further. The ones I went to were a blast though, humbling, but fun. Oregon is a dead zone for matches.

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[flyfisher117]

Money and time. I don't have the time to put in the effort to get competitive. I don't have the money to buy the gear to truly be competitive either.

I also don't care for the politics and silly rules that follow. Example I wanted to run a rifle for production class. The rifle I wanted ONLY comes from the factory with a muzzle brake. I wanted to remove that muzzle brake but since it didn't have a thread protector in the box that would disqualify me from running true production? Wtf.
Meanwhile a production rifle that doesn't have a muzzle brake but it came threaded and capped can run what ever muzzle device they want?

 

[AlwineArcher]

interesting to read some of the reasons in here.
I spent years avoiding trying any kind of “long range competition” now I can’t avoid going to every match possible.

NRL does have some dumb rules, and their website is a wreck, but these are things they are continually improving on.

If you are willing to attend these matches with an open mind and be coachable, it will make you a 10X better shot when it comes to making hunting shots in the field.

 

[parshal]

This will be very relatable to those that have shot competitively.

CPW has an elk dispersal program in the San Luis valley on the Sand Dunes which is on Federal land. Basically, they have a lot of elk on land that can no longer be hunted and the elk stay there all hunting season with some year round. For 20 years they've been dispersing elk off the property as well as culling.

They've created a program looking for good shooters from the public to get involved. The first thing a shooter must do is a proficiency test which consists of 12"x14" steel targets at 200 and 300 yards. 200 yard can shot any position other than prone and 300 can be prone in three minutes. No dialing, know your holds.

The passing rate is about 10%. I shot it yesterday and bumped into a friend who also shoots comps. Of the 30 folks at the test this day, seven passed which the guy running the program said was the largest percentage he's seen in the entire program. Of the seven, there were two competitive shooters, a guy that works for Burris, a guy that works for Leupold and two former military. One guy had only ever shot rabbits.

The guy running the program made an interesting comment. He said he gets calls from guys asking questions about the dispersal program as if the shooting test was a foregone conclusion. He said the vast majority of those guys miss the first shot. Basically, he said, everybody thinks they're a good shot but this simple test is proving incredibly difficult for the majority of shooters.

It was interesting watching the positions guys tried. Standing shooting sticks, kneeling shooting sticks, lightweight tripods, using the provided wobbly post, etc. Half the folks failing missed the first shot.

 

[khuber84]

This will be very relatable to those that have shot competitively.

CPW has an elk dispersal program in the San Luis valley on the Sand Dunes which is on Federal land. Basically, they have a lot of elk on land that can no longer be hunted and the elk stay there all hunting season with some year round. For 20 years they've been dispersing elk off the property as well as culling.

They've created a program looking for good shooters from the public to get involved. The first thing a shooter must do is a proficiency test which consists of 12"x14" steel targets at 200 and 300 yards. 200 yard can shot any position other than prone and 300 can be prone in three minutes. No dialing, know your holds.

The passing rate is about 10%. I shot it yesterday and bumped into a friend who also shoots comps. Of the 30 folks at the test this day, seven passed which the guy running the program said was the largest percentage he's seen in the entire program. Of the seven, there were two competitive shooters, a guy that works for Burris, a guy that works for Leupold and two former military. One guy had only ever shot rabbits.

The guy running the program made an interesting comment. He said he gets calls from guys asking questions about the dispersal program as if the shooting test was a foregone conclusion. He said the vast majority of those guys miss the first shot. Basically, he said, everybody thinks they're a good shot but this simple test is proving incredibly difficult for the majority of shooters.

It was interesting watching the positions guys tried. Standing shooting sticks, kneeling shooting sticks, lightweight tripods, using the provided wobbly post, etc. Half the folks failing missed the first shot.

Jeez.........I shoot a fair amount of comps, and do a lot of dry fire in the garage with my idts system. Everything from seated kneeling standing, with rifles that are 9-25#. 6 moa target at 200y any position but prone? Guys need to shoot more! Only one way to become a more proficient marksman.

 

[Lunchbox37]

This will be very relatable to those that have shot competitively.

CPW has an elk dispersal program in the San Luis valley on the Sand Dunes which is on Federal land. Basically, they have a lot of elk on land that can no longer be hunted and the elk stay there all hunting season with some year round. For 20 years they've been dispersing elk off the property as well as culling.

They've created a program looking for good shooters from the public to get involved. The first thing a shooter must do is a proficiency test which consists of 12"x14" steel targets at 200 and 300 yards. 200 yard can shot any position other than prone and 300 can be prone in three minutes. No dialing, know your holds.

The passing rate is about 10%. I shot it yesterday and bumped into a friend who also shoots comps. Of the 30 folks at the test this day, seven passed which the guy running the program said was the largest percentage he's seen in the entire program. Of the seven, there were two competitive shooters, a guy that works for Burris, a guy that works for Leupold and two former military. One guy had only ever shot rabbits.

The guy running the program made an interesting comment. He said he gets calls from guys asking questions about the dispersal program as if the shooting test was a foregone conclusion. He said the vast majority of those guys miss the first shot. Basically, he said, everybody thinks they're a good shot but this simple test is proving incredibly difficult for the majority of shooters.

It was interesting watching the positions guys tried. Standing shooting sticks, kneeling shooting sticks, lightweight tripods, using the provided wobbly post, etc. Half the folks failing missed the first shot.

Just to drive the point home a buddy and I went down and qualified for that last month… 55 people and only 5 of us qualified (2 of which shot PRS/NRL comps, my buddy and I shoot more than most and the 5th spent a lot of time at that range). There were a lot of guys that talked a big game before the qualifications began, more often than not those were the guys that missed within the first couple of shots. I also had an acquaintance go to the qual the following day and out of the 42 participants they had ZERO pass, with only one guy making it to last 300yds target before he missed.

I agree with you though, it was great people watching. We saw some wild stuff at the line along with some weird shooting positions throughout the qual (like kneeling with triple pull bipods and no rear support, just swinging that stock in the wind.., several dudes standing from a mono shooting stick etc.) During the orientation afterwards the CPW officer mentioned the most he had ever pass in one day was 6, so you guys set the new record lol.

I’m looking to shoot an NRL comp during the 2024 season if scheduling works out.

 

[Formidilosus]

Just to drive the point home a buddy and I went down and qualified for that last month… 55 people and only 5 of us qualified (2 of which shot PRS/NRL comps, my buddy and I shoot more than most and the 5th spent a lot of time at that range). There were a lot of guys that talked a big game before the qualifications began, more often than not those were the guys that missed within the first couple of shots. I also had an acquaintance go to the qual the following day and out of the 42 participants they had ZERO pass, with only one guy making it to last 300yds target before he missed.

I agree with you though, it was great people watching. We saw some wild stuff at the line along with some weird shooting positions throughout the qual (like kneeling with triple pull bipods and no rear support, just swinging that stock in the wind.., several dudes standing from a mono shooting stick etc.) During the orientation afterwards the CPW officer mentioned the most he had ever pass in one day was 6, so you guys set the new record lol.

I’m looking to shoot an NRL comp during the 2024 season if scheduling works out.

The Colorado elk hunt qualification should show anyone paying attention at all that this “common” belief online in social media, forums, and the myth of the American as shooter or rifleman is an utter, and complete joke. The masses running around asking about “600 yard elk” cartridges and rifles are nowhere near competent.
200 yards is a very low percentage shot for the absolute vast majority of hunters that I have seen all over the country, and the most serious and “best” hunters may be competent at 300 yards on demand. This Co. Elk qualification has been happening for multiple years and shows that.

The notion that 600 and 800 yard (even 400 yard) shooting is “easy” or will be on demand with a modest amount of practice is horrifically wrong.

 

[parshal]

The notion that 600 and 800 yard (even 400 yard) shooting is “easy” or will be on demand with a modest amount of practice is horrifically wrong.

It is much easier on a square range after your third shot to figure out wind and verify dope. Then it's easy to hit it routinely from prone or bagged bench. It gives folks a false sense of how good they are.

 

[Turkeytider]

How about........I`m not a very good shot.

 

[JGRaider]

The Colorado elk hunt qualification should show anyone paying attention at all that this “common” belief online in social media, forums, and the myth of the American as shooter or rifleman is an utter, and complete joke. The masses running around asking about “600 yard elk” cartridges and rifles are nowhere near competent.
200 yards is a very low percentage shot for the absolute vast majority of hunters that I have seen all over the country, and the most serious and “best” hunters may be competent at 300 yards on demand. This Co. Elk qualification has been happening for multiple years and shows that.

The notion that 600 and 800 yard (even 400 yard) shooting is “easy” or will be on demand with a modest amount of practice is horrifically wrong.

Been saying the same thing for years, especially after guiding some 160 or so hunters. Most show up over-gunned and over-scoped, and blame every miss on their equipment. 95+% of the time shots were under 300 yards even in wide open country.

This "1000 yards out of the box" mentality is laughable.

 

[parshal]

I've said it before but it's worth saying again. After five years of shooting competition across the country, my 'long range' distance has been reduced (I know how much unknown environmentals affect the shot) but my short range (<400) has been dramatically improved from hunting positions.

 

[Reburn]

I would love to compete but the amount of matches I was able to find within 4 hours of central Texas was 0.
I would go if there was a couple closer.

 

[parshal]

We end up driving a minimum of 8 hours. It does suck.

 

[Macintosh]

We end up driving a minimum of 8 hours. It does suck.

When I lived in the Rockies thought nothing of driving six+ hours one-way for a weekend, because that’s just how far apart stuff is. Now on the east coast almost everything I do is an hour or three apart, so 6+ is a bit of a stretch. My personal rule is if I spend more time in the car than doing whatever I drove there for, then it’s too far.

 

[khuber84]

I live in NW Montana, there's a venue 1hr from the house that usually hosts 2 - 3 matches a year, but everything else is 5 hours or more. I am building a nrl hunter rig currently and pray my schedule matches up with some the nearby MT, OR, ID, WY, WA matches, or I'll be traveling a LONG ways.