Shot my first PRS match this weekend up at Frontline Defense in Warrenton North Carolina.  I've just recently purchased my first true Precision Rifle (Ruger Precision Rifle 6.5C, Vortex HD 5-20, Atlas Bipod). Previous experience was a Remington Sendero in .270 I had years ago, and used to shoot a practical rifle match out to 500 yards.  I've never taken one of my rifles past 500 yards prior to this match.

Prior to the match, I had worked up a basic handload (H4350, Hornady 140gr ELD-M, Hornady Brass).  I had shot 253 rounds through the rifle prior to shooting the match today.  Due to limited range facilities, the majority of my practice thus far has been shooting from a bench, on targets at 100 yards.  I did get a chance to go out to Frontline a few weeks back, and shoot to 500 yards to get a estimated velocity and to get dope out to 500 yards.

My results from 200-500 yards game me an estimated velocity of 2,700fps.  During zero confirmation, another shooter was generous enough to offer use of his lab radar.  Pretty slick.  Velocity was 2,710fps, SD of 13.  Very close to my estimate.  Zero confirmation showed a solid group about less than 1/4" low-left.

My goal for this match was to identify what I need to work on so I can come out and shoot some of the Guardian matches next year.  Additionally, I wanted to get good verified DOPE for my rifle and load.  I expected the first several stages to be about gathering my DOPE.

The match was broken down into 8 stages.  Shortest target was 378 yards, longest was 1,000 yards.  I was in Squad 6, we started on Stage 7.

I'm going to give a brief overview of each stage, along with my mistakes and lessons learned.

Stage 7 (1 point).  This started off as a prone stage for three targets (935, 844, 790) 2x each before moving over to a roofline to shoot two more targets (491, 388) 2x each.  I've never gotten an opportunity to shoot off a roof, so I was really wanting to do that during this course.  Unfortunately, that meant that I rushed my first 6 shots trying to be quick enough to get to the roof.  I didn't get a good position, and I was too aggressive.  Especially since I didn't have confirmed DOPE a this point.  I should have focused on going slow, spotting my shots.  Instead, I rushed it, and tried to get to the roof.  I only scored 1 hit on the first 6 shots, and didn't get a shot off on the roof (was just about to pull the trigger on the first shot).

Stage 8 (5 points).  Prone at 900 (3x), 950 (3x) and 1,000 (4x).  Wind was light from the left. I initially decided on a .2mil hold, but increased it to a .4mil hold after my first shots.  I went 2/3 @ 900, 0/3 at 950, and 3/4 at 1,000.  At 950, I noted that my shots were high and right.  Another shooter noted this as well, and discussed my data and that there was possibly an error.

Stage 1 (2 points).  Stage 1 starts shooting prone through an opening in wood wall made of railroad ties.  1 shot each at 453, 485 and 378 in that order.  Then move to another spot on the wall, with a opening up higher and shoot at the same targets, in the same order.  After, move back to the prone position and shoot the same targets in order.  I went 2/3 on the first portion, then moved over to the higher "hole in the wall".  I didn't have a big bag to help with support, so I had a hell of a time trying to get stable on the higher hole.  I repositioned a few times, lost a ton of time, and still wasn't stable enough to connect.  I had enough time to get back to the prone when the buzzer went off.  Rather than dialing, I used holdovers to try an be quicker.

Stage 2.  (8 points) Targets were at 622, 663, 704, 744 and 787.  2x each.  Position was starting in the bed of a dodge truck, and shooting over the cab at the targets.  As with stage 1, I went with holdovers rather than dialing. At this point, I reduced my hold overs by .1mil across the board. Somewhere during the stage, I had a failure-to-fire with one round.  I ejected the round and continued.  I had missed only 1 round when I got to the end, realized I might have time left, grabbed the failed round, loaded it through the ejection port (which necessitated dropping the PMAG) and fired just after the buzzer went off.  Hit, but too late.  Position felt good, and it was nice to get some points on the board.

Stage 3.  (5 points) Target was at 719 yards.  Positions were from concrete pipes.  5 possible positions, 2 shots each.  I went 5/6 of the shots I fired before the timer went off as I was preparing to shoot the 4th position.  I found my bipod legs needed to be extended further and I was fighting them as the timer went off.

Stage 4.  (3 points) Target was 467 yards.  Positions were from the prone, then from positions within the ladder.  2x from each position, moving up each time.  I went 2/2 from prone, then 1/2 from the next position (2nd rung).  I think I was working on the 3rd position when time ran out.  This was very unstable for me, and I'm thinking I'm going to be doing a lot of dry practice with a ladder from now on.

Stage 5 (4 points) Targets at 588 and 634.  Positions were from various spools in different positions.  I went 4/6 shots on this.  The horizontal spools weren't too bad, but the vertical was very unstable for me.

Stage 6 ( 3 points)  5 targets at 524 yards (8"; 7"; 6"; 5"; 4").  This was a learn-your-limits stage.  1x each prone, then move to the bench for 1x.  Prior to my shooting this, everyone was noticing there was significant wind shift going on at this one.  We would notice a left-to-right trend in the wind, 30-seconds later, it was right-to-left.  One shooter connected with no significant wind correction, the next had a 2-MOA correction.  The wind wasn't my issue though.  Mine was mainly vertical. I adjusted my come-ups, and decided to pull out .1mil from my come-up.  That was a mistake, and most of the shots went a touch low.

I shot 66 rounds, 5 of which were during zero confirmation.  So I connected with 31 out of 61 shots that I fired.

Lessons Learned:

- The necessity of accurate DOPE.  Of the 30 rounds I missed on, 17 primarily caused by a fault in my drop calculations.

- I need to practice some more unusual positions, like off the ladder.

- A pump pillow might be a worthwhile investment.

- Slow down.  I missed several shots because I was trying to move quickly.  I should have slowed down, and ensured good hits.

- I had marked my brass with sharpie.  I didn't want to lose much brass, so I made it rather obvious by using a considerable amount of sharpie on the brass.  This caused some "stickiness" within the chamber.  Next time I will make more subtle markings.

Nice breakdown and sounds like a lot were learned.

Sounds like you learned a lot.  Dope is very important to have and a kestrel is one of my most important pieces of gear.

Position building and and economy of motion are important.  I carry two bags to matches, the game changer and pump pillow.  I don't use the pump pillow often because of how I shoot positions, but It is handy for certain stages and doesn't weigh a whole lot.

Glad we got to talk for a bit at the match, thanks again for all the assistance.  Daughter made it through, dozed off for awhile during stage 5.  Teenagers can sleep anywhere.

Was wondering what happened to you during the match, we caught up to your squad throughout the day, and noticed you weren't shooting anymore.  I guess 25 years on a trigger isn't too shabby.

My dope was actually a lot closer than I expected it to be.  I had zero'd at 100 yards, then got dope at 200, 300, 400 and 500 a few weeks prior to the match.  I took that and ran it through JBM and got an estimated velocity of 2,700fps.  When I got a chance to run it by the labradar at the match, it averaged 2,710fps, so I'm pretty happy with that estimate.  That was before it started to warm up though, so it might have been a touch faster too.  I was off by right about .2mil at 950 yards.  Close, but off just enough to not work out.

I took notes on my what my anticipated dope was on my course of fire, and then I made some marks to identify what actually worked.  So I should have a solid dope moving forward.  At least much closer than I had before.

As for the sharpie on the brass, no photos.  I don't want to memorialize my stupidity with that.  There was enough that I had to do a fair amount of cleaning of the chamber with rubbing alcohol.  Took awhile before the patches stopped coming out purple.