I want to start shooting some rifle matches. I have shot a ton of service rifle and a few high power matches and they are OK, but very structured and, well, boring. I "discovered" PRS last year, managed to get to 2 matches, (both "introduction" style), and I realized that my equipment was woefully inadequate to the task. I brought a single shot 308 with fixed power glass to one, with no provision for carrying ammo, and an AR pattern 308 gas gun with an 8-40x benchrest scope and only 25 round pmags to the other. No bags, service rifle style slings, no bipod, I was a hot mess. OOf.
With those failures under my belt, like any good nerd, I went to Google and youtube, watched some videos, and started buying gear. The COVID hit and hucked all of my plans out the window. Some matches were cancelled, I had to give up some due to work commitments, others were on the same day as other matches due to rescheduling, I even suffered a minor sports injury...its been a dumpster fire of a year. Full disclosure: 3 gun is my passion but I shoot everything from Trap to Steel Challenge to USPSA, tactical shotgun, bullseye league, even the occasional IDPA and 2 gun tactical match (but dont tell anyone about those).
So, I now have a couple of suitable rifles, with suitable scopes, in suitable calibers (a 308 and a matched .22), with plenty of 10 round mags for each. I have Strelok, bipods, , match ammo (ish), Magnetospeed, QR slings and bags and even a semi-suitable tripod
. What I don't have is any real experience or guidance. I need to figure out how to practice with only a 100y range to work with, WHAT to practice, and start going to matches. I have watched youtube til my eyes bugged, but you can only learn so much with videos. Actually, If I could find a local battle buddy to help show me the ropes, that would be awesome.
Specifically, I want to build a prop or two to practice off of, but they have to be space efficient and portable because I cant leave them at the range. This probably means no tank trap, but certainly I can come up with something. Also, I had the idea of using Aguila Colibri in the .22 at 100y with very small targets to get experience and used to dialing and holdovers, but I havent tried it so I don't know if it will work.