|
Just Go!! My First Competitive Shooting Experience
Over
the past weekend, I was finally able to scratch off one of my shooting goals
for the year and get out and shoot in my first competitive match. I jumped in head
first and shot in the Rocky Mountain Mayhem Precision Rifle Series match. The
match was a national level match that stretched over 3 day starting with rifle
zeroing on Friday evening with scored shooting throughout Saturday and Sunday. Since
it was a national level match some of the best shooters in the country were in
attendance. For me, I feel I would have been intimidated attending with proper
preparation and training let alone in my ill-prepared state. I decided to just
go for it on two days preparation prior (not my brightest moment for sure) but
I figured what better scenario to just go for it and learn a thing or two on
the fly. I went in with the attitude that I would learn a lot and fast. I
wanted to just “cut my teeth” and really didn’t have high expectations
considering the level of talent attending this huge match. It was a very nervous
experience at first getting to the range and making sure my rifle was properly
zeroed and squared away on Friday and not really knowing anybody and getting to
see how seriously it seemed some of the guys at the zero range seemed to take
their shooting. However, every guy I talked to were very approachable and in
the end I was very glad that I decided to just go for it. I found it was a very
welcoming atmosphere and I came away with a ton of new friends and learned so
much over the two days I knew for sure I went up a couple hat sizes with all
the information crammed into my brain over the weekend.
The
match consisted of being “squadded” up with anywhere from 8-12 other shooters
and shooting consisted of shooting 20 different stages over the two days. The
actual scored shooting began Saturday morning and it was comforting to find
that my squad was a pretty even mix between very seasoned match shooters and
beginners like myself. In my experience, everyone who shares the shooting
passion seem to be very welcoming, easy to approach, and eager to share
knowledge. I have often thought that “gun people” are some of the best people
around and it was definitely on display over this match. The more experienced
shooters were very helpful with me on how to approach stages and maximize not
only my chances for success, but for all of us “newbies”. They shared tips on
how they were going to approach a stage, manage shooting in the wind, and
equipment choice and made me feel one hundred percent comfortable asking all
the questions I had. It was also a great to find that despite not being
equipped with all the latest and greatest gear like some of the pro shooters
attending the match, every shooter in my squad were more than willing to share
what they had with me and I of course was willing to do the same with what limited
equipment I had. All in all it was a very welcome atmosphere and despite my
lack of preparation and practice, I felt very welcomed and can’t wait to get
out to another match…with some better preparation of course!
Once
scored shooting commenced Saturday morning I learned a lot of hard lessons
fast. My two days prior of preparation really took a toll. I dropped a lot of
shots due to mismanagement of time, lost targets once I got on the gun, bad
wind calls, and just general unfamiliarity with my optics, gun, and equipment.
My gun is only about a month or two old and I had some very basic DOPE put
together out to 1000 yards headed to this match and found some of the stages
were out to 1460 yards which bit me. A lot of the shooting was positional
shooting which I hadn’t really practiced yet either, needless to say I did not
perform up to what I would hope to expect under normal circumstances. Despite
my poor performance I did take away a multitude of information that will help
me prepare for my next match. Since I was able to commit and just go to a
match, I got to see in the real world what worked for me and my style of
shooting such as shooting bags/rests. We also packed nearly everything we needed
from stage to stage and it was fairly quick paced so I was able to get an idea
on how to organize and pack my gear where it is accessible and also what I
probably don’t need to pack along on the next match. During the match we
rotated shooting order where you may shoot last on the first stage and steadily
move your way up to shooting first as you completed stages and the cycle
continued throughout the entirety of the match. I came up with a checklist during
the match in between stages of getting my ammunition ready, optics and dope
squared away for the next stage, find my next targets, and just observe what
other shooters were doing. My “checklist” will definitely need some fine tuning
but it was experience I just wouldn’t get without seeing it firsthand. Just
getting out to a match also gave me a chance to get familiar with the shooting
from standard PRS styled obstacles which I had not done before. It really
highlighted my weaknesses in building stable unconventional shooting positions.
Now that I’ve had some exposure I definitely am planning to build a lot of
these obstacles to practice with at my house and at my local range in
preparation for my next match for sure!
Even though I got a complete smack
down and finished towards the bottom of the pack in my first match, I
absolutely cannot wait to get another crack at the next one. I gained a lot of
knowledge that I don’t believe I would have in any other way other than getting
to experience it myself. I also got to see some great shooting firsthand and to
see what it takes to compete on a national level. I also had a great weekend
getting to know a lot of other shooters from across the country and from my
home state of Utah that compete. I met a ton of new people and built some new
friendships which have already been a treasure trove of information. It also
gave me a lot of perspective on the shooting community and how awesome everyone
is with one another. I would say that if you’ve wanted to try your hand at
competitive shooting no matter the discipline and just haven’t gotten up enough
nerve, or have wanted to waited until you’ve had the perfect match gun, or have
all the equipment……DON’T WAIT! Find a local match that you believe gives you
enough time to realistically get prepared and make a commitment and just go!
Not only did I learn more than I ever would have by researching on the internet,
I got to spend almost 3 full days at the range and how can that ever be a bad
time!
Lance Olsen
|
