I've heard about these range days but hadn't seen one close by until this year. This one was at Gravestone Range in Lipan, Texas last Saturday. That's just a little south of Weatherford. The cost was $75 for a shooter ticket and that got you 24 centerfire rounds on any rifle of your choice, ten rimfire rounds, a BBQ lunch and swag bag which included a lot of discount coupons, a hat, tee-shirt, and a few other branded doodads. A non-shooter ticket was $25 and included lunch and a tee-shirt.
There were Bergara employees there from just about every department in BPI Outdoors, which is the Bergara importer in the US, and several members of the various Bergara shooting teams. It was a great opportunity to pick the brains of the experts, both on Bergara and Kahles products and shooting in general. Everyone working with the shooters at the benches was helpful and seemed genuinely pleased to be there helping the participants "ring steel".
Even though participation was limited to 80 shooters on 11 shooting positions there was a little wait to shoot each gun. There were three tactical positions and eight benches. All the centerfire rifles were chambered in 6.5 Creedmoor and the rimfire rifles were scoped bolt action guns. They had a good selection of Bergara rifles from the lightweight Crest, MG Lite and MG Microlite models to B14 HMRs, and Premier Competiton chassis rifles. The centerfire guns had Kahles 328i or 540i scopes, which were excellent. Targets were from 100 to 1000 yards on the benches and 300 or 600 yards on the barricades. All the guns were suppressed, even the rimfires. I usually double up with ear plugs and muffs, but was comfortable just wearing the ear plugs this day.
There were people from Washington State to North Carolina and everywhere in between in attendance. There were even two participants from Australia who included this event in their vacation plans, so they won the prize for traveling the farthest to attend. It was interesting meeting so many people who were participating in long distance shooting and with such varied backgrounds. Some were seasoned veterans with very high dollar guns and others were relative newbies.
At 1, 2, 3, and 4 pm, they stopped shooting to let barrels cool (they really didn't need to do that because each position had 3-4 guns which were rotated) and had a drawing for prizes. There were about 8 each time from inexpensive branded water bottles, to hats, scope covers and other logo items and included several limited Bergara Edition Jack Daniels decanters of Bourbon. I won a coupon for 35% off any Bergara rifle from BPI Outdoors. It's unfortunate timing because I had just bought a Bergara barreled action from BPI in February. I'm mulling over what to do with the coupon.
Sign-in and lunch seating area.
The Range.
The firing line. Tactical barricades are at the far end. The guys in the colorful shirts are members of the Bergara Shooting Team.
The 1000-yard berm is the last one on the far left at the top of the hill.
Proof you can hit the target at 1000 yards. Not really that hard since someone else zeroed the scope and figured out the dope for you. You basically sat down and they told you how much wind to hold. If you have good shooting fundamentals, you couldn't miss. They had you shoot at a large square target at 1000 yards. Once you hit that, you could pick and choose smaller targets to challenge yourself. I got down to a 10" target with no problem, but the smaller gongs were tough to hit with the wind.
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There were Bergara employees there from just about every department in BPI Outdoors, which is the Bergara importer in the US, and several members of the various Bergara shooting teams. It was a great opportunity to pick the brains of the experts, both on Bergara and Kahles products and shooting in general. Everyone working with the shooters at the benches was helpful and seemed genuinely pleased to be there helping the participants "ring steel".
Even though participation was limited to 80 shooters on 11 shooting positions there was a little wait to shoot each gun. There were three tactical positions and eight benches. All the centerfire rifles were chambered in 6.5 Creedmoor and the rimfire rifles were scoped bolt action guns. They had a good selection of Bergara rifles from the lightweight Crest, MG Lite and MG Microlite models to B14 HMRs, and Premier Competiton chassis rifles. The centerfire guns had Kahles 328i or 540i scopes, which were excellent. Targets were from 100 to 1000 yards on the benches and 300 or 600 yards on the barricades. All the guns were suppressed, even the rimfires. I usually double up with ear plugs and muffs, but was comfortable just wearing the ear plugs this day.
There were people from Washington State to North Carolina and everywhere in between in attendance. There were even two participants from Australia who included this event in their vacation plans, so they won the prize for traveling the farthest to attend. It was interesting meeting so many people who were participating in long distance shooting and with such varied backgrounds. Some were seasoned veterans with very high dollar guns and others were relative newbies.
At 1, 2, 3, and 4 pm, they stopped shooting to let barrels cool (they really didn't need to do that because each position had 3-4 guns which were rotated) and had a drawing for prizes. There were about 8 each time from inexpensive branded water bottles, to hats, scope covers and other logo items and included several limited Bergara Edition Jack Daniels decanters of Bourbon. I won a coupon for 35% off any Bergara rifle from BPI Outdoors. It's unfortunate timing because I had just bought a Bergara barreled action from BPI in February. I'm mulling over what to do with the coupon.
Sign-in and lunch seating area.
The Range.
The firing line. Tactical barricades are at the far end. The guys in the colorful shirts are members of the Bergara Shooting Team.
The 1000-yard berm is the last one on the far left at the top of the hill.
Proof you can hit the target at 1000 yards. Not really that hard since someone else zeroed the scope and figured out the dope for you. You basically sat down and they told you how much wind to hold. If you have good shooting fundamentals, you couldn't miss. They had you shoot at a large square target at 1000 yards. Once you hit that, you could pick and choose smaller targets to challenge yourself. I got down to a 10" target with no problem, but the smaller gongs were tough to hit with the wind.
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