1) What do I need? I've been told I need a spotting scope, shooting mat, left-hand shooting mitt, a good rifle (obviously), a good sling, a logbook, etc. Do I really need the mat and mitt? What recommendations in regards to gear?
Minimum you need is one gun, two magazines or stripper clips, enough ammo, a pencil or pen to write with when you are scoring for another shooter, and eye/ear protection. A decent sling is nice to have; surplus GI cotton web slings are about $3-5 so no excuses there. Pretty much everything else is optional. A set of binocs to score with, a scrap of carpet remnant for a mat, a 5 gallon bucket to carry your gear in... as an older gentleman told me at a match in the course of a discussion about one thing or another... "it aint' about 'how'(looks), but 'how many' (points)"
2) What kind of rifle? I've heard of mainly AR-15s and M14 variants being used. How do the RRA and Bushmaster DCM rifles compare and measure up? What are the limitations on rifle type? Can I use an "accurized" FAL/ AK/ AR-180B/ M1 Garand/ Ohio Ordnance Works BAR?
As noted in the link in the previous post... has to be a U.S. military main battle rifle i.e. M1, M14, or M16 or civilian version thereof. You can use other guns, but they won't be legal in the 'Service Rifle' division. They are fine for use in the 'Match Rifle' division, which is pretty much anything that doesn't fall w/i the confines of 'Service Rifle'.
3) Where? I've heard of several of these matches, but never here in Oklahoma. Where are they held? Is there some website that would have them listed?
See if you have a local gun club that is NRA or CMP affiliated; they should be able to get you pointed in the right direction. Often times the appropriate state rifle and pistol association will have a schedule of approved matches; the Oklahoma Rifle & Pistol Association doesn't seem to have much of that on their website but it might be worth giving them a call. Failing that, dig around on
www.nrahq.org and find the Competitive shooting division and call them; they should be able to put you in touch w/ a warm body that knows whats going on in your area.
4) What are some of the non-shooting-type details? About how many people compete in these at a time? What are entry fees? What are prizes? Is the barbeque good?
Attendance varies wildly depending on what part of the country (Florida has matches pretty much year round, more northerly lattitudes start late March and end early fall for hunting seasons), among other things. We're just starting to get our HP program back in gear here, and 4-6 shooters is what we've got so far. Regional matches or state championships might have anywhere from 25 to 100, just depends. Figure around $20 entry fee, give or take $5-10. Prizes are generally by class, and are determined as a portion of the match fees collected so it'll vary depending on how many people show up. If you're lucky, and very very good, you might recoup the cost of your gas money and ammo. This ain't a sport you get into to make money at, that's for sure! BBQ? Haven't been to a match w/ one yet, most people have traveled some distance (up to several hours one way) and are chompin' at the bit to get back on the road and get home as soon as awards have been handed out.
5) How can I best prepare? Do I need to take some sort of special rifle training course? What are some points to work on--breathing, posture, ammo selection, etc?
A variety of books exist on the subject; 'Modern Highpower Rifle Competition' by Randolph Constantine is a veritable tome and covers a lot of ground, from safety to range etiquette to positions to loading to training to match strategy... like I said, it's a tome, no doubt about it. David Tubbs books 'Highpower Rifle' and 'The Rifle Shooter' are also considered definitive, though they largely deal w/ the custom bolt action Match Rifle. Most of the concepts transfer to some degree to any kind of rifle used in this kind of competition. After 11 or 12 national championships, the guy just might know something. Fine shooting supply companies like Sinclair International or Creedmoor Sports carry these and other books and videos that may be of interest to you; check their websites or call for a catalog.
6) What can go wrong? What are some of your personal horror stories in the middle of a match? How did you overcome them?
Anything and everything, from forgetting to bring enough ammo, to not sizing your ammo enough and it either sticks in the gun or won't chamber to begin with, or load development was done in the winter and primers start piercing come July, ejectors/extractors break, soft-seated bullets stick in the lands when a round must be extracted during a cease-fire and powder gets into the trigger assembly, pouring rain, Dorothy-n-Toto class winds (you are in OK after all!) creating dust devils and vortexes btwn the firing line and the target... you name it. Murphy is alive and well in the sport of Highpower
7) Why a logbook? What info should be recorded? What good does this do?
It's supposed to help you do a couple things... one, be able to hopefully see a trend from one match to another by having a reference, i.e. if you go to a match in Timbuktu, and you had to crank your sights up 2 minutes to center up your shots, was it because of elevation, lighting that day, what? During a match the immediate benefit for us lower-scoring shooters is that say I shoot and the score comes up and '8' for a shot... if I correct off of that, I might end up chasing my damn tail all over the target face (been there, done that :banghead: ). If you use a score book you might notice that your group overall is centered up and realize that you might have just missed the wind or just plain pooched the shot, and if you do correct, you would probably be better off to correct from the approximate center of the 'group' formed in your scorebook by your individual shots...
If you are shooting rapid-fire, should you pause after each shot to make an entry?
If you can go from standing to sitting, fire ten rounds w/ a reload, and scope the bullet hole and record the shot value for each round, all within 60 seconds... you da man!
Short version: no.
8) Categories? Are there different categories for scoped rifles, US military rifles, iron-sight-only rifles? What about skill level? Am I going to get my rear handed to me every time by the reincarnations of Annie Oakley and Carlos Hathcock?
Basic categories are Service Rifle, and everything else is Match Rifle. There have been attempts at starting an 'Optical' class, but currently about the only place you are allowed to have a scope is in dedicated Prone-only matches, so don't worry about that for now. Shooters are classified by their score performance (skill level), from Marksman thru High Master. Your first match out you'll likely get stuck in the Master/High Master class just to make sure that as an Unclassified shooter you ain't sandbagging... kind of rough on a new shooter, but then again it puts you on the line w/ the most experienced shooters to help you out both on the firing line and in the target pits. It also keeps someone who has a high ranking classification in another competitive venue from showing up and cleaning house among the lower ranked shooters... they still might clean up, but they'd have to earn it.
9) Have I forgotten anything important? What advice would you give to someone who's just getting into all this?
This has a lot to do w/ that comment about Annie Oakly or Hathcock reincarnate... right now, the first and most important thing you need to do is put that stuff out of your mind for good.
It doesn't matter how well someone else shoots on a particular day. You have no control over that. All you have any say in is how you perform on a given day under a given set of situations, and only you really know if you did better today than you did the day before. So what if someone else shoots better than you did today. Did you shoot better than you did yesterday? That's what counts. Don't worry about what you think people are saying about your shooting... I think one of the reasons most Highpower shooters come across as extremely friendly to new shooters is that we've all been there, and if there is a sport that no amount of equipment is going to buy you points over just plain hard work and discipline, iron sight position shooting is it. Everybody has had bad days, everybody has shot misses, everybody has had matches that fell far below their average score. Get over it, move on, focus on the next shot. The one that you just launched into the guy next to ya's target (crossfire) is history. Yes, it sucks. Yes, you might get teased a little. The only shot you have any control over is the next one out the barrel, so focus on that one.
Alright, I'll get off the soap box already
HTH,
Monte
I don't think that it'd be classified as a "(US) Service Rifle," anyhow... not to mention the way that gun slings spent brass all over. I think that it'd be probably the worst rifle for this. Around these parts, an AR-15 DCM match is going to be the cheapest way to go. 
