These days, it’s pretty formulaic. There are two kinds of (centerfire) PRS matches, one day “Regional series” matches, and 2 day “pro series” matches. Both kinds will typically shoot 8-12 stages per day, at 8-12 rounds per stage. Around half of shots will be from prone or modified prone (standing behind a bench-like obstacle, using front bipod and rear bag), with the other half being “positional,” meaning fired from some obstacle - like a tank trap, barricade wall, truck side mirror, cattle gate, rooftop, etc etc. Shooters are divided into squads, and each squad rotates through each stage, with each shooter taking turn in rotating order to shoot the stages. Stages typically start standing, port arms, mag in, bolt back, standing behind the obstacle or firing position. Stages are timed, “shooter understand the course of fire? Spotter ready? Shooter ready? Time starts now!” And then the shooter has 90-120 seconds to engage the targets. Stages will typically have 1-5 firing positions, sometimes up to 10 positions. Obstacles might be a wall, a helicopter, cattle cake feeder, flatbed, tank traps, etc etc…
Most stages are 2-5 targets, I’ve only seen a handful of stages which had more than 6 targets, and can only think of one stage I’ve shot which had 9 targets (spelling “Spearpoint” with 10 rounds, so the P is engaged twice).
So a common stage would be: 2 targets, near and far, say 453yrds 8” circle and 628yrds 18” circle and you’ll shoot one shot at each target from 3 positions on a tank trap, then two rungs of a cattle gate. 90 seconds, time starts now. Another stage would be all prone, shoot 2 shots each at 5 targets at 632, 741, 853, 928, and 1067yrds, 50% IPSC up close, 66% IPSC up close then full size IPSC for the farther 3.
Like I said - matches are much less physical than they used to be. They’re still physical, but climbing stuff like the rock pile
@Walkalong pictured is about as dynamic as things get. Especially after covid, the PRS has changed to be more accommodating of more shooters, so the crazy stressor stuff and dangerous obstacle stuff is gone.
Our state club has a lot of retirees which shoot our regional matches, dudes with knee and hip replacements - I know a couple guys are in their 70’s, and we have at least one guy I know in his 80’s.
We also make accommodations at matches so guys can safely complete the CoF. For example, we used to have one of our older shooters start staged on our rooftop instead of standing behind it and trying to run up on the clock.
Most targets will be 1-3moa. Occasionally we’ll see a 1/2moa target, especially on TYL racks (test your limits, progressively smaller targets side by side). Match directors mix up distance, target size, stage movement, wind condition, and firing position stability with pretty common logic - closer targets don’t have as much wind penalty, so they will often be combined with a lot of movement and unstable positions. The longest targets typically are huge and fired from prone. MOST shots tend to be 600-700 yards, but overall, shooters should expect targets to be ~250-1400 yards.
No, but functionally, sighters don’t really fit the paradigm anyway. Our targets are relatively big and our conditions are changing throughout the day, or even during a single stage (might shoot 90-100degrees different angle on the same stage, so the wind changes dramatically, so sighters just don’t really fit the format. A 100yrd zero board is typically available in the morning before the match starts for shooters to confirm zero, and it’s usually still accessible for zero confirmation during the day if guys have issues, but there are no sighters on any stage. But every shot is a sighter - you should be getting feedback from every bullet sent downrange.