I had the good fortune to spend the weekend on a truly amazing ranch shooting an outstanding match run by my good friend Scott Satterlee and sponsored by Nightforce (and dozens of others). I thought some of you might be interested because it's the first PRS style match to be primarily "extended" ranges, with roughly 1/3rd of the targets past 1200 yards. And it's probably the most fun I've had at a match yet, and I've shot 48 of these field/sniper style matches since 2011.
First, the ranch... Q Creek is unbelievably amazing because of it's size (over 80 square miles, which is more than half a million acres) and also because of the epic Wyoming scenery and topology and wildlife. The elevation was ballpark 7500-8500' ASL, DA ranged 10-11k and the winds ranged from 5-35mph during the match.
The ranch is run by an awesome crew, with great cooks! I'd highly recommend checking it out if you are interested in hunting pdogs, elk or antelope. Very reasonable rates and no shortage of targets.
This will give you an idea of the size of the ranch: !!!
Some gratuitous scenery near the lodge
a panoramic of the lodge... that peak is a lot higher than it looks. and we got to watch elk wander through the clearing below the peak every day.
here's more scenery, with the rifle i used, chambered in 6.5x47L. this was from the "zero range" which had paper at 100 and steel out to 1824 yards for competitors to plink on the day before the match.
this pic is the zero range through a vector 21 LRF which i think is about 8x power or a PLRF10, i can't recall. look for the + sign in the center of the image. each hash is 10 mil and the dots between them are 5 mil. most of the steel is not in the picture, but look 50 mil to the left in the bottom of the screen and you'll see a couple ROs and a side by side by a steel circle. This is the 1500 yard target. Now look about 24 mils right of the + and up about 9 mils and you'll see a small black spot that is at 1716 iirc.
this pic is a closeup of a wolf target at 1824 yards, on the zero range. it's at 40x magnification through a spotting scope. it is not my best photography. look 4 mils low and 1.5 mils right of center in front of the tree.
i was the first person to shoot at it, and hit it on i think the 4th shot on its nose. (i was aiming center mass). Interestingly, I have 18.6 mil of adjustment in my vortex gen2 razor, and my calculator said I needed 18.3 mil but for assorted other reasons I won't get into, I actually needed another mil, so I dialed 18.3 and held 1 more to hit it.
Now onto the match...
The match consisted of 18 stages with 144 shots at targets out to 1770 yards. I won't go through all of them, but this is pretty typical of the scenery and targets. As you can see, the topology afforded some high angle challenges and a lot of the targets aren't super huge in terms of MOA.
One more close up... many of the targets were full size elk, antelope, wolves, coyote (reduced) or pdog silhouettes. This gave the match a very long range huntery-feel. The former were a little forgiving on wind, but you really had to have your elevation figured out, which meant accounting for distance, atmosphere, light, and even wind (which will change your elevation).
There were two wolves on this stage; one at 1044 and one at 1224. The pic might actually be the closer one, and I may have mislabeled the image.
Now this match was different from other PRS matches in that competitors were allowed to use up to 338LM, though if they did, they were only competing for prizes and trophy, but their score wouldn't count for PRS points. I don't have a detailed breakdown of all the calibers used but here are the cartridges used by the top ten shooters:
Winner - 300 Norma
2nd - 300 WM
3rd - 300 WM
4th - 300 Norma
5th - 6.5 SAUM
6th - 284
7th - 6.5x47L
8th - 300 WM
9th - 300 WM
10th - 280 AI
by my count, of the 144 shots, 45 of them were on targets at 1200 yards or further and the breakdown is as follows (note this is scattered across 18 stages)
3x 1266 30" circle
3x 1749 40" circle
2x 1220 antelope
4x 1215 24" circle
3x 1396 50% elk
3x 1278 50% elk
3x 1420 24" circle
3x 1710 30" circle
3x 1224 wolf
4x 1529 elk
3x 1442 24" circle
2x 1200 24" shot strong side, 40" shot weak side
3x 1283 antelope
3x 1770 wolf
1x 1217 20" circle
1x 1516 30" circle
as you can see, many of these were under 2 MOA in at least one dimension, and several of the circles weren't even 1.5 MOA in diameter!
It was a tough match, to say the least! I shot 44% on the far targets above, and 57% of all targets. The top 16 shooters were 50% or higher hit ratio for the whole match and the top shooter got 67%. The median shooter was at 43% hits for the match.
To be honest, that's quite a bit higher hit percentage than I predicted and as this match continues over the coming years, I expect it to slowly get more difficult (just like NRA HP keeps shrinking their x ring over the years) and for shooters to step up their game and get higher hit percentages. I know I learned a lot over the weekend. With a large group of serious shooters pursuing this, advances will come quickly.
I think next year's match will be in June. If you are even remotely interested in "long range hunting", I'd encourage you to try this match and test yourself to see what kind of realistic hits you can make in field conditions. I'll bump this post when registration opens in the Spring to remind everyone. I expect it to sell out.
I'd also say if you want to learn to shoot extended ranges, this is a terrific learning experience, because you get to see what lots of other examples of how to (or how not to) solve problems. This match is far more laid back and slower pace compared to other PRS matches. I saw very few people run out of time on a stage. And everyone was very helpful sharing wind and advice with others in the squad. Alternately, you can look up one of Scott's classes.
First, the ranch... Q Creek is unbelievably amazing because of it's size (over 80 square miles, which is more than half a million acres) and also because of the epic Wyoming scenery and topology and wildlife. The elevation was ballpark 7500-8500' ASL, DA ranged 10-11k and the winds ranged from 5-35mph during the match.
The ranch is run by an awesome crew, with great cooks! I'd highly recommend checking it out if you are interested in hunting pdogs, elk or antelope. Very reasonable rates and no shortage of targets.
This will give you an idea of the size of the ranch: !!!
Some gratuitous scenery near the lodge
a panoramic of the lodge... that peak is a lot higher than it looks. and we got to watch elk wander through the clearing below the peak every day.
here's more scenery, with the rifle i used, chambered in 6.5x47L. this was from the "zero range" which had paper at 100 and steel out to 1824 yards for competitors to plink on the day before the match.
this pic is the zero range through a vector 21 LRF which i think is about 8x power or a PLRF10, i can't recall. look for the + sign in the center of the image. each hash is 10 mil and the dots between them are 5 mil. most of the steel is not in the picture, but look 50 mil to the left in the bottom of the screen and you'll see a couple ROs and a side by side by a steel circle. This is the 1500 yard target. Now look about 24 mils right of the + and up about 9 mils and you'll see a small black spot that is at 1716 iirc.
this pic is a closeup of a wolf target at 1824 yards, on the zero range. it's at 40x magnification through a spotting scope. it is not my best photography. look 4 mils low and 1.5 mils right of center in front of the tree.
i was the first person to shoot at it, and hit it on i think the 4th shot on its nose. (i was aiming center mass). Interestingly, I have 18.6 mil of adjustment in my vortex gen2 razor, and my calculator said I needed 18.3 mil but for assorted other reasons I won't get into, I actually needed another mil, so I dialed 18.3 and held 1 more to hit it.
Now onto the match...
The match consisted of 18 stages with 144 shots at targets out to 1770 yards. I won't go through all of them, but this is pretty typical of the scenery and targets. As you can see, the topology afforded some high angle challenges and a lot of the targets aren't super huge in terms of MOA.
One more close up... many of the targets were full size elk, antelope, wolves, coyote (reduced) or pdog silhouettes. This gave the match a very long range huntery-feel. The former were a little forgiving on wind, but you really had to have your elevation figured out, which meant accounting for distance, atmosphere, light, and even wind (which will change your elevation).
There were two wolves on this stage; one at 1044 and one at 1224. The pic might actually be the closer one, and I may have mislabeled the image.
Now this match was different from other PRS matches in that competitors were allowed to use up to 338LM, though if they did, they were only competing for prizes and trophy, but their score wouldn't count for PRS points. I don't have a detailed breakdown of all the calibers used but here are the cartridges used by the top ten shooters:
Winner - 300 Norma
2nd - 300 WM
3rd - 300 WM
4th - 300 Norma
5th - 6.5 SAUM
6th - 284
7th - 6.5x47L
8th - 300 WM
9th - 300 WM
10th - 280 AI
by my count, of the 144 shots, 45 of them were on targets at 1200 yards or further and the breakdown is as follows (note this is scattered across 18 stages)
3x 1266 30" circle
3x 1749 40" circle
2x 1220 antelope
4x 1215 24" circle
3x 1396 50% elk
3x 1278 50% elk
3x 1420 24" circle
3x 1710 30" circle
3x 1224 wolf
4x 1529 elk
3x 1442 24" circle
2x 1200 24" shot strong side, 40" shot weak side
3x 1283 antelope
3x 1770 wolf
1x 1217 20" circle
1x 1516 30" circle
as you can see, many of these were under 2 MOA in at least one dimension, and several of the circles weren't even 1.5 MOA in diameter!
It was a tough match, to say the least! I shot 44% on the far targets above, and 57% of all targets. The top 16 shooters were 50% or higher hit ratio for the whole match and the top shooter got 67%. The median shooter was at 43% hits for the match.
To be honest, that's quite a bit higher hit percentage than I predicted and as this match continues over the coming years, I expect it to slowly get more difficult (just like NRA HP keeps shrinking their x ring over the years) and for shooters to step up their game and get higher hit percentages. I know I learned a lot over the weekend. With a large group of serious shooters pursuing this, advances will come quickly.
I think next year's match will be in June. If you are even remotely interested in "long range hunting", I'd encourage you to try this match and test yourself to see what kind of realistic hits you can make in field conditions. I'll bump this post when registration opens in the Spring to remind everyone. I expect it to sell out.
I'd also say if you want to learn to shoot extended ranges, this is a terrific learning experience, because you get to see what lots of other examples of how to (or how not to) solve problems. This match is far more laid back and slower pace compared to other PRS matches. I saw very few people run out of time on a stage. And everyone was very helpful sharing wind and advice with others in the squad. Alternately, you can look up one of Scott's classes.
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