Zak Smith
Member
Zak's 2005 ITRC Report
As background, read the 2004 ITRC Report.
The D&L Sports International Tactical Rifleman Championships (ITRC) is a "3 Gun" match unlike
conventional 3Gun matches. This match has field courses from 1 to 2.5 miles long which must be
finished in times from 45 minutes to two hours by teams of two: a bolt rifle shooter, and a carbine
shooter.
Dave Lauck's Small Arms Training Academy (SATA) is located about an hour north of Gillette, WY,
basically in the middle of nowhere. Match stages were located there and on two ranches within an
hour's distance.
2005 was the second year Glenn Frank and I shot the ITRC. Last year he shot the bolt rifle and I
the carbine, so this year we switched roles. Our training for this match was both team and
individual practice at long distance, small targets, and regular cardio exercise.
The Colorado front range 3Gun/rifle crowd fielded 5 teams this year, in addition to Burris, who sent
a team from their plant in Greeley.
Unlike last year, many of us skipped the sight-in the morning before the match itself. If a team
wanted to verify rifles' zeros, they could set up a target on the ubiquitous BLM land near Gillette.
Since we all had data printed for Gillette's altitude and typical environmental conditions and good
solid zeros, it would likely have been a waste of ammo.
In 2004, many of the teams were SWAT or military. Due to deployments, there were very few military
teams this year, just a few from Fort Campbell. I thought I heard there were 32 teams, but only 30
showed up on the final scores. This down about 15 from the number of starting teams in 2004, and
down about 5 from the number of finishing teams.
The match was divided into 3 courses. Each team shot one course per day.
Instead of boring you with lot more of background, here are the stages. They were roughly similar
to the stages in 2004, with some changes.
Course 1. DL SATA
The SATA range was the location for the high-intensity pistol/carbine stage. This course starts
with approximately 400 scoring opportunities for the carbine followed by approximately 400 more
pistol scoring opportunities in the shoot-house. Each hit on target was worth 1 point; there were
no "bonus" or "high value" targets unlike 2004. Each target had to be engaged 4 times, except for
pistol steel if knocked down. The team had 25 minutes to engage each of the two halves of the
course of fire, so if they ran out of time on the carbine, it would not affect their ability to
finish the shoot-house. The team could use a secondary carbine for this course in order to not
"burn out" their good match barrel.
The course started with the carbine shooter engaging several 100-400 yard arrays of targets from 5
or 6 positions, running a total of maybe 150 yards. Once those targets were engaged, the team
proceeded into the back of the pick-up truck. The truck drove past an array of full size poppers,
which the carbine shooter engaged. Hits were still worth 1 point. When the truck stopped, the team
ran over to the first of 3 platforms which each had 22 steel targets arrayed at about 100 yards.
The suggested minimum round count for the carbine was 500.
[ link to LARGER image ]
Due to dawn glare, we had problems locating some of the targets and timed out on the second to last
platform. This lost us about 92 points. We started the stage with about 500 rounds preloaded in
30-round AR15 mags.
[ link to LARGER image ]
[ link to LARGER image ]
I then proceeded to the pistol shoot-house and ran it start to finish in 12 minutes, giving us 13
extra bonus points (one per minute early). I ran past two targets and had two other misses. The
recommended round count was 400. I shot 305 rounds.
[ link to LARGER image ]
As background, read the 2004 ITRC Report.
The D&L Sports International Tactical Rifleman Championships (ITRC) is a "3 Gun" match unlike
conventional 3Gun matches. This match has field courses from 1 to 2.5 miles long which must be
finished in times from 45 minutes to two hours by teams of two: a bolt rifle shooter, and a carbine
shooter.
Dave Lauck's Small Arms Training Academy (SATA) is located about an hour north of Gillette, WY,
basically in the middle of nowhere. Match stages were located there and on two ranches within an
hour's distance.
2005 was the second year Glenn Frank and I shot the ITRC. Last year he shot the bolt rifle and I
the carbine, so this year we switched roles. Our training for this match was both team and
individual practice at long distance, small targets, and regular cardio exercise.
The Colorado front range 3Gun/rifle crowd fielded 5 teams this year, in addition to Burris, who sent
a team from their plant in Greeley.
Unlike last year, many of us skipped the sight-in the morning before the match itself. If a team
wanted to verify rifles' zeros, they could set up a target on the ubiquitous BLM land near Gillette.
Since we all had data printed for Gillette's altitude and typical environmental conditions and good
solid zeros, it would likely have been a waste of ammo.
In 2004, many of the teams were SWAT or military. Due to deployments, there were very few military
teams this year, just a few from Fort Campbell. I thought I heard there were 32 teams, but only 30
showed up on the final scores. This down about 15 from the number of starting teams in 2004, and
down about 5 from the number of finishing teams.
The match was divided into 3 courses. Each team shot one course per day.
Instead of boring you with lot more of background, here are the stages. They were roughly similar
to the stages in 2004, with some changes.
Course 1. DL SATA
The SATA range was the location for the high-intensity pistol/carbine stage. This course starts
with approximately 400 scoring opportunities for the carbine followed by approximately 400 more
pistol scoring opportunities in the shoot-house. Each hit on target was worth 1 point; there were
no "bonus" or "high value" targets unlike 2004. Each target had to be engaged 4 times, except for
pistol steel if knocked down. The team had 25 minutes to engage each of the two halves of the
course of fire, so if they ran out of time on the carbine, it would not affect their ability to
finish the shoot-house. The team could use a secondary carbine for this course in order to not
"burn out" their good match barrel.
The course started with the carbine shooter engaging several 100-400 yard arrays of targets from 5
or 6 positions, running a total of maybe 150 yards. Once those targets were engaged, the team
proceeded into the back of the pick-up truck. The truck drove past an array of full size poppers,
which the carbine shooter engaged. Hits were still worth 1 point. When the truck stopped, the team
ran over to the first of 3 platforms which each had 22 steel targets arrayed at about 100 yards.
The suggested minimum round count for the carbine was 500.
[ link to LARGER image ]
Due to dawn glare, we had problems locating some of the targets and timed out on the second to last
platform. This lost us about 92 points. We started the stage with about 500 rounds preloaded in
30-round AR15 mags.
[ link to LARGER image ]
[ link to LARGER image ]
I then proceeded to the pistol shoot-house and ran it start to finish in 12 minutes, giving us 13
extra bonus points (one per minute early). I ran past two targets and had two other misses. The
recommended round count was 400. I shot 305 rounds.
[ link to LARGER image ]