The second and final day of the Bushnell Brawl is over and I’m in a truck headed northbound on I-35 back to a hot shower and a soft bed. Today was a much more sedate pace than yesterday’s frantic 8:00a – 5:00p grinder. We started bright and early at 8:00 with a briefing to let us know that we were going to be wrapping up shooting by 2:00 PM . . .
The setup for the match is a little odd as you’re allowed free reign to pick the stages you want to work and as long as you get them all done, nobody seems to mind. With the wind predicted to get worse throughout the day, our group of three made a beeline for the long range stages. As you can see from the flag, we were still dealing with a very stout 20-25 mph wind that never really let up throughout the day. After completion of the long range stuff, we did some short range rifle work, and then headed over to the net run n gun area where we had the longest wait time of the day. After a hour long wait, we finally got to run through the course of fire. I only saw one competitor fall off the barricade.
We eeked out the rest of the stages and called it a day around 1:20 or so. We packed our gear, made a big lunch, and then shot the breeze with our fellow competitors until the awards ceremony around 5:00 PM.
The Bad
- I found out just how bad I am at semi supported shooting today. Anything with a barricade at an awkward height was bound to ruin my day. I don’t find myself shooting off a lot of awkwardly sized barriers, but its something worth practicing the next time I’m at the range.
- We had two stages today that involved moving targets. One was rifle, and one was pistol, and it turns out that I’m universally bad at both. Shooting moving targets is hard and its a super practical skill that I’d like to pick up. Again, more room for improvement.
- During the fumbling around at the net stage, I managed to scrape up the X Ray chassis of my borrowed gun. I hate returning gear in worse shape than I got it so I’m pretty bummed about dinging up my buddy’s gun.
The Good
- I finished 93 out of 116 competitors. That’s not last place.
- I hit three out of five on a 1/3 IPSC target at 800 yards in a blowing wind today. That’s a target six inches wide by ten inches tall, smaller than a sheet of copier paper. It had to be sheer dumb luck, but I’ll take it.
- I picked up a sweet harness at the prize table.
Expect a full breakdown of the stages along with my commentary sometime this week. For now, I need water, sleep, and a week without muzzle blast. For now, enjoy some pictures from the day.
That looks like a whole lotta fun.
Did other competitors use optics other than Bushnell?
Lots of Schmidt & Bender scopes out there. I had a Premier, other guy with us had a USO. Kahles, NightForce and a few others round out the usual suspects for matches like these.
Sounds like beaucoup fun! Give me about 3 decades and I would have wanted to test myself at this or similar events.
Good job Tyler! Thanks for sharing your experiences!
Wow!! I bet that was a blast! Did ya see any WW2/Vietnam era weapons used? or was it all oversized bolt handles and detachable mags?
This is a long range precision match. The requirement is a rifle that can shoot sub-moa at 1000 yards. You can certainly run whatever you like within that parameter but non-detachable magazines would be a non-starter.
Sounds like a tough course! Long range shots in variable wind conditions are always challenging. I’m curious what calibers the other shooters were using.
There was a lot of 6.5 Creedmoor brass on the ground along with some .308 (learned my lesson about using that the first year I went), 6xc and 6mm Creedmoor. I would guess that 90%+ was 6.5mm or 6mm.
Anyone shooting one of the big 7’s and 30’s or was this match mostly smaller rounds? Seems like a 7mm WSM pushing a 175 Berger or similar would own a match like this.
I didn’t see any. Vinson is on point here. Mostly 6’s and 6.5s. A ton of 6.5 creedmoor and .260 Remington. The 6 guys were having hard time getting their shots called at 800 yards and beyond. The 6.5 guys had less trouble. I saw very few cartridges with bullet diameters bigger than that.
Makes sense, 260 is a neat little cartridge I might even go so far as to say it is one of the best -08 derived cartridges. It’s just interesting to see that with wind such a big factor someone wasn’t trying to shoot a heavy 7 or 30cal magnum.
By the way what load were you running in your borrowed 260 Tyler?
“During the fumbling around at the net stage, I managed to scrape up the X Ray chassis of my borrowed gun. I hate returning gear in worse shape than I got it so I’m pretty bummed about dinging up my buddy’s gun.”
How about a TTAG review of that X Ray chassis??? TTAG gets a review, your bud gets a replacement…
Your “the bad” section just gave me something to work on all summer I think! Valuable perspectives!
Moving targets: Super hard and super practical. Great line.
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