Florida Shooters Network

Went to the 2nd annual Hathcock match this year, held at Camp Lejeune, NC. This was a .308 only, 1000yd match. This was the same match that Glockpacker came with last year, when he shot his AR10.
Only 4 of us went this year, but we had some fun.
Conditions on Day 1 started out nice then it got windy, with gusts over 15mph, lots of sun. Day 2 was just hot, lotsa sun, high humidity, not as windy.
Out of 23 shooters in F-class, we managed to do pretty well, our best was 4th and I finished in 7th place, not bad. I think GP would have approved.

The obligatory rifle porn:


Me, getting ready to send:


A good shot showing the distance to target, 1k yds:


Group shot, me sporting the FSN shirt again:


Did I mention it was hot, see the water bottles?

Enjoy.

SY

Outstanding!

Pretty cool can't wait to try shooting 1000 yards.

Looks like Nightforce NSX is the scope choice of many, including me

I'm in two minds on wether to buy a Big sky III 10-5- x 60 for my .308

Well it will come as no surprise we have lots of rain here and our first comp is this weekend, 600 yard , if the weather continues I wont make the effort.

Nicolas,
Funny you mention NF vs Sightron. We were split evenly on that score, 2 Sightron 10-50's and 2 NF 12-42's. I don't feel I give up anything to the Nightforce users as the Sightron does it all for me, I even have more elevation left over after a 1k zero, so theoretically I could shoot at the 1200yd matches also.

At this match, I would say it was about 50% Nightforce, and everything else the other 50%, I saw Leupolds, Sightrons, Nikon, and even one sling shooter swearing that his BSA was it. We all still had fun.

SY

Was it hot Steve??


Great shooting!

After we have sold our house and just before we make the big move I may invest in a S&B Pm2 50 power, just to shut the glass snobs up

Dave,
Yes! It was hot! We were just about wiped after the first day, after 3 strings in the heat, we just went back to the hotel and crashed. On Sunday the humidity was just kickin', now I know why the marines call it the swamp.

Nicolas,
I would save the money, I have looked thru and shot with one of those S&B 50's, I don't think it is 3-4k different than any other scope in that range. I do like the 5-25's though. My Sightron has over 3k rounds under it and has yet to disappoint me.

SY

I see you, Jeff, and Steve all wore long pants. I DID warn you about the heat

Hehe. Yes you did .

Congrats on the match. I'd like to get into this one day. Can you tell me more about what it takes to go to the match? Cost? Special connections or qualification? I have an AR-10 with 18" barrel and a Leupold Mark 4 4.5-14x40mm LR/T. Would this setup work all the way out to 1000yards? Furthest distance I've shot is at 500 yards.

Creo,
What does it take to go to a match. Hmm, the easy answer is just show up, but that is too flip.

There is nothing really special about attending a match, as long as you have the desire and are prepared. Prepared meaning you have all the equipment you will need, eg: rifle, ammo, optics, shooting mat, snivel gear etc etc, everything you need to be comfortable for 1 or 2 days of shooting. The NC match in terms of cost was about $800-900, for travel, hotel, gas, food and entry fees per person. These are variable depending where the match is, how you getting there, where you wanna stay, what you eat etc. We stayed at a Holiday Inn, so hotel was on the pricey side, we could have stayed for free, but were not up for barrack conditions. There is also travel time to consider, some drove, some flew for this comp. Drive time was about 10hrs each way. Planning in advance is key.

I think the best way to get prepared is to attend local matches and see how they are run and what is expected from you, the competitor. Once you are familiar with all the duties involved, they are pretty much the same at any other match. The matches at the Central Fl. Rifle and pistol club are a good way to ease into a match setting. They have 300m matches the 4th Sat. of every month and it is posted on their club calendar which you can look up on the net. Sometimes they have matches both Sat and Sun. There are practice matches at longer distances at the Port Malabar Rifle club, 600yds, that is also posted on the net at http://pmrpchprifle.com/, but I mentioned CFRPC because they are closer to you and that's a good place to start.

In terms of your rifle, I won't say yes or no, I know it can make 1k yds, but will you be satisfied with the performance, only you will be able to answer that. Again, a good place to try it out would be Orlando at 300m, to see how it performs on a F-class target. There is another FSN member(Holdem) that comes sometimes to the matches that uses a similar setup, you can check with him and get an idea of what to expect.

There is a 300m match at CFRPC this month, Sat. the 25th, get there by 8am for squadding and see how you do on a F-class target. Entry fee is $15 I think, come out and shoot and ask questions, am sure you will have a good time.

SY

Thanks for the info arkangel!!

If I am not mistaken, the shroud on the barrel is there to reduce the glare/mirage coming off the barrel. When you use a high-power optic, it also magnifies those distortions. Seeing mirage on your target is one thing, having mirage off of your barrel is another.

Then again, I could be completely wrong.

Correct,they are mirage bands.