Nor-Cal Tactical Bolt Rifle Match
While the Benchresters were drilling bugholes at the Super Shoot, west coast tactical devotees were slapping steel at 75 to 1000 yards in Sacramento. In the first-ever Nor-Cal Tactical Bolt Rifle Challenge, 43 shooters battled through a variety of innovative scenarios, many involving shooter movement or targets at unknown distances. This was a far cry from a static benchrest match or even a Highpower match, though participants shot from all positions–prone, kneeling, sitting, and standing. Though this was the first match of its kind at Sac Valley, all available spots “sold out”, and the match attracted big-time sponsorship. The happy winner was Dave McGrath who came home with a $2200+ U.S Optics scope. Dennis Lorenzo finished second, while Mark Soulie took third.
There were a variety of stages in the two-day match, held May 26-27. One of the timed action stages started with the shooter 20 yards behind his rifle. On a signal, the shooter ran to his rifle and engaged a mini-popper at 75 yards, then moved to a barricade and engaged 3 more medium poppers at 175 yards. But there’s more–next he targeted four clay birds at 175 yards (from prone) and finished on another mini-popper at 60 yards. All this had to be done in just 2 minutes! In another multi-target stage, the shooter started on an elevated wooden ramp. On the signal, he engaged an MGM target with two rounds at 100 yards. This was immediately followed by two rounds at a pair of 10″ plates at 250 yards, then two rounds at a pair of steel targets at 330 yards. Then, with action open, he moved off the raised ramp, re-positioned on the trunk of a car and engaged two more steel plates at 540 yards. There were eight rounds total for that stage, with a two-minute time limit. A more conventional evolution involved taking successive shots at two steel targets from standing, kneeling, sitting and prone positions.
Below is Bolo, whose “Lucky Dragon” Benchrest Rifles were featured in last month’s Blog. He demonstrates that you can have fun shooting a variety of disciplines, with very different rifles. And what you learn via one discipline can often help another. Whether it’s benchrest or “move and shoot” action, the common denominator is shooting skill and rifle accuracy. For more information on this interesting match, read this Snipers’ Hide thread or visit WestCoastTactical.com.
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