Well I signed up for my first match
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Signed up for the Guardian match in SD in May, just because I wanted to see what matches are like and have heard the guardian matches are fairly laid back, and it's close.
What are some minimum gear requirements I might need? I don't plan on having any crazy bags, because I want to keep it fairly minimalistic, curious about how many mags I might need and stuff like that, or essential gear (sling?)
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@rhyno 2 mags minimum. It's a good idea to have 4... so you have backups in case of mishaps or loss.
You'll need a solid way to compute firing solutions. Ranges are usually provided, and if not, I'm sure there's LRF's around for you to borrow.
A good rear bag. A good shooting sling. A bipod. A tripod if you have one. A pair of binos can come in handy. A range card or ability to have quick access to ranges and your basic come ups or firing solutions for all the targets on a single stage, so you can quickly dial between them.
A good pack, to haul your rifle and/or all your gear/ammo.
A chamber flag. (if necessary)
Sun screen. Bug spray. Long sleeve shirt (if you have sensitive skin/elbows)
A properly worked out rifle/ammo/optic combo using a mild load that will not pressure up during wet or hot weather.
Just some stuff I thought of off top of my head.
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Right so I'll list my setup.
R700 in 260 in a KRG X-Ray stock. 26" barrel and Area 419 muzzle break.
Vortex Viper PST 4-16 MRAD in a SPUHR mount (It is SFP so that's gonna suck)Sig Kilo 2000 Rangefinder
Tab rear bag both short and tall.
Atlas PSR bipod
Cheap Vortex Binos (crossfire HD 8x or Crossfire 10x)
Eberlestock X1 pack (it has a gun scabbard)
Fix it sticks tool kit
Phone for ballistic calc (I understand it's not a great option)I'll need to pick up 3 more mags
A sling
Spare extractorUnfortunately I won't be able to upgrade the scope or acquire a tripod.
I have a Bergara HMR 6mm for a backup rifle, if need be, unfortunately that scope isn't the best and is SFP as well (Vortex strike eagle 3-18 moa)
This will be a learning experience, and that's how I'm approaching it.
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@rhyno Sounds like you're ready to go have fun.
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@orkan the main goal. I've heard good things about the Guardian matches, one is close, and it's not at a terrible time (we should be done planting by then)
Don't plan on being competitive, but I should be able to gain some insight, and have some fun.
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I haven't been to a Guardian Match but from what I've seen of them from pictures and such you won't require much more equipment.
I don't think you'll need a tripod, but if you do, someone near you will borrow you one. Don't be afraid to ask.
One other thing you'll want is a wrist coach of some kind to hold range cards with come-ups and wind for each stage. However, I regularly see seasoned shooters with a roll of 2" masking tape and they just put a new piece of tape on their arm for each stage for dope.
Don't do your dope the night before in the motel! Ask somebody for the DA or temp and pressure throughout the day and get your comeups and wind for each stage while you're prepping. Having good dope will have you hitting more targets. If your dope isn't lining up, trust where the bullets are going. You notice you're hitting low on everything, roll another click on or hold high on the target, don't just keep putting rounds in the dirt below the target.
When making my dope card for a stage, I take my best guess at wind value and direction and write that value down with the comeup for each target. From that wind I will write another value up and down from there for a reference. I know where I'm going to start on my wind call and if I'm off a bit, I have wind values wrote down both directions from my guess so I can pick a column and run with it. This is one of the most common things I see holding newer shooters back in a match - they'll have a dope card with comeups but no wind holds to reference.
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Oh, and have fun.
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Not sure what match/stage this is from but it was floating in my range bag so I'm posting up here for your reference.
It's a good example of my typical dope card from a stage with a pile of wind references because of it being a pretty long range stage. It's just easier on my brain to have lots of numbers there to work with, I don't have to try doing math in my head.Say I send my first round at the 660 yard target with .3mil wind hold and hit edge to the stronger wind side, I'm going to make a quick correction to .45mil and if that's centered up I'm just going to jump over to the next wind column on the next target.
It takes a little time to write all that down but it's always been worth it for the 90-180 seconds you're going to have to engage the targets.
You'll notice I'm also weird and write my yardages down in ascending order from the bottom of the card, the same as you'd be looking at the actual targets. I don't know, it just works for me. Only ever seen one maybe two other shooters do it the same way.
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@tscustoms that's a very helpful picture, thanks.
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@rhyno said in Well I signed up for my first match:
Area 419 muzzle break.
I’ll be praying for the guy laying next to you! Lol.
Maybe they will put you off on a hill with all the other braked guys.
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@dddoo7 said in Well I signed up for my first match:
@rhyno said in Well I signed up for my first match:
Area 419 muzzle break.
I’ll be praying for the guy laying next to you! Lol.
Maybe they will put you off on a hill with all the other braked guys.
😂 eh they should all be wearing ear pro anyways.
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Safety glasses and ear protection, if I missed it my bad. Shooting with a brake I suppose that's kind-of "duh" but I've had to give out a few foam earplugs in the past.
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@brittel said in Well I signed up for my first match:
Safety glasses and ear protection, if I missed it my bad. Shooting with a brake I suppose that's kind-of "duh" but I've had to give out a few foam earplugs in the past.
I'll throw some foamies in my pack, I have a ton since I buy them for work.
I also plan on bringing a small med kit and tourniquets, but that stuff pretty much stays on my pack anyways.
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Any recommendations on magazines?
There's more now than I remember, AI, Magpul, Accurate, MDT has metal mags 12 rounders and 10 rounders.
The MDT 12 rounders look interesting, but I don't trust online reviews very much.
I'll just need one with a binder plate for my r700.
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@rhyno anything but Magpul. MDT and AI match pretty close for latch height. So I'd go AI or MDT if you already have AI mags.
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I’ve been using the MDT dasher mags now for a while and have had no trouble out of them at all.
