Bushnell Brawl 2015 Update w/ Pics

Post by **thegiff** » Sun Dec 07, 2014 6:20 pm

Added Shooting USA TV schedule. May 27 2015 for the 2015 Brawl.

I got confirmation email today, need to send some money in now...

Anybody else going?

Post by **thegiff** » Mon Dec 08, 2014 9:10 pm

Bueller, bueller... no one else going? I tried to get into the Arizona match and Vegas match, didn't get in either so next one out is the brawl.

Post by **robojet** » Thu Dec 11, 2014 7:05 pm

Driving or flying? It's about 1500 miles. I was hoping for CO, UT and CA matches. Would have liked to get in to vegas but didn't. Was lucky to get into AZ. Bushnell Brawl is just too far.

gau17 · Post by **gau17** » Thu Dec 11, 2014 7:17 pm

Aaron. Ask rich c about the match

Short Action Precision · Thu Dec 11, 2014 7:57 pm

It was a real ball buster last year! Good times but top shooter got 44% hit ratio.

Post by **thegiff** » Fri Dec 12, 2014 2:05 pm

Definitely flying in, gas would be around $400, and 2 long days to drive each way. Right now I have enough points at Southwest Airlines to get 1/2 the trip free, looks like I'm going to Seattle in a couple weeks though I don't think its enough to get a free ticket back.

I'll ask Rich about the brawl.

Post by **oni** » Fri Dec 12, 2014 2:14 pm

Damn .. I wanted to go but missed registration.

Post by **thegiff** » Tue Jan 13, 2015 10:10 pm

Just bought plane tickets. Need a car and hotel next. Flight out is about $170 and flight back is with Southwest airlines points + about $5. Wondering about oversize luggage. Current plan is to take the rifle in a pelican case, and the pistol and all my gear in a big pelican case box (this case is standard baggage though, and flies free for sure if under 55 lb).

Email from Lisa said that not all registrants paid up yet as of yesterday, I imagine a few will or have dropped out.

Post by **Gnzrme** » Wed Jan 14, 2015 6:47 am

Nice Aaron... Have fun. Bring a Go-Pro or something and take some photos... Are they doing a helicopter stage again?

Post by **Gnzrme** » Wed Jan 14, 2015 6:49 am

When I went to the SH match, I borrowed a pelican and the rifle and the pistol and accessories weighed 49 pounds.. Just under the 50 pound limit... Consider shipping your ammo to save some weight...

gau17 · Post by **gau17** » Wed Jan 14, 2015 7:07 am

Aaron get the car insurance!!! Ask ^^^

When I went to Texas I had a pelican case, 1 check-in bag, and a carry-on. The Pelican case had my rifle and stuffed with ammo up to the point it was just below 50 lbs. The rest went into my other check in bag which also had a 50 lbs limit.

Here is what Rich and I brought when we traveled.

Post by **thegiff** » Thu Feb 19, 2015 8:12 pm

I'm here, attended the shooters meeting. Looks like it will be extra windy tomorrow. I might be the only California attendee, not sure yet. Still not recovered from the flu, feel about 75% of normal right now. Kinda weak all over. I've had so many sore throat lozenges that made my teeth hurt. But definitely getting better, felt 60% this morning, and got my appetite back today.

Post by **thegiff** » Thu Feb 19, 2015 8:14 pm

My load out looks similar, but I put my backpack in a big Hardcase with the pistol so could lock all that stuff up.

gau17 · Post by **gau17** » Thu Feb 19, 2015 8:25 pm

Have fun Aaron.

Post by **robojet** » Thu Feb 19, 2015 8:37 pm

Good luck Aaron! Sorry you are under the weather though... That sucks.

Post picks info for us that are missing out

Tackman11 · Post by **Tackman11** » Thu Feb 19, 2015 9:11 pm

Good luck, Aaron

Post by **Gnzrme** » Thu Feb 19, 2015 9:31 pm

Drink plenty of liquids and when you think you have drank enough, drink some more.... Get some sleep and take some tylenol...

Post by **Gnzrme** » Thu Feb 19, 2015 9:32 pm

Oh...and good luck

khw9mm · Post by **khw9mm** » Thu Feb 19, 2015 10:24 pm

Good luck and have fun Aaron!

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

nevertipsy · Post by **nevertipsy** » Fri Feb 20, 2015 6:12 am

Good luck Aaron!

Post by **thegiff** » Fri Feb 20, 2015 5:23 pm

Followed Rich's advice and followed the crowd to the tower first thing. But huge line anyway, so jumped to the helicopter stage, and shot that. Good thing I moved on, Jacob the match director didn't open the tower for shooting, so they all wasted 45min to an hour for nothing. Chopper was a lot of fun, few got to shoot it. Maybe 1 hour at most after that a truly swirly wind spun the chopper nearly a full spin even with full rudder, and helicopter stage was done, they landed it, put it back on the trailer and drove it away. Wind was maybe 25mph for most of the day.

You pick whatever stage you want to shoot and the order. I chanced on a really good combination, shooting all of the days stages in the 21-40th group of shooters to finish. Others took another 1.5 or so more hours after that.

Looks like my score for today is around 22 or so, there were several stages where nearly everyone zeroed. Got 11 of those between the 5 dot drill and paper Kyl (took and kept 3 shots for 6 points). I centerpunched most of them, but figured I'd rather not drop 6 points by chancing it.

Tomorrow all the long range shots, the net, and some other really different stages await.

I'll post pics when I get back, too difficult to do from phone.

Post by **Gnzrme** » Fri Feb 20, 2015 6:13 pm

Keep em coming Aaron...

Mudlol · Post by **Mudlol** » Fri Feb 20, 2015 7:28 pm

Good luck Aaron!!!

Post by **autoessentials** » Fri Feb 20, 2015 8:19 pm

Remember sir. I said to Beat the crowd to the tower, and to move on at any stage that appears to have a bottleneck of people. Did you bring a frisbee? I bet there is a mover again at 100y or less.

Short Action Precision · Fri Feb 20, 2015 9:45 pm

Frisbee or piece of cardboard if you dont! Good luck tomorrow Aaron!

evo · Post by **evo** » Fri Feb 20, 2015 10:41 pm

Is the frisbee for panning with the bipod?

Post by **autoessentials** » Fri Feb 20, 2015 10:59 pm

Yes. You put it under your bipod feet. It really is only for close mover
mayhem like 200 and under. Rifles only and NorCal both had a mover at 100 yards or less.

Post by **thegiff** » Sat Feb 21, 2015 2:55 am

Yeah, I was too slow to beat the crowd to the tower, so moved on. Got a frisbee, but close mover this year is off a barricade.

gau17 · Post by **gau17** » Sat Feb 21, 2015 6:57 am

Pick a spot and trap that sum bitch

Post by **autoessentials** » Sat Feb 21, 2015 11:50 am

100 yard mover off of a barricade? No problem. Let me guess. 3" shoot n see?

Post by **thegiff** » Sat Feb 21, 2015 7:28 pm

Barricade mover looked around 5 inch, I hit 5 times with 10 shots. Overall placed about 56th out of 129, so reached my overall match goal of getting to the top 50%. I was really slow on the net, they sped it up by placing 5 shooters on top the net, then running them in 2 minutes.

Rich, your buddy Tomas fell off the net coming down the backside, a good 10 feet or so, he got up and ran the rest of the stage. He'll feel it tomorrow. He did a good job rolling onto his back.

I got a really bad wind on the 700 yard line, I dialed 1 mil left, missed right .5, corrected left, missed right, corrected more... What started as a 1.5mil wind turned to 3 mils in about 30s. More details after I get back, I'm worn out, and will go to the doctor when I get home.

Tackman11 · Post by **Tackman11** » Sat Feb 21, 2015 8:06 pm

Good shooting Aaron

shawscar17 · Post by **shawscar17** » Sat Feb 21, 2015 8:29 pm

Great job Aaron!

buffybuster · Post by **buffybuster** » Sat Feb 21, 2015 8:34 pm

Very solid shooting.

Downrange67 · Post by **Downrange67** » Sat Feb 21, 2015 10:33 pm

Good shooting Aaron...

khw9mm · Post by **khw9mm** » Sun Feb 22, 2015 12:08 am

Looking forward to your pictures. Nice job Aaron!

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Post by **Gnzrme** » Sun Feb 22, 2015 6:13 am

Wow... That net has claimed a few people....

Burt Gummer for President 2016

Steven P. Rogers, RN CEN
KK6OTA

Post by **thegiff** » Sat Feb 28, 2015 7:08 am

Being sick really sucked, I figured I'd post an AAR and pics, get home and fall asleep. Still have a throat infection, my work buddies say I can look forward to another couple weeks of that. About 5 people at work have had it. Anyway, enough about that, here is my AAR.

I packed Wed night, stripped out everything from my backpack and gear I didn't think I really needed to drop some weight. Put my backpack stuff and piston in one large hardcase, the rifle in the other, that way the $1K worth of stuff in my backpack would be all locked up. I drove down to San Diego, there were flights from Orange County and Ontario but they had more stops and still ended up on the same plane from Houston to Corpus Christi.

My gear: This is after I got smart and tied all the stuff together. On the way out I had to walk about 1/2 mile, and I carried the rifle case handle in one hand, and my rollalong with the big pistol/backpack case with the other. That really sucked, I figured out that I could use all this velcro I had to tie the stuff together and have the wheels take 95% of the weight instead of only 50% the weight.

This is my first experience flying with guns, so at the airport, a helpful Southwest agent says really loudly "Is that a gun!" Yep. Well, no shit, it is a rifle case covered with some gun stickers on it... She sent me over to the line I was headed to anyway, funny to have everybody turkeyneck at me... Fill out a couple cards declaring the firearms are safe and unloaded, then open the cases to put them in, which shows off my rifle real nice to everyone around. The ticket agent said I should hang around for about 15 minutes, after that if TSA doesn't call them for an inspection that I can head through the checkpoint. The flight was otherwise uneventful. I picked up my pistol case from the carousel, and an agent had my rifle case and I had to show my ID to retrieve it. My rental car wasn’t ready, so I went to a different rental agency and took their cheapest smallest car, a Honda Civic. Just me and the gear in the pic after all.

South Texas is flat…

There was a mandatory check-in and shooters meeting Thursday night, I drove to the local SuperWalmart, picked up some water and Pedialyte, and went to Rifles Only for the meeting.

The sign on the corner of the property abuts the 1000yd berm. They close the road at 8:00am.

As I was headed in, the chopper was driven in on a trailer right behind me.

1000yd berm. The target is the white plate you see edge-on, to the left of the red plate. The red plate is a helpful guide to find the white plate.

So once the morning shooter meeting was over, I followed Rich's advice and headed to the tower. I walk a bit slow, and found myself at the end of a 40 person line. Following his advice (and Jacob's directions" I moved on to the chopper, which was my first stage. A couple of helpful ladies attached a belt to me, when it was my turn as I was settling in I looked out and found we were 50' off the ground already. Jacob pointed out the target, a big plastic bucket. I hit once missed the other. Then was dropped off at the trench for some pistol and rifle shooting. I dropped 1 point on this stage, using all the time to make my shots. The RO was yelling “chopper is coming back, hurry up” I’m like F-you, I need the hits… and I tuned him out.

There was a confluence of a high pressure and low pressure system that is similar to what makes the Santa Ana winds here. About 1 hour later the wind had picked up to a solid 25mph, and the chopper did a full spin with the pilot applying full rudder and was unable to stop it spinning. They shut it down for safety and trailered it back out. Everyone was safe, but it must have been really scary.

Post by **Gnzrme** » Sat Feb 28, 2015 7:35 am

Keep it coming Aaron... I know what it's like to have to walk through an airport with a heavy bag and dragging a rifle pistol combo. I did that in Colorado coming back from the Hide match with a torn calf muscle... Had to walk about the same distance for them to "check" my guns and then afterwards they gave them back to me? How did they know if I didn't load them at that point? Anyway had to walk back to the checkin line again still carrying my rifle/pistol combo... not fun....

Burt Gummer for President 2016

Steven P. Rogers, RN CEN
KK6OTA

Post by **thegiff** » Sat Feb 28, 2015 8:19 am

As I mentioned, a bunch of guys headed to the tower. They hung around for almost an hour before they were told that no tower shooting that day and to move on to other things… Jacob wanted everyone to shoot in the same high wind conditions, props to him for helping keep the gaming down a bit.

I shot “Rooftops from Hell” next. Up to 15 shots, 3 per rooftop. They had 5 rooftops to shoot from in 3.5 minutes. Angled left, angled right, front side, back side, and back side really steep. I forgot to take a pic of this. I made it to the third roof and couldn’t find a good position there. 3 hits total.

Next was Barricades on November. 15 shots off a 3 step barricade on the “N” target at 580 yards. I did really poorly on this, 1 hit.

I shot the 515yd mover and Hog saddle stages next, they were right next to each other. 515 mover platform.

515yd berm way out there. The target was a dolphin on its tail, seems to move around 4-5mph. I hit it twice in 10 shots. Definitely can use more mover practice. The target looked about 1 foot wide at 515 yards by the way.

Hog saddle, 3 Hog Saddles, 2 shots each in 90 seconds. I got 2 hits. The Hog saddles and tripods were really loose.

Next, moved to the carbine pit for some close range stuff. There was the mouse trap, a close range tower barricade with 2 shots per port, strong side and weak side depending on what port you shoot from. This mover really goes, very hard to hit (for me anyway). There were 5 pistol shots and 10 rifle shots, I only hit with the pistol on a stationary steel target.

Then standing 5 shots and kneeling/sitting 5 shots at a full size ipsc at 440 yards. AMU shooter here got 4 hits standing. Then 1 hit sitting. I got 1 hit on this. Then there was the sitting/kneeling but maybe they combined the score with the standing shot, I’m not sure.

The second day (Saturday) I started on the pistol mover stage. They had everyone (20 at a time) shoot the 1 shot challenge. Closest to the center won a set of binoculars. I was really close, but someone was closer. Funny how many shooters missed by more than 2 inches though. Then, pistol on a 20 yard moving steel plate. I got 10 hits once I figured out where to aim. (15 points max) Then there was this RO chose positional stage, weak side, 5 shots at 60 yards on 1 inch dots. Nearly everyone zeroed, including me. The barricade was wobbly and you had to stand.

I went over to the Net Run & Gun. I didn’t take a pic of this. To speed up the process, they had 5 shooters climb the net, then started a 2 minute sequence while on top. 3 shots there, then run to the bus and 3 shots from the bus. Tomas fell off the net a good 10 feet or so, hit hard but rolled on his back, then took off towards the bus. Shooting USA filmed this, they did a quick interview with him, so we’ll see that on TV in 4 to 6 months. I was getting really tired and weak, and felt like crap, so I climbed down the net instead of the wall and ran out of time. 1 hit for me.

Then on to the 700/800/1000 yard shooting from the tower. I got a really shitty increasing wind on the 700yd line. I dialed 1 mil left. Took a shot, was .5 mil right. Aimed another .5mil left, hit .5 right. Aimed 1 more mil left, hit way right again. Swung 2 mils left (now 3 mils of correction) and still missed right. I got 2 hits at 800 and 1 at 1000. One of the other shooters on the line had a high but steady wind, got the high score of the day of 14 hits.

Then went to the last stages, Dot drill, KYL and Barricades. The dot drill and KYL were together. 100 yards prone, 1” targets for the dot drill and 20 second shoot time. I cleaned this. Then KYL, 4 dots, last dot was .25 inch, with 1 minute shoot time. The RO yells “gun” which means go, half the shooter shot at the same instant, maybe 1 out of 4 got knocked out on the first shot due to muzzle blast. Silly really. I waited, the shooters on my left and right both shot at the same time, left shooter got knocked out. I took my time and centerpunched the first dot. Shooter on my right took his next shot, then I shot. We both have 2 clean shots, I look over at him and he looks at me. I asked him if he was going to go for the third, he said yes so I told him I would wait then take my shot. So we both got 3 good hits and stopped. 11 points for dot drill and KYL together.

Finally, Barricades, the last stage for me. 2 minutes on this. First shot is with the barrel supported by a wire. I guessed wrong on the deflection, missed by 2 inches. The rest off the barricade. I totally screwed this one up, couldn’t get my rifle locked in. Ran out of time and only made 1 hit out of 10 points max.

Rifles Only is on a ranch that is about 1/2 mile square or so. It has other ranches nearby. For every movement, repositioning or whatever, the shooter must remove the mag and bolt back. Then get on target before inserting the mag. I practiced this a bit, and beveled my mag well, so didn’t have any problems.

Despite being sick, I had good time. Here is what I took home:

The $500 off Manners stock is what I picked off the prize table, I was 57th out of 129 shooters.

Being small helps in the free for all, I got a steel target plate, Timney trigger 1/2 off cert and a free switchview cert in the free for all. And some caps and shirts and other assorted things. I have some other methods for gaming the free for all, but I won't post them, you can ask me in person though.

And the scores

evo · Post by **evo** » Sat Feb 28, 2015 9:41 am

Nice haul Aaron!

buffybuster · Post by **buffybuster** » Sat Feb 28, 2015 12:55 pm

You came away with a lot more than that.......... Irreplaceable memories!

Post by **thegiff** » Sun Mar 01, 2015 7:10 am

Other stats:
I brought 175 rifle and 49 pistol rounds. Shot 127 rifle rounds including 10 sighters. Recovered 82 of my brass and lost 45. Shot 25 pistol and recovered 0.

Costs:
Match fee $275
Flight out $164.10 (southwest)
Flight back $5.60 (southwest w/ rewards)
Hotel $305.07 (best western)
Food $12.23 and $16.77 at Chile's (not my favorite)
Car rental Avis $124.62
Parking at San Diego Airport $60
Bottled water at airport $2.59, $2.29
water, snacks and pedialyte $19.24 (walmart)
Airport food approx $22.34, $10.81
Total = $1,020.66

Note: edited to add match entry fee and some airport food.

postal · Post by **postal** » Mon Mar 02, 2015 4:02 pm

Whats in the clear bag next to the 'pigskin'? Cant make it out.

Post by **thegiff** » Mon Mar 02, 2015 6:45 pm

Short pigskin.

Mudlol · Post by **Mudlol** » Tue Mar 03, 2015 11:34 am

Thanks for the write up

postal · Post by **postal** » Thu Mar 05, 2015 2:14 pm

thegiff wrote:Short pigskin.

...so... do they call it a "piglet"?

flyingspur · Post by **flyingspur** » Fri Mar 06, 2015 1:11 am

Good shooting and nice report.

Post by **Hollywood_Shooter** » Sat Mar 07, 2015 10:20 pm

good read....thanks for the post & pics

Post by **thegiff** » Fri May 01, 2015 5:45 am

TV Schedule
May 27th
Shooting USA - Bushnell Brawl 2015
This time, it’s precision rifle in the Texas winds, battling the elements at Rifles Only for the Bushnell Brawl, the most challenging of the Precision Rifle Match series. Plus the Remington Rolling Block, selected by armies around the world, but never by the US Army. And HAVA honors our bravest at Rock Castle Shooting Center for a day of family-fun and shooting.