Wow... What a match... It was held at the Maricopa Sheriff's Training Range. What a facility. 2 large pistol bays, EOD range, Driving range, multiple rifle ranges and a shoot house. The AZLRPS members designed stages that challenged the shooter and yet were fun to shoot. I did not do well, but I still had fun, didn't hurt myself, didn't get DQ'd, didn't crash my car and didn't finish last. There were 84 shooters signed up, but some of them dropped out/didn't show up so I think there were 79 shooters with one of them only being 12 years old!!! There were 6 areas to shoot and 6 squads. It was really nice that you got to self squad yourself and then the squads were randomly picked by dice roll to start on the various ranges. You shot 4 areas the 1st day and 2 areas the 2nd day. Food was graciously supplied both days by Jeff Spaulding of Team Caracal. 1st day was burritos and the 2nd day was a full spread of Mexican food... Awesome food and thanks to Jeff. I was squadded with all of the CAPRC/SoCal shooters. There was Jeff Hall, Jennifer Toms, Danny Nguyen, Joe Villegas, Henry Garay, James Jeffries, Brandon McGaffey, Solomon Manansala, Keith Nelson, Ray Riganian and me. There were other shooters on our squad Oscar Milanes, Adam Williams, Matthew Brousseau and Paul Reid. The stages were fun, fast and exciting. Some of the highlights of the match were getting to shoot a machine gun... Full auto is ALWAYS fun, longest shot of 1365 yards, the Shoot House, and just hanging out with friends and meeting new people.
It was hot, not a lot of shade but there were easy ups at the areas that didn't have a cover and water at every single stage. The AZ crew also supplied electrolyte replacement additives for the water which was a nice touch, but stay away from the Refreshing Citrus (it was horrible)...
The prize table was awesome. Multiple rifles, certs and other shooting products valued at over $80,000.00.
This was my 1st match shooting the new Vortex Razor HD Gen II. It was crystal clear but I personally had problems finding targets. I carried a set of bino's with and would walk the stages and identify the targets but when it got to actually shooting the stage and finding the targets through the scope, I couldn't find them... This was all on me and not the scope. I made some other mistakes like intending to hold over for a group of targets and forgetting to do that and wondering why I was missing??? It was really nice for the long range stages not having to turn my knob more than 1 or 2 revolutions or having to worry what power I was on to figure out holdovers. I had no problems with the scope and am pleased with the purchase. I just need to work on finding the targets....
In the end, Solomon ended up finishing 3rd, James 11th, Matthew 13th, Paul 19th, Brandon 26th, Danny 29th, Oscar 30th, Ray 32nd, Henry 49th, Joe 52nd, Keith 53rd, Jeff 64th, Jennifer 67th and me 75th...
I would highly recommend everyone apply the next time the match opens up. I believe they are going to a every 2 year cycle. The AZ crew also hosts a awesome monthly match that is open to anyone and the 1st time shooter is free. The drive is about 6 hours and there are plenty of hotels by the range.
I didn't take many photos but there are about 100 match photo's on the TPRC Facebook page... Look them up and like them...
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