My first PRS match is officially behind me. It was, I think an officially sanctioned regional PRS match at the shooting range called Del Norte about an hour from me (just east of Rio Rancho).
As I discussed previously, rather than using the rifle I originally prepared for it, I ended having t change gears at the last moment and slapping a 5-25x56 Tangent on my daughter's 6ARC MiniFIx. An lightweight 16" Proof barreled 6ARC is not an ideal set up for PRA competition, but, in the grand scheme of things, the rifle did hot hold me back at all. I had a couple of weights that fit the Q-cert handguard, so I slapped them on there as well, which got the rifle to right around 12lbs. The balance point was almost where I want it, but not quite. In all other way, these was a very handy rifle to shoot. I am actually thinking of getting a couple more weight that I can stack on it (Sawtooth weights are stackable), so that I can shoot some future local matches with it. It shoots Hornady's Black 105gr ammo very well (it also shoots 108gr ELD-M and 103gr ELD-X well, but I had a larger supply of Hornady Black ammo on hand).
It chrono'ed pretty consistently for factory ammo. Here are the measurements for a 20 shot group.
If I were to take out the fastest shot, SD drops down to 8fps.
In terms of wind performance, it is a 5mph rifle, so slightly better than the 308 ammo I was going to use originally, but not as good as the 6.5CM that was my intended match rifle for this year (we make plans, but then life happens).
I do have to admit that I really enjoyed shooting the match with the MiniFix. So much so, that I am seriously thinking of building another one for myself, since this rifle is technically my daughter's.
The closest shot we had was a bit over a couple of hundred yards. The furthest was around 1150. That was a bit challenging for the 16" barreled 6ARC, especially since the terrain there is tricky and wind is doing strange things. Morning was relatively quiet wind-wise, but then the wind becamse gusty with changing directions.
It was a one day match with about 30 shooters (six squads) and ten stages. The 17 year old kid who won the match was in my squad with his dad. Apparently he is on the US team, so it should not be surrpising that he won. He was very good.
Overall level of the shooters in the match was quite good. I really was not sure what to expect. Somewhat paradoxically, the only matches that I have shot in so far are the much larger two day NRL Hunter matches. In those, I am just out of the bottom third in terms of skill level. In this match, it was pretty much in the same spot, I think.
The terrain was a little bit like Cameo, I think (I have been there, but not shot there), with some angle changes and sufficient vegetation to make getting on target occasionally troublesome.
