First competition ever, with an Axis. 2014 Bangsteel Challenge
So a couple buddies and I had been trying to make it to our first match up at Bangsteel. It's a range/school about 3 hrs from us. They had been once before and watched a match. Everything was shot from the prone position, kinda basic, $30 entry fee. We thought it'd be a great place to start. Bangsteel posted on their FB page on thursday I believe that they had a match on saturday. We hadn't heard about that one, but decided to load some ammo and head up there. I had literally just finished doing an OCW load test for my Axis, and decided on a load. I loaded the required 50 rounds for the match, and some extra to go zero the gun and attempt to get some DOPE so I'd know what the gun was doing for the match. So I zeroed at 100 with 3 rds, shot 4 rds at 300, and 3 rds at 477. That was the farthest I could get with such a limited time to get it done. No chrono, so I had to guess at a velocity based on turret settings.
I was up til 1am loading the last of the bullets, got up at 4am and jumped in the truck to meet up with them and head to Bangsteel. We got there, went to sign up, and were told it was $100 a person...
Ummm, excuse me, what? I looked at my buddy and said, 'Uhhh, what did you get us into? HAHAHA'
They proceeded to tell us this was the 2014 Bangsteel Challenge, and we'd be shooting off of a cattle gate, a rock formation in the ground, and from prone. Oh boy. Sounds like I'm in way over my head. We thought we'd just be laying out on the hillside, shooting prone all day. Boy were we wrong. Luckily 2 of us had some extra cash, so after paying the entry fees, we were left with $10 between the 3 of us...
There were shooters from all over there, including 3 or 4 guys from a long range shooting team. LOTS of $5k-10k sticks. Everyone running Nightforce, Schmidt, etc. Big bucks. Needless to say I was a little nervous to pull my Axis out of the bag with an SWFA fixed 16x42 on it. At least it's in a Boyds Tacticool so maybe it'll blend in a LITTLE better... lol
Here's the short description Dan posted elsewhere, so I don't have to do it... lol
Quote:
"Shooters completed 6 target stages in two separate squads prior to the break for lunch. During the lunch break, scores were tallied to rank standings at that point in the match. For the seventh and final stage, we began from the bottom scores and worked our way up, placing two shooters at a time on the line to each engage his own 18 inch plate at 888 yards at the "go" command. The first shooter to hit scored 100 points, then the second shooter was given 30 seconds to hit his plate with one shot for a score of 50 points. This does have the potential to swing the scores significantly, and the leading scores can change suddenly during this stage. Since shooters are placed two by two on the line based on points scored up to that point in the match, each shooter is pitted against another of equal aptitude. The stage culminates with the top two shooters in the match at that point shooting against each other, and a 50 to 100 point separation will be the result. A second of difference in target engagement and hit speed often makes the difference."
Here are a few pictures we snapped over the course of the day.
http://oi58.tinypic.com/25q8vw2.jpg
http://oi58.tinypic.com/o8xs1u.jpg
http://i58.tinypic.com/4lsag.jpg
http://i61.tinypic.com/2hhhjwg.jpg
http://i60.tinypic.com/n21usx.jpg
http://i57.tinypic.com/2ekir9z.jpg
http://oi59.tinypic.com/2hf3z2t.jpg
http://i61.tinypic.com/e8qyoh.jpg
So at the end of the day, scores were tallied, and my little Savage Axis 308 hurt a lot of feelings... I ended up placing 3rd out of 24, and being the top .308 shooter that day. When we got there and found out what kinda match it was, I had no idea I'd even be in the top half of the pack.
I was extremely surprised, and obviously ecstatic. What an awesome day.
