The 2005 TacPro Sniper Tournament took place on Sat-Sun Jun 25-26 at the TacPro training center between Mingus and Stephenville TX. Many people know of TacPro as the best Accuracy International dealer in the country.
Four Colorado 3Gun/rifle shooters including myself attended this match. After the 12 hour drive from Denver, we arrived at TacPro around 5PM and proceeded to sight-in on the 1000 yard range. We were all using "Denver" (ie, 5000' elevation) zeros with data for TacPro's elevation printed from the computer (e.g. Sierra or equivalent). The data proved close, so we retired to our Hotel in Stephenville only to find it "dry" and the nearest liquor store across the County Line about 20 minutes away. That solved, we got down to proper match preparation...
The shooter's meeting at 9AM Saturday morning revealed that 60 shooters had registered. One proved to be a no-show, leaving 59 shooters. There would be two squads with 31 scheduled courses of fire. We were to carry all of our gear around the match, only retrieving water and ammo from out cars in the morning or at lunch. Having sorted-out gear was a benefit, and packing light was also a benefit. Cold water was provided on every range. This proved to be important as the temps were consistently at 98-100F all day every day. Minimum round count was listed as 200 rifle and 50 pistol. The pistol had to be worn the entire match.
The match was a mixture of the following elements: precision, KYL, cold bore, and I.D. exercises at 100 and 200 yards; positional shooting at 200 yards; known distance 800, 900, and 1000 yards; running stress; field courses; a 500 yard group; 300 yard clays; a surveillance exercise; a ranging exercise (no lasers allowed); the tower field course; a 50BMG course at 300-500 yards; two night shoot events at 100 and 200 yards; and a pistol "gully" field course. It exercised a mix of skills, though had less field course shooting than we prefer.
Here's a rundown of the stages as I can remember them.
STAGES
Cold Bore 1: 100 yards, must take out "hostage taker" on 9x11" sheet of paper, leaving hostage intact. This was one of the easier CB stages I've shot, since the kill zone was pretty big.
Cold Bore 2 (day 2): 200 yards, same hostage target @ 200 yards. This was a little more difficult, but still doable.
[ link to LARGER image ]
Barricade: Shooting small dots at 200 yards, 3 shots from each of prone, sitting, kneeling, standing, and weak side prone from a barricade. This was tough since the target dots were pretty small and the mirage was terrible.
[ link to LARGER image ]
See Dots: Shoot small dots under time at 100 yards.
Tack Driver: Centerpunch 5 small dots at 100 yards. The mirage made these two events difficult.
KYL: paper Know Your Limitations at 100 yards. The largest was probably 1.5-2" diameter, the second maybe 0.75-1" diameter. The rest were "really small".
[ link to LARGER image ]
Run Down: Run 50 yards and then engage small dots on paper at about 100 yards.
Known Distance: 10" square flash targets at 800, 900, and 1000 yards. This stage was a killer, and most people didn't hit any of them. The mirage was tough. Spotting misses was pretty much impossible. Wind was very tricky.
[ link to LARGER image ]
Four Colorado 3Gun/rifle shooters including myself attended this match. After the 12 hour drive from Denver, we arrived at TacPro around 5PM and proceeded to sight-in on the 1000 yard range. We were all using "Denver" (ie, 5000' elevation) zeros with data for TacPro's elevation printed from the computer (e.g. Sierra or equivalent). The data proved close, so we retired to our Hotel in Stephenville only to find it "dry" and the nearest liquor store across the County Line about 20 minutes away. That solved, we got down to proper match preparation...
The shooter's meeting at 9AM Saturday morning revealed that 60 shooters had registered. One proved to be a no-show, leaving 59 shooters. There would be two squads with 31 scheduled courses of fire. We were to carry all of our gear around the match, only retrieving water and ammo from out cars in the morning or at lunch. Having sorted-out gear was a benefit, and packing light was also a benefit. Cold water was provided on every range. This proved to be important as the temps were consistently at 98-100F all day every day. Minimum round count was listed as 200 rifle and 50 pistol. The pistol had to be worn the entire match.
The match was a mixture of the following elements: precision, KYL, cold bore, and I.D. exercises at 100 and 200 yards; positional shooting at 200 yards; known distance 800, 900, and 1000 yards; running stress; field courses; a 500 yard group; 300 yard clays; a surveillance exercise; a ranging exercise (no lasers allowed); the tower field course; a 50BMG course at 300-500 yards; two night shoot events at 100 and 200 yards; and a pistol "gully" field course. It exercised a mix of skills, though had less field course shooting than we prefer.
Here's a rundown of the stages as I can remember them.
STAGES
Cold Bore 1: 100 yards, must take out "hostage taker" on 9x11" sheet of paper, leaving hostage intact. This was one of the easier CB stages I've shot, since the kill zone was pretty big.
Cold Bore 2 (day 2): 200 yards, same hostage target @ 200 yards. This was a little more difficult, but still doable.
[ link to LARGER image ]
Barricade: Shooting small dots at 200 yards, 3 shots from each of prone, sitting, kneeling, standing, and weak side prone from a barricade. This was tough since the target dots were pretty small and the mirage was terrible.
[ link to LARGER image ]
See Dots: Shoot small dots under time at 100 yards.
Tack Driver: Centerpunch 5 small dots at 100 yards. The mirage made these two events difficult.
KYL: paper Know Your Limitations at 100 yards. The largest was probably 1.5-2" diameter, the second maybe 0.75-1" diameter. The rest were "really small".
[ link to LARGER image ]
Run Down: Run 50 yards and then engage small dots on paper at about 100 yards.
Known Distance: 10" square flash targets at 800, 900, and 1000 yards. This stage was a killer, and most people didn't hit any of them. The mirage was tough. Spotting misses was pretty much impossible. Wind was very tricky.
[ link to LARGER image ]