AAR: 2011 National Patrol Rifle Competition (NPRC) 05/June/2011

[nickdrak]

I attended the 2011 National Patrol Rifle Competition held at the Multi-Lakes Conservation Range in Commerce Township, MI. two weeks ago (05/June). This was my second trip up for the competition and wanted to share my thoughts on this years event.

http://img88.imageshack.us/img88/7946/41491471.jpg http://img28.imageshack.us/img28/4043/37936452scaled297x297.jpg

Last year when I attended it was my first ever competition....and it showed! (I placed 87th overall out of 127 shooters). I learned a great deal from watching last years champ (Jeff Chudwin) and I focused my training over the past year on lessons learned from last years NPRC. This year my goal was to finish in the top 20 overall for the competition.

I shot this years competition in the “Magnified Optics” class. My rifle set-up was a self-built upper receiver group that was comprised of the following parts:
*Bravo Co. Manufacturing 14.5” Midlength gas system chrome-lined/stripped barrel
*Pinned/welded BattleComp 1.5 muzzle device
*LaRue Tactical low-profile gasblock
*FailZero M4 (stripped) upper receiver
*FailZero M16 bolt carrier group
*Bravo Co. “GunFighter” charging handle
*KAC front & Troy rear folding BUIS’s
*Viking Tactics/Troy 11.0 “BattleRail”

My optic choice was the Trijicon AccuPoint TR24G (1-4x variable power w/Green triangle reticle) mounted in the excellent LaRue Tactical SPR-E mount. I have been running this scope for two years now, and I have been running it on this particular upper for just under a year. The upper runs like a raped-ape and I have found it to be exceptionally accurate for a 14.5” barrel. I really like the slightly shorter 14.5” barrel for operating in & around vehicles, and even with the TR24G AccuPoint it is still not overweight coming in at right around 9.5lbs loaded. I have this upper mounted on a stripped S&W M&P15 lower receiver that I built-up with Colt lower receiver parts except for the standard “MilSpec” LMT trigger group and the BattleArms Development ambi-safety selector. I also have a Vltor (clubfoot) iMod collapsible stock and a Stark Equipment SE-1 grip. I have come to prefer the last two items over the past couple of years due to the improved ergonomics for me compared to everything else that I have tried over the past several years on my work guns.

Regarding the NPRC competition, let me start by saying that anyone in the LE community who is physically able to attend this event and does not, is seriously missing out on many levels. For a $110 entrance fee (early registration discount), you are given the opportunity to shoot in a one of a kind LE competition, given the opportunity to win a phenomenal array of prizes (this years donated prizes totaled nearly $20,000). You also get to attend the awards banquet after the competition at the Troy Marriott hotel where you are fed a generous dinner (it was delicious!), open bar, etc., you get the point! You get A LOT of “Bang for your buck” with this event.

Jeff Felts of CenterMass and his entire crew of volunteers do a phenomenal job and keep it all running like a well oiled AR15!

[nickdrak]

I arrived the day before the competition after driving up from Chicago (Approx a 4.5hr drive). I stopped at the Troy Marriott to pick up my information packet in the front lobby of the hotel. (pretty cool of a major hotel chain to allow us to basically take over their hotel for the weekend for a rifle event if you ask me!) The NPRC volunteers manning the booth at the hotel have everything ready to go for you after you check-in with them. After you sign in you are provided with a gift bag which included a T-shirt with the event logo on it, and a bunch of sponsor literature and your name tag/shooter number sticker, etc. I was also happy to find 2 brand-new MagPul Pmags (a 30rd & a 20rd) inside of the bag. (Thanks MagPul!). Each shooter is also provided with a handout which explains in detail each course of fire for the following days event, as well as the rules of the event. It is obvious that the CenterMass staff put a huge amount of effort into these handouts. This is greatly appreciated as it gives each shooter the ability to plan ahead for the stages they will be shooting the next day.

After looking over the stages it should be clear that this IS NOT your typical comstock scored shooting competition. The NPRC is a completely different beast from shooting games like IPSC or USPSA. Those comps are indeed fun as hell, but the stages set-up for the NPRC are designed to replicated scenarios that LE professionals are likely to be confronted with and include various other considerations that separate this event from those type of shooting comps. The name of the NPRC “game” is getting your hits. And not just on “B/C” zone sized targets. The scoring zones on all of the targets used throughout the NPRC are reduced in size enough that they all pose a real challenge for the shooters regardless of the category they choose to shoot in (Iron Sights, Non-Magnified Optics, or Magnified Optics), or their skill level.

After reading over the courses of fire, I decided to take advantage of the offer to go out to the Multi-Lakes range to zero my rifle/optic. I zeroed it a few days prior to the trip at my gun club, but there was a 20mph crosswind, so I wanted to double check my zero. I made a 1/2” correction on my windage and shot a couple of groups each at: 50, 100, and 200yds. I am glad I did this as it would pay dividends on my final score the next day during the competition. I went back to the hotel and studied the courses a bit more and then knocked out for the night.

The next morning we had to be at the event site at 0800hrs for a briefing on the courses of fire, and of course all of the safety rules were covered as well. Jeff Felts and Pat Fiorilli conducted the briefing via powerpoint & lecture. They also had copies of the paper targets we would be shooting at throughout the competition available for us to study and to help us come up with our strategy. Most of the chatter around the room revolved around the varying sized targets that we had to choose from on the “Money Shot/Pick Your Poison” stage. Jeff advised us all that he believed the “Pick Your Poison” portion of the stage would be the deciding factor in this years event, and this proved to be true for the top Two spots and the difference between Third and Fourth place.

After the briefing was completed, it was off to our vehicles to get all of our equipment & gear on, and then we had to take our rifle to the inspection booth to have a once over by the staff for approval. This is where they check your trigger pull to determine if it is suited for the competition. Per the competition rules, no triggers under 4.0lbs are allowed in the competition as this is a “Patrol Rifle” competition and not a “Match”. They encourage each shooter to use what he/she uses on the street during the competition. My rifle/trigger checked out and off I went to shoot my first stage....

[nickdrak]

The NPRC staff had the range set-up so that we were all required to shoot two of the four “range” stages first. After they confirmed that everyone had the opportunity to shoot those first two stages via the shooters score cards, they then broke the first two stages down and set-up the next two stages on those same ranges. The CAPS “Interactive Alley” stage was available for everyone to shoot for the better portion of the day. Once they confirmed that everyone shot the “Interactive Alley” stage, they then broke down the CAPS shooting tent for the day.

I decided to address the “Manipulation Tribulation” stage first....

http://img857.imageshack.us/img857/4486/44616033scaled310x233.jpg Link to course description: http://www.centermassinc.com/files/44616783.pdf

Out of the five total stages I felt that the “Manipulation Tribulation” stage’s target had the most difficult scoring zones. It was basically a photo-realistic/humanoid type “hostage taker” target with a reduced head scoring zone and a small “body” scoring zone. Both of the scoring zones were perilously close to the “hostages” head.

We had to start off with our rifles on the deck with a loaded (5rds) magazine in the rifle and an empty chamber. We needed 3 additional magazines loaded with 5 rounds each either on our belt, or placed on a barrel in-front of our shooting position. Each magazine had one dummy round loaded somewhere in the middle of the magazine. The distance to the target was 35 yards.

On the signal to “go” we had to run rearwards (without our rifles) to a cone that was 25yds behind the line of fire and then run back to our rifles on the shooting line and pick them up and make’em hot. We then had to engage the target from the right side of the barricade with all 5 rounds and address the malfunction (failure-to-fire caused by the dummy round) as it occurred during the first magazine. Once we fired all 5 rounds from the magazine we then were required to reload behind the barricade and repeat the same shooting sequence from the left side of the barricade. We each had to repeat this sequence from alternating sides of the barricade until we fired all 4 magazines/20 rounds total.

We were each given a maximum of 2mins 30 secs to shoot all 20 rounds. We were each individually timed and we were penalized one point for each second it took us to complete the stage. I ended up completing the stage in 1:50 which was a good time I was told, but my accuracy was disappointing to say the least. I had 5 total misses which did not touch the bad guy (-5 points each), and several other shots that hit the bad guy but did not land inside of the scoring zones, so those rounds counted as 0 points. I also managed to shoot the hostage one time in the forehead which was a -25 point penalty on its own. I finished with an abysmal final score of 90 points which basically knocked me out of contention for the top overall shooter for the day. The high score for the day on the “Manipulation Tribulation” stage was an impressive 268 points out of 500 points max before the time penalty was assessed. With a perfect shooting score on this stage the best I could have done would have been 390 points after my 110sec. penalty was assessed. I should have done much better on this stage, but I really underestimated this particular stage as probably the “easiest” stage of the day. This was definitely NOT the case!


I then moved onto the “Money Shot/Pick Your Poison” stage....

http://img825.imageshack.us/img825/2391/44616034scaled310x233.jpg Link to course description:http://www.centermassinc.com/files/44616789.pdf

This stage is very straight forward, and looks simple enough on-paper, but it proved to be the deciding factor as Jeff suggested earlier that morning. We were allowed a total of 2mins to complete this stage. We started out with our rifle on the deck with a magazine loaded in the rifle on an empty chamber with 20rds total loaded in that magazine. On the signal to “go”, we were required to drop down and charge our rifle, and then assume a prone position for the “Money Shot” portion of this two part drill. We had to fire one single round onto a reduced silhouette target which had 6x6” body and 3x3” head scoring zones. This paper silhouette target was located 5ft behind a small 8x11” single pane of residential glass. The head shot was worth 120 points, and the body shot only 50 points. We had to raise our rifles high enough off the ground to shoot directly over a bright orange wood stake that was in the ground directly in-front of our shooting positions which were 40 yards back from the targets. This precluded us from being able to rest our magazines on the ground to use it as a “monopod” for better stability. I decided to take the head shot as I was using my duty ammo for this stage which I was confident would not suffer much if any deflection through the single plane glass which was set at a straight 90 degree angle. My “duty” ammo is the .223 Speer Gold Dot 64gr GDSP. My head shot struck dead center inside of the head scoring zone and I collected the maximum 120 points for this shot. Then it got interesting. At the pre-comp briefing in the morning, I studied the “Pick your Poison” target which is a paper target with four white circles surrounded by a black ring. Each white circle was a different size: 6”, 5”, 4” and a 3” circle. The points per round increased as the size of the circle got smaller: 5 points for the 6” circle, 10 for the 5”, 15 for the 4”, and 20 for the 3”. We had the option to shoot at any of the circles we wanted and we could switch to a different sized circle at any time throughout the stage. The “problem” was that if just one of the 19 remaining rounds we had to fire at the circle targets so much as touches the black outer ring of one of the circles, we would get ZERO points for the “Pick your Poison” portion of the stage. So basically there was a huge “risk vs. reward” consideration to deal with on this stage. We had to shoot the “Pick your Poison” target from the kneeling or seated position. I was confident enough with my skills and my gear that I decided to shoot at the 4” circle which was worth 15 points per round.... It didn’t work out for me as planned. I am very confident shooting from the seated position, so I quickly got into a solid, low-profile seated position and proceeded to take my time engaging the 4” circle. I felt I had a nice cadence going (maybe 1 round every 4 seconds), and then.... DOH!!! I had a slight movement in my position just as I broke my 4th or 5th round off which sent it high/left into the black. My spotter thought I injured myself as I yelled out in agony “Fffffff***!!!”. I continued shooting until time ran out. I got off 11 total rounds on the “Pick your Poison” stage, which counted for exactly 0 points due to my one miss. As straight forward as this stage was, it was one well thought out challenge for each shooter to consider, and the final top 3 shooters scores....and yes, the 4th place shooters score would tell the story of how important this stage was.

I decided to break for lunch and get my head together for the final three stages. The staff at the NPRC had a lunch tent set-up for us, and they served us fresh hotdogs and brats off of the grill. After stuffing my face I walked around a bit and checked out the vendors area/range. There was a bunch of cool kit on display for us to fondle. Barrett had a .50 M107A1 on site for attendees to shoot. I decided against shooting the big .50 as my head was rattled enough from the first two stages.


I then moved on to the “Interactive Alley” stage which was set up in a shaded/enclosed tent by the fine folks from CAPS Inc. out of Canada.....

http://img52.imageshack.us/img52/8798/44616032scaled310x234.jpg Link to course description: http://www.centermassinc.com/files/44616793.pdf

The CAPS system is similar to the FATS simulator most of us are familiar with. The big difference with the CAPS system is that it is live-fire using your actual weapon, not a simulator pistol or rifle. Upon entering the tent, we were directed to one of two shooting positions they had set up inside of the tent.

Once inside the shooting box we were instructed to load one of our magazines with one single round and load and make ready. Once we were loaded up, the range officer would ask us if we were ready, and once we gave him the ready signal, a brief description of the scenario would flash on the screen. We had to view the screen through an 8x14” rectangle opening in a barricade that was placed about 5 feet directly in-front of the shooting position. The screen/target was approximately 15yds away from the shooting position.

The first scenario was a bank robbery/hostage situation. It started out with the bad guy holding a hostage around the throat and walking towards the exit of the bank. The exit was a typical large glass double door and windows surrounded by metal door/window frames. Once you had a clear shot you were allowed to fire at any time during the 20 second scenario. I was extremely pleased at how my Trijicon TR24G (1-4x variable power scope with a green triangle on post reticle) performed in this low-light, shorter distance environment. As soon as the bad guys head emerged from behind the center metal door frame, I broke my shot which I was told struck him directly in the left ear. I was happy to hear the judge shout “HEAD!”

The scoring for this stage was: 250 points for Head shots and 100 points for Body shot. Shooting a hostage will cost you -100 points. A miss -50 points.

I immediately reloaded with my second magazine loaded with one single round. Once I was loaded, the second scenario began to play on the screen. This was a “Felony Traffic Stop” scenario. After the brief description played on the screen, I was confronted with a white Ford Crown Victoria with a male subject moving erratically inside of it. I wasn’t sure what was going on for a split second, but then I saw the driver side occupant begin to point a handgun out through the open door of the Ford. He looked back and he offered up about a 1/4 of his head for me as a target for a split second, and he then ducked back behind the support pillar of the drivers side door of the Ford. He then quickly stuck his entire head out in the same location he first head-faked from, and as luck would have it, placed his left eyeball directly on the tip of my Trijicon’s green triangle. I broke my shot and immediately heared the judge again shout “HEAD!”. He then told me I was one of only 3 shooters who shot each of the bad guys before they broke their shots off. On the first scenario this meant the hostage was saved. On the second, my life was potentially saved. I was happy and things were starting to look up.

[nickdrak]

I then went onto the “Suicide Bomber” stage which was set-up on the long (200yd) range....

http://img600.imageshack.us/img600/64/44616035scaled311x233.jpg Link to course of fire description: http://www.centermassinc.com/files/44616794.pdf

Here's a YouTube video I was able to shoot of this stage while I was waiting in-line:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDQEhP3B6l8

This stage required each shooter to fire a total of 30 rounds at varying distances of 50, 100, and 200 yards at a color paper target which had a photo-realistic image of a suicide bomber. We were required to load up two magazines with 15rds each. Our shooting position was from a seated shooting bench. We were allowed to rest our magazines on the bench for support, but shooters were not allowed to use bipods or GriPods on their rifles for this stage. On the command to “go”, were were required to fire 10rds at the 50yd target, and then 10rds at the 100yd target. Due to the load (15rds per mag), a reload was required after firing 5rds on the 100yd target. I then had to fire 5 additional rounds on the 100yd target and then transfer out to the 200yd target to fire the last 10rds. I used the same point of aim for the 50 & 100yd targets, basically right between the eyebrows of the bad guy. I had a brain fart when I first started to engage the 200yd target. I had it all planned out in my mind prior to shooting this stage, but I guess the excitement of the competition got to me. I measured my bullet drop at 200yds to be 4.25” with my 14.5” barrel and the 69gr “Match” ammo I was shooting for this stage. I aimed my first several shots again directly between the eyes or “center melon” of the suicide bomber. My brain then caught up to my trigger finger and I made a proper hold-over correction and placed the very tip of the green triangle at the very peak of the bad-guys head. When I went up to have my target scored my 200yd target told the same story. My first 7 rounds @ 200yds landed just below the suicide bombers chin and were counted as “body” hits. My last 3 rounds impacted directly in the “ocular cavity” of the suicide bomber’s face with 2 of the rounds each striking both of his eyeballs, and the third round striking the bridge of his nose. All of my 50 and 100yd target shots were right in the eye/nose area where they needed to be. I finished with a respectable score of 525. The high score for the “Suicide Bomber” stage was captured by this years champ (Mark Stout) with a 575.

*Lessons learned: Take your time and make sure you are aiming where you need to be aiming to get the desired effect/impact on target. When I finished firing all 30 of my rounds, I was able to stand-up and clear my rifle and still had some time to spare before the horn blew signaling cease-fire. I probably had about 15-20 seconds that I could have used more wisely to get the proper sight picture/point of aim before I started plugging away at 200yds.

I then walked over to the final stage of the day for me: “Box’em Out”....

http://img26.imageshack.us/img26/4660/44616030scaled310x233.jpg Link to course of fire description: http://www.centermassinc.com/files/44616786.pdf

Short YouTube video of this stage while I waited in-line to shoot: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4dh4A-m2d8Y

What a mess this one turned out to be for me. I was able to watch a couple of groups go through this stage before my turn came up to shoot it. I was relieved to see the the shooting & moving pace was much slower than I expected. This stage is basically a variation on your typical "Box Drill". Myself and one other shooter were the last two shooters to finish this stage, so the two of us were the only two shooters on the line for our evolution. I set-up on the farthest left shooting position and when we were staged by our spotter, I was lined up directly in-front of the #2 positions target. When the command to “MOVE!” was given, I was so focused on that target directly in-front of me that once given the command to fire, I of course started shooting the #2 target instead of the #1 target directly to the left of it, which was my assigned target....DOH! My spotter shouted at me: “Wrong target! Your target is to the far left!”. That really threw me off my game as I was absolutely certain that I was shooting at my correct target....Right??? After missing my third and forth shooting command while trying to figure out what the hell I just did, I finally got my head in the game and started engaging my target (#1). The rest of my shooting was pretty uneventful, and actually went pretty well all things considered. I finished the “Box’em Out” stage with an about average score of 125 points. Had I paid attention and made sure of my target I would have done much better on this stage.

After finishing the competition on this sour note, I was sure that I had knocked myself out of the top 20 as was my goal to finish entering this years event. The NPRC staff had a running score sheet on a video screen up in the inspection booth to view your scores, but it did not show us who the leaders were as they wanted to keep that secret up until the awards banquet. I kept track of my scores on my own scorecard. All of my scores added up to a total of 1360 points. I drove back to my hotel room, took a cold shower, and then burned a hole in one of my favorite Vertx polo shirts trying to iron it while getting ready for the awards banquet that was held later that evening at the Troy Marriott hotel.

The awards banquet is an event in itself. The amount of vendors that they had set-up this year was great. Barrett, Surefire, Trijicon, S&W, Eotech, etc. all had tables full of there latest and greatest gear set-up for us to fondle. The dinner started out with a humbling presentations of the colors by a group of young, soon to be deployed Marines followed by a tribute to all of our fallen Brothers and Sisters in blue by the Metro Detroit bagpipers. The Marriott staff then served us an excellent dinner and after dinner the NPRC staff had Derrick Bartlett conduct an excellent presentation on the topic of “Tactical Vision”. After the the presentation was completed, they started awarding prizes for the shooters who had the highest scores in several different categories. First they announced the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place shooters overall. When they called them up to the stage they then announced their final scores. After the announced 3rd places score (1418 points) I thought to myself “Holy s***, Im within 60 points of 3rd place!” They then allowed the 1st placed shooter overall, and the 2011 champion (Mark Stout) to pick whatever item he wanted off of the prize table. He chose a Barrett REC7 5.56 pistol operated AR that is worth well over $2000. The 2nd & 3rd place shooters then got to pick anything else off of the table that wasn’t a complete rifle. They then started calling up the top shooters from each shooting category: Iron sights, Non-Magnified Otic, and Magnified Optics. Each of them was allowed to pick what ever they wanted off of the table, which included seven more complete AR platform rifles that were left to choose from. They then awarded a prize to the top shooter in each course of fire for the day which left four complete rifles, and a bunch of other top shelf items on the table. When the finally got to the top scoring shooter(s) for the “Interactive Alley” stage, my name was called and I had an opportunity to win one of these great prizes. However, luck wasn’t with me that night as there were seven other shooters who managed the high score of 500 points on the “Interactive Alley” stage. The way they settled the tie was to toss all of our names into a box and pick one out. This was the one and only critique I have of the entire event. I think if they would have had a time or other criteria set aside for the deciding factor for the top shooter in the “Interactive Alley” stage it would have thinned the herd down a bit to 3 or 4 shooters. As I mentioned earlier in my course description of this particular stage, I was told by the judges that I was one of only 3 shooters who managed to shoot each of the bad guys in the head during both of the scenarios before the bad guys had the opportunity to get their rounds off. Of course it would have been nice to walk away with a prize, but I do not feel I was cheated in any way, and I feel I have taken away more from this event in-terms of lessons learned and also gaining new ideas for training than any other single day training or competition event I have attended. Plus, I could have simply just shot better on each of the stages and not left me winning a prize up to luck. It is also always nice to run into old friends, and meet new ones in an environment as positive as the NPRC provided me.

I ended up finishing 4th overall for the competition and 3rd overall in the Magnified Optics division. I was truly shocked when I went out into the hallway after they announced that they posted the final scores to see where I placed. I am pleased to say the least with my final ranking amongst this great group of shooters. Link to the final overall scores for the competition: http://www.centermassinc.com/files/44616408.pdf

I will update this thread after the NPRC posts up pictures and the video from this years event.

Im gonna go back to the range and keep training and I will definitely be back for next years NPRC....

[deuce9166]

Outstanding Nick. I really need to make that trip next year, sounds like a lot of fun.

[nickdrak]

Pics of the event have been posted here: http://s259.photobucket.com/albums/hh286/cmi_six/NPRC%2011/?albumview=slideshow

Not a single picture of me. Oh well, I guess thats what I get for placing 4th:D

[Ned Christiansen]

Awesome report pal!

BTW, here's an article I wrote for SWAT in '06 about the NPRC:
http://centermassinc.com/img/uploads/1402432458-SWAT-Mag-Dec-06.pdf