I know this match was covered in detail on another forum (http://www.snipershide.com/forum/ubb...2582884&page=4), but I figured I would elaborate it here.

Last Saturday Woody set up his NC Designated Marksmen/Sniper Match on roughly 300 aches of rolling farmland about 19 miles south of Apex, NC. There were 33 teams of two shooters each that rotated through 5 stages. Distances varied from 60 to 500 yards. I was lucky enough to shoot the match the day before with my teammate and we RO'd/SO'd on match day. I shot my Larue 16" OBR with 168gr .308win. My teammate shot a 20" AR15 with 77grn 5.56mm. We both had Horus Scopes.

The attendees were basically separated into three different groups. Military, 3-Gunners, and everyone else. The army attendees were from just down the road at Ft. Bragg. Most of them ran Larue OBR's with different scopes, but all containing Horus reticles. The only notable exception was several that brought .300win mag bolt action rifles. The 3-Gunners used 'Heavy-Metal' style rifle set-ups and AR's with at least eight power scopes. The remaining group of attendees used mostly bolt action hunting rifles with several using AR10 clones.

Shooting the match the day before I got to learn the stages and test my skills. I have to admit, it was a humbling experience. I was comfortable with shooting my OBR from either a bench or a prone position, but not forced uncomfortable positions that were meant to test a shooter in strange positions. Of the 5 stages, only 3 of them I was able to use my bi-pod. While the other two stages I had to build my position and find a way to get comfortable. One stage had me shooting off a 2x4 board set at a 45 degree angle. While another stage forced my to shoot up and over railroad ties. Of the 3 stages that I could get in a prone position to shoot off my bi-pod I had to a build up the rear of the rifle to get a stable position.

If I had only shot my own match and not RO'd the next day I would have missed out on some other lessons learned from watching the rest of the field. One, teamwork. It is one thing for the shooter/spotter to talk each other on to a target, give hold over data and round impacts, but is entirely different match when a shooter and a spotter have no communication and are basically shooting their own match. I saw several teams that individually were good shooters, but together fell flat on their faces. The army teams benefited from working and training together and were able to help the less able shooters walk their rounds in on the target.

Another thing I can say from the both watching the army teams and from my own experience was that the Horus reticles are fast. Hold overs, hold under's, and adjustments were made by counting measurements on the reticile, not moving dials or trying to use dots. I was quickly able to transition from a close in 60 yard target to to a 500 yard target.

Two stage triggers have a use in distance shooting. When measuring up a distance target I would bring the reticule on to the target and would take out the slack in the first stage. When on target and cleared to fire by my teammate I pulled straight through on a crisp second stage of the trigger and watch the round impact.

For the benefit of the Horus reticle, the scopes Horus build are not the best. I was excited to have a 16x power scope. But to find my targets I had to dial my scope down to 10x to find and see the targets. The field of view was disappointing. The military shooters that had Horus reticles were equipped with other brand scopes did not suffer from narrow fields of view and could use their magnification.

The last and more match specific lesson learned was the distance my teammate and I zeroed our rifles at, 300 yards. A majority of the targets where in the envelop that I was able to quickly adjust with my Horus to the distance of the next target. Targets closer than 300yds I held low on the target, while targets out to 500 I only had to drop down a little over 2 mils.

At the end of the match we ended up placing 9th out of 33 teams. The good part, we were at the top of the standings, the bad part, I was hoping to do better.

Next match should be in May. I hope to see you there, I know I'll be practicing!


-Zef M.

To see this post with pictures: http://theblasterblog.blogspot.com/2...esignated.html