I shot it last week...and failed. Not making excuses. 100% me on this one. Went 3/3 on the kneeling then missed the first shot at 300 prone. Not sure why. I practiced both, and never missed prone at 300. Might have been over confident as I was more concerned about the kneeling. I've shot enough competitions, national televised even, that it wasn't stress. Just didn't take my time to get a good natural point of aim on the 300. Oh well.
Here's how it works. 30 shooters show up all at the same time. It's a cluster f*ck with no organization. The parks and wildlife guy (PWG) tells you all about how everyone fails and how easy the shoot should be. Then goes on to tell everyone that the "culling" is not hunting. They are having a problem with the elk refuging on a wildlife refuge near the sand dunes and they are trying to scare the elk back on public land so hunters can hunt them. Um, that's the entire state of CO during hunting season. Not sure why this location is so significant. Anyway, he says most shots are 200-300 yards and shooters only get a few seconds to get into position, hence the nature of the shoot. So I agree it's a good test for that situation. He said, bumpers, hoods, backpacks, tailgates can all be used during the actual hunt. All the hunt dates are Tuesday or Thursday's and they are filled through early January. So future hunts are late Jan. and Feb. Personally, that didn't appeal to me and I would not have applied had I known that. Might to you. That speech takes about an hour. You just stand there.
Then he goes into demonstrating the shooting position and how to shoot the COF. He missed 5/6 shots. Yup, Mr. PWG that gave us the run down on how easy it is, how it's so doable, and that it's a test of how well we know our rifle, missed 5 of 6. Said, and I quote "must have bumped my scope."
You have to show him your ammo, make sure it's lead free. You don't know the order of shooting. He calls off three people, baseball style. Batter, on deck, and in the hole. You do not know when you will shoot. So you keep standing there. It was 22 degrees and I stood there for 1:45 before I shot. You can't leave because you don't know when you will be called.
Of the 30 people that shot, I think 5 cleared it. Going from memory...except for one guy, the ones who competed it, had some serious gear. One guy was military and had a tripod that likely weighed 20lbs. and rifle was probably over 12lbs. Serious military sniper set up. Shoot the kneeling exactly as he shows you. Reverse kneeling with the post and use your bipod. The winners' rifles looked more like PRS style than hunting and very few people used anything more than a 308. I used 300wm and was a rare exception. Lots of short action, 6.5 and similar calibers based on what I could see of the brass from 20 feet.
If I could do it again.
. Get there at least two hours early and take a few practice shots on the range - others did, and I didn't know that was allowed. The 200 and 300 yard target rows are pretty obvious. Double check your hold at that elevation. I sighted in at 10,000 (where I hunt) and this was around 7500ish. Dress really warm! I thought we could sit in our trucks while others shot. Nope. The targets are said to be 12" tall x 14" wide but honestly looked smaller. I'm sure he wasn't making up the measurements, but they looked smaller than a standard Shoot N C 12" target which were visible at the same distance.
