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Noah Smith - Precision Rifle Shooting ‘Everyone Has a Plan’ (Part 2) It was still dark outside as we sat in the hotel reception waiting for Ben Wood to come down. We had decided we needed one more piece of data before the start of the competition the next day. In Grand Junction, Colorado, there was a 25 to 30-degree centigrade swing from the morning 10°C to the late afternoon 35°C, so I wanted to check our dope in the cooler, denser morning air. As we waited, one by one most of the GB Team started to appear, everyone had the same idea. As we drove out of Grand Junction to the local public range through the desert on a dusty track, we passed an abandoned RV that looked like something out of “Breaking Bad”. We came to a right-hand turn with a big sign stating “Range Rules”, which Dad summarised as “Don’t shoot anyone” and if you do “It’s not the Local Council’s fault”! The local public range consisted of a covered area with 20 or so shooting benches and steel targets that spanned about 1000 meters! It was amazing to have such a facility open to the public and free to use. With the range cold, Dad set up a zero at 100 meters. He picked up an old pallet to stick the target to, I heard him let out a scream and quickly drop it. Turns out a Black Widow Spider had made its home under the pallet, Dad walked back with his eyes firmly fixed on the ground looking for other potential poisonous critters! After verifying our data out to 1000 meters, we had some fun shooting out to a mile on the hills that backed onto the range. Later at Cameo Shooting & Education Complex, we spent the rest of the morning visiting the vendors stands that had kindly sponsored the World Championship, making it possible. It was also a good opportunity to personally thank people, like MDT, who had helped out the GB Team, & who had made a massive difference to my personal preparations. It wasn't all work though, we had another opportunity to shoot a few different handguns & rifles & my favourite (an opportunity not to be missed) was the Accuracy International .50 Cal. The bullets were huge! That afternoon was the Opening Ceremony, it was amazing to see all the competitors that had worked so hard to be there from 23 different countries. Each team was led into the arena by two members the Mesa Country Sheriff’s Posse in true Cowboy style! There were a number of speeches and what was obvious was the real sense of community pride that the organisers, officials and small army of volunteers had in hosting the event and us visitors. Sheriff Todd Rowell of Mesa County’s speech made me reflect on the hard work that everyone competing, had put in to be there. “On your path, I am sure you have had frustration and disappointments, thank you for not giving up... Take a moment and realise you are one of the best in the world, you are representing your country. The next day was showtime, the first day of the competition. Before the sun was up, we followed the steady stream of tail lights and blinking indicators coming off the highway at the Cameo exit. The car park was already busy with competitors unloading gear and looking for the buggies that would take us up the mountain. It was surprisingly cold at about 8 degrees centigrade, as I stood shivering waiting with my family. I spotted Lucas Westcough, another GB Team Junior, so we jumped into one of the empty buggies and the driver set off into the darkness up the mountain. I made my way to Stage 14, my first one of ten stages that day, a few other members of Squad 24, my squad for the duration of the competition were already there. After a few minutes, Ben Mcilwaine arrived and we started to unpack our gear and discuss the stage. After 20 minutes or so Ben Wood and my family arrived. The stages for the day ran along a ridge that slowly climbed up a valley side. The targets were in various locations on the mountainside and in the valley. The topography was quite complex with bluffs, valleys and hillsides that were all going to make the wind calls challenging. The course of fire had been written to fully exploit the landscape and this combined with targets at the far left and right of some stages, further complicated wind calls, I knew I was going to learn a lot over the next couple of days. Dad and I, as always, had set personal goals for the trip. The first and most important being to have fun and enjoy the experience. Secondly, was to achieve a minimum of between a 50% and 60% impact rate and thirdly was a Top 10 finish in the Juniors. The morning went well with my confidence growing in my wind calls under the guidance of the Bens’. Everyone in our small team soon found a job to do and established a good rhythm. At the end of every stage, Mum, Dad and my brother Nat would ferry all my gear up to the next stage, coming back to pick up Ben Mcilwaine’s gear as well. They kept a steady supply of snacks and water coming, even conjuring up a very welcome ice cream at one point for everyone. Hydration & gear carrying made a massive difference as the temperature reached the mid-30 degrees centigrade, combined with the altitude around 2000 meters (6500 ft). As the day wore on and the fatigue set in, I made my first major mistake of the day, on Stage 11 my last of the day. The stage consisted of 5 targets T1-562, T2-533, T3-503, T4-480 and T5-461 meters. With the following instructions “The Shooter will start standing with mag in and bolt back. On command, advance to the first of 3 rock positions and engage T1 with two rounds, then move to a second rock and engage T2 with two rounds. Finally, the shooter will move to a third rock position and engage targets in the order: T3, T4, T5, T3, T4, T5 with one round each. Whether the shooter hits or misses, they will move on to the next target.”This was potentially quite a high-scoring stage for me, the other guys in my squad that went before me had all done well. For stages like this with a lot of information to remember we typically write a “Dope Card” and attach it to our rifle or wrist. The card is our own personal shorthand on how we are going to shoot the stage with wind holds and evaluations to be dialled on our scopes and an aid memoir of the sequence, mine was ready and I felt confident. “Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face” - Mike Tyson. I stepped up to the start position, the Range Office (RO) issued the command “Load and Make Ready”, I put my magazine into my rifle and handed the chamber flag to the RO and started my pre-stage routine. A pre-stage routine is a sequence of checks that most shooters perform to ensure they are 100% ready to start the stage. Mine consists of verbalising my understanding of the course of fire, I looked to the RO for confirmation that my understanding was correct, and he nodded. I then double-check that everything on my rifle is correct, no lens caps on the scope, parallax set correctly, electronic level on, wind dial if needed, zoom set correctly and so on. The RO patiently waited for me to go through my routine, and asked “Shooter Ready?” I had one thing left to check and as I looked to check my Dope Card was in its usual place on my rifle I found myself saying “yes”. As I looked I saw it was missing! Just as I got the word “NO” out, the timer beeped, it was too late, and I had to start. My mind went blank! I moved towards the first position on the right-hand side desperately trying to remember the sequence. I looked at my scope and knew it was dialled for T1 and remembered: “Engage T1 with two rounds”. IMPACT! ........ IMPACT! With some of the initial panic gone, I knew I had to shoot T2 next, the only problem was I couldn't remember the elevation I had to dial. I moved to the second position and set up my firing position. I found T2 through my scope, I could see that T1 and T2 were not that dissimilar in distance away from me. I gave myself a few seconds to try to calm down and think things through. I decided to send a round at T2 with the same dope as T1, I could watch the bullet and the impact and make the follow-up shot and correction based on what I had seen. I had to break my first shot on T2 perfectly to give myself a chance to use the information gathered to make my second shot. I watched the trace as the bullet went down range, it impacted high and to the left. I quickly measured the distance of the impact from the target with my reticle and did some quick mental calculations. I was about 0.5 Mils high and needed to hold about 0.3 Mils more for wind. I quickly sent my follow-up shot hoping the wind had not changed, only to see my bullet slip off target just to the left of the plate. Gutted, I had to wait for what seemed like the longest time, for the timer to beep and signal the end of my stage. A huge part of PRS is the mental game and I was determined not to take my disappointment into the next day & next stages. I consoled myself that overall, I was sat in 10th place in the juniors and had put in a solid performance.Part 3 Coming Soon... READ ARTICLE

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