SniperCountry
SniperQuest 2003
by
SFC Pete Carpentier jr
TXNG
On 06-08 June 03 I shot the SniperCountry SniperQuest match. The was a three day, team match and it was put on and held at the Badlands Tactical Training Faculty in Grandfield Oklahoma. There was a total of 24 teams that signed up and shot the match. These teams and shooters were from all over the United States and there was even a team from Israel.
Competitors shooting the pistol stage.
06 June
The first day of the match we had a shooters meeting and went over the events we would be shooting for the next three days. We then drove to the pistol range and we geared up for the pistol stages. There was a total of three pistol stages that was shot that morning. Two of the stages were shot on steel plates and one of the stages was a pistol qualification on a paper target. The two pistol events we shot on steel required you to be accurate and hit the plates. Each miss on a plate was a 5 second penalty added to your time. Also you could only load 6 rounds in your magazines! Since there was some shooters shooting revolvers, they wanted to keep it fair! The pistol qualification was shot on a pistol target and it had scoring rings. In this events there was quite a few 90's.
Teams checking there zero.
Once we finished shooting the pistol stages we moved over to the 1K range to check the zero's on our rifles. Once this was done we were broken down into Two squads. I was on Squad B and we did the KIM's game. Again this was the second time I had ever done a KIM's game like this. What we did was, we were taken down this trail, alone the trail there was 10 items laid out in different locations. Your job was to find the items. You could not touch them, point them out or write down anything you saw. The whole idea of the exercise is to be able to recall what you saw later and write it down in a 2 minute period. The next event for our Squad was the Range Estimate/Target Detection exercise. In this event, we were taken to a field. In the field there were ten different items. The items were concrete blocks, satellite dish, stop sign, bunker window, real estate sign, aluminum door frame, aluminum window and a silhouette. These were the items we found and not only that you also had to be able to give the range to the items. All this in 40 minutes.
We then moved back to the range to do some more shooting .We fired four events that day. The first event was the MAKE IT & TAKE IT. The target has a 1.5, 1 , .75 , .50 and a .25 MOA dots. The target is at 100 yards and you have 1 minute in which to engage the target. The trick to this event is you can shoot all the targets you want, but once you miss anyone of the dots you get a zero. You can also stop at anytime once you have a hit in one or more of the dots. A hit in each dot is worth 20 points. I saw a lot shooters hit two dots and stop and some that had two hits on the dots and then tried to go for three and missed. You real have to know where you gun shoots in this event and you have to be able to take a good shot. Its either all or nothing. I myself missed after my first shot.
The next event was the HOSTAGE drill. In this event the shooter engages a Hostage target at 200 yards. The target is a bad guy holding a hostage in front of them. You have three minutes in which to fire 10 rounds. A hit on the bad guy is worth 10 points. An hit on the hostage is a 10 point penalty and is subtracted from you overall score on the event. On this event there was several 100's on our squad. I finished with a 70.
Team shooting the Positional shoot.
The third event of the day was the Positional shoot. In this event the shooter engages a paper target at 300 yards. The target is a Silhouette with scoring rings. The highest scoring ring is worth 5 points and the lowest is worth 2 points. The shooter has 15 minutes to engage the target with 20 rounds. You must fire 5 rounds from the standing position, 5 from the squatting position, 5 from the kneeling position and five from the sitting position. The only support you can use is a sling. Many of the shooters shot this event to fast and had about 5 minutes to spare. There was not a lot of high score in this event. This was a tough event.
The last event of the day was the 10 SHOT DRILL. In this event there is a target down range at 100 yards that has 10 one inch dots. The shooter loads with 5 rounds and has 5 other rounds ready to reload. At the command to fire, the shooter shoots one shot on each dot in 45 seconds. Of course after you have fired your first five rounds, you must have the other five rounds close and you must be able to single load and fire. This also is a tough event. Every hit inside the dot or touching the dot is worth 10 points for a total of 100 points. I got 9 dots out of 10. I missed the last dot. This was the best score on my Squad.
07 June
This would be the longest day of the match. We had to report to the range at 0600. The first event of the day would be the STALK. This event was a little different. This time our Squad was divide in half. Half of us would be Stalking and the other half of the Squad would be Observers. Our team was first to stalk. We had two hours to get within 200 yards of the observers and fire two shots without being detected. This is how the scoring was done on the stalk. You were given 25 points for making it past the 200 yard marker, 50 points for firing your first shot, 75 points for taking a second shot, and 100 points for correct ID after the second shot and the sniper had to have the correct elevation and windage on the scope. Of course if you were caught before you made it to the 200 yard mark, you would get NO points. Of course anytime you were caught after the 200 yard mark, you would be given some points. Our team got past the 200 yard mark and we got off one shot, before we were BUSTED. We received 50 points for this event. There was a team that was stalking the same time as us and they got 100 points.
Now if you were observing, you were also able to get 100 points for Busting a team. This is how the scoring worked for the observers. You were given 100 points for Busting a team before they reached the 200 yard mark, 75 points for busting a team after they were pasted the 200 yard mark, 50 points for busting a team after there first shot, 25 points for busting a team after there second shot. I busted a team before they reached the 200 yard mark and our team got 100 points. This was the longest event of the match.
Competitor making a Cold Bore shot.
The first shooting event of the day was the Cold Bore shot. In this event there is a 3 inch dot at 300 yards. The shooter starts standing behind his rifle. At the signal to fire, the shooter drops down behind his rifle, loads and fires one round in 30 seconds. If he gets a hit in the circle, he receives 100 points and he is done. If he misses, he then will stand and do the same think again. If he gets a hit with the second round, he will receive 50 points. If he misses again, he will be able to fire one more round. If he hits with his third round, he receives 25 points. If he misses again, then he will get a zero for the event. I got a first round hit. There was several first round hits and quite a few misses with all three shots.
Sniper team shooting the Moving target event.
The next event of the day was the Moving Target event. In this event the shooter will engage a moving target at 300 yards. Each time the target comes up and starts to move, the shooter will engage the target with 5 rounds. The target will move from right to left, then pause and then move from left to right. Again the shooter will engage the target with five rounds for a total of ten rounds. Each hit on the target is worth 10 points for a total of 100 points. I had 8 hits on the target and my partner had 9 hits on the target. We both shot M118LR ammo and we did not have to lead the target.
The next event was the UNKNOWN DISTANCE. In this event you are brought up to the line, they then point out the five targets you will be engaging. You then will have 2 minutes to range the target. After 2 minutes the Range officer will call you number and you will have 30 seconds to engage the target with one round. If you make a first round hit, you will receive 20 points and you will then move on to the next target. If you miss, you can reengage with another round, if you hit the target, you will receive 15 points, if you miss again, you will have one more round in which to engage the target with. If you hit the target, you will receive 10 points, if you miss again, you will get a zero and you move on to the next target. You did this 4 more times for a total of 100 points. The target were place out at different distances and were spread out in the field. You had to locate the target, range it and be ready to fire. Because of the way the targets were placed, we had to change positions to engage the targets. I had 4 first round hits. The closest target was at 230 yards and the farthest target was at 660 yards.
The last event of the day was the NIGHT SHOOT. In this event, the teams were brought up to the line. At 300 yards there was a paper silhouette with scoring rings. Once you were setup, the lights were turned on for 2 minutes. During this time you identified your target and got ready. The lights were then turned off and you loaded 5 rounds in your rifle. Once the lights came on again, you had 20 seconds to fire 5 rounds. This was very fast, you had to be able to work your bolt very quickly and get back on the target. Of course after 20 seconds the lights went out again. You were then give the command to load 5 round again. This time the lights would come on for varying times. The first time the lights came on, you had 15 second to fire one round. Again the lights would go out. The second time, the lights would come on, you had 12 seconds to fire one round. The third time the lights came on, you had 9 seconds to fire one round. The fourth time you had 6 seconds. The last time they came on you had 3 seconds to fire. This was also a tough event. You had to be able to load and work your rifle in the dark. You were not allowed to use a light. As I said before, this was the longest day of the match. We did not leave the range till 2300.
Sniper teams shooting the Known Distance event.
08 JUNE
The last day of the match we fired only two events. The first event was the KNOWN DISTANCE. In this event, the shooter engage a paper Silhouette at 900 yards and 1000 yards. Again the target had scoring rings. The highest scoring ring was worth 5 points. Once the shooter was setup, the command to load was given. The shooter could load five rounds or single load his rounds. The shooter fired 5 rounds at the 900 yard target and then he fired 5 rounds at the 1000 yard target. All in 40 minutes. Just about every team got done early, with time to spare. This also was a hard event. You had to know you come ups at the two different distances. Also since this was a team event, your spotter could spot and give you corrections. As I said this was the first event of the day and it was real hard to see trace. My spotter was only able to see trace on the last two rounds I fired. There was a lot of zero's in this event. The only high light in this event was that there was a shooter shooting a AR-15 rifle. He was able to get 50 points at the 1000 yard target. And he was shooting 69 grain bullets! BOY was I surprised. But that was good shooting.
The last event of the match was another UNKNOWN DISTANCE. Again this was run like the other event. The only different's was that two of the targets had to be engage from the kneeling and the sitting position. The closest target was at 400 yards and the farthest target was at 800 yards. There was some hits on the 800 yard target.
Once the match was over, the scores were ready in about an hour. We then all meet at the match headquarters and the awards and prizes were given out. I can tell you that the prize table was HUGE. There was $23,000 worth of prizes on the prize table. Everyone that shot the match left with some kind of prize. Some left with more then one prize.
All in all it was a great match. I would like to Thank Bobby, Steve, Sarge, and Bobby's staff for putting on and running a great match. There is now talk of a SniperQuest 04! If it is anything like this match, plan on attending.
