Hey guys.
If I can get the day off, I will be participating in the Ohio Police and Fire Games. This is a cut and paste of the Tactical Rifle course:
"Engage paper target @ 150 yards with 1 mag and 4 rounds. Safe weapon, and move to roof.
Engage 20 steel targets from roof @ 100 yards; 10 from the left side and 10 from the right side of roof. Once all 20 are down, you can put up to 10 rounds in a paper target. Each round in paper knocks 5 seconds off time. Competitor must not be touching ground while shooting.
Move to barrel and engage 20 steel plates @ 150-300 yards. All steel must fall to continue.
Move to next stage, remember color and put 10 rounds in your color dessert plate @ 10 yards."
My rig will be a 16in LMT with an AIMPOINT M2.
Will I be dramatically behind the curve with an unmagnified optic?
What ammo would you you recommend? I have some 55 and 75 TAP practice, some home rolled Hornady 75grs and and my pet 55gr load.
I currently use a 50 yard zero. should I change that to the 25/300 zero? I will not be able to reach out past 100 yards before the match.
I’m not looking to win, just more experience and trying not to embarass myself.
I would recommend either a 100 or 50/200 yard zero with your Aimpoint.
A 100 yard zero will let you shoot stages 1, 2, and 4 with minimal amount of hold-off.
A 50/200 will enable shooting 1,2, and 4 with a little more hold-off, but can be used on stage 3 as well as long as hold-offs are known.
A 36/300 will also work, but the close range stuff will require more hold-over.
I would go with optimising the Aimpoint for what it does the best- speed on stages 1,2, and 4. Now, since you will also need to shoot out to 300 yards with some degree of precision, I would recommend a 36/300 yard zero on the irons. Irons can be shot very precisely, and having the irons ready for the 150 to 300 shoot will eliminate the need for hold-over at the hardest distances- for the 250 to 300 yard shots put the sights in the center of the target, for the 150 to 250 shots hold on the bottom 1/3 of the target.
Of course it is entirely possible to shoot 300 yard steel with the 100 or 200 yard zeroes, but it does take time to learn your hold-offs, and it makes it really hard to learn your hold-offs if the first time you shoot at actual distance will be during the competition.
I would be shooting 75gr stuff since it tends to be more precise than the lower weights at distances past 100 yards and will give a bit more energetic impact on steel. The drop difference between 55 and 75 gr is negligable out to 300, either will require a distinctly different offset aim point The Prvi 75 gr stuff is pretty good, shoots to my accuracy needs out to 200 from a 14.5 LMT/T-1.
One big issue though- you really need to shoot out to actual distance to confirm zero and practice your hold-offs. What I mean is that the zeroes must actually be shot point of aim/point of impact at either 100, 200, or 300 yards. Must.
You need to be proficient at applying your hold-off and distance estimating in a minimum of 50 yard intervals, and 25 yard intervals if possible.
