Iron Sights at 800 Yards: New Mexico Milsurps Match!
At The Range
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While traveling through Albuquerque, I was invited to join the New Mexico Milsurps club for one of their long range rifle matches. This is no typical shooting challenge - the course of fire is 20 rounds (after the spotting shots to figure out your hold) on a 21" x 43" silhouette target at 800 yards. It is open to unmodified military firearms only, with a heavy focus on iron sighted bolt action rifles. I was loaned an Eddystone M1917 rifle in .30-06 to use - one of the best military bolt actions ever made, in my opinion.
The club has a very cool system set up for spotting hits on the target. A bracket on the back of the target holds a piezoelectric accelerometer connects to a bright strobe flash on a tripod about 10 yards off to the side. When a bullet hits the target plate, the accelerometer triggers the strobe to flash, and that light is readily visible from even 800 yards away (as you can see in the video).
The match was a lot of fun - both the shooting challenge and the company of the club members. My thanks for their hospitality and a great time!
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