PRS MATCHES, DIRECTORS, ROs, RIFLES, ETC.

Ten competitive shooting years have flown by quicker’n a November goose headed outta Canada for the gulf. Rifles have gotten heavier’n lighter, perfect cartridges have arrived, bags have morphed, glass has been clarified, folks have come and gone. The amount of innovation/invention in the shooting world has accelerated at a rate that the old guys are boggled and the juniors are oblivious.

But the old guys can still shoot and the youngster’s proficiency exceeds their mentor’s.

The level of organization in PRS matches in 2026 is a testament to the match directors willing to work like dogs, invest much time and money, lay themselves on the chopping block for criticism, and stand in front of the crowd congratulating all participants - winners, players, beginners and them who bring up the hind end of the game, with equal enthusiasm.

The ROs who volunteer to withstand days of concussion, arguments(polite discussions) about sometimes phantom impacts and edgehits, regularly display an endurance beyond the understanding of noncompetitors. They must endure the weather, stay intensely focused for the entire day, know the course of fire intimately, run the technology required today, sort disputes, be safety officers, and more. It ain’t for the faint of heart.

Ten years ago a rifle in 6.5 Creedmoor/243 Winchester/6 or 6.5X47/260 Remington/6 Dasher/308 NATO Potato, weighing 14 - 17 pounds, with a 30 mm scope attached was a normal sight. Some thought 17 pounds was kinda getting on the heavy side. Today some 6.5 Creedmoors are 30 pounds and in Texas this February I met a fellow shooting a 35 pound 308. Heck, a 23 pound 6BR doesn’t even deserve mention anymore.

Three pounds of a rifle’s weight today can be in just the scope! Better have a bit of ballast under that Razor to keep the ship from flippin’ in the high seas of barricade maneuvering! Or you could opt for the Mark 5 if yer rifle’s rudder isn’t full of lead.

These rifles are as accurate as before, some may be more. But recoil mitigation with new brake technology, the popularity of suppressors w/brakes attached, etc., make it hard to judge what cartridge the shooter just touched off, until the empty case is ejected. That’s because it seems to be unusual to see many rifles recoil/move as smoke comes out the hole in the front, anymore. Until you watch the new Sportsman class 6.5 Creedmoors bounce on their bags and bipods, reminding us of days gone by.

The 6.5 Creedmoor’s ebb and flow throughout the seasons has shown its utility. Dashers rule, percentage-wise. The 25s have found a place in 47s, Creedmoors and GTs. GTs? Yup George and Tom concocted perfection for the sport and its popularity has it ranked very close to the Dasher - stigma aside . . .  

I haven’t heard of a 260 in public for a while. Some guys like the 6BR, sometimes. The BRA shows up to play occasionally. 243? It might have been displaced by the 6 Creedmoor, and then the sixes decided to run from 28—2850 on average, so case size/capacity wasn’t such a necessary thing at all.

Yup, sometimes a guy pulls his 260AI outta storage and lays a scourging on the younger set. The BR guy pounds his 6.5 Creedmoor for a weekend and surprises the public. The wily feller pulls his folding stocked 308 outta his backpack, screws his suppressor on a 16 inch barrel, and paints a picture only true believers can believe.

It’s more refined now, the PRS. Yup, you still drive to exhaustion, fly sometimes across the globe, sleep like the dead, but arrive among friends who were strangers outside the gate on Friday. Buddies til death, after expending 200 cartridge’s powder and bullets, carrying 60 pounds of well worn gear from stage to stage, side by side. Then escaping back to what you’d left on Thursday with memories you can’t explain to the uninitiated.

It’s changed, but it’s the same. We’re better having participated, won, placed and lost. In any case, we’re winners for having tried and survived.