2024 LOOKS LIKE A GOOD YEAR
- AIR RIFLES ARE REACHING OUT AND TOUCHING TO 200-300 METERS..
- PRECISION RIFLES SERIES HAS GONE INTERNATIONAL (FINALLY) AND WE WILL FOLLOW...
Rambling Editorial Opinion by Johnny Garcia - i may be wrong but at least i try- DATE: JAN 20, 2023
Since 2010 we (LRRP) have experimented with competition fomats to be able to enjoy long range rimfire shooting on a competitive basis. We used a a combination of paper and metal targets ( i have now more than 100 plus metal targets in my house much to the consternation of my wife) and at one time even ballons (that was fun and challenging in the wind). Unbeknownst to the others, I patterned our competitions after high powered sniper competitions.. Each competition had a different degree of difficulty but all had a fantastic amount of fun and we learned, both as shooters and organizers. We were way ahead of PRS (Precision Rifle Series) at that time and we started with about 25 shooters and at our peak had 120 shooters competiting out to 200 -300 meters ( Note - this was only for Metro Manila - we did not yet try to go nation wide).. All events were local - meaning no competitions outside the Philippines except for some club shoots in Southern and Northern California who were shooting in the same format.
Sadly, after several years of organizing matches, I then had to drop everything and go into a haitus as I was appointed head of the PPSA (Philippine Practical Shooting Association) rifle committee. I had to push mini rifle (which I am sorry but i did not really like it as i considered it a run and gun game with too short distances - i maxed it out once to 120 meters and got some complaints) - Could not say no to PPSA as i am one of its founding members and could not refuse the request by my dear friend Jack Enrile - then President of PPSA.
Needles to say - we pushed Mini Rifle and and even had a highpowered competition up North.
With PPSA in good hands (Edwin Line et al.) I was set to retire from shooting long range rimfire (the wife was happy)..... but.
In 2023 however several things aside from Covid came about- namely:
1. High Powered Air Rifles - capable of shooting slugs out to 200 -300 meters ( sounds familiar)
2. A World championship for Precision Rifle Rimfire was held in Italy - with 23 nations participating .. with a standard rule book .. with the best shooters world wide competing. The Philippines was not represented …hmmmmph… I want to be in the next one.
The next rimfire PRS world shoot will be held two years form now or in 2025.
Despite my wifes frowning...I am out of shooting retirement and back to setting up and organizing PRS rimfire and PRS air here in the country. It is taking time but all good things do take time.
We will have high powered competitions (albeit a limited series), hopefully monthly rimfire and Air PRS competitions (The US PRS has already included air in their rule book - and we will do something similar). We will push to have an air rifle division in the next World Championship and push to have an Asian Circuit (Austraiia, Thailand, Indonesia). Lofty goals - but they seem acheivable.
As of today I have purchased and FX Panthera in 22 caliber and have started to fix her balance and will tune her up. Have started to study the metal targets needed as well as the rules to be implemented.
As they say in the vernacular - sa susunod na kabanata ( In English - in the next Chapter)
So be a little more patient guys - but have to do this right ( all the legal papers) so we can hold legit competitions and hopefully ready a team for the next world shoot.
In our quest for long range accuracy we have to initially define what long range is- and the definition that comes to mind is long range is when we have to get out of the comfort zone of our scope and try to push it further than simply aiming at the cross hairs and pulling the trigger. This means going to distances where we have to dial in, compensating for wind, at times compensating for our barrel twist, angles, using our turrets or turnning our turrets, knowing our ballistics, knowing our bullet weights, knowing our velocities, using the mildots or hash marks in our reticles, tilting our scopes, watching our cants, compensating for temperature, compensating for altitudes, getting the proper scope picture and finally squeezing that trigger oh so carefully and praying we all did it right and nothing was left out. PRS adds an additional factor of shooting in awkward positions - positions one would find while hunting or enforcing the law or fighting in a war.
Is it one of the items mentioned or all of the items mentioned? Actually depending on your situation it can be all of the above or most of the above. That is long range is a mathematical problem, requires technical ability, and is an art form so to speak.
So how can we learn all of this in our life time and more importantly for those of us with our beloved wives (your choice whether singular or plural - we do not judge people here) how do we learn without going broke or selling the house and everything else.
Going back to our definition of long range it is how we push our equipment to levels where the other factors like wind etc start to factor in.
Air Rifles - They are now getting powerful enough to start challenging 22 rimfires.. I mentioned start - as it will take a lot of tweaking to get your rifle in shape -harder than tuning a rimfire.. but that is part of the fun and challenge.You can spend a lot for the initial rifle or not (buy local)... but your bullets costs are half to a third of what a decent 22 round will cost. ( air rifle slugs go for 2-3 pesos a piece while rimfire goes for 6.50 to 11 per round ).. To me the best part is doucmentation - just register once and pay a reasonable fee - unlike for 22 caliber and higher you have to go through the LTOP lines and pay annual fees which is really a pain in the rear.
This is my latest purchase and have been just balancing here initially - no accuracy tuning as of yet..
That is an FX Panthera M600 cal 22 with the locally made brass weights (thanks Ron Robles for making them for me) Mind you all the accessories - bipods, scopes, bags -will fit my rimfire rifles and will fit high powered rifles .. i look at this as a fantastic training tool as well as it keeps my body in shape - as is it is already 17 pounds... the top rimfire shooter rifles are 20 pounds and the top center fire rifles are 30 plus pounds.
Air Rifles are a very good intro to long range accuracy and give one a very very good foundation. The lack of permits to transport plus the lack of bullets and its cost - make this extremely attractive to most of us.
Rimfire - Again one can start relatively inexpensively (go Production division) or spend as much as one can easier to fine tune but more expensive with the bullets and paper work. I have a biathalon on standby if i so decide to go rimfire. Easy to shoot out to 300 meters.
We now have several types of events - Mini Rifle (MR) - regular and LRRP style - not Gunnam sytle mind you. Mini Rifle is IPSC in ownership and you shoot objects from 10 meters to 120 meters. When LRRP holds mini rifles events - they tend to be farther than 120 meters.... so be warned. Mini Rifle is fast/furious and consumes a tremendous amount of bullets. The other rimfire discipline is our regular LRRP matches not so much running but more of long range (50-300 meters) accuracy. Here bolt guns can match and even outshoot semiauto race rifle (souped up 1022's). The third rimfire discipline is bench rest (BR22) - this is expensive mind you both equipment and bullets of the highest quality and price are used in pursuit of extreme accuracy.For those who are extremely anal about accuracy and have the funds to burn - this is the discipline for you. For me my focus will be on PRS…which is very similar to our LRRP format.
HighPower (HP)- in this country it is mostly 223 AR platforms with matches up to 300 meters only, but this has been hampered by lack of permits and lack of bullet sources.We will have HP matches but not on a monthly basis. Again on a PRS format.
So why am I so excited about PRS.
I do so because PRS gives us the following :
I have seen the enthusiasam, the wealth of ability and skills not only in LRRP shooters but in other Filipino shooters nationwide that like to compete but at times do not know how or where.
Hopefully with PRS we can give them the events to compete and produce champions for the Philiipines in the next two years.. am I dreaming ..maybe so.. but it is a nice dream..
So please wait and see... there will be more to come.
Sadly, after several years of organizing matches, I then had to drop everything and go into a haitus as I was appointed head of the PPSA (Philippine Practical Shooting Association) rifle committee. I had to push mini rifle (which I am sorry but i did not really like it as i considered it a run and gun game with too short distances - i maxed it out once to 120 meters and got some complaints) - Could not say no to PPSA as i am one of its founding members and could not refuse the request by my dear friend Jack Enrile - then President of PPSA.
Needles to say - we pushed Mini Rifle and and even had a highpowered competition up North.
With PPSA in good hands (Edwin Line et al.) I was set to retire from shooting long range rimfire (the wife was happy)..... but.
In 2023 however several things aside from Covid came about- namely:
1. High Powered Air Rifles - capable of shooting slugs out to 200 -300 meters ( sounds familiar)
2. A World championship for Precision Rifle Rimfire was held in Italy - with 23 nations participating .. with a standard rule book .. with the best shooters world wide competing. The Philippines was not represented …hmmmmph… I want to be in the next one.
The next rimfire PRS world shoot will be held two years form now or in 2025.
Despite my wifes frowning...I am out of shooting retirement and back to setting up and organizing PRS rimfire and PRS air here in the country. It is taking time but all good things do take time.
We will have high powered competitions (albeit a limited series), hopefully monthly rimfire and Air PRS competitions (The US PRS has already included air in their rule book - and we will do something similar). We will push to have an air rifle division in the next World Championship and push to have an Asian Circuit (Austraiia, Thailand, Indonesia). Lofty goals - but they seem acheivable.
As of today I have purchased and FX Panthera in 22 caliber and have started to fix her balance and will tune her up. Have started to study the metal targets needed as well as the rules to be implemented.
As they say in the vernacular - sa susunod na kabanata ( In English - in the next Chapter)
So be a little more patient guys - but have to do this right ( all the legal papers) so we can hold legit competitions and hopefully ready a team for the next world shoot.
In our quest for long range accuracy we have to initially define what long range is- and the definition that comes to mind is long range is when we have to get out of the comfort zone of our scope and try to push it further than simply aiming at the cross hairs and pulling the trigger. This means going to distances where we have to dial in, compensating for wind, at times compensating for our barrel twist, angles, using our turrets or turnning our turrets, knowing our ballistics, knowing our bullet weights, knowing our velocities, using the mildots or hash marks in our reticles, tilting our scopes, watching our cants, compensating for temperature, compensating for altitudes, getting the proper scope picture and finally squeezing that trigger oh so carefully and praying we all did it right and nothing was left out. PRS adds an additional factor of shooting in awkward positions - positions one would find while hunting or enforcing the law or fighting in a war.
Is it one of the items mentioned or all of the items mentioned? Actually depending on your situation it can be all of the above or most of the above. That is long range is a mathematical problem, requires technical ability, and is an art form so to speak.
So how can we learn all of this in our life time and more importantly for those of us with our beloved wives (your choice whether singular or plural - we do not judge people here) how do we learn without going broke or selling the house and everything else.
Going back to our definition of long range it is how we push our equipment to levels where the other factors like wind etc start to factor in.
Air Rifles - They are now getting powerful enough to start challenging 22 rimfires.. I mentioned start - as it will take a lot of tweaking to get your rifle in shape -harder than tuning a rimfire.. but that is part of the fun and challenge.You can spend a lot for the initial rifle or not (buy local)... but your bullets costs are half to a third of what a decent 22 round will cost. ( air rifle slugs go for 2-3 pesos a piece while rimfire goes for 6.50 to 11 per round ).. To me the best part is doucmentation - just register once and pay a reasonable fee - unlike for 22 caliber and higher you have to go through the LTOP lines and pay annual fees which is really a pain in the rear.
This is my latest purchase and have been just balancing here initially - no accuracy tuning as of yet..
That is an FX Panthera M600 cal 22 with the locally made brass weights (thanks Ron Robles for making them for me) Mind you all the accessories - bipods, scopes, bags -will fit my rimfire rifles and will fit high powered rifles .. i look at this as a fantastic training tool as well as it keeps my body in shape - as is it is already 17 pounds... the top rimfire shooter rifles are 20 pounds and the top center fire rifles are 30 plus pounds.
Air Rifles are a very good intro to long range accuracy and give one a very very good foundation. The lack of permits to transport plus the lack of bullets and its cost - make this extremely attractive to most of us.
Rimfire - Again one can start relatively inexpensively (go Production division) or spend as much as one can easier to fine tune but more expensive with the bullets and paper work. I have a biathalon on standby if i so decide to go rimfire. Easy to shoot out to 300 meters.
We now have several types of events - Mini Rifle (MR) - regular and LRRP style - not Gunnam sytle mind you. Mini Rifle is IPSC in ownership and you shoot objects from 10 meters to 120 meters. When LRRP holds mini rifles events - they tend to be farther than 120 meters.... so be warned. Mini Rifle is fast/furious and consumes a tremendous amount of bullets. The other rimfire discipline is our regular LRRP matches not so much running but more of long range (50-300 meters) accuracy. Here bolt guns can match and even outshoot semiauto race rifle (souped up 1022's). The third rimfire discipline is bench rest (BR22) - this is expensive mind you both equipment and bullets of the highest quality and price are used in pursuit of extreme accuracy.For those who are extremely anal about accuracy and have the funds to burn - this is the discipline for you. For me my focus will be on PRS…which is very similar to our LRRP format.
HighPower (HP)- in this country it is mostly 223 AR platforms with matches up to 300 meters only, but this has been hampered by lack of permits and lack of bullet sources.We will have HP matches but not on a monthly basis. Again on a PRS format.
So why am I so excited about PRS.
I do so because PRS gives us the following :
- A standardized (more or less) set of rules to follow globally. It has a system, therefore you know what you are getting into and what to prepare for.
- There are world championships so it gives us a goal - to set up Philippine teams to participate and hopefully bring home the gold.
- PRS allows you to shoot the different levels - be it air, rimfire or highpower.. and allows you to compete in them internationally in the level or division you feel comfortable with.
I have seen the enthusiasam, the wealth of ability and skills not only in LRRP shooters but in other Filipino shooters nationwide that like to compete but at times do not know how or where.
Hopefully with PRS we can give them the events to compete and produce champions for the Philiipines in the next two years.. am I dreaming ..maybe so.. but it is a nice dream..
So please wait and see... there will be more to come.