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PRS Talk Best target distance/size for practice..?

CK1.0

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Minuteman
Sep 2, 2020
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Nashville
I'm wondering what guys' thoughts are about the "best" or most useful target distances and sizes to use for PRS practice..?

Like many, I don't get to hit as many matches as I'd like to due to work/life combined with the time/cost of 2-day matches (these days it's more about the time commitment than the money). That said, I'm lucky to belong to a club that goes out to 1250 yards and is probably one of the best in the country... so finding time to scratch the long range itch isn't a problem.

But, sometimes I think I actually spend too much time shooting at distances that are longer than necessary for good practice (mostly because it's fun lol). I tend to spend most of my time practicing at ~750-1000 yards and I'm starting to think I might be better off practicing on stuff that's closer than that because at the matches I've been to, most of the stuff seems to be much closer than that.

I vaguely remember someone saying on here that the average PRS match target distance was more like ~400 yards or so..?

And... anyone have an idea on what the average target sizes one usually will see at these given distances..?
 
Shoot paper at 100 from your typical baseline positions (standing, kneeling, sitting, prone) and establish a baseline. Work towards refining yourself to keep all shots within 1".
From there, adjust heights of each position. Work to bring groups back to 1".
Then set a par time to get a shot off in but maintain close to 1". Basically, you're going through the variants/progression of the Kraft drill.
Paper is the way, even if it isn't nearly as fun as ringing steel at distance. You'll be surprised what you can learn, train, and isolate.

You can sprinkle in build and breaks in addition to 100yd paper. Set ~ 1 moa target at 4-500 yds. You can also use this to help you spot misses and read plates in order to make good corrections for follow ups.

Typical PRS matches average between 1.9-2.2 moa. Positional: 1.8-2.5 moa. Prone: 1-2 moa.
 
100-300 yards is great for working on shrinking your group size. I like 400-500 when working on positional skills like managing recoil, transitions, building & rebuilding positions, etc. Then use the entire range, 300-1000 for truing up data the kestrel.

2-2.5 moa is great for improving your ability to “read” the plate as you will get more impacts. A small target will induce more misses and will force you to work on seeing trace and spotting misses in general. Both are necessary skills for PRS type matches, and the better you get at them the more precise your corrections will be.
 
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I shot about 8 PRS matches this year - 1 day and 2 days. Kept the matchbooks and took notes after each stage. Average engagements were about 600 yards. In big scheme of things, I could finish pretty high (no, not win) if I hit all the 600s (+/-) and missed most of the 900+. Only comment I will add to above is time management to get off good shots from multiple positions at multiple targets in 90 seconds.
 
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Shoot paper at 100 from your typical baseline positions (standing, kneeling, sitting, prone) and establish a baseline. Work towards refining yourself to keep all shots within 1".
From there, adjust heights of each position. Work to bring groups back to 1".
Then set a par time to get a shot off in but maintain close to 1". Basically, you're going through the variants/progression of the Kraft drill.
Paper is the way, even if it isn't nearly as fun as ringing steel at distance. You'll be surprised what you can learn, train, and isolate.

You can sprinkle in build and breaks in addition to 100yd paper. Set ~ 1 moa target at 4-500 yds. You can also use this to help you spot misses and read plates in order to make good corrections for follow ups.

Typical PRS matches average between 1.9-2.2 moa. Positional: 1.8-2.5 moa. Prone: 1-2 moa.

When practicing the other day, I did a little of this at 100, and then took the gist of this approach and took it out to 300 yards (so wind became more of a factor).

Pretty damn humbling 😂.

Using a tank trap, PRS skills barricade, cattle gate, and a wonderful ~15mph crosswind, I didn’t end up with any pretty targets, but I learned a shitload.

Going forward, I’m going to incorporate much more paper into my regime than I used to, it’s a bit painful, but I can see the benefit of being able to see where all those misses went versus the instant gratification and lack of accountability the steel provides.

Here’s one of my targets from 300, sticker is 2”, didn’t get a single hit, but learned a bunch:

DDF2D1C0-6031-42C3-BA8D-D6A6AD9AD757.jpeg
 
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Paper at 100 is good. Big small at 5-6 with .6 and .3 mil targets is also kick ass. I like a shitty 5 foot ladder to test positions on. Dry fire on .1 mil sighting point.
 
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