So I ran my AXSR through K&M's 4 day precision rifle course this past week 
First of all, if you're on the fence about taking a course at K&M ... it was absolutely worth the price of admission and K&M is by far the nicest and most well equipped range I've ever shot at. The cadre consisted of highly experienced instructors from all over the precision rifle spectrum (hunting, PRS, military, etc.) and included Shannon Kay himself.
I went full yolo and ran the AXSR with a 20" 1:10 .308 barrel slinging 175SMK at a super slow ~2500fps. I figured that shooting a boat anchor 308 would amplify any mistakes and therefore make for better training and it sure did! I think I averaged around a 65 to 70% hit rate and especially past 800 things got pretty challenging when the wind picked up. But I did manage to clean a run at 600/700/800/900/1000 and any misses within my powerband of 800 yards could be traced to some sort of mistake on my end. With my AXSR weighing in at 22lbs I was for the most part able to call my shots and see both my misses and impacts.
We cycled through almost every style of long range shooting ... they took us out to 1200 yards from prone on day 1 (this was sheer luck but I did connect at least once on 1200 with the 308) and as the class progressed we worked our way to on the clock PRS-style stages that required building multiple shooting positions.
Targets varied from things like dueling plate racks at 300 and 500 to 12" movers at 500, hostage rescue targets in busses and a variety of game silhouettes anywhere from 300 to 800 yards out. You basically get to shoot every single range and target at K&M. You are shooting for about 6 to 8 hours a day with instructors spotting for you. They constantly adjust and reaffirm your fundamentals.
What I really enjoyed about K&M's approach is their focus on teaching you how to troubleshoot your own training. You walk out of there with a very clear and repeatable training methodology that you can immediately start repping out at your home range as well. The instructors were polite, professional, and always focused on the students.
The AXSR hammered but I did once more experience the forend coming loose about 300 rounds into the class. Last time this happened I put vibratite but that seemed to have cleared off entirely so this time I blue locktited it in at 55inch/lbs. If it comes loose a 4th time AI is getting a call. There was another AXSR in the class that didn't have any issues so I'm suspecting the threads in my forend aren't holding torque properly for whatever reason.
The class did really shake out my gear and I learned a ton about what I like and will continue using and what I will never touch again. For the AXSR the first thing I did when I got home today was to bump up my ring height to 1.5" because at my previous ring height the cheek rest bottomed out and I found myself hunting for a sight picture during class in certain positions. I had to really lean into the rifle to get eyes on targets which in turn introduced unneeded muscle tension into the rifle. I was also fighting my rear bag from prone a LOT because I brought a git-lite filled pintsize gamechanger. Once I switched to a heavy sand schmedium things significantly improved.
I was expecting more issues with the AXSR 308 mags but they ended up running pretty flawlessly now that they're tuned. In 4 days of non-stop shooting I only had a single issue with a double feed (which I'm fairly certain was induced by me).
Overall 10/10 ... would definitely attend again.
First of all, if you're on the fence about taking a course at K&M ... it was absolutely worth the price of admission and K&M is by far the nicest and most well equipped range I've ever shot at. The cadre consisted of highly experienced instructors from all over the precision rifle spectrum (hunting, PRS, military, etc.) and included Shannon Kay himself.
I went full yolo and ran the AXSR with a 20" 1:10 .308 barrel slinging 175SMK at a super slow ~2500fps. I figured that shooting a boat anchor 308 would amplify any mistakes and therefore make for better training and it sure did! I think I averaged around a 65 to 70% hit rate and especially past 800 things got pretty challenging when the wind picked up. But I did manage to clean a run at 600/700/800/900/1000 and any misses within my powerband of 800 yards could be traced to some sort of mistake on my end. With my AXSR weighing in at 22lbs I was for the most part able to call my shots and see both my misses and impacts.
We cycled through almost every style of long range shooting ... they took us out to 1200 yards from prone on day 1 (this was sheer luck but I did connect at least once on 1200 with the 308) and as the class progressed we worked our way to on the clock PRS-style stages that required building multiple shooting positions.
Targets varied from things like dueling plate racks at 300 and 500 to 12" movers at 500, hostage rescue targets in busses and a variety of game silhouettes anywhere from 300 to 800 yards out. You basically get to shoot every single range and target at K&M. You are shooting for about 6 to 8 hours a day with instructors spotting for you. They constantly adjust and reaffirm your fundamentals.
What I really enjoyed about K&M's approach is their focus on teaching you how to troubleshoot your own training. You walk out of there with a very clear and repeatable training methodology that you can immediately start repping out at your home range as well. The instructors were polite, professional, and always focused on the students.
The AXSR hammered but I did once more experience the forend coming loose about 300 rounds into the class. Last time this happened I put vibratite but that seemed to have cleared off entirely so this time I blue locktited it in at 55inch/lbs. If it comes loose a 4th time AI is getting a call. There was another AXSR in the class that didn't have any issues so I'm suspecting the threads in my forend aren't holding torque properly for whatever reason.
The class did really shake out my gear and I learned a ton about what I like and will continue using and what I will never touch again. For the AXSR the first thing I did when I got home today was to bump up my ring height to 1.5" because at my previous ring height the cheek rest bottomed out and I found myself hunting for a sight picture during class in certain positions. I had to really lean into the rifle to get eyes on targets which in turn introduced unneeded muscle tension into the rifle. I was also fighting my rear bag from prone a LOT because I brought a git-lite filled pintsize gamechanger. Once I switched to a heavy sand schmedium things significantly improved.
I was expecting more issues with the AXSR 308 mags but they ended up running pretty flawlessly now that they're tuned. In 4 days of non-stop shooting I only had a single issue with a double feed (which I'm fairly certain was induced by me).
Overall 10/10 ... would definitely attend again.
