Except the NRL22X matches are only 1 event....maybe 2 a year for one location. If you want to go to another location it could mean hours and hours one way of travel. I think my buddy and another guy drove 6hrs one way to go from eastern South Dakota to the Ames, IA match.
The NRL22 is every month and relatively close.
I don't see how people can write off NRL22 as just a beginner level competition when the top shooters of a match tend to shoot scores that are equivalent to 85% or more hit ratio across ALL STAGES with winners often determined by the timed stage. If you have 1 bad stage....your likely done as far as winning. Does that not sound like real competition?
And that's not always Open Class....thats Base Class too. I attended a match where a Base Class shooter beat the entire field by 100pts. The rules are not written in terms of beginner and advanced. The NRL can say Base is "for beginners" but their rules say different. It's an equipment class. The Youth Class is more of a beginner class. But even that is flawed in practice as there no stopping a youth from shooting a $2000 Voodoo against another youth with a $200 10/22.
As far as beginner friendly.....I've never seen match yet were a beginner couldnt come and just compete in whatever Division they wish/qualify for. Nothing is designed to discourage beginners. There is a minimum skill level barrier....but that's the sport itself. I don't expect a person to magically know how to make sight adjustments. That is a minimum skill to have a cursory understanding of. The NRL can't control that nor the match director. It's on the shooter to learn or seek to learn those minimum skills. And you can nerf the match with whatever you like in the name of being "beginner friendly" but the baseline skills are still required in the end.
You know what I never see? The NRL create or incentivize clubs to teach classes so beginners can actually get those baseline skills. The NRL22 match (or any match for that matter) is
supposed to be the
test of skills. Not a class to learn them.
Sorry for the long post.
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