2018 Quiet Riot PRS Match

For 2018, we are bringing back the Quiet Riot match to Utah.  As in years past, this will be a Precision Rifle Series Point match that will be held the weekend of June 29th, 30th, and July 1st.  You do not need to be a member of the PRS to shoot this match.  The match will be held 30 minutes outside of Price, UT at the old mining town of Hiawatha, which is now owned by Desert Tech.  This same facility is used by Deliberate Dynamics for their Urban Rifle course along with many of their other course offerings.

As with past Quiet Riot matches, all competitors must run a suppressor/silencer on their rifle.  If you do not have one, representatives from Silencerco will be on hand to loan a suppressor out to you each morning.  You will receive the same suppressor for the duration of the match.  Each morning you will be able to pick them up from the Silencerco reps, the suppressors will be turned back into the Silencerco reps after shooting each day.  Everyone will be able to verify zero each day before shooting commences.  I will also make sure we have some chronographs available to double check your muzzle velocity.

We will have a few stages in the urban environment of this old Ghost Town.  Plan on taking on a moving target which is located inside one of the buildings and is only visible through the windows of said building.  There is a variety of terrain that can allow for some high angled shooting as well as some extended distances.  The area has some unique features, some of which are due to the mining history of the property.  Old concrete infrastructure, abandoned buildings and machinery, etc., all at nearly 7,000 feet above sea level.

This match is being supported by some of the best companies in the industry.  To put a little extra fun into the weekend, we are going to have an optional rimfire match that will be held on Friday June 29th.  If you are traveling and have a .22 rimfire rifle, I highly recommend bringing it.  Anschutz North America will be there to help support this event.  We will have a couple props from the centerfire match that rimfire competitors will be able to shoot off of during this match.  We will not be using the centerfire targetry or its course of fire from those props.  I thought that this would be a fun way to break the ice with some of the other competitors that you may not be squadded with during the course of the PRS match.  

Looking at historical temps in the area for this time of year have the Highs in the Mid to High 70's and lows in the 45 to 50 degree range.  The closest hotels will be in Price, UT which is approximately 26 minutes from Hiawatha, UT.

 Please stay tuned for more details on this match as they become finalized.  Signups are scheduled for 3-7-18.  

 

Nightforce ATACR 7-35x56 F1

Nightforce invited some media members to a product debut in early November.  We were not fortunate enough to get one of the media slots to demo their new optics, but we have been able to talk with individuals who have some significant hands on experience with the new 7-35x56 Nightforce ATACR F1.  Yes you read that correctly a 7-35 power ATACR F1.

At first, you may be asking why you would want that much power and/or thinking that you must be giving up something to get that level of magnification either in length, weight, eye box, clarity, etc.  I'll address those issues and concerns below.

Let’s talk first about the increased power.  I happen to shoot a bit of PRS style shooting.  I find that I am normally running around 8-14 power during matches and will occasionally run the power up on a longer stage when shooting prone or on the occasional paper stage that requires additional power.  A few of those crazy small paper stages in the past have left me wishing for more than 24 to 25 power available in the optics I was running at the time.  I have friends who like to run 15x or 17x optics and on those stages, they have been SOL, being unable to shoot, because the detail on the targets were too small to see without a 25x optic.  If 25x is sometimes essential, why not have a little additional power that can be called upon if needed?  You can always power down, but you don’t have the ability to power up past the max power of your current optic.

On the flip side of the power discussion, I am rarely ever below 8x when shooting matches.  I have found that FFP reticles get pretty small and almost unusable at 5x.  At 8x I have plenty of field of view and have a reticle that is large enough to be able to use for holdover points if necessary.  So, it sounds like a low power setting of 7x really is not going to be a drawback either.

Now the question is what do we have to give up?  When it comes to weight, we are only gaining 1.3 ounces compared to the 5-25 F1.  Maybe overall length?  The new 7-35 F1 is only 0.63” longer than the 5-25.  What about eye relief?  Nightforce claims the new 7-35 has 3” of eye relief.  I thought we would have for sure had to give up a bit in field of view.  The 5-25 at 5x has 5.7m at 100 yards and 1.5m at 25x.  The new 7-35 has 6m field of few at 100 yards at 1.6m at 35x.  Nightforce has performed the unthinkable and not given up any field of view with the higher magnification optic.

One area where the 7-35 gives up a little ground is in total elevation.  The 7-35 has 100 MOA or 27 MILs instead of the 120 MOA or 35 MILs found in the 5-25.  Is that a deal breaker?  Maybe for a few, but not for me.  In a mounting system with 30-40MOA of elevation, you should not have an issue getting a 6.5 Creedmoor with a 100 yard zero, dialed out to a mile before running out of elevation in the scope.  The available elevation in this optic can handle just about anything the PRS series will throw at us with the possible exception of an ELR PRS match if shot with a non magnum caliber.

The other area it gives up a little is not in performance, but in your wallet.  ATACR 5-25x56 F1 scopes will be going up from $2,900 to $3,100 Starting January 2017 and the 7-35 ATACR will have an MSRP of $500 more than the 5-25 ATACR F1.

By all accounts the ED glass in the 7-35 is everything many of us have come to love in the 5-25 F1.  One thing that can be found in higher power optics is losing some clarity at higher power.  Again, according to those with serious time behind this optic, this new scope does not exhibit those issues.

Another specification of the 7-35 that is worth noting is the parallax.  This scope has an adjustable parallax from 10m to infinity.  Many of us may not have come across a need for this yet, but I have been at a few matches where they threw us a stage at 25 yards, which caused many of us to power down our scopes significantly to see the targets clearly.  This is one of my favorite features on the venerable S&B 5-25x56 PMII.  It may also come in handy to law enforcement snipers who may be required to take a close range shot.

The 5-25 ATACR F1 is a fantastic optic and serves tactical shooters very well.  If you own one you’ll need to ask yourself if the upgrade is worth it.  However, if you are looking to get a new optic, you need to ask yourself one important question.  Why should I not be going with the new Nightforce ATACR 7-35 F1?

You can find specs on this optic found at the below link.  A very limited number of 7-35 ATACRs should be hitting dealers in December with more in January.  MSRP pricing on the 7-35 is $3,600-$4,000 depending on the reticle selected.

http://www.specialpurposerifles.com/optics/nightforce-atacr-7-35x56

Anschutz 64R Rifles

Late last year Anschutz announced the 64R limited edition rifles.  These rifles use the model 1416 .22lr barreled actions in either the 23" barrel or the factory threaded 18" barrels with 1/2x28 threads.  Both the 23" and the 18" variants came with the amazing two stage 5098 trigger.  The rifles came in a biathlon style stock that has adjustable length of pull, a fully adjustable comb, and can hold (4) 5 round or 10 round magazines.

These rifles were a limited run of 100 rifles.  As of a couple weeks ago, Anschutz North America is now completely sold out of 64R rifles.  I was able to grab the last (6) rifles ANA had in stock.  I am down to 4 rifles remaining.  I have them at their list price of $1,399.  Another dealer that has at least one in stock has raised their Gun Broker price to $1,549 now that ANA has sold out of the rifles.

This rifle is an incredible bang for your buck.  The fully adjustable stock is so easy to get behind. The rifles are tack drivers out of the box.  The 5098 trigger is phenomenal.  The 18" threaded barrels have been extremely popular and are a fantastic platform for running suppressed.

If you have been on the fence about purchasing one of these rifles or just now hearing about them and are interested in one.  I would recommend grabbing one before they are gone.  After speaking with ANA, it sounds unlikely that they will bring any more of these state side.  The new stock design for these rifles, no longer has an adjustable cheek riser and the MSRP would be in excess of $2,000 for the rifle that has replaced this model in Europe.

http://www.specialpurposerifles.com/rimfire/anschutz-64-r-22lr-rifle