Advice for John, Rocky Mountain 3 Gun

jeffhughes · Feb 4, 2014

John(my 12 y/o kid)won an entry to RM3G at Ruger Rimfire Worlds, and he is signed up.

I need some advice on getting him ready. What are some other matches we can hit that will help him prepare?

I know he needs to be in tip top shape.

Many of you know, he's super strong with pistol, and less experienced with rifle and shotgun.

He's entered in Limited Scope. I'm wondering if Limited Irons might be better given his lack of experience shooting long range.

I'm open to any and all input...

jtischauser · Feb 4, 2014

Shoot your pistol a bunch at 50-75 yards. Shoot your shotgun at everything including small 12-15" round slug targets at 60-100 yards. Shoot rabbits, flying clays flipping clays. Be able to hold 60 rounds if pistol on your belt. Practice shooting out to 250 off of a wobbly fence post and out to 600 off a rooftop. Learn to unsling your rifle and laid and shoot on the clock. It's a really hard match with real long stages. Don't give up!

jeffhughes · Feb 5, 2014

Pistol at 60 to 75 he can handle. He's got the gear to run 60 pistol rounds on his belt.

Expand on the shotgun and rifle if you can. Strategy insight would be helpful. For example, is it best to engage the long rifle or slug targets and move on whether hit or not?

Where can he get similar experience within a few hours of here?

James Peel · Feb 5, 2014

jeffhughes said:
Pistol at 60 to 75 he can handle. He's got the gear to run 60 pistol rounds on his belt.Expand on the shotgun and rifle if you can. Strategy insight would be helpful. For example, is it best to engage the long rifle or slug targets and move on whether hit or not?Where can he get similar experience within a few hours of here?

I haven't shot the rm3g before but will be there for this years 5 day marathon. I did go as a spectator last year and saw most of the stages. Without seeing the stage designs yet there's no way anyone can help you strategize at this point. In general though, he should practice as much as possible shooting targets at distance and get comfortable / confident with his abilities up to whatever distance he can. Then if he encounters something completely new, which he will, if its within his confidence zone, hit it. If there's a target which he feels he can't hit, then fire a round or two at it and call moving. Penalties for unhit targets are a lot less than for target not engaged.

I don't know about natural terrain 3gun in your area but from what I saw, nothing outside of rm3g will give you a similar experience. But just think, once he does rm3g, no other natural terrain match will seem that hard!

jtischauser · Feb 5, 2014

jeffhughes said:
Pistol at 60 to 75 he can handle. He's got the gear to run 60 pistol rounds on his belt.

Expand on the shotgun and rifle if you can. Strategy insight would be helpful. For example, is it best to engage the long rifle or slug targets and move on whether hit or not?

Where can he get similar experience within a few hours of here?

I'll see if I have some match videos of the crazy shotgun stuff.

The only match I know of that comes close is the north Texas Multi gun matches that Jeremy Moore from Shooters Source runs.

jtischauser · Feb 5, 2014

That's a good 4-5 hour drive from Tulsa but I think you can spend the night and shoot it both Saturday and Sunday.

rmuller · Feb 5, 2014

the drive is 8.5 hours

as for the rifle and leaving targets, RM3G has a different penalty setup than most matches. There is no "high value" long range targets, meaning those that are normallly past 100 yards being a 20 second penalty..everything is 10 seconds. Keep this in mind and have a set number of shots that you are goingto take at each target before leaving. I have seen even the veterans get caught up in the moment and blast away at something for 30 seconds only to save a 20 second addition to time.

What belt are you running. The ELS would be great becuase you can share gear with those on your squad. You will need to be able to hold about 50 rounds on shotgun on your person as well for the all shotty stage.

Chris_Andersen · Feb 5, 2014

The slug targets are going to be hard too. The hardest ones you will see. Have him practice shooting out to as far as 100 yards. One maybe two shots per slug target is all you can afford to take before the point of diminishing returns on your score. You are breaking him in right aren't you Jeff? Lol. It is a shame that match is all week this year, or I would be going and you guys could squad with me.

jeffhughes · Feb 5, 2014

Chris_Andersen said:
The slug targets are going to be hard too. The hardest ones you will see. Have him practice shooting out to as far as 100 yards. One maybe two shots per slug target is all you can afford to take before the point of diminishing returns on your score. You are breaking him in right aren't you Jeff? Lol. It is a shame that match is all week this year, or I would be going and you guys could squad with me.

Chris that would have been awesome. He loves 3 gun and wants to excel. We are going to hit enough matches that hopefully he won't be overwhelmed by this one. We are getting good advice here and offboard.

jtischauser · Feb 5, 2014

Rocky Mountain is tough. I am still trying to upload the videos from 2011. We shot for almost 15 minutes. I was thinking I didn't miss all the hard stuff the match has in it but after watching that video I kinda miss all the shooting.

jeffhughes · Feb 5, 2014

Jesse Tischauser said:
Rocky Mountain is tough. I am still trying to upload the videos from 2011. We shot for almost 15 minutes. I was thinking I didn't miss all the hard stuff the match has in it but after watching that video I kinda miss all the shooting.

It's cool, there are a bunch of videos on YouTube.

I think a key for him is to do as Chris and Ryan said and not get too hung up on any one target.

The kid doesn't weigh 100 lbs soaking wet. How do you suggest he carry 40 more shotgun shells than normal? He's got 8 load 2s right now.

jtischauser · Feb 5, 2014

Here are 2 stages from 2012 when I shot Heavy Optics. They were both ass kickers. I distinctly remember not being able to breath after all the running on 2nd stage in the video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BUZrjfZjZkg&sns=em

jtischauser · Feb 5, 2014

jeffhughes said:
It's cool, there are a bunch of videos on YouTube.
I think a key for him is to do as Chris and Ryan said and not get too hung up on any one target.
The kid doesn't weigh 100 lbs soaking wet. How do you suggest he carry 40 more shotgun shells than normal? He's got 8 load 2s right now.

Chest rig and Caddy. Usually there us a big all pistol and all shotgun stage with 40-50 rounds each.

Justin Porter · Feb 5, 2014

The big shotgun stage always has people loaning out gear. Have the ability to carry 80rds of pistol as you just never know with JJ ....

I absolutely love the RM3G. I never perform well there but I love the terrain and stage designs. You will come away with a long list of stuff to practice and be better for it in the end. Can't wait for August..