RIFLE/OPEN DIVISION
1. Zach Meyer
2. Dorgan Trostel
3. Tyler Hughes
4. Andrew Reinhardt
5. Josh Reeves

RIFLE DIV RESULTS

223 CARBINE DIVISION
1. Mike Dowd
2. Zach Poe
3. Gabriel Najar

223/AR DIV RESULTS

Thanks for coming everyone!

The BURRIS OPTICS TEAM CHALLENGE is coming up in a couple weeks. We still have team slots. We also need some RO’s for BOTC.

Thanks!

In the mid 1990’s, David Kahn developed the idea of the “Keneyathlon.” There isn’t much history of it publicly available, but as far as I can tell, it sort of fizzled out in the mid to late 90’s. Jeff Cooper discussed it in some of his Commentaries in the mid 90’s. When Dave Wheeler moved to NM in the late 90’s, he adapted the concept to his new property, which he dubbed the “Blue Steel Ranch”, and named it the match the “Steel Safari.” The Steel Safari debuted in 1998. The first time I heard of it was in the early 2000’s.

The concept in those early years was rudimentary but also a type of challenge that didn’t exist anywhere else. The shooter was to follow a hiking trail and periodically come across a shooting station at which he would have a limited amount of time to complete a “hunting-related” shooting challenge. This would involve orienting one’s self to the stage, locating the targets, ranging, and shooting them. At that time, some points were given for locating targets, and additional points for hitting them and only one shot was allowed per target. Stages might have, 1, 2, 3, or more targets. In the early days of the Steel Safari, the hot setup was a Remington 700 with a fresh barrel (300 Win Mag, .35-06, 6.5-06, 308, and 7mm RM were common choices). Scopes were often Leupold Mark 4 with MOA turrets and a mil-dot.

The Steel Safari was an “underground” match, in that you had to know someone who knew Dave to shoot it, in those first years. After the 2007 match, Dave announced that it was the “last Steel Safari” because it was too much for for one man to set up the match (true!). At that point, he handed the match over to us. Dave passed away last year and was truly one of the old-school shooters and gunfighters.

Sometime around 2010, we changed the match format from a two-day format to a three-day format in order to allow more than about 40 shooters. This expansion let us get closer to 90 shooters max, with an average turnout of around 75. The change also allowed us to increase the stage count to over 25 stages. We also standardized the stage descriptions/formats to always have 6 engagement, either a 2×3, or a 1×6 stage setup. Stages remain bind, and the “staging area -> shooting spot” format goes back to how Dave ran it in the early 2000’s.

Over time, as equipment got better and the shooters got better, we’ve continuously expanded the difficulty of the match. At the Steel Safari, you really have to be good at the fundamentals and the subtleties of field rifle shooting. There are no shortcuts– it’s just you, the shooting spot, and the timer– do the best you can. There’s no team to help you, no “wind bitch”, nobody to watch shoot it ahead of you. It’s the pure essence of field rifle shooting.

The 2023 match is coming up in about 8 weeks. Match information and sign-up is here:
STEEL SAFARI 2023

The 2023 SNIPER ADVENTURE CHALLENGE will be held NOVEMBER 3-4 at a brand new venue near BENSON, AZ.
Check-in will be on Nov 2 and awards will be on Sunday Nov 5th.
Match details here: 2023 SAC

2023 RULE CHANGE FOR PISTOLS FOR ALL CD MATCHES–
“OPEN” Pistols are allowed. This means your RDS/optics and comps are OK. The only restriction is that the slide must be at least partially contained while holstered and the holster must retain the pistol safely under vigorous movement (SAC has more restrictive holster rules).

Online registration for 2023 CD events is open NOW (mostly).

http://competition-dynamics.com/

To follow up on what was announced at the Safari Special last year, the best chance we have to keep operating at Blue Steel Ranch is to fill the Steel Safari and Team Safari to capacity– so please register and attend if you like shooting at Blue Steel.

We did remove the Safari Special for 2023 because attendance was light and it’s too close to Christmas and SHOT Show.

2023 EVENT DATES

STEEL SAFARI June 2-4, Logan, NM
BURRIS OPTICS TEAM CHALLENGE June 22-25, Douglas, WY
SAVAGE BACKCOUNTRY XTREME HUNTER August 3-6, Douglas, WY
TEAM SAFARI Oct 13-15, Logan, NM
SNIPER ADVENTURE CHALLENGE – TBD – TBD – MATCH PAGE WILL BE PUT UP AS SOON AS THIS IS FINALIZED.

STEEL SAFARI: The Original Hike And Shoot Match. The Steel Safari is the archetypal “hike-and-shoot” long-range rifle match. It tests a wide spectrum of skills involved in getting to a shooting location, identifying targets, and engaging long-range rifle targets with only one shot each. Some of these skills include target recognition, ranging, wind doping, ballistic data management, marksmanship under field conditions, non-standard shooting positions, rudimentary trail skills.

BURRIS OPTICS TEAM CHALLENGE: A hard team match! This match is an extreme test of practical field shooting of rifles, carbines, and pistols, and supporting activities. Two-man teams will be required to navigate rugged desert / mountainous terrain, recognize, locate, range, and engage challenging rifle targets from compromised shooting positions, communicate with their partner and the range officer (RO), and do it under time constraints.

SNIPER ADVENTURE CHALLENGE: The Premier Tactical Adventure Race. You and your partner will undergo tests involving: land navigation; practical shooting with long-range rifle, carbine, and pistols; fieldcraft; problem solving; and other related tasks. Two-man teams will be required to navigate 30-60+ miles on foot to complete the course. Along the way, there will be a series of tasks to accomplish to gain additional points. These tasks may include: shooting problems with long-range rifle, carbine, and pistols; problem-solving; physical challenges; fieldcraft; communication; target recognition; memory; and other tasks. We are moving this match to AZ and are finalizing the details. We are looking at scheduling it for OCT or NOV to help with the heat and reduce conflicts with other matches.

SAVAGE BACKCOUNTRY XTREME HUNTER. A CAMP-BASED HUNTING CHALLENGE. NRL HUNTER and COMPETITION DYNAMICS have teamed up to bring you a multi-day backcountry hunting adventure! This match is a test of a two-man team’s ability to complete hunting-related challenges while based at a “spike camp” for three nights. A majority of the challenges will take the form of NRL-Hunter shooting stages. For these, both team members will be using rifles that fall into the same NRL-Hunter equipment division (Light, Heavy, or Factory). There will be other hunting-related shooting challenges using guns provided by the match. There will be hunting/field craft challenges, to specifically include coordinate-based and distance/bearing-based land navigation. We are moving this to DOUGLAS WY so we can have a legitimate backcountry experience.

TEAM SAFARI: This is a team “hike-and-shoot” rifle match for long-range rifle, semi-auto “carbine,” and pistols. It will test a 2-man team’s ability to locate, range, and engage practical targetry spread in the terrain using both weapons systems. Some of the skills involved include target recognition, ranging, wind doping, ballistic data management, marksmanship under field conditions, non-standard shooting positions, rudimentary trail skills. You can think of the Team Safari as a Team version of the Steel Safari. This match is much easier physically than the TBTC and is more on-par with the Steel Safari.

Please go to the CD web site for match info and registration http://competition-dynamics.com/

We are also looking for RANGE OFFICER volunteers for all of these matches. Please see our Here’s an overview of our Range Officer (RO) Program and then contact zak@competition-dynamics.com if you’d like to volunteer

Hi everyone,

We are working to get all the dates nailed down and finalized for 2023. By the end of the first week of January, we’ll have the Steel Safari, BOTC, and Team Safari officially announced and open for registration. Expect those dates to be the same as 2022, IE the same week of the same month.

We are still negotiating a new venue for the SAC so the SAC dates and location are not yet finalized. I expect this to be announced in early Feb.

Thanks and see you at SHOT Show!