HOW WE RATE EVENTS

We are different from a lot of other shooting-match organizations. We shoot long-rage, pistol, carbine, shotgun: multi-gun. We have individual and team events. We shoot at different venues, with different terrain and geographical and man-made features. All of our matches have aspects that combine to make them challenging, but the aspects of: shooting, physical exertion, adventure, and team-work vary considerably from match to match.

We have attempted to assign a "difficulty rating" to different aspects of each match.

Physical Diffculty

Level 1 is a lay-down benchrest or F-class match. There is virtually no physical exertion required other than walking maybe 40 yards from your vehicle to the firing line with your rifle. None of our events are this easy.

We start at Level 3 for the Steel Safari and the Rocky Mountain Steel Quest. These matches require the shooter to carry his gear and hike 2-4 miles per day along a pretty easy hiking course, but over rough terrain. The movement is not "on the clock" (ie, it does not contribute to scoring). At this level weather may be a factor.

The next is Level 6, for the Thunder Beast Team Challenge. At this level of physical difficulty the team members have may have movement on the clock of up to about 1.5 miles under a time contraint (scoring). During shorter stages, bursts of movment over rough terrain may be required for 5-10 minutes.

The Sniper Adventure Challenge is rated Level 10 because it requires 20-30 hours of sustained athletic performance.

Shooting Difficulty

We don't have anything really easy here, but there is some spectrum of how hard the shooting is. In general Levels over 6 require master of all aspects of shooting the weapons systems including in unconventional applications or shooting positions.