- [Bret] When people think about rifles in Minnesota, they usually think of the short gun deer hunting season, but there's a growing group of gun owners who are finding enjoyment and taking their rifles to the range in the off season for some good competitive fun.

(rifles banging) - We're out near rural area near New Holland, Minnesota, shooting a little precision rifle.

- [Bret] The precision Rifle series is considered a preeminent rifle organization and holds events all across the world.

Members participate in matches and then the top ranked shooters get to compete in the precision rifle finale.

But you don't have to be super competitive to participate.

Today's event is just a casual team match that doesn't count towards the standings.

- Both of your shooters are gonna shoot it individually, like just like a normal match.

And then you're gonna count your scores and your total time for the two of you.

- Teams take turns at different skills and challenges, shooting at different targets at varied distances.

They'll add up their scores based on how well they shot to determine a winner.

- I think they're a lot of fun.

The PRS series, we do shoot PRS series here at this range as well as New York Mills, Minnesota.

There's also one north of the cities as well and one of my Princeton too.

So there's a couple different ranges throughout the state that we shoot actual PRS series matches.

And there's a couple like outlaw, you'll call 'em other matches that are just for fun, they aren't necessarily in that league - Today was a team event, so we're able to help each other with getting on target to get those impacts.

And like I said, to build our score count.

So you have about 120 seconds to get your 10 rounds, which is pretty common, as low as eight, sometimes there are 12 round stages.

Some of the faster times when we get into like the pro level events, they're actually closer to a minute 45, so they cut the time a little bit, sometimes they're even 90 seconds.

It's a lot of movement at times to get that many rounds off accurately.

- [Member] Yeah.

- So with like today's event, we're counting the impacts, if you miss it is just no points at all.

So the key is to kind of take your time, get off a good hit, and there are times where we've done a bonus stage where if you have remaining rounds at the end, those were actually worth extra points.

(upbeat music) - This was our first team match.

- Yeah.

- Frustrating.

A lot of anxiety, today, I didn't really know what to expect.

Talked well.

- Yeah, it was good teamwork.

Good communication, which is not always easy when the timer's going and the stress is high, and you can't quite hear, and you're snappy a little bit.

(upbeat music) - The furthest end actually is one of the, like here with our 1300 yards is, I mean it's a stretch but on average the 600 to 800 is a pretty average number for the longer ranges.

And they kind of start about 300.

But yeah, that 500, 600, 800 kind of in there, that's what most of the ranges in Minnesota kind of run.

- It's great 'cause we have maybe a third of the people that come out to shoot to become a better hunter.

'Cause most people don't have access to shoot at a 400 yard target somewhere.

They live in the city or wherever.

And it's like, so now you can get the skills to make a 300, 400 yard shot and figure out exactly where your gun hits, and also figure out how challenging an 800 yard shot is and whether you shouldn't take it or not.

These are all center fire rifles.

Anything from, well I'm shooting a 308, just a plain jane 308 today.

Not the best gun for this sport, but I don't have to reload then.

'Cause you can be competitive without reloading.

A lot of us have fancy calibers that this sport really works a six dasher, that's my teammate was using today.

And it's just a very low recoiling efficient bullet that gets out there, and he just tag a 1200 yard target today twice.

- She shoots same pretty much build that I have, which is a masterpiece Arms, it's called the PMR Pro.

And it's like the entry level rifle that you can anyone buy off the shelf.

It's not custom or anything, you can just buy it.

I mean, a technically kind of is semi custom, but anyone can buy 'em.

And they're 6.5 creed mowers, which are very, very popular.

Yeah, got the kind of the basic upper tier stuff and then just, we've kind of been running with it.

(upbeat music) - [Bret] While they were shooting all center fire rifles today, PRS also has rim fire competitions.

- We're doing a lot of 22 matches now too.

Same thing, the targets are just moved way in, like 300 yards an end.

We have many of those throughout the state.

For rim fire aspect of it, we have a lot of experience, a lot of great shooters locally in Minnesota.

The world championships was in Italy this summer and we sent four or five people from the metro area or surrounding to the World Championships.

Center Fire, Oklahoma, they got it locked down, but we're newer to this than they aren't.

(upbeat music) - [Bret] Of course a big part of being a better shooter is knowing your firearm well, but having good optics can play a big role in these long range shots.

- You know we can feel the wind here, but we don't know what the wind is going out, not out there.

Thankfully there's some wind flags on this particular range, but usually you can see the mirage going through the air.

If you have good quality optics that are like little waves in the line or in the sky, and you can kind of guesstimate the wind based upon the mirage sometimes.

And also hopefully when you hit the target or you miss the target, the bullet hits and then the dust either flows away or sometimes, like today that's a 10 mile an hour wind.

You can kind of get an idea of how much wind you're supposed to hold before you get there by spotting.

And then also this is a competition, so there are people spotting to, did you hit or miss?

And this one's not unlike others, it's not how close you hit to the center, it's did you hit or miss.

- When we get into like the pro level, there usually is a designated range officer for each stage and a designated spotter.

With these we're usually having our, we're self Ro-ing, so everybody is kind of an RO, so everybody takes a turn watching and running the tablets and running a timer.

Some of the rifles you can see the vapor trail as the bullet's going through the air as it's actually cutting through the air.

You'll actually see some of them actually go out into the wind and then come back in.

It's kinda like bowling.

(upbeat music) - Beings is I'm an avid hunter, and I kind of went down the road of shooting deer at longer distances and I was like, man, is there like a way to have fun without having to go hunting to do this?

So then I just found the Minnesota Precision Rifle group and then they had a match coming up.

So I had a rifle ready and then I shot my first match and then she came to that and then she didn't come to my second match.

But then three months later, middle of winter, it was December, nd I, of course I'm training all the time and she had asked me one time, she's like, "Well, can I come out with your training?"

And I was like, well, of course.

'cause I mean now we both get to do what we love to do.

(upbeat music) - My hobby was woodworking and it was too loud when we had an infant son.

So I started hobby was reloading and then I started shooting.

I wanted to shoot longer range, I wanted to hit a five bucket at a thousand yards.

And I started off shooting like F class, which is like a more of a prone type thing.

And then I found one of these matches, and this is way more fun.

- This is probably one of those sports that everybody's willing to help everybody else out.

I mean, you could come with grandpa's gun and some ammo, and the shooters will be more than arms open, and hand you gear to use, give you pointers.

It's crazy on how in a competitive sport, everybody's willing to help you out even though it's competitive.

- When I started, one of the coolest things about it was when I went my first nationwide two day matches is I was squatted with the Dale Earnhardt or the Tiger Woods.

I mean, I was squatted with the top shooters, they were in my squad, they were giving me a helping hand.

We shot with them all the time.

So shooting with number one or number two in the nation, it's kind of cool, it is kind of a cool feeling.

It's not like everything else where you're way down there, so it's neat.

(upbeat music) If you have a rifle, come out, bring it and don't feel like you have to be prepared for this.

We even have, throughout Minnesota, we have at least one or two like new shooter events to try to get people into it more.

Like, I'll probably try to talk you and shoot my gun yet today.

(upbeat music) If you don't even have a gun, don't feel like you have to go buy one.

And actually that's probably more important, don't go buy something that you think you need for this if you don't have a friend that's already doing it.

Because a lot of us have had to rebuy and rebuy and rebuy because this is what we were told or we heard on the internet.

But you get a mentor, a local person that you can talk to and help you out, and that's really how we improve our skills.

- I just think everybody's just so awesome.

There's so many good people and all the events we've been to is great hospitality and well run.

- Yeah.

- And they just keep it moving and keep you having fun.

- It's not the cheapest thing in the world, but like I tell everybody, just whatever you have, if your grandpa's got an old hunting rifle, just bring with, get you shooting to know if you actually do like it or not.

But I have a feeling you'll like it.

(upbeat music)