Having grown up when surplus rifles were cheap and could be ordered mail order, I became the hardest working kid around. Having a sizable collection mostly they went unfired (sin!).

I discovered a club in Las Vegas who put on the best competition I've ever enjoyed. The rules of the match were simple, you couldn't do anything to the rile a field armorer couldn't do! No glass bedding, no after market triggers, etc.

The targets are steel (reclaimed bull dozer blades) hung at ranges from 200 to 900 meters. The smallest target used is 10"X10" at 200 yards fired from a prone supported position. Any hit of the target is what we jokingly refer to as an X! No paper targets to paste or change which speed up the matches. Usually all four shooting positions are used with allowances for "more mature" shooters.

Once called to the line the shooter has 3 minutes to shoot his 10 rounds and scoring is done by a spotter with a spotting scope and of course the sound of the bullet striking the steel. The matches start at 0800 in the summer (Las Vegas heat) and 0900 in the winter. With 40 shooters in equal squads were are usually done in 3 hours. No standing around, you are either shooting, scoring, spotting, or getting ready to shoot, a fast match leaving the rest of the day free.

One Saturday is for vintage bolt action rifles and the other is for vintage semi auto rifles. Other than the speed of shooting is the guy with the most money thrown at his equipment does out pace the guy with a Mosin Nagant purchased for $79 shooting surplus ammo. As the matches grew, some of the rifles brought out were jaw dropping rare rifles. We include a grenade toss in a trash barrel (1 point if it makes it in), a bayonet thrown at a straw bale (if it sticks, 1 point), and 6 shots at a steel target with a stock vintage pistol (newer is OK as long as it doesn't have sights different from the standard pistol of that era).

Prizes are just a ribbon so coupling that with friendly helpful coaches, it's a great match and we get to shoot pieces of history. So if your club doesn't have a match like this and you want to get some great practice using rifle that have been gathering some dust, find other collectors and start one up.

http://dsrpc.org/vimbar-vimsar/

Very cool. We need more events to get us out shooting, and not off benches.