The AnarchAngel has a lengthy write-up about the “baseline” for getting into 1000 yard shooting.
There was a time when the thought of such long-distance shooting appealed to me. Doing things like high power rifle competition could be really neat. But I knew it would be expensive. The AnarchAngel’s break-down of cost? pretty much seals it that it’s one hobby I won’t be getting into.
There’s been rumor of a 1000 yard range opening up in the area, but for years it’s been just that — rumor. Austin Rifle Club goes out to 200 yards (bench, prone, sitting, standing) and Eagle Peak can do 300 yards benchrest.
Stuff From Hsoi 
There’s rumor that a 1200Meter range is coming to the Bryan/College Station area. Should be shooting at the site over the holidays with the developer. Promises to be interesting as I’ve never shot beyond 358 yards.
Oh really? That’s cool. Certainly you guys have more land access for such things than we do around here. Let me know how it goes.
One of these days I’m going to get myself up to Eagle Peak and try my hand at shooting 300 yards. I’ve never done more than 200.
There was a time when one could shoot a 16″ steel gong at 370m and “the man” torso silhouette (formerly “Hanoi Jane” at 345m out at Hill Country Rifle Range (aka Crazy Richard’s). This was great fun and a real challenge while it lasted. Of course, going there you had to pay what we used to call the “Richard Tax” by dealing with his um, shall we say, “eccentricities”, but for the most part is was worth it to have a range where you could shoot steel with FMJ from any field position you desired, or .50 cal rifle, or full auto, or even bowling ball mortars. One HCRR closed, there was pretty much noplace left to shoot that was anywhere near as permissive as HCRR when it came to what and how you were allowed to shoot.
These days I have my own private 220m range on my very rural property where I get to make the rules (and also shoulder the responsibility). Out there I allow anyone who I deem to be more or less trustworthy to shoot whatever and however they please as long as they keep it on the berm, clean up any mess they make, and observe the “4 rules” at all times. Shooting 12″ gongs off a bench at 220m really isn’t all that challenging (especially with optics), so I spend most of my time shooting rifle from field positions with iron or 1x red dot/tritium sights. That being said, I really would like to know how well I shoot at much longer distances under practical field conditions (no shooting jackets/gloves, no optics, standard NATO spec FMJ ammo, “rack grade” rifle).
One could say that indeed, “only accurate rifles are interesting”, but the way I see it, only practical rifles used under practical conditions are worth being interested in. Getting all mummied up in a shooting jacket with fancy gloves, diopter glasses and shooting ultra-consistent match grade ammo in a trick race rifle isn’t practical in the slightest. I’d say a better measure of practical marksmanship is being able to take ANY rack-grade standard military rifle (or its direct civilian equivalent) in good mechanical order with properly zeroed iron sights (or 1x red dot/tritium for the visually challenged), using standard military spec FMJ ammo and being able to consistently ring scale sized human torso shaped steel targets out to 600m from all the various field positions.
I’ve often fantasized about a shooting tournament along these lines styled after IROC racing to determine marksmanship independent of gear. You show up to the tournament with nothing but yourself wearing street clothes or BDUs. You are then ISSUED a standard rack grade rifle and milspec ammo for each round and you shoot whack-a-mole style pneumatic/electric pop-up steel (or the fancy self-healing type) torso targets from 50m to 600m for time/hit scoring (no bonus for accuracy beyond merely hitting and dropping the target). Multiple rounds with totaled scores, highest being winner. All rifles are verified mechanically identical and you get a different fresh identical rifle for each round. Maybe different tournaments centered around a different common military rifle (M1 Garand, AR15, M1A, SMLE, 1903 Springfield, AK47 etc). Now THAT sounds like a fun shoot to me.
That sounds like a heck of a tournament idea.
The only reason I bought an inexpensive rifle rest recently was to help my kids in shooting the bigger rifles, especially since out at Austin Rifle Club benchrest is the only way they’ll get to shoot until they feel confident enough about hitting 200 yards. But at home I’ve been having them do dry fire in “field” positions, typically a seated position with arms on the legs.
I know I could use a lot more rifle practice. Most of my work is handguns. I can do OK out to 100 yards, don’t really do enough 200 yard shooting but I really should.
I agree that it’s better to work on “practical” positions because I too have “practical” as a goal (it’s one reason I stopped studying Kuk Sool and have taken up the Thai Boxing and Kali/Silat). But ultimately it all comes down to what sort of shooting you’re wanting to do. Some people prefer to get all geared up, take the technolgoy as far as they can, and see how far they can push those limits. It is cool that shooting is a realm where people can approach it from whatever angle they wish.
You want practical, seek ye out 3-gun. Most rifle stages here locally are <50yds but you have ot run the rifle and know holdover to make your shots and it will teach you unconventional positions.
My 358yd shots were at the Rockie Mountain 3-Gun held at Whitington Center in Raton, NM. Running up the mountain, shooting across a valley from behind over or around boulders or trees or off the ground. That was an eye opener. I shot my FAL better than I thought possible. Iron sights anyone?!?! That right there taught me a lot about field expedient positions and bracing.
Tiger Valley up in Waco has long range capability and matches as someplace to stretch your shootin legs.
You will definitely see on the KR site when Brass Valley opens up as well. The owner teaches and competes at Rifles Only now and is setting up a range closer to home for himself and for teaching. The owner of Rifles Only has even offered to come up to B/CS to teach some classes to get this place off the ground. You can bet I'll be there, even though my gear is not practical out to those ranges.
3-gun is someday down the line.
I actually inquired with Tiger Valley about doing one of their long range classes, but the barrier of entry will be too high on the equipment level. Yes you can rent some stuff, but I fear if I did that I’d only tease myself into wanting to buy more gear. 🙂
Rifles Only seems pretty darn interesting too. Ah, to have the endlesss money supply… wouldn’t it be nice? Or heck, I’ll just settle for being able to keep more of the money I make and not have to fork it over to the government to waste in whatever way they deem worthy… but a rant for another day.