Special Report with Chris Phillips

We’re excited to bring you a special report by Chris Phillips, a 6.5 Guys contributor and long member of our audience. This approach to content creation allows us to bring you coverage beyond our home base of the Pacific Northwest.

We got to know Chris Phillips while he lived in the area and participated in local matches. With his move to Los Alamos, we can now bring you coverage from the Southwestern shooting scene. In this article and accompanying video, we explore the monthly precision rifle match Match held at Zia Rifle and Pistol Club as well as Chris’ experience with the Burris XTR II 5-25×50 rifle scope.

ZiaMatchProne

Beautiful New Mexico scenery

Zia Monthly Match

Chris recently attended  the monthly match at the Zia Rifle and Pistol Club in Albuquerque. Attendance typically averages 10-20 shooters and the course of fire is very similar to what we’ve experienced at our local matches.  At least half of the shooting requires getting off one’s belly giving attendees experience with PRS style shooting. Many of the match participants are sponsored shooters creating a very competitive environment. Winds were gusting at 20-30 MPH. Stages were as follows:

Stage 1 – Speed dot stage. Hit as many dots as you can at 100 yards within a limited time.

Stage 2 – Weighted tire (which looks really difficult)

Stage 3 – Prone with transitioning targets (near to far and left to right)

Stage 4 – Connex (really a tough shot for a left hand shooter), roof, tire stack, tree stump

Stage 5 – Stairs

Stage 6 – Prone to sloped bank

Stage 7 – Barricade stage. Video shows how a tripod can be employed to steady ones position.

Additional information about the tactical matches at Zia can be found here. Other matches taking place in the Southwest include:

Del Norte Gun Club

Raton (NRA Whittingdon Center)

Steel Safari

Burris XTR II Rifle Scope

The folks at Burris lent Chris an evaluation unit of the XTR II 5-25×50 mm riflescope. The XTR II 5-25×50 mm riflescope features a front focal plain design and thicker tube construction compared to the first generation scope. With street prices around $1,250 USD, it appears to be a terrific entry/intermediate level scope. Unlike some more expensive scopes, the XTR II comes with a sun shade and lens covers. The lens covers were a bit stiff to open, but at least Burris was thoughtful enough to include them.

Chris appreciated the 10 mil per revolution turrets which he sees as an improvement over the 5 mil turrets. A 10 mil turret will get a shooter past 1000 yards with most popular long range cartridges within one revolution. The 34mm tube provided a noticeable better field of view compared to other 30mm tubed scopes. While the magnification range goes up to 25x, Chris found himself at 15x most of the time (a nice balance between magnification and field of view). As we have experienced, it’s easy to get lost if you zoom in too much.

Zeroing the scope involves loosening hex screws on the turret. From our experience, this is one of the most intuitive methods available. A mechanical zero stop will not let you go below the zero. The turrets and parallax adjustment knob are laid out in a manner that does not interfere with a left hand shooter (unlike Schmidt and Bender scopes where the illumination knob is in the perfect spot to interfere with bolt manipulation).

The scope also comes with a generous “no questions asked” warranty. This seems to be the trend among scope makers looking to establish market share among increasingly discerning shooters.

For those shooting in the new PRS production division, a Ruger Precision Rifle topped with a Burris scope could be the ticket. Besides the stiff lens covers, Chris didn’t see any drawbacks with this scope.

BurrisSpecs

The scope has features a long range shooter can appreciate

 

SCRReticle

The Special Competition Reticle (SCR) design is very usable, uncluttered and clearly geared to the long range shooting crowd

 

 

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