“Absolutely Diabolical”
The Allegheny Sniper Challenge September 25-27, 2009
By Ian Kenney
The Allegheny Sniper Challenge is a two-day event held in the picturesque mountains of West Virginia near the small cross roads village of Seneca Rocks. While Seneca Rocks is normally a popular destination for climbers and outdoor enthusiasts, about twice a year, the local hotels and campgrounds get an influx of another kind of enthusiast…precision rifle shooters. They come from all corners of the map to attend a match that is quite unlike any other and has become so popular that there are more slots on the waiting list than there are slots for the match.
The ASC is primarily organized and directed by two gentlemen, John Markwell and Rod Hansen, who run the two groups of competitors during the weekend and generally keep the groups from shooting one another. John couldn’t be at the match this time around so his son, Brock, took over in his stead and kept things running like a well-oiled machine. Now the match simply would not operate smoothly with just those three people so it’s only fair to mention the others who donated their considerable time and effort on the mountain not only during the match but before and after getting the targets ready and making sure it was all good to go. So a special thanks goes to Matt Pyle, Matt Kile, Emmitt Adkins, Trey Keyser, Jeremy Keen, and Don Duff.
The match is held on a working farm, owned by Joe Harper, roughly ten minutes from the center of Seneca Rocks, WV. The farm offers an excellent mix of challenging terrain and conditions with altitudes that can reach 3500+ feet above sea level, high winds, and shifting weather conditions. Something that I think sets this match apart from some of the others is that it is essentially a field shooting match and not one conducted on some square, flat range. There are no defined firing lines or assigned range officers, everyone is responsible for ensuring the safety of the other competitors.
This is a Google Earth shot of the farm where the match is held. During the course the weekend, a competitor will shoot from all of the marked areas on the map and just about everywhere else in between.
Also since the match is shot in field conditions there are some restrictions and guidelines on the equipment used at the match. First and foremost, laser rangefinders are prohibited for competitors; all ranging must be done using the reticle in the scope. All of the equipment the competitor needs for the day must also be carried with him or her, because once you depart the parking/staging area, you won’t be coming back to it until you finish out the day. Therefore it’s important to pack just the essentials and it’s recommended to keep the total weight, including the rifle, down to about 35 pounds or less.
Equipment
For this match I was using Eberlestock’s new Gunslinger II backpack to carry my rifle and the necessary equipment for the day’s events. I have used other Eberlestock packs at previous ASC matches and I highly recommend them for carrying all of the necessary equipment around the farm in relative comfort. The only draw back to the Eberlestock packs is that they have so many pockets, nooks, and crannies that you feel you HAVE to put something in them. Don’t do this, carry just what you think you may need for the day and no more, otherwise it will be extra weight you don’t want. Based on past experiences on the mountain this is what I packed for both days, the only difference being the amount of ammunition between Saturday and Sunday.
Three loaded AI magazines equaling 20 rounds that I could grab in a hurry
For reloads I carried one or two fifty round ammo boxes
US Tactical Supply Modular Data book with Mildot Master and score sheet
One of Brock’s rifle slings
At least one rear bag
100 oz Camelbak bladder
Rain top and bottom
Small first aid kit with basics like band-aids, Motrin, gauze pads, tape, gloves, scissors, tweezers, etc.
Toilet Paper (There are no bathrooms or Porta-Johns out there)
Otis Kit
Leatherman tool
550 cord
Lighter
Duct Tape
Cliff Bar
Other than a couple of small changes depending on the conditions that is pretty much the most I would want to carry up on the mountain. I’ve seen others pack a heck of a lot more around the mountain who probably believed that it’s better to have it and not need it when it reality it just amounts to more weight.
Friday Evening
Now, you could say that the ASC really begins on Friday since this is when many of the competitors meet up at either Rod’s or John’s home for the shooter’s meeting. The shooter’s meeting is primarily where the competitors get assigned into groups with individual shooter numbers and receive the safety briefing however it is also a good time to catch up with friends you may only see during these matches. While everyone usually has a pretty good time at the meeting it is important to listen up while the safety briefing is being given and when information pertaining to what group you are in is being announced. Failing to do so really annoys the match organizers. The shooter number you are given is not just for scoring purposes but vital for a few of the events during the match so it pays to remember it well. I always liked the fact that scoring for this match is based on the honor system. You are given your own score sheet and are responsible for keeping track of it. The scoring system for this match is pretty similar to golf, the more hits you make, the lower your score is, and the better you do. For most targets you get two shots, if you get a first round hit you get a “0”, a second round hit means you get a “1”, and if you miss completely, you write down a “2”.
I had arrived a little late in Seneca Rocks so as soon as I had checked into Yokum’s and taken my gear to my room, I headed over to Rod’s to see what was going on. Luckily, I wasn’t that late at all and had plenty of time to catch up before everyone got down to business. The group I was put in was slated to go second up on the mountain, which meant we would be with Brock all day down in The Hollow. It turns out we would be the lucky ones.
Saturday
On Saturday, everyone awoke to what would prove to be a very wet, dreary day with constant rain and wind that would make almost everything a challenge. As everyone gathered in the parking lot of the local car wash prior to the 8 am departure time, shooters were already donning rain gear and consulting each other on what the mountain might have in store for them. It should also be noted that at this match 8 am means 8 am, if you were not at the car wash when it comes time to leave, we’d leave without you. Upon our arrival at the farm, Brock told us to immediately grab our gear and head over to the silo for our first event. It seemed that there would be precious little time to waste today. As soon as we arrived at the silo, we were informed that for this event we’d need all of our equipment for this event and not to leave anything behind because we were about to do the stage called “Gear Management”.
“Gear Management” was a two-person event and while it seemed pretty simple and straightforward, it proved to be anything but that in practice. This event started with a pair of shooters in their gear with their rifles at the ready while Brock explains that the team has two minutes to dump their gear, get out what they need, range the target, dial it in and engage the target. You could shoot from the prone position or an alternate position just as long as it was within a roughly 5 ft section of fence. Now while all that sounded easy I found it quite a challenge to dump my Gunslinger II, get out my data book and Mildot Master, try to get a range on the 6” disk, and hope to hell I got the wind call right let alone the range. This was an aptly named stage that was excellent at pointing out the inefficiencies in how my gear was set up and how long it took to get everything out that I needed. In my opinion, some of the best stages in a match are ones that you can learn from and apply later on…this was definitely one of them.
Father and son team shooting "Gear Management".
After that stage the group moved back towards the parking area for the next event called “Wheels of Fortune”. I’m not sure how this stage got its name but I liked it…I didn’t do very well at it…but I really, really liked it. Like the previous stage, this stage was a team event with one person shooting and their teammate giving them the ranges off of a pre-made range card. It sounds way too easy right? Well in perfect conditions maybe but the shooter has only one round for each of the five targets that were spread across the hillside and given the wind conditions and targets, it proved to be tricky business. To add to the stress a little bit, there was an imposed time limit and if you went over it, you received no points for any of the hits you may have had. Just after that lesson in humility for me was “Dance the Lindy”, which was close to where we had just shot “Wheels of Fortune” and I have to say it is one of those stages I just can’t seem to clean, no matter how hard I try. The premise behind “Dance the Lindy” is that a good shooter should be able to hit a 3 MOA target at 400 yards from a sitting position with four shots. The target we were shooting at was called a “thinman” that was 12” wide and 21” tall so it was pretty close to the 3 MOA standard and you could use either the sitting or kneeling position. When I first tried this stage I was a complete soup sandwich but thanks to a good bit of practice and one of Brock’s slings I did a good bit better than my previous attempts.
A competitor gets ready to shoot "Dance The Lindy". The target is one of the two small dots visible near the center of the photo.
Right after we all finished “Dance the Lindy”, everyone packed up and started to make their way down the road that went down into the hollow. Up until this point the rain wasn’t too bad, pretty much just sprinkling here and there with some wind thrown in. One of the competitors quipped that the “high speed” shirt he had on was doing a pretty good job of shedding the rain and keeping him dry. Most of us just kind of looked at each other thinking,”We’ll see how long that lasts.” The walk down into the hollow is never that bad, mainly because it’s mostly down hill and there were only a couple of stages before we got to one of my favorites, “Sgt. York Off The Rock”. This is one of my favorite stages because the shooter has to use the reticle in their scope for hold-over and under, combined with a 25 second time limit, to shoot four targets. The shooter also can’t just shoot the targets in a random order but must shoot the last target first and move forward. The reason for this comes from the story of Sgt. Alvin York, who during WWI shot several advancing German soldiers starting from the rear of the formation so it wouldn’t alert the others and cause them to stop and engage him with their rifles. By the time most of our group had made it to Sgt York Off the Rock the rain had pretty much turned into a steady downpour making the path up to the rock and the rock itself pretty slippery. The competitor that had said his high-speed shirt was keeping him completely warm and dry just a couple hours before wasn’t so dry anymore. Despite the conditions I did manage to get a respectable three out of four using a 200 yard zero and holding slightly over or under the targets to get hits. My only miss was my own fault because I had a brain fart and held high on the target when I should’ve held low.
A competitor shoots the "Sgt. York" stage. The shooting position can be somewhat awkward for the uninitiated.
The weather by this point was challenging everyone and their equipment to one level or another. Even though I was wearing good rain gear and Gore-Tex boots I realized that “waterproof” really means “water resistant for an extended period of time”, if you want waterproof, you’ll need rubber rain gear. I think one of the biggest issues everyone was having was trying to keep their optics clear enough to see the targets. The wet conditions made condensation on the ocular lens and rain drops on the objective a real pain in the butt when it came to seeing targets set back in the trees, it didn’t really matter what brand of optic you had…it all looked like you were looking through a Barska.
After “Sgt. York”, everyone packed up again and started on the cold, wet walk to the other side of the hollow to an area known as “Between the Poles”. I will say one thing the guys on the four wheelers really did show a lot of mercy on us by allowing people to stack their gear on them so it could be transported to the top. Normally, I’ve only seen this level of service when going up to the top of Narrow Back but I wasn’t going to complain. By the time everyone made it to the top of the hill, everyone and everything was saturated to the point that many simply gave up trying to find a dry piece of anything that could be used to clean lenses. I know I wasn’t the only one that had trouble finding targets due to rain and condensation. While we were on top of the hill at “Between the Poles” we learned that the other group up on top of Narrow Back were heading back down to the cars as their day was through. That group had arrived up on the mountain at around 8:00 am and had only managed to get a few shots in before the weather made it impossible to see any anything. I can understand why some of the competitors were unhappy with the decision to leave but it was what it was. The first rule of the Allegheny Sniper Challenge is no whining.
After everyone had made an attempt to find their targets and actually hit them it was time to start making our way out of the hollow. There were a couple of stages on the way out that seemed like they more humorous than anything else. One stage had you shooting offhand across the hollow to a target that was stated as being “big enough”. My attempt to get a hit on target did little except stir some deer that were bedded down near the target. Another stage was called “Top Floor” where at previous matches the shooters were shooting a relatively small 9”X12” target that was uphill at a pretty good angle using some kind of support, except this time there was a twist. This time you had to shoot the target sling supported from the side of the road, which meant you had to basically slide down the side of the hill until you could rest your elbows on the road. After trying to cling to the side of that muddy hill just long enough to get a shot off I think I was thinking what most everyone else was, let’s get these last couple of stages done and get back so we can warm up. The very last stage of the had two parts, a cold bore shot and a stress group to make everyone tired, just in case the walk didn’t do the trick. Once we got our rifles set up on the one hundred yard line, we walked with Brock out to the targets to locate our targets and get ready to begin the stage. We all lined up and got ready for Brock’s signal to run back to the line and begin engaging the targets under a one minute time limit. In less than a minute I had to figure out how to lower my heart rate enough so that I could shoot the one inch square that was my cold bore target and put five shots relatively close together on the group shot. In previous matches the size of the group shot was part of your score where has in more recent ones as long as you got all five shots within the card you didn’t gain any unwanted points. Unfortunately I gained some unwanted points with my cold bore shot that was about an inch low and to the right. And with that, we wrapped up the first day of the match and started to head back to the parking area so we could head back, warm up, and prepare for the feast to come.
Now, some would say that the cost of admission to this match is worth the meal alone at this match and I have to agree. Everyone looks forward to the excellent meat that Brock cooks up for everyone and I would be remiss if I didn’t also thanks the wives and significant others that help out with the meal as well. I’m not going to go on and on about the how tender and good the tenderloin are because it would do it no justice, you just have to find out for yourself. In addition to the excellent steaks, baked potatoes, and little bit of salad everyone usually passes the time with a cold beer and war stories from events earlier in the day. It’s not usually advertised but there is usually a pretty good “prize” table at the match with generous donations from some of the biggest names in the shooting industry. Everything from rifles to Mildot Masters has been on the table at one time or another and I don’t think I’ve ever left empty handed. One year everyone got a free Rite In The Rain notebook, a couple bottles of Brownells lubricant, a Starlight case certificate, and a free US Tactical Supply baseball cap. I didn’t stay too long after dinner, I had to get back to the hotel room, dry out my stuff as best I could, and get ready for whatever I might run into tomorrow.
Sunday
I woke up early Sunday morning to fairly promising skies and an early 7:00 am meeting at the car wash with the rest of my group. On the way up to the farm, my friend and I couldn’t help but be optimistic about the weather considering the slivers of blue sky that were making their appearance in between the low hanging gray clouds. To be on the safe side I brought a heavier set of rain gear and some extra snivel gear because I knew that no matter what it was like down below, it was always different up on top of Narrow Back. Just like the day before, we got a surprise just as we were getting out of our cars in the parking lot/staging area. Rod was our keeper for the day and he informed us that we would only need our rifles and one round for this stage, named “Call Out”. Call Out was a pretty quick stage to run through, you started about twenty yards from the barn door and when the clock started you had thirty seconds to run up to the door, up a set of stairs, and shoot out of a window at an index card that had your shooter number on it. I thought that sounded pretty easy until I got up the stairs and realized the window was about three quarters of the way up and I would have to shoot from my support side just to be able to have a chance at seeing it. Luckily I managed to get a shot off under time and even luckier still I hit the index card with my number on it since the cards were in no particular order. After that quick stage everyone loaded up and started on their way up to the top of Narrow Back for the rest of the day’s events. To speed things up and prevent anyone from having an untimely demise on the way to the top, they try to haul everyone and their gear to the top of the mountain on the four wheelers. After the ride to the top though the rest of the day is spent walking down hill so physically speaking, it’s pretty easy. There are several shots taken right from the top of Narrow Back in all directions so everyone had to stay on their toes in regards to barrel orientation and general safety. The shots taken up on top ranged anywhere from just over 100 yards to nearly 700 yards. On the way up to the top I couldn’t help but notice how good the view was down the valley and hoped that the weather would hold out or even get better throughout the day.
This is what it looked like from the top.
Well, the cloud god must have heard me because within about thirty minutes of getting to the top we were enveloped by fog to the point I had trouble seeing fifty yards in front of me.
Luckily it didn’t last for hours like the day before but there were times shooters had to rush to their guns and try to get on target before the next wave came in. It made for some good comic relief while trying to weather the strong winds and sprinkling rain. After everyone got their shots in for the stages we had to shoot at the very top of Narrow Back we moved down the hill to some of the other stages that were directly across the hollow from where we shot “Between the Poles”.
This spot is fairly flat and looks over the hollow with some stages that have some pretty good angles to them that you have to account for. Very few matches have stages that require the shooter to take into account the angle of the shot and how it will affect a shooter’s dope. One such stage was the aptly named “Steep and Deep” that had two steel targets placed down in the hollow about 500 yards away with a roughly 25° angle. It’s a fun stage that really drives home the fact that even though the target is 500 yards away in a straight line the bullet is traveling far less than that. After wrapping up a few other stages we headed on over to another spot to shoot “Parapit” and “Long Level Taliban”. “Parapit” is a pretty good stage where you have to shoot off of a 2X4 platform at a target that is about 750 yards away across the hollow. However, with the high winds we were having up on the mountain, this made everything a little wobbly and put the challenge in Allegheny Sniper Challenge.
This is the position that you have to shoot from during the "Parapit" stage.
This is the view. The target is the barely visible white dot in the clearing just below road.
Long Level Taliban is really Level Taliban but with more distance added to it, a few hundred more yards if I remember correctly. My group then made their way down the road a little ways to participate in two of the most diabolic and talked about stages of the match, “The Bill Drill” and “HVT”. My friend Bill Prudden supposedly suggested “The Bill Drill” for the match and I have to say that I liked him a little less after that stage. The Bill Drill is done with five rounds on the gun and three targets within about 200 yards in front of you. On the buzzer, the shooter had to shoot a mini-popper from the prone position, hop up and shoot a flopper from the kneeling position, stand up and shoot a target offhand, then go back to the kneeling to shoot at the flopper weak handed, and then finish it up with another shot in the prone position. It all seemed to go by very fast and with the high winds coming from our left, trying to get hits in the standing and kneeling positions was difficult to say the least.
A competitor is taking his turn at The Bill Drill. The visible orange targets are the kneeling and standing targets, the prone target cannot be seen.
HVT was another one of those stages that when you learned who came up with it, you liked them a little less. HVT was a two-person exercise in trust and communication while trying to hit a target in less than three minutes that only the one of them could see through the spotting scope. The kicker was that the shooter and spotter were separated by a couple hundred yards and had to communicate with handheld radios. The spotter had to give the shooter specific settings for his scope and then try to talk the shooter onto the target using reference points at the bottom of the hill near the target. In theory the settings on the scope would enable the trajectory of the bullet to clear the obstacle blocking the target from the shooter’s view and hit it, however many things are easier said than done. The two times that I’ve tried this shot and watched others try it I have yet to see someone make the shot, most either time out or get frustrated and shoot one of the reference points.
We once again packed our gear and made our way down the hillside to one of my favorite spots on the mountain that over looks a good portion of the farm and several steel targets.
One of my favorite spots on the mountain. Even though they aren't visible in the picture there are steel targets in the field between the to the left of the vehicles, in the field behind the vehicles, and all the way back to the silo.
An excellent shot of a suppressor in action.
From this spot we could shoot six stages that were at ranges from 540 yards to 1020 yards. One thing that helped me immensely at this stage was making a quick field sketch of what I saw in regards to target locations, their distances, and the expected dope to those targets. This kept things organized and easily referenced since Rod hates it when people take to much time to do things. Once Rod felt that he had given everyone enough time to range the designated targets and the firing line started moving quickly with shooters going one right after the other. It wasn’t long before we had shot all of the targets that we could from the hillside and moved down off the mountain to shoot some of the last stages of the day and finally wrap up the match. The very last stage for our group was called “Concealed, Not Covered” and it was shot from the powder house looking back towards The Bowl at a blue steel target. The range was given to the shooter (675 yards) along with two chances to hit it shooting off of a bale of hay.
A competitor gets ready to send a round downrange during the "Concealed Not Covered" stage.
I missed both times though, with both shots going into the same spot low left of the target, further driving home another humbling experience up on the mountain. With those final shots out of the way I packed up my gear and began to make my way back to the Jeep to pack up and get ready to head back down to Rod’s house to tally my score, say some final good byes, and find out where I finished.
On the way back to Rod’s house, I reflected on the events from the past two days of shooting and thought to myself “Man I’m glad that’s over, but boy was it fun”. In a way I think that that sums it up for a lot of the people who attended the match because for those people it was about being with friends and having some good old fashioned fun being challenged by the conditions and shooting long distances. I don’t keep going to the match because I have a burning need to win it, granted that would be nice, but I truly keep going back because I don’t think I’ll ever find a better group of people to shoot around. Bear in mind though that this match isn’t for the faint of heart because there has been more than one competitor who has decided that a day on the mountain was enough for them and never came back. Given the conditions that had to be endured during the two days on the mountain, the seemingly smaller sizes of the targets this time around, and some of the newer stages, I’d have to say that this was the most challenging ASC that I’ve been to. And despite being cold, wet, and miserable for a good portion of the weekend, I drove away Sunday evening with a sense of pride and accomplishment that comes with knowing that I had done something not many people get the opportunity to do.