Last October, I competed in an NRA Falling Plates match at the Coyote Point Rifle and Pistol Club. I had a really good run through the match until the last rounds when I missed a string of plates. For most of that match, I was able to use my new ED-AR LPVO at 1x due to its clarity. But in the last stage, I increased the magnification to 3x and wasn’t used to the reticle change on this first focal plane (FFP) optic and that made me panic a bit and rush through my round. I choked and ended up blowing my tie for the lead.
Three months later, I’ve had more experience with this scope. I took the same rifle and scope to the January 18, 2025 match to see if I could redeem myself. This time there were 20 contestants. This year, we added a 5th stage to the matches, ending at a distance of 50 yards, which makes a magnified optic almost necessary to aim at 6″ plates.
We start from a distance of 30 yards with a 10-second time limit to shoot down 6 steel plates, limited to 6 rounds of ammo. Each shooter gets 2 attempts per stage. After all competitors have shot, the stage position moves back 5 yards and the time limit is increased by 1 second.
I did well through the first 3 rounds only missing 1 plate out of 18. But moving out to 40 yards, the plates were harder for everybody to hit. I moved my magnification up from 1x to 2x and then to 3x. I still prefer a SFP for an LPVO in action shooting. But unlike my previous attempt, I had a few months of range practice getting used to this scope.
I honestly did not think I did that well. So I was frankly surprised that I came in 4th place but only 3 points behind the 1st place shooter. If I’d only slowed down on hit 3 or 4 more plates, I could have won it. Maybe next time.
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