Comments from Competitor Austin Angus
The 2009 Steel Safari was awesome, to say the least! The match ran very smoothly, thanks to the excellent planning and hard work from the CMG match staff. This was my first time shooting in the Steel Safari, and a first with shooting an unknown distance match. It was an education and a big eye opener. I had shot the sporting rifle match in Raton a few times previous to this match. The SRM is a great match in its own right, but the Safari was a lot more different from that match than I expected. In the SRM, the time limit seems like a decent chunk of time. At this match, you start each stage by having all your gear on and your gun at port arms. Then you have to find, laze, engage, and then often move firing positions, and then re-find and engage targets. This makes the 5 minute time limit fly by.

The desert heat and the howling winds make this match a step apart as well. I have shot in decent winds in the past, but I was not prepared for the "ghost" winds of the BSR. It could be a gusty 20mph, full value wind, from right to left at your firing position, and at the target the dust from your miss would slowly rise up, because it was dead calm by the steel plates. There was one particular stage where I really came to appreciate the winds and just how well some of these guys were shooting. There were six targets lined up, near to far. The closest steel was at 2 something and the farthest at 8 or 9ish. Here I saw the wind going 4 different directions and 4 greatly varying speeds. That was a humbling experience and showed me how much I have to learn, and how skilled some of my fellow shooters were.

I learned a lot about my gear and I learned a lot from the other shooters there. I had a couple of things I came to realize that I did not like about my gear, and I discovered what items I had that were useless and some things I needed to purchase to make things easier on myself. The other shooters were more than helpful in pointing out something you could improve on. The tips I got were invaluable. I learned so much from shooting the Safari, and I definitely left as a much better shooter. I have no doubt that everyone who shoots it leaves as a better shooter. So if you don't mind getting off the shooting mat and getting out from under that covered shelter, and if you don't care if your gear gets dinged and scratched, then this match is definitely worth giving a try. It beats shooting on a square range any day. I remember reading the 2008 match review written by this year's winner, Raydog. It was something to the point about, "This match isn't for posers." Now I know what he meant. Thanks, again, to CMG and its staff for putting on a sweet match!