Take a look at the full match results (here). In Tactical, the US Army Shooters Daniel Horner (T/O) and Robby Johnson (T/I) dominated. Looking at the stage points, it's clear that stage scores fell away from 100% very quickly, with very, very few shooters keeping the stage leaders in sight. At only 4th place Tactical, you're already seeing stage scores under 70%, which attests to state difficulty. At 10th place, stage scores around 50% are already showing up. Tate Moots took Heman-Scoped, while Kuan Watson took Heman-Iron. Don Bednorz took Open.

My realistic best-case scenario going into this match was a top-10 finish, and I just eeked in at 9th place Tactical. While the majority of my stages were so/so, and I know I could have shot them faster, I rocked stage five about 3.5 seconds behind Tony Holmes, and I shot stage 3 in 58 seconds (after the 30 second bonus), about 8 seconds behind Ty Gentry.

The prize table was excellent as usual. For a match with about 200 shooters, and 127 in Tactical, there were over 15 guns on the Tactical prize table, including 2 full-house JP rifles, seven complete Sabre Defence rifles, three uppers, at least five Springfield XD pistols, a 1911, and two Glock certificates.

In the five years since my first match (RM3G 2003), I've shot major matches all over the country. I can say, with confidence, that the Rocky Mountain 3-Gun Nationals at the NRAWC in Raton is the best conventional 3-Gun match in the country. If you can make only one big match a year, make it this one!