05/06/2026
Team – It's been a long road, but things are finally starting to get back to where they need to be.
Over the past couple of years, I've had to spend a fair bit of time away from serious prone training due to work injuries and family commitments.
It's been frustrating at times knowing where I wanted my shooting to be and not being able to dedicate the time required to get there.
So it's incredibly satisfying to finally feel like things are starting to come together again.
I spend a lot of time testing batches through my systems, including my prone rifle.
During initial testing, one batch of ELEY Limited Match appeared to perform exceptionally well, so naturally I selected it for my first recent competition. The result was a 593 with a 616.4 decimal score.
The rifle felt good, the ammunition appeared good, but something wasn't sitting right with me.
While the scores were ok, the shots were consistently landing as low tens rather than finding the middle of the ten ring. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't performing the way I expected it to.
Rather than ignoring that feeling, I went back and tested the batch again during a training match.
The result? It sprayed shots all over the target with very little consistency.
Back to the drawing board.
I then revisited another batch of Eley Match that hadn't initially tested quite as well as the first batch and this time the results were significantly better.
So this batch was the choice for the next competition. The score was again a 593, but this time the decimal score jumped to a 621.8 despite the conditions being noticeably worse than the previous match.
Fast forward to training last night and I ran the same batch again, the result was a 598 with a 625.6 decimal.
To be completely honest, I only have myself to blame for not shooting the 600. I had two lapses in concentration and recorded two 9.9s.
The rifle didn't miss. The ammunition didn't miss. I did.
Even so, I believe this is the highest score I have ever shot at this range, which I would argue is one of the most difficult ranges in Australia due to its constantly changing wind conditions.
Admittedly, the conditions were kinder than they normally are, but I'll take that every day of the week.
More importantly, the experience reinforces a lesson that many shooters overlook.
Just because a batch of rimfire ammunition performs well on one day doesn't mean it will continue to perform the same way on another day.
That’s just rimfire ammunition and why you must continually monitor and validate your batches.
Also, this is why I test ammunition in both training and competition environments.
As much as we'd like to believe we shoot exactly the same way in training as we do in competition, that's simply not the reality.
In training, there are no consequences for a dropped shot, so we take risks.
In competition, a single shot can be the difference between standing on the podium or watching someone else stand there, so we don’t take the same risks.
When we're testing ammunition, we're not just testing it in the rifle.
We're testing it in the complete Precision System.
🔺 Rifle
🔺 Ammunition
🔺 Tune & Test
🔺 Shooter
Because at the end of the day, the shooter is the final component of the system.
And if there's a lesson from the last few weeks, it's this:
* Never stop testing.
* Never stop validating.
* Never assume yesterday's best batch will be tomorrow's best batch.
* Batches win matches.
* But only if you know when they're actually performing.