Would you recommend that outfitter, or have any advice for first time PD trip? I am looking at taking two teenage grandsons next summer.
Yes, he was very accomodating and worked hard to get us on the best shooting. He does have another full time job, so if him not being right there with you might be an issue then just understand that. We text all day as needed to coordinate our next steps. Not an issue for any of us, but we are all 4 of us are older seasoned hunters. He has access to private shooting as well as reservation shooting, but each has their own licensing, so to shoot both costs a bit more for those separate licenses.
We had issues with access to the grounds due to rain, so not an issue under his control, but he worked with us to provide a place to shoot and all of them had at least a good shoot, others were much better. But that is just hunting, IMO. His first spot for us was completely inaccessible, but we did not miss more than a short period of hunting time while he re-organized our shoot. He actually got stuck that first morning on the way into that place, we had to pull him out of the ditch!!! LOL
I will say, that I consider being able to shoot and hit a 2" +- circle at a minimum of 200 yards a prerequisite to a fully enjoyable PD shoot. Rifles must be capable of that as well. After the first few shots, the ones closest to the muzzles will not surface again and they seem to get further and further away as the shooting continues. 200 to 250 yds +- seemed to me to be the "magic" number for the distance that they would continue to surface out of their holes after the shooting starts. We had good luck with 22 mags to about 150 yds, 17 HMR to about 200 yds and 223 and 22-250 out further. I am sure a 204 Ruger type would have worked very well also. But the wind wasn't really bad. I think my biggest wind hold was about 3 MOA. Generally we tried to setup with the majority of the shooting directly up or down wind so as to not fight the wind.
I shot to about 400 yds, but only because I wanted to take longer shots. We generally had good shooting inside of 300 yds most of the time.
Additionally, IMO, each shooter should have two rifles at his disposal as they get hot after 20 rounds or so, even fluted sendero/varmint barrels. Maybe three rifles between two shooters would work, but it really depends on the rate of fire. But the best shooting will lead to hot rifles in pretty short order. Also a range finder and a ballistics chart for each rifle. For the best results the scopes should have target/adjustable turrets of some type to allow the correct adjustments for the distances to be made. Even one or two clicks at 200ish yds helps hit that small target.
This guide has shooting benches that were very nice, but he didn't have shooting bags or rests so I would recommend bringing those.
