How Precision Rifle Shooting Became What It Is Today

In this episode, we sit down with Wade Stuteville to talk about the early days of precision rifle competition and how the sport evolved into what PRS is today.
From shooting local matches in the late 90s and early 2000s to winning the 2012 PRS Golden Bullet, Wade shares stories from an era of precision rifle shooting that looked completely different from modern competition.
We talk about:
• The origins of PRS
• What early precision rifle matches were really like
• Old-school field style competitions and tactics
• The evolution of gear, cartridges, optics, and suppressors
• Wild match stories from the early days
• The growth of Studio Precision and building rifles for top shooters
• How the sport changed from field matches into modern PRS competition
If you’ve ever wondered what precision rifle shooting looked like before PRS exploded in popularity, this episode is packed with stories and history from someone who lived through it.

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

Welcome back to a PRS podcast. We are in Wade Screwdaville's studio. Heck yeah, man. Yeah. Welcome. Welcome to the podcast. Thank you for letting me come down here to Oklahoma and have a have a conversation, man. Heck yeah. So wait, let's go back. 2012. Well, it's going back further than that. Uh when did you start shooting? Probably as a kid, right?

SPEAKER_03 0:29

Um yeah. Um I shot um we hunted and and shot not necessarily competitively, but ever since I was a I was a kid. Um I shot USPSA a little bit in the early mid-90s. And um and then got into precision rifle shooting in the two thousand right uh right around 2000, I think. 90, late 90s, I think was the first match that I shot.

SPEAKER_02 1:03

I don't really remember the exact year, but and that would be that's uh actually like a precision rifle match back in.

SPEAKER_03 1:09

Yeah. Um man, I think the first match that I shot was at Badlands here in southwest Oklahoma. Like again, I don't remember what year it was. I remember that it was uh um there were probably 30 of us there, you know, and it seemed like it was the same people that uh um they could kind of the same people that came every year, right? And that was one of the things that um that the that the intent, that Rich's intent with the PRS was was to was to bring all the little regional groups together to compete against each other, you know. So basically you had kind of the central United States people that shot in in Texas and Oklahoma, and you had some West Coast and some East Coast, and and so we really never hardly saw anybody other than that small group of people that we always shot against.

SPEAKER_02 2:04

And yeah, and uh so uh Rich Emmons started the PRS. Actually, uh I met Rich for the first time this year at Gravestone uh in Texas there. He he came up, introduced himself, it was an honor to meet him. Um, you know, it's it the sport obviously wouldn't be where it is today without it's sort of his vision to start things, you know. But was it uh back back then and I guess probably 2000 to 2012 in that time frame, right? And you guys are just kind of shooting matches and here here at Badlands and stuff like that. What was the conversation like? You know, was there a lot of folks that said, man, we should, you know, we should try to organize this better, or we should, you know, or was it just out guide, you know, shooting in the field somewhere?

SPEAKER_03 2:50

Yeah, I I I think the the uh the original concept, um, I think it was Rich and uh Kevin Elper's discussion after some match, right? And uh we'd shot Rich probably started shooting about the same time that I did. So we'd we'd both been shooting about a decade ish at that point, you know. Right and um um the sniper side cup seemed to be the one match where a lot of times people would travel to and you you would see people that you wouldn't normally see within your, you know, within your group. But uh other than that, there really wasn't a there wasn't any kind of a league or anything to, you know, to to crown someone as the top shooter in the country, right? Everybody was kind of in their own little their own little group. But yeah, Rich um and uh you really can't you can't bring Rich up without um with his wife that did, you know. That's what I heard. She was a horsepower manager, right?

SPEAKER_02 3:55

Yeah, did all the administrative stuff.

SPEAKER_03 3:57

Yeah, she she she did a lot more than that. She so Rich was a lot like me, and he wasn't really um that much of an outgoing people person. Sure. Right? And uh and she she definitely did a lot of work bringing everybody together and making things work. And but anyway, yeah, so uh um the first PRS match was at Kevin's place in late 2011, but it was a 2012 series match. It was the first match for the 2012 series, and it rained. It rained on it was one of those just awful trudgery kind of matches, you know.

SPEAKER_02 4:39

And it was a fun match, but I actually liked the matches that were like that, but it was it was tough to you know keep scores and see hits and let's take a brief break in the show to give a shout out to one of our partners, AccuTech Bipods, official bipod of the PRS and Pure US Rimfire. In precision rifle series, stability's everything. Accutech bipods are built to give shooters a rock solid foundation, whether you're shooting prone, off barricades, or tackling awkward stage positions. Durable, dependable, and engineered for serious competitors, accutec helps you stay locked in when every point matters. Go check them out. AccuNtac.com. Huh. How was how were matches structured back then? You know, like I I think everybody has a picture in their mind now. You know, it's like 10 round stages, you score them on a on a smartphone and and you know, all the things, but like back then it yeah, what was the typical stage?

SPEAKER_03 5:35

So if if you if you if you go back um 10 years prior to the start of the PRS, a lot of the matches around here were run by um people who had some experience as military snipers or instructors or whatever the case may be. And uh and uh so a lot of times they were not as much about shooting as they are now. We would have a stock, a Kim's game, like almost every chapter from the right, from the Army or Marine Corps sniper training manual or whatever. You'd basically have a stage, range, range estimation and target detection and all those things, you'd have all of those. So there wasn't as much shooting as there is now. Um and even the matches that were more shooting, it was pretty varied and pretty um, there was a lot of room for there were a lot of room for tactics within a right, within a within a particular stage and within a particular match where um you could just kind of they just kind of gave you some rough ideas and you had to figure things out on your own. And I would say that I was probably an average shooter and I was probably better than most people at figuring things out more than anything. And that's that's basically what I think was my advantage was not necessarily the shooting, but the but the tactics of everything, yeah. More than anything else.

SPEAKER_02 7:08

Well, but you did you you you are the golden bowl winner from 2012. So obviously you had to be a good shooter as well to to execute that.

SPEAKER_03 7:17

Yeah. Um it you know, it for for anybody to win something like that, there are a lot of things that just have to come together, right? So I had an opportunity to shoot quite a bit that year and the and the few years prior. And um and so I shot I shot well at some other matches, but rifles only was one of those places where I always I did historically I did I did pretty well there. I think 2010 I won the snipers hide cup there. And I think that was the first the first time I I I won there, and it was my second, maybe second time there or something like that. But anyway, so it worked out that that was where the finale happened to be that year, and and and it's funny, Jacob runs a great match and it's tough and it's varied. And I think if there's if there's one thing that helped me there was that I was too stubborn or ignorant to quit because the guys that won that match would have a much lower hit percentage than anywhere else. Like you could you could shoot the whole weekend and convince yourself that you're gonna be in the bottom third, yeah, and then you might win. Right.

SPEAKER_02 8:33

That the scores were it was it it could be a tough match. Yeah. Just had to hang in there and persevere, and yeah, like you said, stubborn. Yeah, but uh um so that match.

SPEAKER_03 8:48

I'll I'll tell you a funny story about the first one. So uh it was 2010. Yeah, I think it was Snipers Hide Cup 2010 was the first time that I won I won there. And so a friend of mine, we were shooting together, we were shooting 6'5 Creedmoor's and that seems that seems early. It was the first, it was I want to say that 6'5 Creed previous to that, I and I still had shot some six five forty-sevens, but six five Creedmore was really new.

SPEAKER_02 9:19

Yeah, in 2010, yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 9:21

And um I'd never shot anything that the factory ammo shot like that. Like shot really good verticals at long range just out of the box, right? And the ammo was it was pretty that those early lots were pretty slow. And um, so a friend of mine, we build guns. I built the guns, they're identical.

SPEAKER_02 9:41

We were kind of following the the uh technique of two of our other Tim may two of our other team members, which who were um Tim Long and and uh um I know they names are tough, but the cartridges are easy. Oh yeah. Tell me a freebor on a six five.

SPEAKER_03 10:05

Yeah, yeah. Um so uh so John Summers and Tim Long, they had always shot the same cartridges and the same load, and it really worked well for them, you know, because even though the matches weren't necessarily team matches, they were um you obviously worked off of each other. So anyway. So me and another shooter, I built the guns, they were 6'5 Creedmoor's, they both shot great. Um, but he wanted to really push it, like make it as fast as he could possibly make it.

SPEAKER_02 10:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 10:34

So we go there and we and we we're shooting, and I don't we weren't even, you know, you didn't pick squatting or anything like that. So you just you fell where you fell. And so after the first day, Rich calls me on the phone, and I'm at I think I was sitting with Terry Cross and we were at Applebee's or somewhere, right? You know, eating supper, and he goes, You want to know where you're at? I said, No. And and Terry Cross had won almost every match I had been to ever up to this point, right?

SPEAKER_04 11:10

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 11:11

And um, so anyway, I said no, and he said, Well, I'm gonna tell you anyway, you're beating Terry Cross by one shot.

SPEAKER_02 11:18

No joke.

SPEAKER_03 11:19

And I was like, something. So anyway, so I'm kind of changing directions. But anyway, so I'll get back to that. So that night, of course, I don't sleep at all. I just lay there in the hotel and think about the fact that, you know. So then we get up to the next morning and it's thunderstorm bad, and it looks like we may not even get to shoot. And I'm just praying that we just call it, right? You know, so I don't have my chance of while we're ahead. But anyway, so but anyway, so it ended up working out, and I ended up I ended up winning that one. But the funny thing was we're standing there back then, it would take hours and hours to tally scores because everything was pretty much hand tallied and written down, and it that was one of the most awful things about the whole match, right? Yeah. But sometimes it might be midnight, you know, just depending on what how everything went.

SPEAKER_02 12:08

Yeah. And some people, I'm I'm assuming some people just said, that's not I didn't win this, I might work tomorrow.

SPEAKER_03 12:14

So anyway, so we're standing there waiting, and the guy that I shot with, he says uh something like, Well, how do you think you did? And I said, Man, I I I think I might you there you didn't have any indication. There were no scores given the first ride. You just, unless you knew somebody who saw something, you didn't know. And I said, Man, I think I might have won it. And he said, uh, that's impossible. I'm 200 feet per second faster than you. He doesn't win everything, but I remember that that ammo, yeah, um, that factory ammo in that particular barrel that was it was, you know, just under 2700, like, you know, and it it shot really, really well. But but anyway, um, yeah, so that one, um, that was the first, and I think that I won at two matches a year there. And so I won them all the way through to the finale. So that was really a good place for the like I said, a lot of things have to come together for for that to, you know, for for that to work out. You have to shoot well, you have to have a job and a family that'll allow you to, you know, to do to support you and allow you to allow you to do what you need to do. And and uh um some of these guys now that win over and over, you know, it's I got a lot of respect for them because it takes a lot to be able to stick to that. And their and their families and and all that to be able to to allow them to do that. But yeah, so so 2012, and I know I'm bad at jumping around. So so 2012, um that match up to that point, there really had never been I can't think of any matches. You generally you might be able to pick a squad when you come to a match, but generally there was no pre-squatting, nothing like that. But when we got to that match, mind you, this was in our eyes the biggest match that had ever been held in this type of sport, right? It's a finale. Yeah. And um we got there, and Jacob basically said, Here's your match book, just go shoot a state.

SPEAKER_02 14:38

He and that he still runs his matches that way, right? Where you can you can it yeah.

SPEAKER_03 14:43

And I may be wrong, but I think that was the first time that he or anyone ever that we had ever known of anybody doing that. Okay. And and uh so it's a kind of a free-for-all. Yeah. I mean, I prime I was primarily a competitive shooter, but I was also um on the advisory board for the PRS, and I thought, oh my lord, what is you know, what is gonna happen with this, you know?

SPEAKER_02 15:11

Exactly. So how many how many shooters were at that match? I could look back. We actually have all that.

SPEAKER_03 15:17

You'd have to look because I'd be I'd be lying to say, but I would say just over a hundred. I I don't know. I I I know that they were more than I think any any match that I had seen up to that point, but the numbers were nothing like they are they are now. But oh if I was guessing, I would say around a hundred.

SPEAKER_02 15:42

I have I have the you can look you can find it on the website, but it only goes up to it as Gap Grind at KM October, and then LB Steel Major Match, Las Vegas as the last one. It doesn't have the finale in there. Um the uh the the early rifles only had 42. And uh shows you on top. We went Wade, Tim Wong, John Summers, Rob Orman, and then Jonathan Barry. Brian Young. What year, what year was this is 2012, yeah. This is April, uh it would have been April 5th, 2012. So almost this, yeah, 14 years ago to the week. So that would have been the sniper's hide cup. Uh that's rifles, rifles only brawl, the sniper.

SPEAKER_03 16:33

Oh, it was a brawl then. Okay, yeah. Okay. So I guess that would have been 11. Yeah, you're right. That twelve twelve was the first year that the sniper's hide cup was out west.

SPEAKER_04 16:44

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 16:45

Right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's right. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 16:49

Yeah. We need to we need to see if we can pull pull some data and make sure we add that 2012 finale. So what what was the match? All right. So you get there and and uh they say, hey, you can you can basically go shoot in whatever order you want.

SPEAKER_03 17:07

Yeah, shoot whatever stage you want, shoot whatever order you want. But if you can't get done, you're gonna get a zero for that stage.

SPEAKER_02 17:14

Oh god. Right. So if you if you go wait in line somewhere, you might be sacrificing a stage on the end.

SPEAKER_03 17:20

That's right. So the long range stages were on the tower. Um, of course, everybody wants to go there for the race. It's about it's a foot race to the tower. You know, anybody who had any inkling of what was going on, their rifles were already at the bottom of the tower when you know and um so um I don't remember. I know we didn't shoot that. I know we went and shot other stuff and and came back. And I mean there's some advantage and disadvantage because if you, you know, if you get a if you if you go get in line, if you shot on the tower first, you're good.

SPEAKER_02 17:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 17:56

But I didn't want to shoot mid-morning because in my opinion, that's the worst time, the most variable time down there to take the switch in and yeah, pick it up. So I would rather I'd rather shoot in the middle of the afternoon than at 10 o'clock in the morning or something like that. But but uh yeah, so that was uh that was interesting and a little bit scary to to go to a match and they just say, well go for it. Better get them all shot, you know. Yep.

SPEAKER_02 18:23

Yeah. Um was it uh 10 and 10, 10, 10 stages Saturday, 10 Sunday? Or or was it a free-for-all for all 20?

SPEAKER_03 18:33

I don't remember if that was a particular match, but I know some some of the rifles-only matches that started like that. There were certain stages that basically uh blocked each other from being shot. So there were certain stages that were only shot one day, so you knew you had to shoot those. So there was I don't it wasn't 10 and 10, but you had some stages that you had to shoot one day or you would not be able to wow.

SPEAKER_02 19:08

And not all the stages were steel targets either, right?

SPEAKER_03 19:12

Yeah, so there was um at rifles only, there was a fair amount of there was a fair amount of paper there, you know, and not necessarily lay in there at a hundred yards shoot paper. You might shoot movers and drills where you ran back and forth and got ammo and you shot positional and all these things that you did there, and they were all on what looked like a big dot drill board, and there might be 50, 50 one-inch-ish dots, right? Yeah and all that. So there was there was there was a fair amount of paper. I don't think we did at that one, but some of those matches there, you know, we shot out of helicopters and we shot drums full of talcum powder as we flew by and all that kind of stuff, and all that was pretty neat. So uh um I do know that we shot a we shot a KYL at the finale that it wasn't a hundred yards, it was just under a hundred yards. I don't remember how far it was, but dots on paper. Dots on paper.

SPEAKER_02 20:15

And and going from and true KYL. You miss, you lose points, right?

SPEAKER_03 20:22

Yeah, so so back then, so so some scoring changes have some scoring rules have been implemented since then. But back then there were a lot of double or nothing, lose your point stages and all those things. So basically you'd have uh smaller and smaller dots, and I want to say the smallest dot there was smaller than a quarter inch. I don't remember how small it was, but it was tiny.

SPEAKER_00 20:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 20:50

And historically, historically, you were generally better off to shoot down to about the last two and quit because almost everybody missed at some point. And that particular KYL, we're shooting off this pretty rickety wooden deck that a dozen people were on at the same time. Move the whole time. Like you you just tried to shoot between somebody moving and stepping and leaning over and all that kind of stuff. And and uh so I remember that one specifically because the last dot was really tiny, and I'd never shot KYLs all the way. And I had actually kind of burned into my mind a few matches where I'd convinced myself that I'd was behind and needed to make up. And I had lost all I'd lost multiple matches over the last several years by trying to shoot the KYL all the way. Because there you get like one point for the first shot, two for the second, three, right. That's up to fifteen points or whatever, but if you miss one, you you lose everything.

SPEAKER_02 22:00

Yeah. No no startovers, no go backs. Yep.

SPEAKER_03 22:03

So that one I had no intention of shooting it all the way. And um so we go there and and Lisa Bynum's running that stage and she's explaining to us what to do and how it's gonna go and how much time we have to shoot it and all that. And I see the paper on the front and somebody shot it all away and hit them all. Right. And I look and it's it's Shannon. I gotta shoot this thing.

SPEAKER_02 22:35

Well that I mean now you know. Like, yeah, there's no there's no stopping her.

SPEAKER_03 22:40

Yeah, yeah, there's there's no stopping because you know Shannon was really the one to beat at that point, right? Yeah, you know, I I don't remember. I think he had 300 points and I had 299 five or something, or whatever, I don't remember. But anyway. Yeah. So you can't leave five points on the board because you didn't get to actually caught on there. And I don't remember what the point, but I think it was. I think on that one it was five, it was five points. Give up ten, right, if you miss. And and so I've shot it all the way and got lucky and got it. But but uh um yeah, that was uh and Shannon was he second? Oh Shannon actually Shannon didn't end up finishing the finale. So he ended up having a family, some kind of family uh family emergency, and he ended up having to leave. Okay. So and everything turned out all right. His his uh um his kid was sick. Yeah. But but anyway, um and everything worked out good there for him.

SPEAKER_02 23:45

But but uh that might have been uh winner not for you though.

SPEAKER_03 23:48

Yeah, you know, yeah. I if if if I hadn't shot if I hadn't shot that KYL all the way out, yeah, I don't remember the math on it. I wouldn't have won the I wouldn't have won the match. Sure. Right. I wouldn't won the match. I don't remember how the how the season would have come out, but yeah.

SPEAKER_02 24:10

But you won. Yeah, you still have you still have the check from when it uh series that's on the wall here in the shop. Yeah. Uh I still have the golden bullet out here, right? Yeah, I think we took a picture of that last time we were down here. That was pretty cool.

SPEAKER_03 24:24

Yeah, yeah. Kind of another funny story, and this one sounds like complete crap, right?

SPEAKER_01 24:31

So um I had I'd won two matches and I was it we were shooting in it was in Vegas.

SPEAKER_03 24:44

Yeah, and um we're shooting in Vegas, and for forever I've heard people talking about bullets hitting in the air and all this kind of crazy stuff, and I thought that's you know, this I've told her, don't worry, it's never gonna happen, nothing like that is. And um, and basically you started at 100 yards and you had, I don't remember how long, you had a certain number of seconds to shoot the hundred yard target.

SPEAKER_04 25:19

Sure.

SPEAKER_03 25:20

So you got we had a they were big squads, I don't know, let's say 20, 20 guys or something like that, right? And you kind of spread out, and then you're shooting 100 yards, and you all shoot, you have a certain, you have a limited amount of time, and then you move up to 75 and you shoot a smaller dot and you have lesser time, and you basically you're standing up with your rifle, and you drop to the ground and you have to shoot your dot. Okay, yeah, yeah. And so the closest one's like 10 yards, right? And you have like a couple of seconds to shoot it, and there's everybody just like and uh so um I shot, I drop down, I I'm hitting them all, everything's going good. They're all you know, they're all in the black. And I get to the last one and I shoot it, and uh my bullet hits sideways. Your bullet hit sideways, hit sideways like halfway off the paper. And um this was I had j this was the very first match that I had ever run a suppressor, right? So I had always shot 28 inch, no brake, bare muzzle, bare muzzle, always and so I cut one of my guns down to 24 and had a suppressor on it, and I shot them side by side and I would decide, right? And I decided that match I was gonna shoot the suppressor. And um at the time um I worked for surgeon, AWC suppressors, right? And I thought, man, did my suppressor come up? I I thought Baffle came out, something happened, right? Something bad. My suppressor's tight. Yeah. And uh so anyway, um I think Tim Milkovich was running, was running that stage.

SPEAKER_04 27:15

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 27:16

Anyway, I I think it was Tim because I didn't want to say anything because my suppressor my suppressor's blowing up or whatever. So uh so I just said, can I go um can I go down to the zero board and check zero? And that was pretty unheard of back then. You didn't you didn't have, you know, at the end of the day maybe, but you you couldn't go during the match and go check or anything like that. It just was what so I go down and I shoot and everything's good.

SPEAKER_04 27:46

And I come back because I want that pay I want that target. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 27:51

And there's another guy there that had a bullet that was that hit oblong, right? He was, I think he was shooting at 308. And I can't believe I didn't take take a picture of his target. But anyway, like right next to you. Yeah, like like not necessarily next to me, like a few targets over. But the two big guys both had a side bullet. Yeah, I hit the bullet hole at 100 yards the next shot when I checked it out. Everything was good. And Dad Gummet, my teammate Dustin Morris, beat me by one shot at that match, and that and that's how I ended up with 299 or whatever.

SPEAKER_02 28:29

Let's take a brief break in the show to give a shout out to one of our partners, AccuTech Bipods, official bipod of the PRS and PRS Rimfire. In precision rifle series, stability's everything. AccuTech Bipods are built to give shooters a rock solid foundation, whether you're shooting prone, off barricades, or tackling awkward stage positions. Durable, dependable, and engineered for serious competitors. Accutec helps you stay locked in when every point matters. Go check them out. AccuNtac.com. No joke that first year. Yeah, yeah. That that's something I mean, that's something that's never.

SPEAKER_03 29:05

Yeah, I've uh That's crazy. Hang on, I think I've got that thought. Yeah, yeah, hang on. Oh, and I remember. So the 75 yard, you couldn't see the 75 yard we didn't shoot because you couldn't see the uh you couldn't see from the berm because you were in between the 50 and 100 berm.

SPEAKER_02 29:26

So he started here, that's uh 100, and then 75 and 15, 75, and then 50, 25, and 10. And that's probably the other guy's bullet. If they were intersecting, right?

SPEAKER_03 29:38

Well, what I remember is he was shooting a 308.

SPEAKER_02 29:42

No, maybe not.

SPEAKER_03 29:42

His bullet look like it looked like our bullets hit our targets, but they just barely that's crazy.

SPEAKER_02 29:55

We're gonna for those watching at home, that is absolutely wild. I mean, I've obviously guns, guns shooting well. And if anybody told me that story, I'd I'd say they were fooled. Yes. Yeah. But he's got uh he he he's probably got a target at home that looks similar. You just want to tell your grandkids, right? Yeah. So you said this is 2012, right? You said back then you were working for surgeon, surgeon rifles, right? Based out of Oklahoma here. Yeah, right. And I I remember actually it would have been around that time. Uh 2009 was around the time that I started shooting. And I I was shooting a 308 gas gun and not shooting competition, just to shoot with buddies, long-range stuff, whatever. But I remember, you know, looking up, like, you know, I if I wanted an awesome bolt gun, like there was really, I guess in my in my search history, I guess, right? Like it was Surgeon Rifles and probably Accuracy International, right? We're like kind of the two that was like, man, if you really want to have something, that's it, right?

SPEAKER_03 31:08

Yeah, that was that back in that era, there weren't there weren't really that many custom actions. Right, you know. Yeah, yeah, I mean everything was more bench, not field field related. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 31:23

Well, even back then, like the M5 bottom metal probably didn't exist, did it?

SPEAKER_03 31:31

Um well, I I know that I remember when we cut all our guns to have M5, but I also know that that we weren't very smart about things, bro. Like if I look back, we shot top load, top load 308s with a 10-power scope because that's what everybody was supposed to shoot, right? Oh, sure, you know, and then Terry Cross was shooting a 260 Ackley with a 22-power nine force and uh and a 10-man magazine and an AI A C S chassis, and it was just he was smarter than us. No, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 32:09

I mean, looking back when you have all the you know through it backed up, and then this guy shows up with a 260 AI, like okay, with a with a real scope. I mean, no, no wonder he was beating everybody.

SPEAKER_03 32:19

Yeah, I I remember when I finally broke down and Chan would have took 43 barrel and put it on my gun, and it was like the clouds just parted and you know, it was just were you the first to run a six mil? No. Um again, I'm slow learner. Um and uh I don't I couldn't even tell you couldn't even tell you when that was. I know that I shot a 300 wind mag in some field matches in 05. Which if it's all prone, no big deal. Yeah, I mean, yeah, and yeah, yeah, and and some and some like um in 05, um brute so Bruce Robinson was um he invented the mill dot master. Okay, yeah, and yeah, it may uh uh people may not be familiar with the mill dot master is, but it's basically it's a slide rule for calculating distance based on mill of known known size targets, right? The mill mill size the subtention. And um anyway, he died in 04, I think, and Bobby had a match to um Bobby Whittington at Badlands, he had a match to to raise money for the family. Cool, and uh um, but it was more like a field training exercise type match where it was 48 hours, almost non-stop, right? You had yeah, so you had like Friday night. Yeah, you had like I'm guessing eight stages or something like that. So you had to do a land nav, okay, get all your checkpoints, make it in time to shoot that stage. Yeah. And then when you shot that stage, then they gave you the coordinates for the next land nav checkpoints before you kill the next one. They had op four with paintball guns, and if you got shot with a paintball gun, you didn't get to shoot the next one. Um and then the stages were I remember the first one we got to, we get there, and there are five UK back then a lot of targets were UKD, so it was five UKD targets. But yeah, if you're billing them, you could yeah, but every every stage was a two-shot KYL. So like the first easy target was 20 points, 40, 60, 80, 100, first shot was full points, second round hit was half points, yeah, right?

unknown 34:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 34:58

So you might walk for five miles to get to a stage to shoot two shots and miss and get a zero. And get your land out for the next one. Oh my goodness. And then it's dark when you get to the next one. But so uh it was a real it was it was probably the funnest match I've ever shot. And then the reason I bring that up is I shot a 300 wind mag there. I shot like six rounds. The whole match? The whole match. Oh my goodness. And and um so one of them was at the end of the first night, we had a night stage, and so we had a certain time we had to be there, and so it was a team match. So we're coming up to the tower where we're gonna shoot. Well, we don't know what the stage is until we get there, right? And we realized we missed, like we skipped a checkpoint, and it is a long ways away.

SPEAKER_02 35:56

There's no going back.

SPEAKER_03 35:57

Yeah, so so we did. We we're not supposed to, I'll be honest. We dropped our stuff and we and and ran, right? Sure. And it was like a mile or whatever, right? So we run, go get checked, get checkpoint, coming back, and you know, you know how we're you wearing nods, and I've got seven B's, so you have no deep perception whatsoever. Running with nods, and I think it's this little creek, and jump off in it, and it's like it's like R50, right? And it is, it's funny because it was April Fool's. It was today. Today, it was today. It's April 1st. And and so I I'm having this thought in my mind as I'm soaking wet, right? And the sun's going down, and and you know, and you carry everything you have. So I had a poncho liner and a long sleeve t-shirt, and that's basically what you know what we have. Anyway, so we get back and we're like an hour late, and they still haven't started the stage. So luckily it was one of those tactics where we're gonna make everybody rush to get there, and then we're gonna make them lay there for four hours.

SPEAKER_02 37:06

Oh my goodness.

SPEAKER_03 37:07

Right. And then when everybody's asleep, we're gonna go out there and kick them and wake them up and make a tackle. So we got lucky on that one. So that stage Except for your soaking whack. Well, except for the worst soaking wet, and it's like borderline freezing at this point, right? Yeah. And uh so turns out the stage is they're gonna shoot everybody's heads are down, and each team, you could you raise your head for your one shot, and they would shoot a flare, right? A parachute flare, and there was one target out there, a steel target, and you had to range it, mill range it with the parachute flare, yeah, right, and make the shot. I mean, before it got dark.

SPEAKER_02 37:53

So before it before it so okay, so everybody's head down. So you you don't get to see when anybody else shoes. That's right. They kick your foot, yep, heads up, kick your foot, and then shoot the flare. Then you can see the target.

SPEAKER_03 38:07

And so I've never done anything like that. And what I didn't realize was as soon as the flare goes past the target, it disappears. The tar the flare doesn't have to hit the ground because when it goes behind it, it's shining on the back of it and it's gone. Right. So um, I never I just built this gun. I didn't have a safety on the trigger on most of my other guns. Yeah. And I just raised my bolt. Well, this gun happened to have a safety on it, and somehow I've got it. So anyway, so I don't know. So we get kicked, it goes, they they shoot the flare, and I'm so cold, I can't feel my hand, you know, anything like that. And so, so the flare goes completely down. It's gone.

SPEAKER_04 38:52

Yep.

SPEAKER_03 38:52

And I and I I was on it, right? So I don't know, a little bit after that, I figure out I got and I just flipped the safety off. And as the guy's telling me no score, I shoot and I hit the target.

SPEAKER_00 39:04

Dang.

SPEAKER_02 39:08

But anyway, yeah, that was uh how far, how far was the target? Do you have any ish?

SPEAKER_03 39:13

It was a it was an iptic at six-ish.

SPEAKER_04 39:16

A full size ipsy. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 39:17

Yeah, I mean it says in the dark, you know, it was it was interesting, you know.

SPEAKER_02 39:23

Yeah, yeah. I mean, you're you're you're three or four mils, probably, maybe closer to four.

SPEAKER_03 39:29

Yeah. So I I remember that um it worked out well for us because we used to use a like similar to reverse image zero, but where you'd hold the bottom edge of a target and you and we knew based on flash mill distance that with a certain dial you could, if it was under a certain amount, you could hold on the bottom and you could you could hit any target from that thing. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So it worked pretty well, but I ranged it and I was like, okay, you know, the so the so that wasn't that bad. The work it we didn't have uh illuminated illuminated reticle or anything like that. So that was really the toughest part. Am I really seeing what I yeah?

SPEAKER_02 40:17

And your your bipod. What was your rear bag like? Was it like an actual sandsock?

SPEAKER_03 40:22

No, it was uh um it was a leg off a pair of blue jeans. Yeah, it was a leg off a pair of blue jeans.

SPEAKER_02 40:28

Yep, sewed on both ends.

SPEAKER_03 40:29

Yeah, actually tied, right? Tied was um I normally had like small, like pea gravel type sand in mine. And I don't remember what I put in mine that time. It was something really light because you had to carry it right basically. Rice or corn or something. Yeah, it was something, it was something really light. I don't remember. Yeah, I don't remember what we had in it. But the the last stage on that on that match was kind of interesting too. So at the end of the second night, we get it's like four o'clock in the morning, we get to the location of the last one, and the guys come up and frisk us and make us give them any electronic devices, and there were no GPSs, no ring finders allowed in the match at all.

SPEAKER_02 41:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 41:15

But we did have GPSs, so they took all our GPSs and all that stuff. So they get us in position, and uh it's it's going to be a uh um it's a they gave us a map.

SPEAKER_04 41:32

That's what it was.

SPEAKER_03 41:33

They gave us a map with the target on it, and I was like, this is gonna be so easy because we're gonna mill the target, get a good range, right? This is this is easy. Yeah, and then the sun comes up and there's like 20 targets out there.

SPEAKER_02 41:48

Right? It's a no one. So you're looking at one, isn't it?

SPEAKER_03 41:51

You're looking at this chunk of a topo map, going, ah. I think it's that one, right? And we're all like every team's having discussions, and I'm like, no, it's that one. No. Is there any landmarks on the topographic map?

SPEAKER_02 42:04

Like a creek or like a handrail, as they say, right?

SPEAKER_03 42:08

So that um not really close enough. There was some, like, like you could see, like you could see a creek, so you knew that nothing on the other side of the creek was it. But I remember there were there were two targets that were really, really tough to differentiate because we actually all shot like the teams shot different targets. Okay. Right? Like we didn't all shoot the same target, right? Yeah, whoever got the right one gets the points. Yeah, and I can remember um when it came our turn to shoot, and my teammate and I, we had a disagreement on which target it is, and I was like, well, these guys are shot really well, and they hit that one. So that's the one I think it is. So we need to shoot that target anyway, because you don't want to lose points too. The tactic of it is is we can lose points to anybody else. We can't lose points to them. So even if they shot the wrong one, yeah, we're gonna shoot the wrong one too.

SPEAKER_02 43:08

Yeah, we ended up shooting.

SPEAKER_03 43:10

It ended up being the right one. But yeah, that was uh but that was kind of the idea of prior to PRS.

SPEAKER_02 43:19

The stages were a whole lot different than than they are. And a lot of a lot of scenario type stuff, right? Yeah, yeah. That's pretty cool. And a lot of that still lives on, yeah, you know, with with sniper team challenges and stuff like that. The sniper's hyde cup, which I think this was the last year for it. Yeah, you know, still did a lot of stuff like that. Yeah. It's it's yeah, it's just not the it's not the same sport, really, but that stuff exists in other formats. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 43:44

That's right. And that and and the the the um accuracy and precision of PRS shooters and equipment and everything now is just amazing compared to compared to then. So then, yeah. Well how

SPEAKER_02 44:00

How do you think like a PRS rifle today versus a bench rest gun back then? Or tw let's say around 2000, 2005. You know, are we you know the the bench rest uh yeah, bench rest you're talking about shooting zeros. Right.

SPEAKER_03 44:18

Well I'd I'd really be speaking out of turn because um I would be speaking out of turn because I really haven't had that much involvement or experience in that.

SPEAKER_04 44:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 44:45

And then you look, so you go to one of the 600-yard bench rest, right? Like like like um, oh, the the one up northeast I can't think of the name of. Then they publish all their data. And you're like, okay. So so you can kind of temper your temper a customer's expectations by so with no load development, you expect your gun to shoot well enough that you could win every 600-yard bench club match, right? I mean that that I don't really have that much experience in PR in bench, but what I do have is generally that checking, you know, grounding expectations of some people with how, you know. But um, but rifles in 05, most of us shot 308s.

SPEAKER_04 45:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 45:44

The targets were big. A lot of it was positional, like true positional shooting and um mill relation ranging. Yeah. Where the precision it it wasn't the same it wasn't the same sport. It wasn't necessarily the same sport.

SPEAKER_04 46:09

Yeah. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_03 46:10

Like it it's this is like an indie car compared to, you know.

SPEAKER_02 46:18

Yeah. Yeah, your local stock car track. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 46:23

It's different. That's really even even today in in PRS, that's one of the great things about the sport is that it is different. You go different places and the matches are different, and you might shoot similar stages, but I think that's what keeps a lot of people uh interested for for their life, right? Is it is it it's all then it's it's a lot.

SPEAKER_02 46:49

And I think that the sport thrives on that, right? Like the match directors have the freedom to, you know, within certain boundaries, but they can really do what they want to do, right? And make it their own flavor. Yeah. Yeah. So let's uh let's talk about what you're up to today. So Studeville Precision. What year did Studaville Precision start?

SPEAKER_03 47:08

So um we started this in 2014.

SPEAKER_02 47:13

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 47:14

Um, and it's it's grown. We're a s we're a small shop, you know, um, but it's definitely grown grown steadily. Um you know, I'm one of the partners with Tate at Impact 2, so we kind of wear multiple hats and and do and do different things. But uh primarily a barrel shop, you know, and uh um specifically now for impacts and and uh yeah, we're uh everything's going good. We're busy. I'd like to get out more maskins and it's just you know it's very, very modest.

SPEAKER_02 48:00

Very modest.

SPEAKER_03 48:00

I think I think now I can say that like I've said about a couple of other things, maybe I'm a slow learner. Right. And uh it's hard to let go of, you know, um my oldest my oldest son, Wyatt, he's a machinist here too, and and we do all the we do all the machine work, um, you know, and the coating and finishing of the barrels and inspections and all that. We do all that.

SPEAKER_04 48:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 48:28

My oldest son works part-time here, some he's in college right now. Cool. Very cool.

SPEAKER_02 48:35

Yeah, the official gunsmith of the PRS. And uh it's cool. It's cool to see uh, you know, I'd say a little shop. It's a fantastic shop, you know, if you ever get a chance to visit here if if Wade's open to that.

unknown 48:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 48:48

But uh how many, how many golden bullets have you chambered? And let's go back, even you know, I'm gonna count yours too, because uh you at the time you were working for surgeon, right? Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 49:01

So um I couldn't, I don't honestly, I didn't keep I haven't kept that good of count. So you got 2012, 2013.

SPEAKER_01 49:13

Um, I'm gonna say with Clays and Austin.

SPEAKER_03 49:19

I don't I don't know. Um probably half. Half of them. Yeah. Probably half. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 49:26

So that's I don't know. That's cool. Yep. Yeah. I also noticed uh there's a lifetime achievement black from the PRS hanging out out there. I remember I that was uh 2020 that was 2019 finale, wasn't it?

SPEAKER_03 49:45

That I think you had that and anybody anybody who has the patience to watch this podcast is gonna know that I'm not a I'm not a good talker or you guys in the right setting.

SPEAKER_02 49:59

Yeah, I I I re and I didn't I didn't I didn't know I I knew Wade Studebo, I knew Studebook precision in 2019, but I didn't know Wade Studebo, right? And and uh Shannon, Shannon got up there, it was at KM and he and he and he gave gave some really nice words and and then I think said something like um you know Wade Wade's probably gonna be short on words here. Actually, no, it was in Ratone, wasn't it? That you were you got no it was in KM.

SPEAKER_03 50:25

It was in KM.

SPEAKER_02 50:26

It was at KM. It was at KM, yeah. And and you went up and you said about 10 words? Yeah, took a picture. And I was like, okay, that's Wade. You know, obviously getting to know you now, it could checks out, but yeah, it's something to be proud of. I mean, you've made a a huge impact on this sport and still are as the official gunsmith and all of the golden bullet barrels you've chambered. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 50:51

Heck yeah.

SPEAKER_03 50:52

It's been uh um man, it's a it's all it is and always has been a great group of people, you know, all the precision, precision, right. The industry, the shooters, everything is a really good group of guys to be involved with.

SPEAKER_02 51:12

We're blessed to be a part of this too. And yeah, where uh where can we see you this year? You're gonna make it out to any matches? Yeah, um I'll I'll I'll be um I'll be at um probably probably John Kyle and I'll be at John Kyle's match.

SPEAKER_03 51:32

I'll I'll go to uh I'll be at the Horny match. Okay. Um I will be at um um Falbour.

SPEAKER_04 51:42

Okay. Justin's yeah, so yeah. It's not too far down the road.

SPEAKER_03 51:46

Yeah. Heck yeah. And I'm gosh, I'm gonna have to come to the um come to the finale. Heck yeah.

SPEAKER_02 51:53

It's it's it's right down the road in Arkansas. That's what maybe three, four hours from here, something like that.

SPEAKER_03 51:58

That's a neat place too.

SPEAKER_02 51:59

I like that place. Yeah. Well, we'll we'll be uh we'll be happy to have you there, man. Thank you for thank you for the conversation this morning, Wade. It's good talk, man. Yeah, thank you.