Whittington Center In Raton

Whittington

Center in Raton

by chad Kinyon

7/23/22 I left my home in North Las Vegas, NV, at 11:00pm to pick up Joe for an adventure to a series of long-range shooting competitions held at The NRA Whittington Center in Raton, New Mexico. There will be three matches with varying distances between 1036-3700 yards (.58–2.1 miles). The first match carried a weight and caliber restrictions that separated it from the other two. Due to the requirements of the first match, I was be taking two rifles. I will use my 7 SAUM to meet those requirements (light gun) and my 375 EnABELR (heavy gun) for the remaining two matches, which don’t carry much in the way of restrictions other than total weight.

7/24/22 Arriving at The Whittington Center around 2:00 pm the following afternoon, having been on the road for about 15 hours. We could have made better time, but we knew we couldn’t check into our cabin until 2:00pm, so why get in a big hurry. We checked in at the gate and secured the keys to our accommodations and a map of the facility so we could find our cabin and the sight in range. The Whittington Center boasts 25 separate ranges on 33,000+ acres for archery, pistol, shotguns, rifles, or basically anything that “shoots” from 5-1200 yards. They have 175 full hook-up RV campsites, 20 cabins, and a museum with a gift shop. This center and its patrons bring an estimated $7,000,000 to the economy of Raton, a small community of about 6,000 people that sits nestled in the mountains just south of the New Mexico/Colorado border at an elevation of 6,680’. The altitude made for a refreshing change from the summer heat of Southern Nevada which this time of year is just stupid hot. When we arrived, it was in the mid-60s and had just rained.

The ranges we will be using for these three matches that will be held over the next week are “off the reservation,” so to speak, as they are not always available and, for the most part, are not open to the public to shoot at except in the case of special events like these matches. This set of matches are being put on by Randy Powell, the owner, and operator of Thunder Ammo and Arms, specializing in .50 cal bullets, bullet design, and loaded ammunition.

About the time we wandered onto the sight-in range, the shooters started rolling in from all over the country, and before long, it was getting crowded with old friends and not-yet friends. Zeroing shots went without issue, and everything was about where it was expected to be, except for a gentleman’s debate on the proper way to zero a rifle in a ballistic calculator. One school of thought is to zero at 100 yards and then enter an offset reflecting where your bullet hits at 100 yards. The second school of thought is to take that information and adjust your zeroing distance to the distance that your impact would be back down to where the crosshairs in the scope are. Both methods accomplish the same thing; I must admit I was in the second camp. Brian Wink and Stanley Cutsforth won me over to running an offset. When the season is over, I will change my scope mount to remove the 40MOA cant. I no longer need it since receiving a 29.2 mil Nightforce-

We then left the sight-in range in search of our cabin. We were being housed in what are called the founders’ cabins. Back in 1973, when the center was established in the remnants of an old coal mine, the NRA and some of the shooting sports leaders stepped up and had cabins built that would bear the founders’ names. We just happened to be staying in the Leupold cabin on this trip. Basically, each cabin is 4 hotel rooms with bathrooms that share a full kitchen and living area. They are very comfortable even though ours didn’t have A/C. Due to the altitude, cool evenings, and frequent thunderstorms, we made due with a box fan and were quite comfortable.

7/25/22 Match #1 Raton Thunder Light Gun 1.13mile Challenge This match will take place on the 1000 yd range in the sense that we would be firing from the 1,000-yard range firing line. The targets, however, are placed well beyond the limits of the range. The targets will be in select clearings on the mountain behind the furthest berm. Placing them at 1036, 1389, 1800, and 1990 yards. Each target will be engaged once in the morning session and then again in an afternoon session for a total of 32 shots to complete the match. These distances are pushing the limits of the 7 SAUM cartridge, but you have to dance with the partner you brought. When the firing order came out I was listed in the fourth shooting position.

I didn’t shoot particularly well in the first round with the 7 SAUM, completely outmatched by the larger 33XC cartridge, which is what my partner Joe shoots. This cartridge dominates the class. I only manage two hits in the morning round @ 1389yds. Did slightly better in the afternoon with hits on 1800 and 1990yds targets which place me 18th. Hard for a hunting round to keep up with the larger, heavier, and faster rounds that make up the light division of the ELR class. Joe placed 2nd with an outstanding performance in the afternoon, where he went 4/5 at 1389, 1800,1990 and only missed three shots in the afternoon session.

UPDATE: Between the morning and afternoon sessions, I received an email from Alex Cordesman that I had qualified for the 2022 Global King Of 2 Mile Championship. That meant that a “Bucket List” item was in play. I had earned my chance to compete with the very best in our sport. Everything I was doing this weekend took on a new level of importance to me since this is the venue where the KO2M match will be held. So stick with me as we will be heading back to Raton in late September for the crown jewel of the ELR community. I wonder if this is why I shot so much better in the afternoon session?

7/26/22 Match #2 FCSA Record Match in Spring Canyon This match is really designed for the .50cal crowd that shoots 500-800 gr bullets. The distances for this match are 2560, 2465, 2775, and 2915 on day one and 2560, 2775, 3155, and 3700 on day two. I am slated as the second shooter on the line for day one, which is nice, or at least I thought I was. The air would be cool at about 60 degrees, and the wind will be calm at the shooting position. I guess I should have known it at the time but with the rain from the night before, the ground was wet and would offer no indication of any bullet that missed the target. It was a little like flying blind in a snowstorm and trying to use “The Force” to guide the bullets onto the target. The course of fire would be a CB (cold bore) shot at 2560yds for a world record attempt. If you hit it, you would have the opportunity to send two more for the world record. The official record has to be CB+two on a 36” plate, on video, with a minimum of 10 witnesses that need to sign an affidavit about the event. Sadly, I’m not the new world record holder; however, I’m proud to say that a man I call my friend is, Stanley Cutsforth. Yeah, Stan went on to win this match, and not just by a little. He nearly doubled the second-place finishers, Lindsey Paul’s (Queen of 2 Mile 2021) score. Yes, a woman beat the rest of the field in the match. This sport is dominated in numbers by men, but the women that come out, play to win. Personally, I only managed to extract one hit in this tricky little canyon at 2775yds on day two for the whole match, which tied me for 16th out of 20 shooters. I could hear the bullets landing on the mountainside from the camera system behind me, so they were at least in the vicinity of the targets. Not my proudest moment, but at least I didn’t come in last. Because the targets are set up on mountainsides, as you can imagine, the areas around them are mostly rocks, and the little bit of dirt that was there was wet and very hard to get a read off of my smaller 377gr bullets which had lost most of their energy by the time of impact between 1.53 and 2.10 miles. Lessons were learned for next time but my confidence had taken a significant blow, and I was questioning everything.

7/29/22 Match #3 The Raton Thunder 1.65 Mile Challenge This match will best fit me and my rifle so I expected to place a little better. The early morning air is a crisp 60 degrees with fog/clouds hanging in the target area up on the side of the mountain. The sun keeps peeking out of the clouds, so it seems like it will move or burn off reasonably soon. I have drawn the ninth position in the firing order, so I will have about an hour and a half to assemble my gear and prepare. I started my round by missing the cold bore target by a few inches, but this gave me a better read on what the wind was doing down range. I made a slight adjustment to the windage and elevation turrets and moved onto T1 at 1390 yards. T1 yielded hits on four out of five of the shots. Now we are-talking! I then moved onto T2 at 1800 yards. T2 wasn’t quite as friendly, only giving up three hits out of the five shots. On to T3 which was set at 1990 yards where I only managed one hit. So for day one of this two-day match, I was at a 50% hit ratio. That’s not going to win but at least, to me anyway, it’s respectable.

We retired to the cabin and spent the rest of the day having adult beverages and playing corn hole which I had never played before. It’s a fun and somewhat addicting game. In-between games, we continued discussing the finer points of this ELR game we play. Nothing was definitively settled, even though discussed at great length.

Dinner tonight would be at The Ice House BBQ in Raton with the tribe, as it will be our last night in Raton. Eight of us gathered around two tables pushed together to break bread and enjoy each other’s company one last evening before heading home the following afternoon. I had the brisket platter, which was smoked to perfection. An interesting twist to the establishment is they had this BBQ sauce that was blueberry based. I won’t say it was my new favorite but it had an interesting flavor that made me want to dip my brisket in it. Had they used the beloved Huckleberry, I’d have been in it to my elbows. I will miss these guys when we all head home and back to our lives, but as luck, or fate, would have it, some of us will be back here at the end of September 2022 for KO2M.

7/30/22 The Raton Thunder 1.65 Mile Challenge Day 2 The match is delayed by almost 2 hours because the targets are covered by low-hanging clouds again. These are thicker than the ones from the day before. We can’t even see the targets as they are further up the mountainside from the target positions of day one. Since the firing order is reversed from day one, I’ll be 15th in the firing order, which meant that I will shoot much later in the morning. By the time I made it to the firing line, it had heated up about 10 degrees with the humidity somewhere north of 70%, making the air feel thick and sticky. Today the cold bore target is set at 1800 yards. Just like day one, I missed it by a couple of inches. No sense in dwelling on it. Just move onto T4 which is set at 2268 yards. I hit three out of five and will chalk one miss up to a miss communication with my spotter. He called my impact point instead of my correction, so I made an incorrect adjustment due to this information, causing a second miss even further off target. I moved my aim even further up the mountain to T5, where I managed to miss ever so slightly on all five shots. Time to finish strong, I thought and moved my aim to the top of the mountain and T6 at 2878 yards. T6 defended itself well, but I did get one impact on it. So I finished day two by hitting four out of sixteen for a 25% hit ratio. My point total for both days is 51,902, which put me in 13th-

The match winner was Stanley Cutsforth of Team Leupold, with John Snodgrass spotting. He had made 21 shots in a row and was clean until his second shot on day two at 2650 yards. He finished the match having only missed six shots out of 30, all of which were on the last two and furthest targets. An impressive accomplishment, but that’s why he’s the current world record holder and sits at number 18 in the KO2M world rankings. I think that number will be changing after this week’s events. I’ve known Stanley for about four and a half years. We met at the inaugural Best of The West shoot in Oregon back in 2018. Given his position in the shooting community, he could choose to be arrogant if he wanted. He would have earned that right, but not Stanley. He is the most helpful and humble person you could ever hope to meet, with a laugh that can only be described as infectious. Don’t get me wrong, when he lays down behind that 416 Hellfire rifle of his, it’s game on, and make no mistake, he’s not trying to beat anyone personally. He’s trying to beat the course. He wants to hit every single target with every single shot. In the course of doing that, chances are he will probably beat you, but it’s not personal with Stan. That’s what makes him such a great ambassador for our sport; he will do his best to help you beat the course, as well. I honestly believe he would be happiest if everyone he helped tied for 1st place, having hit every target. With Stan, you aren’t the enemy to be beaten, you are a brother. He has started giving instructional training and advice on building ELR rifles. He runs OC Training and Gunworks in Lexington, OR. If you wish to get a hold of him, let me know, and I can put you in touch with him.

Our next stop in this adventure will be right back here in Raton, NM, for the Global King Of 2 Mile Championship, September 23-25, 2022. So if you have been following along for the last year and have enjoyed these adventures, hang in there, and we will see where this thing ends up in the next issue of Home&Harvest.

• 31,343 pts Best of the West • 25,392 pts Spearpoint Ranch June • 14,917 pts Light Gun Thunder • 2,567 pts Spring Canyon Heavy Gun • 51,902 pts Heavy Gun Thunder • 126,121 pts Season Total • 162nd in KO2M rankings • Current Global ELR Ranking 167th and holding.