I use much cheaper equipment and compete with the guys that have all the fancy rifles and accessorries. My goal is to spend a little labor, half the money and still compete
I have two friends that competed in NRL22 with their fixed up Ruger 10-22's. Both did well. One of them, in his 40's at the time, using expensive Lapua ammo, won lots of matches.
Part of the reason why was his gun would do 1/2" at 50Y.
The other part was he participated in centerfire PRS matches a couple times a month so he was used to the in's and out's of the game.
For a few years, he, I, and two other guys would swap around with the wins. This was pre Base division days.
Then one of those guys got a Vudoo in a MPA chassis with weights attached at 20-ish pounds and perfectly balanced in front of the mag well, it had a 3-4 ounce TT trigger as well. He distanced himself over us by 5-10 points a match.
I shot his gun a few times and it was silly how superior it was off obstacles. Plant it down on a fortune cookie bag, point it where you wanted, free recoil, and make hits.
The rest of us had a wobble zone twice or more of his.
My Anschutz is fantastic in some ways but its lightweight thus I found myself outdone for this game as far as Open division. Yep I could still go and have fun but I wanted to get a win once in a while and I saw the writing on the wall......
These days a heavy barrel stock Savage would be a decent way to go in NRL22 Base division.
Or try airgun division. I might show up at a NRL22 match with my Vulcan 3 25 cal shooting slugs this year for the fun of it. I better start getting in shape for it! Old and creeky....