NRL 22
NRL22 was founded in 2016 and has become one of the fastest growing disciplines in competitive shooting. It’s accessible and easy to get started with basic equipment. It appeals to a wide variety of shooters at different skill levels.
Participants will shoot five different courses of fire, each designed by NRL22. Five new courses of fire are published each month, so everyone across the country is competing in the exact same courses. Everyone who shoots in an NRL22 match during a given month is competing against everyone else who shoots in an NRL22 match during that same month.
Each competition includes at least two prone stages, one positional stage, and one barricade stage. All stages use the steel targets from the NRL22 standard target package.
The target sizes also tend to be pretty forgiving, with the smallest target in any given course of fire being about 1 inch, though targets as small as a quarter inch on a KYL rack are shot every month.
Courses of fire will use obstacles and barricades from the NRL22 Standard Barricade List, which includes things like a tire, folding back chair, 10 foot length of rope, 5 gallon bucket, ladder, nrl tree, and 55 gallon drum.
There are 8 divisions. The divisions and breakdown are:
- Open: Anyone not meeting other division requirements. No restrictions on your rifle or scope. This is the most competitive division, and where the majority of the shooters compete.
- Base: Anyone who has a combined rifle and scope MSRP of $1,600 or less and does not modify his or her rifle in a way that conflicts with the other designated rules of Base division. This division is intended to be the budget-friendly division.
- Air Rifle: Anyone participating with an air rifle.
- Ladies: Any female born competitors.
- Young Guns: Any participant under the age of 18. Participants who turn 18 after the first day of the season can still participate throughout the entire season in the Young Gun division.
- Old Gun: Any participant that will turn the age of 60 during the season.
- Semi Auto: Any semiautomatic.
- Adaptive: Any participant that has any special needs/considerations such as physical limitations.
Here is a list of suggested gear that you will need to get started:
- An accurate rifle in 22LR: Most people find that a bolt action is best for the sport. Bolt guns are generally more reliable, and more accurate, and since this sport is generally not scored based on your time, the faster speed of a semi-auto goes unwarranted. As far as the accuracy and precision of your rifle, as long as you are shooting within 2 MOA or so (1-inch groups at 50 yards), that should be good enough to compete.
- Magazines: You’ll need at least 2 10-round mags. It’s not uncommon for stages to require a mag change, so have an extra or two!
- Riflescope: We highly recommend scopes that have the following features: holdover type reticles in the first focal plane, target turrets that are intended for doing lots of dialing, turrets and reticle in milliradians (mils or MRAD for short), and adjustable parallax that goes down to 25 yds. 5×25 power scopes are the most common.
- Bipod: Your bipod should have a cant or swivel feature and be adjustable for height.
- Support bag (or two): The purpose of a support bag(s) is to be used for rear support when shooting from the prone position, as well as for front support when shooting from a prop, such as the rung of a ladder.
- Ammo: We recommend match-grade target ammo. These tend to be subsonic, in nature, but they don’t have to be. Whatever shoots the best in your rifle is what you should be using. This might take some trial and error, but most shooters have luck with similar brands of ammo.
- Personal Protective Equipment (PPE): Eye and ear protection are required. Other gear may include knee / elbow pads and shooting jackets.
- Ballistic Solver or a D.O.P.E. chart: At the match, each target distance will be provided to you. You are going to need a way to solve for the bullet drop at each distance. The most common type of solver is a ballistics app on your phone. There are several common apps being used. Just ask a fellow shooter what they recommend.
You can sign up for matches at DRRC on Practiscore. Enter “DRRC” in the search field to find upcoming matches.
Scoring – We use Practiscore.com electronic scoring. Go to https://practiscore.com/results/, and search “NRL 22” for match results.
For more information, please contact the match director.