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Just a few hours ago, Andy Slade took 1st place at the 2023 Armageddon Gear Cup, winning the $30,000 prize! Clay Blackketter won $5,000 for winning Day 1 & 2 of the competition, plus another $7,000 for coming in 2nd place on the final day of shooting. Keith Baker finished in 3rd. Congrats to those guys and the rest of the competitors!
The AG Cup is a unique, 3-day precision rifle match featuring the biggest cash payouts of the year. Tom Fuller, owner of Armageddon Gear, has designed the AG Cup to run very different than other Precision Rifle Series (PRS) matches throughout the year. The AG Cup only consists of about 30 shooters who have to qualify for the event via AG Cup qualifying PRS matches throughout the year. They represent the best-of-the-best, so all the stages are designed exclusively with that top-tier professional competitor in mind. Also, all of the big, national-level, pro-series PRS matches are 2-day matches, but the AG Cup is a 3-day match. The match starts with around 30 shooters who compete over the first 2 days of competition. After Day 1 and 2, all the shooters are ranked, and only 15 shooters advance to Day 3. The kicker is that all scores reset to zero for Day 3. The scores from Day 1 and 2 don’t carry over, so the $30,000 prize could be anyone’s. It definitely adds a bit of drama to the environment.
The location of the match changes from year to year, with this year’s AG Cup being held at the Clinton House Plantation gun range in Clinton, South Carolina. Day 3 was shot in a completely new area of the range where none of the shooters had ever shot. Commentators at the event said the facilities cleared trees for that new portion of the range just 3 months ago. That was intended to ensure a level playing field, even if some of the shooters were local to the area.
Andy Slade dominated Day 3, finishing with 97 points – which was 10+ hits more than some of the very best shooters in the world. Clay Blackketter and Keith Baker were the only two within 10 points of Andy.
Here are the complete results from all 3 days for all of the shooters:
Even those who came in at the bottom of the list are truly world-class shooters. I’d personally be thrilled to be good enough to be listed at 30th! 😉 Only the top-tier pro shooters are invited to the AG Cup, and the stages are very challenging. So well done to the entire field of competitors!
The Shooter’s Mindset had a live stream of all 3 days of the AG Cup that you can watch on their Facebook page. Thank you, guys, for doing that! I was watching live when Andy claimed the victory, seen below.
About Andy Slade
Andy Slade says the most important thing for him is always going to be God and his family. He was raised in rural Virginia, where he grew up roaming the woods with a 22 rifle hunting squirrels. Andy joined the Marine Corps at the age of 23, not long after 9/11. Shooting continued to be a big part of Andy’s life in the military. Andy says he was fortunate enough to shoot company high, which got him on the radar of some higher-ups in his unit and allowed him to go to the coach’s course and later the instructors/trainers course so he could help other marines become more lethal.
Andy was still in the Marine Corps when he started shooting long-range rifle competitions, but it was something he personally got into and was doing in his free time. When he went to the instructor course, the Marine Corps noticed some of the things he was doing on the competition side, and they extended him an invite to try out for the Marine Corps’ competition team. After joining the Marine Corps Reserve Shooting Team, Andy was able to claim a few competition wins, including the 2019 Mammoth Sniper Challenge.
After retiring from the military, Andy helped start the Virginia Precision Rifle Club. Today, Andy is a full-time marksmanship instructor/performance coach through a company called Rifleman’s Path. Andy became a sponsored shooter for Team MDT in 2021. He won his first pro-series PRS matches this year by taking 1st at both the MDT Frostbite PRS Match in February and later the Pigg River Precision H.A.M. PRS Match in June. He also finished 2nd in the 2023 PRS Pro-Series Finale match, landing Andy at 3rd overall in the 2023 PRS Season Points.
That is already a long list of accomplishments – but he’s now added 2023 AG Cup Champion to that resume!
I (Cal, author of PRB) was fortunate enough to be in the same squad with Andy Slade back in May at the Okie Showdown AG Cup Qualifier Match. After shooting with Andy for 2 days, I can say for certain that Andy is one of the best guys in this game. He’s always willing to help other shooters, share his knowledge or equipment – and I could tell he was an extremely hard worker and a great dad. The PRS community has a lot of great people, and Andy is definitely one of those at the top of the list. Congrats, Andy!
Here is a video produced by MDT where Andy introduces himself, and you can watch an entire series of videos that MDT produced where Andy shares some shooting and training tips.
Andy Slade’s Competition Rifle Setup
Andy literally completed my “What The Pros Use” survey last night (12/2) as he was at the AG Cup, so I have all of his gear details hot off the press! Thanks for sharing the info with the rest of us, Andy!
- Action: Lone Peak Arms Fuzion
- Chassis: MDT ACC Elite (not bedded)
- Barrel: 26” Geissele barrel in MTU contour
- Gunsmith: ICE Rifles (this is owned by Keith Baker, who finished 3rd in the 2023 AG Cup)
- Trigger: Trigger Tech Diamond set to 10 ounces
- Muzzle Brake: MDT
- Scope: Vortex 6-36×56 Razor HD Gen III with EBR-7D reticle
- Scope Mount: MDT One-Piece Scope Mount
- Bipod: MDT Ckye-Pod (only bipod he carries at a match)
Andy Slade’s Ammo Load Data
Andy also shared his load data on my “What The Pros Use” survey, so I’ll pass along all of those details:
- Cartridge: 6.5 Creedmoor
- Bullet: Berger 153.5 gr. Long Range Hybrid Target
- Powder: 40.6 gr. Hodgdon H4350
- Brass: Peterson
- Primer: CCI #450 Magnum Small Rifle Primers
- Muzzle Velocity: 2,680 fps (SD = 5 fps)
Thanks again, Andy, for sharing all of that info with the rest of us!
Hi Cal
Excellent article very detailed.
As a 6.5 creedmoor guy, I really appreciate that you shared Andy Slade’s Ammo Load Data
Thanks again,
Paul
Thanks, Paul! I figured if I had it, I should share it. 😉
Thanks,
Cal
Great article – very comprehensive breakdown of the event and results! The AG Cup format is so unique. Thanks for sharing about your personal interactions with Andy and the equipment he uses. Congratulations to Andy and the rest of the competitors!
You bet! Thanks, David
Congrats to Andy. Great write up, Cal.
Hey guys. Thanks for the article. My load is 40.6 not 41.6.
Andy
Thanks for the correction, Andy! I got that updated in the article. Thanks again for sharing and congrats!
Thanks,
Cal
Just goes to show, never ever give up…
Thank you for all your hard work Cal! It is very much appreciated by a lot of us in the peanut gallery who can only imagine what it is like to be able to travel nationally and compete at this level.
I agree, and also appreciate the kind words. This was the first year that I qualified for the finale, and I was fortunate enough to shoot 7 national-level PRS Pro Series matches. My buddy, Obadiah Barnes, and I travel to all of those together, and we were talking at the finale about how crazy it was that we get to travel all around the country shooting like that. Who gets to do stuff like that!
Thanks,
Cal
Forgot to ask Cal, with Andy’s set-up, forums argue that one needs better than a 1:8 twist to stabilize the Berger 153.5 gr. Long Range Hybrid Target (unless at high enough density altitude). Most prefits like Proof come in 1:8 for 6.5/.264 caliber bores, but I do see blanks being offered by Bartlein in 1:7.5 and 1:7 twists that would work but obviously cost more to chamber. Berger twist calculator says specific gravity (SG) not showing stabilization yet Berger factory ammunition with the same bullet lists minimum 1:8 twist. What say you? Is it worth the money to be one and done and go the more expensive route to 100% stabilize (thinking NRL-H in January 2025 at Paulden, AZ) or just go with a prefit?
Ha! Well, Scott. I’ve done the math to that very recently myself. I am planning to spin up a couple of 6.5 Creedmoor barrels for the 2025 season and plan to run the Berger 153.5 LRHT bullet. So your timing is perfect! I was prepared for this!
It sounds like you are well-versed in this topic, but maybe for others reading … there are calculations you can do to see how stable a bullet is and Berger recommends a stability factor of 1.5-2.0 Sg and Lapua recommends 1.4-1.8 Sg for conventional bullets. (Note: If you are using solid/monolithic bullets you actually want it to be above 2.0 Sg.) So we can say that it is “fairly well established” that somewhere between 1.5-1.8 is ideal. If you are below that range, your bullet will have slightly more drag as it flies and the BC will not be optimized. I used to think a bullet couldn’t be too stabalized – so always get the fastest twist rate. But that actually will cause issues, too. If you ever look at Benchrest rifles, they are using very slow twist rates. That is because the faster you spin a bullet the more dispersion you will get. It basically will exaggerate any imperfections in a bullet (i.e., how well the center of mass aligns with the center of form), and no bullets are perfect. The Bergers are really good, but if you use a slower twist barrel you will almost always get smaller groups. It’s why the short-range Benchrest guys use such slow twist barrels. So you really do ideally want it in that 1.5-1.8 Sg range.
The problem is that varies by environmental factors like air density. So the altitude and temperature of the location you’ll be shooting play a big factor in what twist is ideal. I personally always run the math on the most likely atmospheric conditions that I’d be shooting in, as well as atmospheric conditions on the far extremes of each side that were still plausible for me:
Most Typical: 60° F at 3200′ elevation
Plausible Shooting Conditions with Thickest Air Density: 35° F at 0′ elevation (Leupold Steel Classic in January at College Station, TX)
Plausible Shooting Conditions with Thinnest Air Density: 80° F at 6675′ elevation (King of Coal Canyon in June in Raton, NM)
I also used a muzzle velocity of 2650 fps for that bullet, which was the average speed that the pro PRS shooters said they are running that bullet at.
I used Berger’s Twist Rate Stability Calculator, and here are the results I got:
So, in this case I agree with the forums. I’m a bit surprised by that honestly, because this is a highly debated topic with a lot of bad info out there! At least in my most likely scenarios, it seems like 1:7.5 twist would let me strike the best balanced between my BC being optimized while also not over-stabalizing the bullet and potentially hurting my group size.
I have noticed that 1:8 twist is the most popular twist for 6.5mm barrel blanks. The guys over at Custom Rifle Barrels (CRB) are friends, and PRS champions … and they seem to only make 6.5mm barrels in 1:8 twist. I think the popularity of the 1:8 twist for the 6.5mm is likely because until just a few years ago, 140 gr bullets were about the heaviest you ever saw in a 6.5mm. Now we have the 153.5 and 156 gr bullets, and those 150+ gr bullets might ideally be paired with a 1:7.5 twist.
It is really only in that low elevation and cold temperature condition where my BC may theoretically be compromised, so if you aren’t shooting in those conditions often … then it’s a non-issue.
If you are shooting in high elevation and hot temperatures, then a 1:8 is probably a more ideal choice.
But, as for me … I think 1:7.5 probably best fit’s Berger and Bryan Litz’s definition of ideal stability for the Berger 153.5 LRHT bullet traveling around 2650 fps, which is probably what I will end up running mine at.
Now, I will say that if someone gave me a 1:8 twist barrel … I wouldn’t turn it down. This might all be theoretical differences and not really matter in the real world. But, I do think the science and how we currently understand stability would say 1:7.5 might be more ideal for that bullet.
Probably way more than you wanted to know, but I’d already done all of the math in the past week or two … so there you go! 😉
Thanks,
Cal
Ha! Nope, not way more than I wanted to know…
…way more that I knew you were keen enough to pick up on…
I am valiantly trying to do a sub-12lb build for Open Light and have been hedging on straight 1:8 or doing a Zant Paradigm with a 1:7.5.
You know, like the guy did with his 300 Norma Mag with a 1:8 twist on a .30cal barrel with his Surgeon Remedy nailing things at more than 2000+ [sound familiar?]; even though the forums say 1:9 is fine.
The Zant Paradigm has consistently shown results over the years when an engineer puts his mind to the task. Guess its the more expensive route for me, then, given your calculations, but as Erik Cortina says, “believe the bullet.” Wish the pre-fit manufacturers would get on board already…