You're going to need a good rifle, a quality scope, a bipod, a butt-cuff and more

Shooting Illustrated's Richard Mann takes you through the basic steps of becoming an effective long range marksman:

Long Range for Dummies
You don’t need $8,000 worth of gear and Navy SEAL sniper training to connect at 500 yards. Get hits by keeping things simple.

Whacking targets at stupidly long ranges has become the cool thing to do. Indeed, it’s gratifying to get behind a rifle, fire a single shot and hit a target the size of a guitar five football fields away. For many, this mastery of ballistics and pulling triggers seems as complicated as calculus and as expensive as an addiction. It doesn’t have to be that way. In fact, even an average rifleman with about $3,000 in equipment can be deadly efficient out to 500 yards, with no training at all.

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Teams from American, England, Wales, Ireland and South Africa compete for international rifle title

Bloemfontein, South Africa - Protea is the top team trophy at the South African International High Power Championships. Named after the South Africa's National Flower, The International Protea is shot over three ranges measuring out at 300, 600 and 900 meters. Keeping with the earlier team matches, it was South Africa that powered past England and the United States to claim the hometown title.

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Images from Team England's photo library at the South African International Championships

While putting together our final report from the International Long Range High Power Championships at the General de Wet Range, we thought now was the perfect time to share a few images that you won't see at the range. We'll be back with final scores from the Protea Match, were a contingent of American shooters are making their stand, later today.

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Team USA travels to South Africa for Long Range High Power Rifle tournament

Bloemfontein, South Africa - The South African Rifle Team jumped out to an early lead in yesterday's America Match at the General de Wet Range. Gaining ground in each of the four relays, their final tally reached 2362.251 before teams from the U.S. and England fired their final shot. By then, South Africa was in the clubhouse with a 13 point win.

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Long Range High Power Rifle Championships bring in teams from the United States and Great Britain

While gearing up for the National Rifle & Pistol Championships this summer in Camp Perry, Ohio, we decided to wet your appetite with news from an international long range high power match taking place this week in South Africa

The General de Wet Range is located just outside of Bloemfontein, South Africa. It sits about 4,500 feet above sea level. The air is thin, the conditions are dry and the winds can be unforgiving … a perfect place for an International Long Range High Power Rifle Championship.

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Your one-stop resource for this year's matches at Camp Perry

Fairfax, Virginia - The program for this year's 106th Remington/NRA National Rifle and Pistol Championships has been released and you can find it online right here.

“Once again, the NRA is thrilled to conduct the ‘World Series’ of the shooting sports. For over 100 years, shooters in the United States have made the pilgrimage to Camp Perry for the NRA National Matches, and the honor to shoot shoulder-to-shoulder with the best.”

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Great Britain's Luckman in Long Range rifle and Arizona's Templey in Smallbore

Fairfax, Virginia - With a few thousands stories posted every year, the task of tapping just one for the top spot proved to be arduous at best. Basic Pistol classes, Youth Hunter Education, Women's Shooting Clinics and Law Enforcement Training ... where do you begin? In all, there are 178 programs in the NRA. That's why I went with our oldest program; the National Rifle & Pistol Championships in Camp Perry, Ohio.

But there were dozens of great stories at the National Championships too. We found a Youth Education Summit alum firing Smallbore, a touch of international flavor during the American Cup match, a sibling shooter juggling a publishing/aviation career as well as the Australian Rifle team and The Wagon too.

After sifting through six weeks of the ups and downs that Camp Perry always has to offer, I decided to push. Yes it's a tie. A tie between the Long Range High Power and 3-Position Smallbore rifle champions. First is the Long Range.

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Rifles from Brazil, Sweden & Soviet Union take aim in New Mexico

While we weather out the winter winds here in the DC Metro area, Patrick Hernandez and his colleagues from the New Mexico Military Surplus Rifles & Pistols Shooters (NMMSRPS) are taking to the sands of Albuquerque. Though their temperature isn't all that more welcoming then ours, they braved the conditions for a chance to take part in their Mid-Range High Power Shooting Match.

What makes this match so special? Sure, the NMMSRPS is an NRA Club, but there are thousands of those. What makes this match special, and what makes all the matches of the NMMSRPS so special, is that they are all shot with Military Surplus Firearms.

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Raton, New Mexico - Fresh on the heels of the America Cup Match this summer during the Long Range High Power Championships in Camp Perry, we're getting the proverbial band back together for another run. But this time we're going F-Class.

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