At the 2024 GA Precision/Bushnell Elite Tactical “GAP Grind” Pro/Am match, Mari Morita, representing DEON, partnered with professional shooter Brandon Rudge. The team utilized a rifle graciously lent by Timothy Vaught and was supported by Denys Beauchemin. Below is a reflection penned by Denys and photos are provided by him as well.

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A quick preliminary report on DEON’s presence at the recently concluded 2024 GA Precision/Bushnell Elite Tactical “GAP Grind” Pro/Am, October 4-6, hosted by K&M Precision Rifle Training Shooting Complex, Finger, TN. (K&M Pro/Am).

In January 2025, DEON Optical in Japan, will start taking orders for its latest riflescope, the March-FX 5-42X56 GenII PRS version with the FML- WBR reticle, a 26 degrees wide-angle eyepiece, and writable turrets. As part of the final testing for this riflescope, a team of 4 people, along with 470 competitors, went to the K&M Pro/Am competition in Finger, TN.

The Pro/Am team consisted of Brandon Rudge (Team Planet Ford / Rip Precision) as the pro, and Mari Morita as the amateur. Ms. Morita used a rifle provided by Tim Vaught (Team Planet Ford / Rip Precision) who had meticulously produced match ammunition for his superb rifle (details below.)  Brandon and Mari both had a March PRS scope on their rifle and as part of the preparation for each stage they were writing the required come-ups on the new writable surface of the turrets on the March PRS scopes using a dry erase pen. While Brandon is an old hand at PRS shooting, this was a new experience for Ms. Morita, who rose to the challenge.

Mari Morita, (DEON Optical Chief Marketing Officer) shot the entire K&M Pro/Am competition consisting of 20 stages over two days using a pre-production March-FX 5-42X56 HM Gen II with the WBR reticle, a 26° AOV (wide angle eyepiece), and the writable turrets (March PRS scope). She is the first Japanese shooter to achieve this goal.

Ms. Morita had never participated in a PRS event prior to the Pro/Am. But her skills obtained from her ISSF Competition equipped her with outstanding marksmanship fundamentals, along with a 4-hour training with Team MDT’s very own PRS PRO Andy Slade, equipped her with some fundamental PRS-specific skills that enable a high level of performance in a very rapid time frame. She was able to clean (1 stage), and only drop one or two points on 3 stages, to include connecting on a 1186-yard target with her first cold bore shot.

At the end of the first day, Ms. Morita’s rifle was dropped hard on the rocks of a path and the riflescope took a nasty hit. During the next stage, the windage proved to be off quite a bit and the team had to rezero the riflescope. The next morning, Ms. Morita was hitting the targets a long ranges using the predicted come-ups and windage settings for the conditions. The internals of the riflescope were completely undamaged, and it was tracking true. Ms. Morita was able to complete the entire course of 20 stages and became the first Japanese shooter ever to complete the grueling K&M Pro/Am course of fire, she placed 327^th overall, 147^th amateur.

Subsequent analysis revealed that the riflescope had shifted in its mount and the scope itself was fine, as can be expected with a 4mm thick tube.

The elegant FML-WBR reticle performed very well, and the silver writable turrets did exactly as expected and proved to be eminently suitable for PRS stages.

The rifle Ms. Marita used for the Pro/Am was loaned to her by Tim Vaught. Here are some details about Tim’s rifle. It is built on an Impact 737R action with a Bartlein Heavy Varmint 28” barrel with a 1:7.5 5R twist and an APA Fat Bastard Gen 3 muzzle brake.  The barrel was chambered in 6 Dasher by Kenny Porter of P3 Precision. The stock is a Foundation MG2 with a Tungsten weight kit, with OTM bottom metal. The trigger is a Bix’N Andy TacSport Pro. The magazines are MDT 12 round mags, and the bipod is an MDT Cykepod Gen 2 Single Pull.  The ammunition was assembled by Tim using Alpha Munitions 6 Dasher bras, sorted CCI450 primers, and sorted, trimmed, and pointed Berger 6mm 108gr bullets. The propellant used was Vihtavouri N150 loaded to provide an MV of 2820FPS.