From Novice to Champion with a .50 Caliber Rifle
By Glen Wunderlich
The .50 Caliber World Championships held July 2-4 at NRA’s Whittington Center in Raton, New Mexico included an event in which Scott McRee was looking forward to: The King of Two Miles. As co-owner of Mcrees Precision (www.mcreesprecision.net), makers of precision long-range rifles, Scott wanted to test his skills with one of his custom .300 Winchester Magnum Remington model 700 rifles.
As it turned out, Scott was chosen to be the first shooter – a guinea pig in his words – allowing other competitors to modify their game plans. Let’s just say Scott didn’t win this one.
However, he was offered an opportunity to compete in the Rookie Class of the .50-caliber competition and qualified by never having shot the massive 770-grain round in competition; in fact, Scott had never shot a .50 caliber firearm in his life!
As a 55 year-old man, Scott never thought of himself as a rookie. After all, he began shooting at the age of 7 years with a single-shot rifle handed down to him by his father. With Scott’s military career in combat search and rescue with the Navy and later command of the F/A-18 Hornet, Scott seemed over-qualified for any rookie moniker. But, rules are rules.
One problem though: Scott had no .50 caliber weapon. When word got around, one unselfish competitor provided half a gun and another shooter the other half. Scott got busy with a tool kit from his van while others had already begun shooting. Then, Randy Powell, owner of Thunder Ammo donated some custom ammo. Although totally overwhelmed at the chance, Scott didn’t know what to expect and thought to himself it would either be a broken collar bone or a lot of fun.
He didn’t break any bones, although shooting the 50-pound behemoth kept slamming the 160-pound novice right off his shooting mat with each pull of the trigger for the first three matches. By day two, Scott borrowed a shooting mat with canvas stirrups to secure his boots and staked the mat to the ground. Game on!
Even though Scott thought he was doing poorly, he was merely trying not to make mistakes. Then equipment issues surfaced on the first day when his muzzle break came loose and at the end of first day his extractor claw broke – both of which he had to repair. He had been told he was doing great but his insides were utter turmoil.
Scott shot with Team Thunder Ammo 1 and kept pace with his three teammates to take the Team World Championship title. But, here’s a peculiar twist to the tale: This winning team had been a man short and had placed Scott on their team without his knowledge! 
Imagine Scott’s state of mind when winners of the awards were announced at the banquet following the events. He also earned the coveted Rookie of the Year Award, placed second in the Hunter Class for Score and 5th in the Hunter Class for Group. All in all, “rookie,” Scott McRee, came home with four awards.
When asked about his surprising performance, Scott stated that it came down to recoil management and shooting positions – all principles of good marksmanship Scott had learned shooting smaller firearms over the years.
When asked if he would compete again, Scott’s response was, “Oh, yes I am.”
Next week will be a behind-the-scenes perspective on McRees Precision and how the firm goes above and beyond the call of duty to support our troops.
