The Team Pack Dump
What two Scout Snipers actually carry into a match.
Before a Mason Valley NRL Hunter match, Phil and Jon laid out everything in their packs — rifle to rangefinder to the rain jacket that never comes out. Two former Marine Scout Snipers, shooting as a team, running almost the exact same rifle on purpose. Here's the whole loadout, piece by piece — and the part that matters most if you're headed to your first match: how little of it you actually need.
- Format
- NRL Hunter
- The rifles
- 2× 6.5 Creedmoor
- The packs
- Stone Glacier Approach 2800
- The point
- None of it's required
Two shooters, one kit list
Watch enough match videos and the gear starts to look like the price of admission — racks of glass, carbon everything, a bag for every position. It isn't. What you're looking at here is two guys running their kit at the pinnacle of their own competitive advantage, and they'll be the first to tell you that's a choice, not a checklist. The reason they film the pack dump is the opposite of a flex: it's so you can see what each piece does before you decide whether you need it.
The first thing you'll notice is how much Phil's and Jon's rifles overlap. Same chassis, same barrel, same trigger, same can, same glass. That's deliberate. When two shooters run the same platform, nothing changes between hands — the trigger reach, the bag ride, the reticle tree are all a known quantity. Fewer variables means less to relearn under a clock, and a spare part covers both rifles. Standardizing isn't boring. It's how a team moves fast.
The build sheet
Both rifles are 6.5 Creedmoor in a KRG Whiskey-3 Pro, wearing a Proof carbon barrel, a TriggerTech Diamond, an Able Theorem L can, and a Kahles K525i. The differences come down to the action and the mount — everything else is shared on purpose.
| Part | Phil | Jon |
|---|---|---|
| Caliber | 6.5 Creedmoor | 6.5 Creedmoor |
| Action | Short Action Customs | Zermatt Arms TL3 |
| Barrel | Proof carbon 24" 1:8 | Proof carbon 24" 1:8 |
| Chassis | KRG Whiskey-3 Pro | KRG Whiskey-3 Pro |
| Trigger | TriggerTech Diamond 2-stage | TriggerTech Diamond 2-stage |
| Suppressor | Able Theorem L | Able Theorem L |
| Optic | Kahles K525i (SKMR+) | Kahles K525i |
| Level | Flatline Ops Halo X | Flatline Ops Halo X |
| Mount | Badger Ordnance C1 Max | Spuhr |
| Bipod | MDT Skypod (R3D legs) | MDT Skypod (R3D carbon) |
The whole rifle, as Phil runs it, weighs sixteen pounds on the dot — and that number is the reason for half the choices on the sheet. The Proof carbon barrel sheds weight up front so a suppressor and a heavy bipod can stay on and still make a usable carry weight. Jon's running the four-section R3D carbon legs on his Skypod for the first time: a little more flex than the three-section, but light enough to justify keeping the can and the rear-support setup on the gun. Every part on a hunter rifle is paying rent against the weight you carry up the hill.
What rides on you
The build sheet is the easy part. The kit that decides whether a stage goes smoothly is the stuff within arm's reach — on the chest, on the belt, never in the pack.
Both run a Stone Glacier Sentinel bino harness on the chest — binos, a Kestrel, note cards, and a primary magazine where a hand can find them without looking. The belt carries spare mags and a backup rangefinder, so glass and a range number are always one reach away even if the pack is off and ten feet behind you.
The rangefinding stacks up in tiers. A primary up top — Phil runs Vectronix 10×42s. A secondary on the belt, a Gunwerks Terrapin X. And a tertiary handheld that mostly lives in the pack for hunting and rarely comes out. It looks like overkill until a unit fogs, dies, or won't range a far edge — then the tiered setup is just redundancy doing its job. Riding alongside it: a Sun & Shadow armboard with Cadre dope cards, because the data has to be readable on the gun, not buried in a pocket.
The pack breakdown
It all goes in a Stone Glacier Approach 2800. Here's how the inside breaks down — the support gear that builds a position, and the stuff that earns its place by being filler.
Tripod & support
A Really Right Stuff tripod is the backbone — Phil on a Versa 43i, Jon on a 22i for glassing and observation. Front and rear bags from Armageddon Gear — a Shmedium with heavy fill up front, an OG with Git-Lite in the rear — build a stable position off almost any prop the stage throws at you.
Ammo & glass
Ammo lives in a Coltac pouch that holds 120 rounds — the day's count, in one place. A spotting scope rides for ranging and for catching phone-scope footage, paired with a rangefinder up top for finding hidden targets across open country.
The filler
Rain layer, extra batteries, snacks, a notebook, a shooting mat. Half of it never comes out — and that's fine. As Jon puts it, the mat is in there partly so the tripods don't slide around. In an 85° summer pack-out, the rain gear is insurance you carry and hope to waste.
What you actually need
The bare minimum is a rifle, a rangefinder, and a positive mental attitude.
Here's the part the gear shots leave out. None of this is a requirement to shoot an NRL Hunter match — it's a choice. Phil says it plainly: a lot of the skilled shooters out there are running the bare minimum, and the community carries the rest. Experienced shooters help newer ones find targets, hand over wind calls, and talk them through stages. You don't buy your way onto the line. You show up.
So treat this loadout as a map, not a shopping list. Start with a rifle you trust, a way to range, and the willingness to learn in front of people who've done it. Add gear as a specific problem shows up — a position you couldn't build, a target you couldn't find — and let the kit grow into the shooting instead of ahead of it. The shooters in these photos didn't start with sixteen-pound rifles. They started with reps.
Pack light. Show up. Keep your face on the gun.
A full pack dump looks like a lot because it is — years of figuring out what survives a match day and what just adds weight. The honest version is shorter than it looks. Bring what lets you range, build a position, and read your data, and leave the rest to grow in over time. Then do the only thing that actually makes a better shooter: get on the gun, miss, learn, and run it again.
Bring the rifle you've got
You don't need the full kit to start — you need reps with someone who can call it next to you. Come work the field shot on the range, and let the gear grow into the shooting.