Out at the Bergara and CVA Creator Experience, we got to shoot a ton of rifles in a wide variety of conditions—from 100 yards all the way out to a mile. In this article, we’re going inside the Bergara Wyoming Long Range Shooting Academy on a private 200,000-acre ranch to see how students are trained and how these rifles perform in the field!
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The Bergara Academy Experience
Talking with Robert out on the property, it’s clear what an amazing facility they’ve built. Three years ago, Bergara partnered with the ranch to run their long-range shooting school on the Wyoming side (complementing Chad Shear’s Montana school, which has been running for eight years). The academy is now in its third season.
When students arrive on day one, instructors actually fit a gun to them. Teaching a proper foundation is critical—as Robert notes, if your foundation is an inch off by the time you build up to the second floor, the whole structure suffers. Because the HMR platform features highly adjustable length of pull and cheek weld, structuring the gun to fit each student is seamless. That assigned rifle becomes their “baby” for the duration of the course.
The training structure is designed for complete competency:
- Day Two (Morning): A five-hour classroom session covering basic ballistics, wind calls, and shooter/spotter combinations.
- Day Two (Afternoon): Heading to the fixed range to apply the classroom skills to fixed targets.
- Day Three (Morning): Heading up onto the mountain to shoot an ascending course.
- Day Three (Afternoon): Descending course shooting, teaching students how to handle the unique positional and setup challenges of both angles.
Looking ahead to 2027, the academy is planning an extended ELR (Extreme Long Range) class utilizing 300 PRC chamberings in chassis platforms, bringing a limited number of students in to engage targets from 1,000 yards and beyond.
The Rifles We Put to the Test
Meeting up with Brad from Bergara, we walked through the massive lineup of Bergara and CVA rifles we put through their paces across paper and steel targets. Some of the standout platforms included:
- Bergara Premier Seeker Pro: Chambered in 6.5 Creedmoor, featuring a skeletonized Premier action, autoclave carbon fiber stock, Cure barrel, and suppressed with a BTI30.
- HMR Pro: Chambered in 300 PRC, used to stretch distances out to a mile and beyond.
- MG Light: A Premier line rifle chambered in 6.5 Creedmoor, built as a lightweight, woods-proven hunting configuration.
- Bergara Premier Competition Elite: Decked out with an MDT ACC Elite chassis, weight kit, dampener system, Send-It level, and chambered in 6 Dasher and 6.5 Creedmoor. Coming in right at the $2,999 production class cap, it includes a 12-round magazine and a TriggerTech Special adjustable trigger.
Putting the Gear to Work on Steel
With rifles like the Competition Elite in 6.5 Creedmoor, we headed out into the high winds (holding anywhere from 6.5 to 7.5 MILs) and immediately stacked three impacts in a row on steel out at a mile.
We also worked through positional drills off barricades at 358 yards and stretched out to 730 yards on simulated targets (like hitting swinger plates on bear targets). Despite positional shooting not being my primary forte, the balanced ergonomics of the Competition Elite and the stability of the MDT chassis allowed me to easily hammer targets three times in a row out past 700 yards.
Whether shooting lightweight hunting rifles off a bipod out to 800 yards or ringing steel with match rifles, the entire week underscored the importance of having the right equipment matched with proper fundamentals.
Conclusion
You couldn’t ask for a better experience than waking up to beautiful mornings across 200,000 acres of gorgeous Wyoming land and shooting world-class rifles. The Bergara Competition Elite blew us away with its balance and precision, and even their lightweight hunting rifles proved exceptionally reliable on steel at extended ranges.
If you ever get the chance to attend a training academy or push your limits out to a mile, take the opportunity!
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Thanks,
John Masek
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