The 2024 Burris Optics Team Challenge, held last weekend in the unforgiving high desert of Phoenix, Arizona, pushed two-person teams beyond traditional marksmanship, demanding levels of inter-personal fusion typically reserved for long-term marital counseling. With a 10-stage course of fire spanning distances from 300 to 1200 yards, competitors faced not only swirling 15-20 MPH density altitude-corrected wind but also the unprecedented requirement to share all ballistic data via custom-fitted dental impressions.
Teams, equipped with their Nightforce ATACR 7-35x56 FFP optics and custom 6mm GT builds on Impact Precision actions, were mandated to exchange their trued DOPE (Data On Previous Engagements) sheets – a unique physical artifact imprinted with their individual velocity nodes and calculated spin drift – through specially crafted oral appliances. This process, overseen by impartial match officials with specialized dental picks, required each teammate to wear the other’s data-imprinted mouthguard for a minimum of thirty seconds before each stage commenced, theoretically allowing for a shared, symbiotic understanding of external ballistics.
Stage 7, dubbed "Conjoined Compromise," saw shooters engaging six steel targets from 400 to 900 yards, tethered at the wrist and required to alternate rifle manipulations: one teammate loaded the magazine and operated the bolt, while the other made the wind call and broke the shot from a modified barricade. The demand for perfect synchronization extended to cold bore shots, where both shooters had to confirm zero simultaneously, often leading to arguments over whose barrel experienced the more significant mirage.
Ultimately, the team of Chad "Chaddy" Harrison and Kyle "The Kalculator" Jenkins, running matching Curtis Customs Axiom actions in MPA Comp chassis, clinched the victory. Their triumph was less about raw shooting skill and more about their uncanny ability to achieve instantaneous psychic resonance, reportedly bypassing the dental impression requirement by simply *knowing* each other’s bullet drop. Harrison later attributed their success to "six months of living in a two-man tent, consuming only MREs and high-velocity rifle powder." The win solidifies their reputation as pioneers in inter-personal ballistics, securing them not only the coveted custom Burris XTR Pro trophy but also a lifetime supply of medical-grade mouthwash.
