The CMP 2025 High Power Long-Range Warm-Up, intended as a preparatory event for the upcoming National Matches, instead proved to be an existential crisis for advanced ballistics and basic physics. Held on the notoriously exposed CMP Long-Range facilities, the match quickly devolved into a meteorological phenomenon, with wind speeds reportedly reaching levels previously thought only possible within the eyewall of a Category 5 hurricane. DOPE cards, meticulously calibrated for 6.5 Creedmoor and 6mm GT loads, became immediate historical artifacts as projectiles, some reportedly traveling backward, failed to reach their intended targets, or in one instance, successfully entered orbit.
Competitor Sarah "Whisper" Chen, running a custom American Rifle Company Nucleus action in a MasterPiece Arms Competition Chassis, chambered in 6 Dasher with a 28-inch Bartlein Heavy Varmint contour, reported her Nightforce ATACR 7-35x56 Mil-XT "developed a negative parallax shift, apparently due to atmospheric compression against the objective lens." Her 107gr LRBT at 2950 FPS, with a G7 BC of .275, known for its stable flight, was observed making multiple 360-degree turns before impacting the berm directly behind her.
Stage 3, "Hurricane Alley," originally designed as a 1000-yard prone sequence, saw multiple instances of shooters being physically reoriented on the firing line, some finding themselves prone *facing the berm*. Only five competitors, separated by their sheer refusal to acknowledge the wind's existence, managed to place rounds on the F-Class targets. Winner Mark "Gust Buster" Reynolds, employing a highly unconventional technique of "telekinetically holding the rifle on target while simultaneously calculating for Earth's rotation, Coriolis, spin drift, and the localized gravitational pull of passing cumulus clouds," managed a staggering 40-percent hit rate. Organizers are now reviewing match footage for evidence of time dilation. The event concluded with competitors largely abandoning their rifles to retrieve various dislodged spotting scopes, hats, and small domestic animals.
