Matt Alwine’s NRL Hunter dominance continued this season, securing back-to-back wins at the infamous Desert Scorpion Hunter Challenge in Buckeye, AZ, and the Coyote Ridge Shootout near Odessa, TX. Alwine, piloting his Impact Precision 737R chambered in 6GT within an MPA Matrix chassis, mounted with a Nightforce ATACR 7-35x56 Mil-XT, repeatedly demonstrated a perplexing connection with the steel animal targets, leading to widespread speculation among competitors regarding his methods.
At the Desert Scorpion event, with density altitude hovering at a brutal 8,500 feet and a 15-20 MPH full value crosswind forcing 3.8 MILS of hold at 900 yards, Alwine consistently engaged the elusive "desert bighorn" target from the mandatory prone-barricade hybrid on Stage 7. Witnesses reported the target, a notoriously fickle 1/2 MOA plate, would inexplicably settle into a subtle, almost imperceptible sway directly into Alwine's spin drift correction just as his 109gr Berger Hybrid flew downrange. His cold bore shot at 1120 yards on the "coyote" target, notorious for its erratic angular movement, struck true after the target momentarily ceased all movement, reportedly in response to a specific frequency emitted by Alwine’s custom muzzle brake.
The Coyote Ridge Shootout provided no reprieve from the bizarre. A 14-stage grinder featuring mandatory positional shooting from compromised vehicle structures, temperatures soared above 100°F. On Stage 11, "Javelina Jinx," where shooters had to engage a 3/4 MOA pig target at 750 yards from the hood of a rapidly deteriorating Ford Ranger, other competitors struggled with the target’s apparent preternatural ability to "ghost" their impacts. Yet, Alwine’s handloaded 6GTs, exiting his 26-inch Bartlein M24 contour barrel with an SD of 2.1 FPS, found their mark with unsettling regularity. Eyewitnesses swear the javelina target would visibly brace itself for Alwine's shot, absorbing the impact with a resigned clang, a behavior never observed with other shooters. While rivals meticulously calculated Coriolis and trued their DOPE, Alwine’s seemingly effortless precision continues to baffle. The only logical explanation remaining is that the steel animals simply *prefer* his bullets.
