Delta Long Range Weekend (DLRW) Workshops is a annual and unique event organized by a Polish manufacturer of shooting optics at the Military Institute of Armament Technology training ground in Zielonka near Warsaw. The event has been organized for several years at the beginning of May (this year on May 10 and 11) and is addressed to enthusiasts of medium and long-range shooting at every skill level. The events mission is to spread this form of shooting passion among beginners, so not only professionals are welcome. The staff consists of experienced sports shooters and representatives of uniformed services, including one's from SOF, and holders many awards - in a word, practitioners who are happy to share their experience. Those included: Tomasz Małaniak, Tomasz Kirczuk, Tomasz Korpusiński, Przemysław Wójtowicz, Jacek Marcinkiewicz, Błażej Domański, and for the first time this year in this role we met our friends from the Light Infantry, Sniper Extreme and Recon Squad competitions - Paweł Niemczuk and Grzegorz Kaszuba. Karol Muchalski and Piotr Koszałka were responsible for .22LR. Of course, they are not the only ones from the entire team. It should be emphasized that the atmosphere is very friendly, but it is also worth remembering that this is not a course or training, but a workshop, so a lot depends on the commitment and inquisitiveness of the participants themselves.
The event is unique because there are not many facilities and opportunities in Poland, and certainly not those easily accessible for beginner medium and long-range shooters, where targets can be set up freely at ranges from 50m to 1800m. As well as places that would also comfortably accommodate this year's 120 DLRW participants, so that everyone could calmly complete the set out training plan at one of the dozens of shooting positions prepared, without creating a crowd.
As in previous years, the shooting positions were divided into two sections. The long-range section was located on the left, higher embankment, from where shooters fired shots at gongs placed at ranges from several hundred to 1800 meters, and on the right side, the MidRange, rimfire and beginners sections with targets from 50 to 700 meters. While most of the positions were prone one's, the section with gongs placed at medium ranges also had PRS screens for shooting from forced positions (frame, tank trap, etc.). However, most participants started from the section where the weapons were chronographed and zeroed, which initially created a queue. At each distance, there were several gongs of different sizes available, including a 20x20cm square, a 35cm circle, a 40x40cm square and a 50x50cm square ones. A total of 160 gongs were prepared. In the .22LR section, smaller targets were set up at shorter ranges of up to 300 m, dedicated to this caliber.
Unlike previous years, this time the weather turned out to be more demanding. Sometimes sunny, sometimes cloudy with occasional rain, low temperature and wind gusts up to 4 m/s. However, this did not affect the turnout. Sunday was a more relaxed day, thanks to which I had the opportunity to swap the camera for my H&K for a moment, this time successfully shooting at 600m. When, not having much experience, I bought this rifle with a 14.5'' barrel, I did not think it would be possible. And although at this range it was more like "stroking" a gong, it was certainly satisfying. During DLRW I finally got used to the Hornady .223Rem BTHP Frontier 68gr ammunition, and my Nightforce ATACR 1-8x24 F1 positively surprised me with the clarity of the image even at this range (for those interested my review is here). Reading the wind, the situation was made easier by tapes hung at each target. The scopes used for observation of the foreground were mainly from Delta Optical brand. This also gave us the opportunity to see the quality of the new version of the 20-48x70 Delta Titanium spotting scope in the field for the first time. It looks like it will have a solid position on the market.
During DLRW, the organizer, Delta Optical, always presents its latest offer. As in previous years, this year one could familiarize with and test on a weapon both budget and high-end scopes, as well as premium thermal imaging ones from the offer of the Finnish company Pulsar, whose representative in Poland is Delta Optical. Pulsar has been supplying specialized night vision devices and thermal imaging devices to the civilian market and uniformed services for 30 years. At the Delta Optical stand, anyone who was not at the fairs in Nuremberg or Poznań in March, now had the opportunity to see the new RAL8000 color live on two of last year's new products: the Delta Stryker HD 3.5-21x44 DPRC-1 and the Delta Stryker HD 1-10x28 SDOG-1. It is interesting that, as we learned unofficially, initially there was no certainty whether scopes in this color would enter mass production, but the interest in them at the fair exceeded expectations. A completely new product was also presented - the Delta Javelin scope with 3.5-21x50 magnification.
Damian Garwolski's rifle from Delta Optical, with which he stood on the podium of last year's edition of Sniper Extreme 2024, taking 3rd place
The participants were also provided with technical facilities with professional gunsmith assistance and culinary and social facilities. In addition, as every year, accompanying companies were invited.
Take a look at our photo report.
