TacSol Dark SPARC 2024

Early on it was decided that the match would be red light only, what dose that mean? Competitors were required to have a headlamp with a red light option, this allows enough light to move around safely, read stage instructions and function their firearms when competing in each stage. White light for competitors was banned, this was to preserve everybody’s “night vision” and prevent competitors blinding each other during the course of the night.

The large majority of the targets on each of the stages were illuminated by battery powered light that were setup in front of the targets, shining up onto the targets that had been painted white to reflect the light and make it easily visible for competitors. In our normal day match we often use target ID numbers to avoid confusion in regards to what target gets spot from each stage, unfortunately at night these target IDs look very similar to the targets themselves so the decision was made to cooler code each stage using large glow sticks.

Six out of the eight stages were NRL22 style with props to shoot off and a series of targets to be engaged in a certain way and then the remaining two stages had a bit of different style to mix things up a little bit. Stage One was a short exposure stage, four targets at unknown distances that the RO would illuminate for five seconds for Rifleman Class or ten seconds for Hunter Class for the competitor to achieve one hit on said target, the four targets would be engaged four seperate times each in a random order.

Stage Eight was a blind stage, this is nothing new to the SPARC Series except for the fact it was in the dead of night. The area for competitors to search was marked out with glow sticks and competitors were provided with a red torch that could be attached to their rifle if they did not have their own.

Ten targets were out there for competitors to find and with a black paint job it was not easy to locate the whole set, but several competitors did locate all ten and no one found none!

A huge thanks to Mag Dump Mark, the volunteer team and the competitors for making the first Dark SPARC such a well supported event! It will be back for the 2025 SPARC Season and could possible even have a second night match added into the calendar….but more on that next year.

Thanks to TacSol and GunsNZ for coming onboard as the naming sponsor for the match and being so generous when it comes to prizes.

The match itself was run after Round Four, Leofoto Barren Earth so after a big feed cooked by the awesome volunteer team we kicked off what turned out to be a very cold night of competition under (weirdly) clear July skies. Not many competitors knew what to expect with this style of match as its new to our part of the world but everyone soon got into a grove and the “impact” calls started ringing  out across the range. A few competitors had their scope illumination batteries go flat so we had a supply on hand to get competitors going again.