CANCON Best of CANCON: Barrett 1-Mile Challenge Dave Merrill May 13, 2026 Join the Conversation At RECOIL, we review every product fairly and without bias. Making a purchase through one of our links may earn us a small commission, and helps support independent gun reviews. Read our affiliate policy. Find out more about how we test products. We just finished our first CANCON of 2026, and I know we always say it, but we say it because it’s true: damn these shows are great! And here is where I’m supposed to talk about silencers and helicopters, and certainly those articles are forthcoming. But as I think about the weekend, many standouts weren’t about gear, but about people and experiences. Here is one such moment: It’s Friday mid-morning, the first full day of CANCON, and I found myself at the Barrett 1-Mile Challenge. It’s in a separate area from the rest of the show because it has special requirements (namely, a range that goes a mile), and also, even though the .50 caliber rifle has a suppressor, it’s still louder than hell; we are talking about a .50 BMG, after all. Up on the elevated shooting platform and perched behind a rifle is a young woman from Germany with purple hair. She hasn’t shot very much before, maybe not even before that day. If she rings the steel at a mile, she’ll win bragging rights and a custom challenge coin, but she only has four attempts. BANG!! It takes about four seconds for that .50 caliber slug to cover the distance from the muzzle to the target. If what you’re shooting will react to being shot, it will take at least that long to know if you've made impact. Miss. If we were relying on noise alone, like a plain steel target setup, it would take an additional five seconds for the sound of a confirmation clank to reach your ears. BANG!! In this case, there are many different ways shots are called and hits are confirmed at the Barrett One-Mile Challenge. There are spotting scopes with eyeballs behind them, a wireless target camera system, lights that react when the target is hit, and also the ping of the steel (seldom heard through the jubilations each time a hit is made). Another miss. Because of the specific nature of the One-Mile Challenge, it’s the only shooting at CANCON that costs extra, and in fact you have to buy tickets in advance so it can be scheduled. Think of it like an add-on package. It’s $20 for two attempts but you can buy more than one ticket. Since she bought two tickets, there are two more attempts. If not, this would have been the end. BANG!! The whole time this is happening, she’s being coached about how to pull the trigger and other adjustments. The guns are zeroed but you still have some work to do. The staff at Barrett are experts at making rapid assessments of shooter skill after a first dryfire practice before everything goes live. But the reason there’s a challenge coin is because not everyone hits. Another. Miss. Now there’s real pressure. One of those quirks of evolution meeting the modern world; your biological reaction to the stress is the exact opposite of what you need to succeed in that situation. The corrections and suggestions are made in a voice that could soothe a screaming baby. When you’re shooting something five feet away, how much you move your muzzle matters much less than when you’re shooting more than 5,000 feet away. Any angular deviation increases with distance, and a heavy, fast heartbeat will not help. Hence, the Voice. BANG!! For four full seconds, no one on the platform took a breath. One. Two. Three. Four. !!! IMPACT !!! Celebration, glee, a fist bump, a coin gripped firmly in hand, and a moment she won’t soon forget. 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