2-Man 2-Gun Team Match 2023 @ Clinton House

TRAINING LEAD-UP

Sunday, Oct 8:

Went to Coleman's Creek with SB.

I zeroed and chronoed both guns (2941 for RPR1 and 2910 for RPR2).  I practiced guessing the DA using my belly-meter.  The actual DA was 848, with 29.62Hg and 65*F.

We went to the long range (range 7) to collect dope from 600-1268.

We did some rooftop practice, and shot from a barricade with angles at 300, 400, and 500yd targets.

We finished at the UKD range with props (Range 8), where we worked the PRS barricade and some tires.

We then worked other skills by talking each other on, finding, ranging, and shooting at various targets from a tank trap, the tires, and the pogo stick.

I decided to go with picatinny 8 on my RPRs, since that worked better for me overall than picatinny 9, despite some shortcomings.

Monday, Oct 9:

Glute and pec PT v2 in 24:52, then 18A "Upper Push / Chin-up" in 40:22, then "Hanging Abs" in 15:37.  Afterwards, I did 4.5 miles in 1:16:29 with a 40#WV in the Altra Torin Plush as a recovery ruck as I played Pokemon Go.

Wednesday, Oct 11:

Center - Day 4 - Root & Center - Day 20 - Restore Yoga with Adriene

Thursday, Oct 12:

Glute and pec PT v2 in 21:57, then 18A "Kettlebell" in 39:27, then "Hollow" in 16 min

Friday, Oct 13:

I had originally planned on scheduling a 12 miler for the ruck club, but when I realized that the date of the event would be the 13th, and a Friday the 13th in October for that matter, I couldn't pass up turning it into a 13 miler, which we completed in 4:11:48 including a break in the middle.

We went along the greenway, which mostly faces the backs of houses, but there was one place that decorated their little portion of the greenway border, which was nice.

Sunday, Oct 15:

Flew to Iowa the previous day...

2x Tiny Apartment WOD from 1/28/23 in 36:37.  Once didn't feel like much, and even twice felt more like a warmup because it was pretty low-key.

Then, I did a 2 mile treadmill run with a 2 degree incline just to learn how to run again, finishing in 16:20, although it felt harder than it should've.

Monday, Oct 16:

Did 5K on a 2 deegree incline treadmill in 25:45, with my belly still digesting creme brulee and imperial stout.  I felt it in the last mile.  The 71* gym rightuflly felt a bit warm.  It was a difficult run again, although I'm not too far off the 5 mile pace of 8 min/mi.  I used Ballistic Trainers again.

Afterwards, I did 20:44 of dumbbell arm strengtheners, and did a 5 min high plank as a finisher.

Wednesday, Oct 18:

18A "Upper Body Prep" in 35:06, where the stretching felt good, followed by "Push-up" in 46:16.

Install successful, flew home the next day.

Thursday, Oct 19:

I joined Cabarrus Ruck Club in celebrating AJ completing 75 hard, with a 2.5 mile ruck in 50:37 with 30# in the rucker v3.

They do a good job with holiday decorations there!

Friday, Oct 20:

HDT 31.5.1 (CORE) because I craved sandbag work today, finishing in 51:03.  After that, I did glute and pec PT v2.

In the evening, I spectated (for an impressive third time) the HDT Rufus Throwdown.  Even though I had an event the next morning, the throwdown was being held near my house, so I stopped by to watch a couple of evolutions.  The CLT area has some hard hitters!  Although the leaders of the CLT ruck club were not among them this time, as we all happened to be there just to spectate that night.  It's always good seeing friends old and new, and to watch people give it everything they've got, though.

2-MAN 2-GUN TEAM MATCH

I was excited about the return of this event.  I had done it the previous year with B.Y.  It's nice to be able to just focus on shooting skills sometimes, without added distractions from physical work, especially when shooting skills are the area that needs more work.  I signed up with S.B. this time.

The wagon trick came in handy!  It's not that it's hard to carry everything.  It is nice to have a place to dump stuff, though.

Stage 2: Operation Oompa Loompa

- Make 2 hits on each of the 5 cardboard on your side with rifle

- Meet your partner in the middle, then run up to the pistol shooting area, where you need to shoot all the steel and the two spinners.

Results: 43/59

- We missed the last spinner, and unbeknownst to us, not spinning it costs 30s of penalty time.  If we had known that, we may have chosen a strategy other than leaving spinners until the end.  

- I did struggle on the spinners, first with getting it moving, and then not accidentally stopping it once it was moving a bit.  Even with 147gr ammo, I struggled.

- My red dot on my pistol wasn't bright enough, so I maxed it out afterwards.

- I wore my rifle sling, but it would've been smarter to not wear it, since we had to dump it in a bucket after shooting rifle anyways.

- I was good about only using the minimum needed magnification on my LPVO all day.

Stage 3: I Thought We Were Friends

- This was a new take on a stage from last year, where misses meant that your partner had to do mini laps with some object... in this case, it was a tire that we were allowed to roll, which is a little easier than dumbbells, I think.  It was all pistol, with knock-downs and two different types of plate racks (vertical and horizontal).  SB went first, and I went second.

Results: 45/59

- Rolling doesn't mess up grip strength like dumbbells do

- I shot well, and only nmissed twice.

- Holding in compressed ready while waiting for tire penalties was smart... no point in holding your arms straight out the whole time.

- We used the "Delorian" code word when needed, to get back on track

- I saw many other teams jerking the trigger on "go" when tires were finished rolling

Stage 4: Is this USPSA

- Shooter 1 shoots 10 rifle cardboard targets with 2 shots ea

- Tag in shooter 2, who does the same

- Tag in shooter 1, who shoots 10 pistol targets with 2 shots each

- Tag in shooter 2, who does the same

Results: 44/59

- We finished on time, but did have misses

- This was my first time doing something so USPSA-ey.  There was strategy involved in where you wanted to approach each target, and how you'd keep track of which ones you've hit vs which ones you haven't hit.  I saw some people mess that up, since some targets could be accessed from multiple locaitons.

- SB had the good idea of doing a pre-emptive mag change when moving from one position to another, instead of waiting until you were empty and just standing there to have to change mags.

- It was also a good idea from SB to start from the middle since we'd be standing there at the beginning.  

- I went to my LMT with the red dot for faster target acquisition here, and put the dot on max brightness, since speed, not accuracy, was the name of the game with these big targets.

Stage 5: Connex Conundrum 

- Shooter 1 and 2 take turns making hits on 8 falling steel with pistol.

- Shooter 1 shoots 5 rifle targets from 65-75yd, L->R and back (no need to double-tap)

- Shooter 2 repeats but from the opposite direction

Results: 33/59

- I had to try about 2x/target to hit on rifle.  I didn't have enough patience and took shots too quickly

- I did ID target reference points ahead of time and used a good magnification level to maintain quick target acquisition.

- I used the balcony for my pistol shots per SB's personal plan, which worked out well

- We timed our pistol shots well, paying attention by sight and sound

Stage 1: I Hate Head Shots

- Shooter 1 hits pink and white steel targets (9)

- Shooter 2 tags in and shoots orange steel targets (9)

- Shooter 1 tags in and shoots 10 cardboard IPSC, with 2 shots per body

- Shooter 2 tags in and shoots 10 cardboard IPSC, with 2 shots per head!

Results: 43/59

- SB asked if she was allowed to use the table to brace, and that worked well for her.  She made almost all of those difficult head shots!

- I did pretty well with pistol, with only 2 misses

- I took third rifle shots a few times to be certain that I got them 2x each, in situations where I feel like I went a little faster than I should've.

Overall

- Our last stage was the only stage where we got to really use strategy to decide who does what and leverage strengths.  On the other stages, everyone did the same thing.  It's more fun when you get to strategize.

- We had fun and gained experience.

- Spinners are hard... too bad it's not easy to find equipment to practice on.

- Experience pays off, since we were able to employ different tricks that we've learned from other competitions and practice sessions

- It was nice to have a low-key, low time commitment match.... I remember last year, I was ready to be done by the last stage.  There were only 5 stages this time, which felt right.