LAST YEAR'S RECAPS
Last year, Shannon and I became the first all-female team to ever finish the Mammoth Sniper Challenge. We met our goal of finishing and we learned a lot from the experience of doing it, even though 9 months prior, we didn't think we could be ready to do it by then. Sometimes, the best way to learn is to learn "on the job" and dive right in, and that's the case with competitions, I've found. They give you exposure to all kinds of skills that you need. You gan a ton of experience. In situations where you haven't learned what to do yet, you adapt and do your best.
After completing the event, we wrote our AARs, and we got some neat opportunities to share our experiences with the world through some articles on American Grit:
There were also some recap videos on Youtube from Grunt Style:
We even got to visit Grunt Style HQ in San Antonio and record a podcast with Tim Jensen, which was an incredible experience... one of the best weekends of my life.
2024 PREP
In 2024, we would go back. With a second year of precision rifle shooting under our belt, we wanted to 1) prove that 2023 wasn't a fluke, and 2) do a little bit better. After placing 49th in 2023, I thought that we might be able to get something like 42nd in 2024. That seemed like a realistic goal.
For the rest of 2023, I broke in a second rifle, since my original one was having Hornady bullets fall apart 30yd out. I did it properly this time, cleaning it often. I tried some PRS matches, to get better at building good positions efficiently. We also shot some other matches like Tactical Sniper Series and Sniper's Unknown. Each event series tests and develops different useful skills. I also like to continue to do pistol and rifle stuff, particularly the competitions that have some physical component. That's just fun, and I like the intensity and adrenaline. Even though time spent on 2-gun stuff means time not spent on precision rifle, I'm more about doing what I enjoy and getting to experience and learn different things.
My glute was still injured from Dec 2022 when I had been training for 2023 Mammoth, so I didn't go all-out with training, but I did some... enough to feel OK. At the very least, I was stronger than ever on stuff like pushups and pull-ups from 18A Fitness training.
Packing this year was easier, since we knew that what we did last year worked really well. When I got back to CLT from spending the holidays in Denver, packing was my focus.
Rain was in the forecast for this year, so I did have to add in rain and cold-weather gear.
ZERO DAY
We knew the drill this year. Gate, the speed limit drive way out to the zero range, squad lookups, and check-in. A number of GORUCK Shooter friends signed up this year, and we had been in communication throughout the year preparing for the event and sharing tips. It would be fun to experience this together. It's always exciting to see who you get squadded with, because even though everyone's competing against each other, you also spend a good bit of time together waiting at stages and you get to bond.
Just like last year and just like every year, Chris and his staff are incredibly organized. Check-in was a breeze. Zeroing was also smooth. The Ft. Eisenhower RSOs run things efficiently and keep us safe. Some of them even recognized us from last year, which was awesome. I used about 20 rounds and ended up going 0.1 down. My 11 shots with chrono gave me an average of 2940, an SD of 23, and an ES of 84... close enough for my 2954 dope cards.
We took another picture at the water tower, since that's apparently our annual tradition now. The words "Fort Gordon" used to be painted on it. Now, the words are gone, but we photoshopped the new name in.
Back at the hotel, I re-waxed my pint-sized GC, in case it provided some extra waterproofing. It smells nice, too, thanks to the snickerdoodle-scented wax that Jayden recommended.
We shuffled small bits of gear around, and I'd start off at 49# in all (pack, clothes, shoes, etc). There were some small "just in case" items that I didn't bring this year (bore snake, extra batteries), which helped to offset the small bit of weight that the rain and cold weather gear added (more hand warmers, rain pants, rain jacket).
We had dinner at Chili's with the group, which was an awesome mixture of newbies and pros. The newbies got some valuable tips while the pros got to relax a little bit and re-live some of the excitement that first-timers get at this event, I think.
We were in bed by 9pm for the 4:15am wakeup.
DAY 1
Ruck 1: 4.9 miles @ 15:24
It was 29 degrees when we got the brief. This year, SB and I were prepared for a quick step-off once we got our routes. That meant putting away puffy jackets and getting guns stashed and rucks ready to go ahead of time. More time in the cold, but when you know to expect it, it's not so bad.
We saw some other female competitors, but we'd be the only all-female team competing this year.
We saw Shane, our squad leader from last year, out with his dog again. It was good to see him again, because he was so friendly and supportive. Mammoth is like a reunion under very odd circumstances.
(Photo credit: Mammoth Sniper Challenge)
(Photo credit: Mammoth Sniper Challenge)
We had to cover 4.9 miles out to Range 17. We covered it in 15:24 pace, since we knew what to expect in terms of elevation changes. It was a longer movement, so we had more mileage over which to bank time or recover from any unexpected situations. We did come in last in our relatively speedy squad, though, which meant we got last pick for the shooting order, which meant that we were first to go. Since we'd be staying at those bays all day with no rucks in between stages, we'd be shooting first 4x today, because of the one ruck finish. There's not much you can do about it, and I still stick by our smart pacing strategy. No point in burning out on day 1. It was what it was.
The MDT GRND-POD bipods are lightweight, stable, and easy to deploy, but they have started slipping off of the ARCA rail on my gun, notably during shooting stages. I had kept them on during the first ruck but would periodically touch it to check that it was still there. After doing that for 5 miles, I decided that I was going to remove it for future rucks, to not have to worry about it or risk dropping it and having to go the rest of the match without it.
Stage 5 (Our Stage 1)
We'd be kicking things off for our squad with the first shoot of the match! As the first team to go, we had to be really squared away with gear prep. Fortunately, we had a good sense of what we needed from last year... gun belt, pistol with dot on, pistol and rifle mags, binos (SB only), dope cards, pen and notecards, ear pro, eye pro, rifle, rear bag. Periodic Kestrel checks - 35 degrees F, 58% RH, and -1419 DA in this case. I don't even have a -2000 dope card!
(Photo credit: Squad Leader Dave Cascante)
Brief:
- Primary & Secondary: 12P / 12 R
- 6 min PAR
- Go to pit 3 with all gear.
- From behind the left and right dump buckets, left person shoots L->R on 4 pistol targets with 3 shots each hit or miss.
- Right shooter repeats.
- Move between 2 pylons in the pit and shoot 4 targets per person with 3 shots on each, hit or miss, where hits are worth 3/1/1. You can go in any order, but only one shooter can shoot something at a time, and once you finish with a target, you can't return to it.
- Primary has a 12" circle, 3x15" rectangle, duck, and oval.
- Secondary has a 3x15" plus-sign, 10" square, boar, and spade.
Outcome: 17 pts
We got 17 points total, with 10/12 P for Jen, 2/12 P for SB, who had glare on the red dot at angles on multiple pistol targets.
When it came time to shoot rifle, unlike last year, we found out that we weren't allowed to use the stepping stools for short people that we got to use last year. I saw a circle ranged at 870yd, which I tried to engage on tiptoes. A bad wind call meant missing about 4 target widths to the right, for the miss that I saw.
SB got 3 + 1 + 1 on rifle. I'm glad she was able to see and range the targets, and get us some rifle points!
I saw a duck at a similar range as the circle but felt there was little use in me trying to shoot at it with tiptoe wobble.
After the stage, we talked to the MD about the stepstool situation. It was too late to change anything for the stage that we had already completed and signed the score sheet on, but going forward, the use of the stepstool would be allowed.
Stage 6 (Our Stage 2)
Brief:
- Primary & Secondary: 0 P / infinite R
- 6 min PAR
- From between 2 pylons, shoot at 4 movers. You need 3 hits on an upright mover to make him go down for 5 points. After a while, they could revive and were in play again, though. They'd wiggle and slow down a bit to show when they did get hit.
Outcome: 20 pts
This was another stage where we shot standing from a pit, and there were stools for us each to use this time. We pulled them over (on the clock) and set up. I used the tallest bipod setting to go modified prone because the ground in front of the pit wall was much lower than the wall.
I hadn't removed my windage cap ahead of time to make dialing easy, so I did that on the clock while dialing my elevation, rather than trying to hold the wind.
I shot through my 2 full 10 round mags mostly going after a single 690yd target, and I reloaded with 4 rounds twice, as time allowed. I didn't want to take the time to load a full mag with loose ammo, because I didn't want to spend all my time loading and then time out without getting the shots off, so I broke it up. We knew that time was close because we had been going at it for a while.
I'd occasionally try to go to SB's closer target at 430, but I never figured out its mover hold, and when my original target revived, I'd go back to it. I kept going back to SB's target because I wasn't sure if mine would keep reviving forever, or if it would only revive a certain number of times, but it did end up reviving each time.
We ended up with 20 points, or 4 kills. We were 2/3 of the way to a 5th but didn't make it in time.
It was great to get so many points, though, especially after a stage 1 that didn't go so smoothly.
Bonus targets were in play this year, but I had doubts that there were any in these bays, since once you found it/them, you could theoretically try to get to them again at every other stage you shot later that day, which would put you at some crazy angles that nobody would really want.
Stage 7 (Our stage 3)
A fun thing about being at this range area is that we're in the proximity of half of the squads at the event. We got to say hello to a number of friends as we walked back and forth to the porta potties.
It was now 12:23pm, and 53 degrees F with 41% humidity, 29.76 Hg, and -164 DA.
Brief:
- Primary & Secondary: 10 P / 15 R
- 6 min PAR
- Primary shoots pistol at a 45yd 75% torso with 5 rounds hit or miss. Secondary repeats.
- Primary shoots pistol at a 95yd 75% torso with 5 rounds hit or miss. Secondary repeats.
- Go to orange cones and shoot
- Primary: 1104yd 16" circle w/ 5 rounds hit or miss, with 1 point per hit
- Secondary: 798 16" diamond w/ 5 rounds hit or miss, with 1 point per hit
- Primary: 1104yd 10" circle w/ 5 rounds hit or miss, with 2 points per hit
- Secondary: 798 10" diamond w/ 5 rounds hit or miss, with 2 points per hit
- Primary: 1104yd 10" circle w/ 5 rounds hit or miss, with 2 points per hit
- Secondary: 798 10" diamond w/ 5 rounds hit or miss, with 2 points per hit
Outcome: 12 pts
Both of us hit the close pistol 4/5x and the far pistol 1/5x. I forgot to hold at the bottom of my reticle for the 100yd... dope! I'm surprised that I hit even 1x, in that case.
I kept my wind cap off and started with 6mph dialed. I had also pre-dialed elevation and parallax, since we got the ranges ahead of time. People say that when you are given ranges at a Mammoth stage during the brief, you're about to encounter some wrinkle.
I used tall tall bipods on mostly flat ground.
The rifle targets were blurry for both of us due to heavy mirage. Afterwards, the RO said I was dancing all around the target. The far target is sub-MOA.
I made it through 12/15 rifle shots before I ran out of time. I did make 2 hits somehow, shooting in the direction of the blurry objects. I have no idea how the spotters spotted the hits.
Some other competitors said that the ranges may have actually been 1040 and 750, but who knows.
I realized during the day that I hadn't brought ibuprofen. I'd get through, though. No crutch for me! Fortunately, I'd only feel my right glute only minorly about once or twice, mainly going up hills forcefully.
Stage 8 (Our stage 4)
We started this stage way late, because the squad before us had some arbitration that took some time to resolve. They had been discussing whether you could go targets 1/2/3/1/2/3/1/2/3, vs doing 1/1/1/2/2/2/3/3/3 like most people would've done. We were eager to get done and start the ruck home, so that we could set up camp earlier rather than later, maximizing daylight and time to rest.
When I took out the Kestrel again, it was 29.68 HG, 45% RH, 53 degrees F, and -25 DA at 2:50pm.
Brief:
- Primary & Secondary: 12 P / 16 or Infinite R
- 6 min PAR
- 1st shooter shoots at 3 steel with 3 shots each hit or miss, plus there's a pistol mover who needs 3 hits to drop (worth one point). Second shooter repeats.
- From any rifle position behind the tire
- Shoot at a 75% torso until you get a hit, worth 5 points
- Shoot at a 75% torso with plate carrier cutout until you get a hit, worth 5 points
- Shoot at 3 movers who need 3 hits to down. They may or may not reset. You get 5 points per drop.
Outcome: 26 pts
I had one miss on the mover and needed an extra shot to down him, but not bad. SB searched for rifle targets while I shot pistol.
I went barricade style on the low tire on the ground. Since I took the good spot, SB shot from her pack.
The brief made it sound like we had to shoot the torso, followed by the torso with PC, followed by the movers, on rifle. The torso with PC was easy to see, but it took us some time to find the normal torso. I'm not typically the first to find targets, so when I did see it in between two yellow targets that my eyes had glazed over since they were just random targets that had been distracting us all day, I was excited. I shot that in one hit, and then I used 2 on the torso with PC.
The mover was tough to range. It was a little bit behind the cliff that we were on, but I eventually gave a correct range of 325yd. I wasn't getting hits, but I resisted mag dumping on the mover, since I didn't want to keep missing and use up all my ammo. We found out afterwards that we were 2/3 of the way to another score, though. Hindsight is 20/20... who knows if I would've hit it, though. Fortunately, SB is good at movers.
We found out afterwards that you only got the second rifle mover to appear once you downed the first one, and the third one appeared only after you downed the second one. That was one tricky mover for us!
I made many trips to the bathroom and stayed hydrated.
Ruck 2: 4.9 miles @ 15:40
We had had a pretty good day of shooting, and we were excited to get this one ruck done with and bank the points for the day. We had shot a day's worth of ammo by now, which helped a little bit with weight. You look for the wins where you can.
Because we started shooting our last stage so late, the sun would be setting during our ruck, unfortunately. That's a pretty late day! We never got home after dark last year. We stepped off with one other squad. They combined us, since they had to have ambulances with each rucking group. Two squads that hadn't been delayed had stepped off a while ago. We wished we were them.
There were a couple of teams that were in the back of the pack with us. We weren't worried, though. We had our pace plan and were feeling as fine as you could be at the end of the first day. A team or two disappeared behind us, and the ambulance was now trailing us. They don't signal the cutoff time pace or anything... they just trail the last team. It was actually nice having their headlights light up the road for us.
We passed a team a little while later, so we were no longer at the back, and we lost the ambulance. One of the team members had been hand-carrying their rifle and wearing BDUs... that looks difficult.
We did encounter a challenge when SB was eating a chew and it grabbed the crown off of her tooth! She wasn't able to stick it back on, so she stuck it in her pocket and carried on like a champ. Fortunately, it wouldn't present any major issues the rest of the event. She got to tell her dentist an interesting story when she visited him a few days after the event!
We finished a little after they called out a 2 minute warning. We weren't worried. Unfortunately, the team behind us wasn't able to make a sprint for it at the end, and the time ran out with about 25yd left.
Photo Credit: Mammoth Sniper Challenge
Camp Night 1
It's a mixed bag coming into camp after dark on day 1. Other teams have set everything up and are well into dinner, but we still have work to do. It's more challenging finding a good campsite in the dark. We first tried our spot from last year, but the ground was really sandy and wouldn't hold our tent stakes. We looked on the other side of the dirt road. We went back to our original spot and found that a little further uphill, the ground was better, so we set up there.
I put away our ammo, took care of restroom needs, brought water back. We knew it would start to rain overnight, so we mentally prepared ourselves for that.
SB took charge on tent setup, got water boiling, and got our Peak meals going. I was much hungrier this year than I was last year. Not a bad thing to eat my food, I guess, since I ended up with extra last year (which I cut from the packing list this year).
I charged my watch, checked my phone for weather and Mammoth updates (no news).
We went to bed at around 9pm, with 4:15am set for our alarm clocks. I woke up to the sound of raining hitting the tent some time in the middle of the night. No shenanigans were had at night... the rain would be plenty to deal with.
DAY 2
Camp Morning 1
The rain wasn't as heavy as the tent roof made it sound, I realized as I went to the restroom. We made water and shared a Peak meal. We put away our stuff, got our ammo, and put away the tent.
We rucked out to the briefing area and were able to stay under a canopy until the briefing started. All the participants had to get out of the canopy for that. We were down to 74 teams, from the 87 that had started the day before.
Ruck 1: 3.2mi @ 15:34 pace
I chose to keep on my rain gear because it was cold enough to do so, and I didn't want to get soaked with rain. I felt like I'd get more wet in the rain than I would with any sweat, and I don't regret the decision.
We didn't come in last this time, and we got to shoot 3rd.
Based on the weather forecast, we had brought Coletac rain covers for our rifles, so they were covered during our rucks. When we got to the shooting bay, it had stopped raining, so we put away the covers and opened up the lens caps to let them air out and equilibrate to reduce the risk of condensation.
Stage 1 (Our stage 5)
It felt so weird to not be going first this time!
At 7:30am, it was 29.27HG, 44*F, 99% humidity, and -110 DA.
Brief:
- Primary & Secondary: 12 R
- 5 min PAR
- Get into the back of a covered truck with all gear plus 2 Eberlestock packs and a shipping case
- Shoot 3 rounds per target, hit or miss, at
- 10" circle @ 488
- 75% torso @ 679
- 16" circle @ 888
- 16" diamond @ 962
- UKD torso with PC
- UKD 10" square
- UKD large oval
- UKD 18x22" rectangle
where any shooter could take any target, but you had to alternate shooters and call out targets, and scoring was 3/1/1 points for first/second/third round hits
Outcome: 6pts
Our plan was for SB to grab all the stuff as I got into the truck, set up, and helped to lift the items into the truck. That worked out well.
I went barricade style on the bench in the truck, for speed, and it worked well for me, at least from the perspective of making the hits.
The tricky part about stages where you're given ranges is that there might still be multiple instances of a given shape, so you have to either use your best judgement on whether it's at the known range, or range it to be safe.
SB saw the UKD square but misranged it and missed. Many teams had issues ranging it, too.
I saw a diamond and shot at it without ranging, and hit all 3 times.
There was no wind, fortunately. Just fog and stillness.
SB saw a circle and shot it 2x but timed out before her third shot, but she did get a first round hit.
The Long Wait
4 teams got to shoot before we went into what would become a 3 hour fog delay. You can't shoot if you can't see the back berm (for safety) or if you can't see the targets (for scoring), and we had issues with both. We were so glad that we had already gone, because we were done with the stage and could do priorities of work. The other teams still had to stay mentally sharp.
I used a heat sheet, but it didn't make a huge difference, it seemed. I was completely in it like a tent. We ended up having so much time that we could have set up the tent if we wanted to, but we didn't know how long it would last. We did take out the tent to let some of the water come off, although it's kind of hard to do that in the fog. We could have also brought out the jet boil like some teams did, but didn't.
While we were waiting, and as I tried charging my watch, I realized that I had grabbed non-Rite-in-the-Rain notecards by accident. I took pictures of them just in case they got destroyed, and tried to let them dry a little bit and not stick to each other and turn into a giant mess of fiber.
My clothes were definitely damp, which added to the cold. If I had dry clothes, they would've helped, but I packed light. The portapotties were amazingly warm, though, so I was briefly comfortable each time I had to use the restroom.
A nice plus of the downtime was a chance to chat with our squad leader and other teams a little bit more than usual, without a stage and other activities immediately looming over us.
6 points ended up not being that bad, since it was a challenging stage for everyone.
There was supposedly a sniper head out there, too, but we never saw it, and it was supposedly hard to hit.
We were very curious about what would happen during the rest of the day. A 3 hour delay is pretty significant, and the MD has everything in the event planned out like clockwork. We knew he'd have a plan... we were just very curious of what kind of plan he'd be implementing.
Ruck 2: 0.43mi @ 12:39
On to the next stage, for now! It was a quick jaunt, which meant we had to go pretty fast. We had passed by this stage earlier and had anticipated it being a short one.
Stage 2 (Our stage 6)
Brief
- Primary & Secondary : 10 or Infinite P / 10 R
- 5 min PAR
- Right shooter hits 5 prairie dogs in any order, 2 hits each. Left shooter repeats.
- Get in a boat that's on a boat carrier, with 1 shooter per side of the boat. All gear must be in the boat to shoot.
- Shoot at 6 rifle targets, 3 shots each, any target order but alternating shooters, for the targets assigned to your side of the boat. Targets are all between 171-275yd. You can repeat one shape once you've shot them all, and at that point, you no longer need to alternate, but always call your target. Shots are worth 2/1/1 for first/second/round hits.
- Options from Left Position (I took this spot, just because left side feels more natural to me)
- oval
- 3x15" rectangle
- clover
- Options from Right Position (SB took this spot)
- 10" circle
- spade
- 10" square
Outcome: 27pts
- My pistol shooting was quite messy on this stage, and I needed 24 rounds to clear it. Fortunately, we had infinite chances, but it did eat up my ammo stores, which is problematic if you didn't plan on needing extras. I did notice and avoid the decoy circle target in the middle. It was funny to watch other teams shoot at it later on.
- While I was shooting, SB got to set up in the boat.
- SB stood up to range, which was smart, because it allowed her to get a better view above all the tall grass. Quite a few targets were partially (or maybe completely obscured by grass). Who knows how much of the obstruction was from horizontal vs vertical options on vantage points. We chose to carefully range the targets instead of approximating, since we felt like it was worth the extra seconds to get it right and make the hits.
- Initially, I tested out modified prone on the seat of the canoe, but there wasn't enough room, so I went barricade style off the wall of the boat.
- I shot 3 rounds of rifle.
- You can't move in the boat while the other person is shooting, because it introduces wobble.
- My kestrel had died, which was surprising. There wasn't any noticeable water or trauma incident. It wasn't a battery issue, either, since it was a fresh one. They later had to replace it completely, since it wasn't fixable, whatever happened.
- There are strict rules about not leaving stuff behind at stages, since you don't get it back. Last year, at the first stage of the day, the team before us had left their LRF behind on the stage and had to go the rest of the event without it! They still ended up beating us. What if it's a safety-related item? It's also a tricky situation when you drop a bag by accident, when all the gear is supposed to be in the boat with you. One team from a different ended up leaving their tent behind on this day. They got it back from the RO, but they weren't supposed to, but because it was an RO mistake, they could keep it, but they had integrity and gave it back. As cold as it had been, they'd have to endure the night without it!!!
(Photo credit: Mammoth Sniper Challenge)
Ruck 3: 4.0mi @ 15:40 pace
Surprise! This would be the last stage of the day. The MD would re-arrange the rucks and stages so that we'd finish the last 2 stages of the match the next day, the last two stages that we were supposed to cover on Day 2. We'd skip the day 3 stages completely, since there wouldn't be time for it. He re-arranged the rucks so that we'd still all be covering the same distance.
I had been expecting to squeeze in another stage, so I was dressed for a shorter ruck and had on all my rain gear, but we had a longer ruck. It got a little warm, but nothing that I'm not very used to.
We were glad to be able to finish early, which would help to make up for our late arrival into camp the previous night.
Camp Night 2
We happened to run into a number of other Mammoth women on our way to the portapotty, including Laura from the Ft. Eisenhower team. She didn't stop to talk and looked serious... it was the next day that we found out about her tent situation! That explained a lot. It was fun to see everyone, though... it was a little reunion.
The TP in the portapotties ran out by 9pm that night, which wasn't cool. I thought that the staff watching over the camp were taking care of it, since I thought they'd be using the portapotties too and would be in communication with the MD, but nobody actually told the MD, so there wasn't TP in the morning, either.
We saw friends, but we were cold and tired, so we didn't stick around to socialize. We got cold while setting up. We had dirty wet gear that we tried to lay out to dry, but it's tough to get stuff to dry when the humidity is high. I didn't want to put gross wet clothes inside of my sleeping bag, even if it would've helped to dry it. I ended up trashing it the next morning, since it was still wet and gross and heavy. The ruck felt heavy in the morning.... it's supposed to feel lighter each day as we eat and shoot!
Oddly, I had trouble sleeping on this night. My clothes started smelling like wet gear, and it made my nose run. On the bright side, we were done with the rain! The hard part weather-wise had been over.
I still had a very healthy appetite.
DAY 3
Camp Morning 2
The tent was even more damp this morning than it was during the rain the previous morning. There was a lot of condensation in there.
We shared breakfast, and I had tea.
Ruck 1: 3.3mi @ 15:24 pace
We were very curious about how many teams would be left. Only 57 remained!
We were officially told that we would be shooting the 2 remaining stages today, with none of the usual day 3 large-group stages. There would also be no final 7+ mile ruck that everyone would be doing together. Instead, the ruck routes were re-arranged so that everyone would end up covering the same distance. We'd all be finishing back at the usual campsite, but at different times based on when each team was stepping off from their last stage. It wouldn't be the same big ruck finish that Mammoth was known for with the big hills and very minor dirt trail at the end, which was a little sad for the first timers, but we expected the rucks to be pretty manageable.
(Photo credit: Mammoth Sniper Challenge)
During our ruck, we ran into some trouble during a downhill after SB stopped to tie her shoe and ran to catch up. Her gun shifted on her ruck and was at risk of falling down, since she packs her jacket outside her ruck instead of adding volume for a shelf inside her ruck. We did our best to tighten it down on-the-move. It was most helpful when I was able to get a turret onto the opposite side of the brain cover, to help keep the gun from sliding back. SB carefully treaded for the rest of the ruck, and we made it, fortunately. I rucked behind her to watch for issues and to be ready to catch the gun if needed. We had considered stopping, but SB felt like we didn't have that kind of margin.
We ran into one team where the two members had gotten separated, and one guy was calling out and waiting for his partner. When he found out that SB and I were the caboose of the squad, he realized that his partner must be ahead. Never leave your teammate! The slipping gun issue is even more proof of why it's important.
Stage 3 (Our stage 7)
Brief
- Primary & Secondary : 12 R
- 5 min PAR
- Off the clock, go through barbed wire up the stairs. Once you're at the top and through the wire, time starts.
- You have a minimum of 30s to go up one observation platform per shooter to observe and range, but not talk or shoot. After the minimum time is up, you and your partner can both move to a third platform and shoot 3 rounds per target in any order, 1 shooter at a time, no need to alternate shooters. Points are 3/1/1 for first/second/third round hits.
- 75% torso with PC
- 12" circle on red t-post
- 50% torso on red t-post
- 50% torso on blue t-post
- 12" circle on white t-post
- 10" square
- 16" circle
- oval
Outcome: 10pts
- The good thing about going up the stairs under barbed wire off the clock was that you didn't feel rushed and risk snagging and ripping any of your gear. Since we're both on the smaller side, it wasn't bad, anyways.
- We only had one LRF between the two of us, so SB would be responsible for ranging and recording results from her observation deck. From my platform, I got on the glass on my gun to look around, but I didn't see much. The lenses were foggy, even though we had opened up the caps before it was our turn to shoot. We heard that teams that had intentionally wiped away condensation prior to climbing the stairs had their glass fog back up by the time they got up the stairs, so it was a bit of a losing proposition. I kept trying to search and stayed there beyond 30s, in case there was something to spot that was going to be way more visible from the observation platform than from the shooting platform. Turns out that there was nothing special about one platform vs another, though, so it was just a waste of time.
- The tradeoff with fog seemed to be that we had no wind to worry about, on the bright side. Wind carries away fog. We had fog. Later teams dealt with wind but no fog.
- Since we didn't have to alternate shooters, I stayed on my gun while SB ranged. We got a 200yd torso PC and scored 3/1/1 there. We got a square to the left of that with 3/1/1. We saw a circle at 1000yd and I took a shot but missed off right edge.
- At this bay, there's an observation / spectator area that teams who have already gone get to hang out in. It's fun to watch other teams go. That's one benefit of going earlier rather than later. We wondered how other teams would approach the observation time twist. It is a gamble if you decide not to use the time, in case there was some trick to it. There was no trick, though... well, the trick was getting people to go on there in the first place, in this case.
Ruck 2: 2.9mi @ 15:15
We thought it could be a quick ruck to the next stage, and we'd have a longer final ruck, but the MD made the two last rucks pretty even. This one would be 2.9 miles, which wasn't bad, since that would make the final ruck shorter and easier. SB shed her layers quickly when we got the ruck distance.
Either other teams were getting more tired and slowing down, or we knew we had to hold back less and be less conservative now that we were close to the end and were feeling fine, because we had more teams around us when we finished. We were second to last coming in, so we got to pick between the first and last shooting spots. We didn't want last, so we ended up first, again.
Stage 4 (Our stage 8)
Brief
- Primary & Secondary : 9 or infinite P /15 R
- 5 min PAR
- All hits are worth 1 point.
- First shooter shoots 2 targets with pistol with 3 hits each, shooting over crates, with 3N, 3F, 3N, must hit to move on, which is why we could use infinite pistol. Second shooter repeats.
- Next, switch to rifle, and 1st shooter shoots 3 shots hit or miss on the available targets in any order, shooting over crates, and then second shooter repeats. Call out post color and shape before engaging targets.
- 75% IPSC on yellow t-post
- coyote on yellow t-post
- 66% IPSC on blue t-post
- coyote on blue t-post
- 50% IPSC on green t-post
Outcome: 26pt
I missed a lot on pistol and had to reset and slow down to eventually get hits, which ate up time that I could've definitely used on rifle.
I used the barricade position on the taller crate. I ended up using so much barricade during the whole match, and it worked well, even with the pint-sized gamechanger.
We started with the yellow IPSC and hit that 3x. It had a coyote next to it, although SB got a different range for it. After missing twice, I went back to the IPSC's dope for 315yd and hit on the third shot.
There was a second IPSC/coyote pair at 260yd.
The green torso was also pretty close.
We skipped over a decoy target.
If I had done better on pistol, SB might've had a chance to shoot a bit of rifle.
Ruck 3: 3.5mi @ 15:31
We got this! We were in good spirits as we made the last ruck back. It didn't feel quite the same without a big finish, since teams were going back to their cars to drive to the cookout and awards ceremony location after they were done. We got to see a few friends and shared congratulations, though. Our squad leader was there, too, of course, and it's always a happy sight to see him.
(Photo credit: Squad Leader Dave Cascante)
OVERALL
As I mentioned at the beginning, I thought that after getting 49th the first year, something like 42nd may be reasonable for us this year. This year, nobody had a clue about standings until the very end, since all teams didn't get to shoot all the same stages until the end of day 3. Normally, everyone would have shot 8 of the same stages by the end of day 2.
When SB went up to see the results once they were posted up on the wall, she (and I) couldn't believe it - we had somehow managed to get 27th among the 54 finishers who made it through the event! The tough elements helped us in our placement, I think. We're not the best shooters, but we can endure tough conditions.
Our first-timer friends had a great time at the event, which was rewarding to see. Lots of lessons learned, like it is for everyone during their first Mammoth experience.
It was really nice to have so many people remember us from last year. I love the "family reunion" aspect of this fan favorite event.
Strategy
A curveball this year was having to shoot 1st every time, but I've actually grown to like it well enough. We were pretty efficient with priorities of work and know our typical game plans and can come up with strategies for stages pretty quickly now.
I shot a surprising amount of barricade style, since I'm traditionally more of a stickler for modified prone. This year, I went for speed, although I later got feedback that modified prone can still be better for speed in the long run because it is more stable after recoil and re-acquiring targets. We'll see... something to keep playing with.
I still need to get a better feel for when it's OK to approximate ranges vs when to take the time to measure and dial exactly, based on target sizes and distances.
Going in with the same game plan as last year - finishing the rucks as #1, not getting DQed, and focusing on getting points where we could, worked out well for us. It's all about being a master of the fundamentals. Everything else falls into place as long as you have that, and we should naturally have gotten at least a little bit better at shooting with another year of practice and competition experience under our belts.
Gear / Packing
I finished with 12 rounds of pistol and 55 rounds of rifle, but pistol would have been iffy if we had 2 more stages on the last day. In hindsight, I could've sent more rounds on the movers, but you never know at the time, especially on day 1.
I'm surprised that my Kestrel died, but fortunately, it's not critical gear. I may even leave it home next year, like I had considered doing this year.
It was sad that my wet clothes didn't dry very well in the vestibule.
My gear list continues to be refined each year... cut a little more each year. Maybe we'll add something significant later, like a Vortex Impact... I keep thinking about bringing a second LRF.
The gun started to rust surprisingly quickly.
My Garmin Fenix 5 has a harder and harder time charging up as the years go on.
I was more OK starting rucks cold this year, maybe because I was mentally prepared for the discomfort.
It was interesting that I was so much hungrier this year, even though temps, body cycles, etc, were pretty much the same this year.
Rucking
We were able to pace much less aggressively this year, since we knew what kind of elevation changes and terrain to expect. We didn't red-line as much this year so our bodies felt better, but we did cut it closer to the time caps, which is OK if you're still in control of the pace.
I didn't have ideal training this year because of the persistent glute strain, but it was still enough.
Shooting
My pistol shooting did get messy on some stages... fortunately, the infinite round stages. I wonder how much of that was mental... if it was limited round count, would I have made the hits count? Or was it purely a fatigue factor? I do get sloppy when I get tired, I've seen at competitions.
I need more practice on real movers, getting leads right and adjusting correctly, especially with wind + movement.
We did better than we have in the past with thinking about wind before starting to shoot.
I'm glad I shot and hit stuff in spite of my high SD.
(Photo credit: Andy Slade)
