SIOUX CITY
Back in town for work for the first time this year.
Lots to take care of.
Lots to do with long days, but also, opportunities for good food to look forward to.
No time for workouts, but that's OK, since I was recovering from one weekend and getting ready for another big one.
YOGA
Thursday, Apr 18:
I landed and went straight to the USNWC, for Open Flow Yoga, followed by a 2.5 mile ruck in warm temps. I was still wearing smartwool and steel toed safety shoes.
The new dog park had recently opened up, so we got to see a little bit of it. They were getting ready to close for the day, so we weren't able to explore much beyond the initial doggie beach area.
GORUCK SELF-RESPONDER
Cadre LDB would be teaching some tactical-adjacent events for the first time. He's well-suited to teach self-responder, as an 18D.
We covered the history of the MARCH acronym, learning about how after Mog (cool to see the tie-ins from other events), we realized that addressing massive hemorrhaging with TQs was critical. We practiced TQ applications on ourselves, discussed wound packing where you want to locate and occlude the severed vessel with gauze and clotting powder.
We covered airways and discussed nasal pharyngeals, respiration where you'd use a chest seal for punctured torsos. I learned that vented vs non-vented doesn't actually matter much.
We covered circulation for smaller sources of blood loss, practicing the application of Israeli bandages, and we finished with hypothermia.
To finish the class, we went through LDB's IFAK, to see what he carries and see how he organizes everything.
GORUCK FIGHT
It was interesting to do a FIGHT class in the middle of the park. There were little kids from a class playing, so we warned them. When Derek went towards the teacher to talk to them, some of the girls who had been peeking at us from behind a bench yelled and ran away like stranger danger. It was funny to see them react that way to Derek. They've been trained well.
It was cool to see LDB's take on FIGHT. I've taken FIGHT with a a handful of different Cadres, and they do change up the curriculum, maybe based on whatever topics are timely, or what the Cadres' areas of expertise are. Some have focused on situational awareness, others with on-the-ground scuffles, others with disarming.
LDB started with a review of the fundamentals of marksmanship, which was a cool take that I've never covered in FIGHT before. It's a good intro for those who have had zero experience with firearms. We covered good discussion topics on the importance of not only training hard skills, but also developing soft skills. Sometimes, the best way to stay safe is to keep yourself out of dangerous situations in the first place. "Don't go anywhere with your gun that you wouldn't go without your gun." Speaking from wisdom and experience, sometimes, it's best to cast ego aside, and de-escalate or walk away.
We covered the 4 levels of awareness that we can find ourselves in: 1) Unaware, 2) Aware, 3) Alert, 4) Alarmed, where you'll naturally cycle through different levels as you go through your day, but it's always best to not be completely unaware for too long ever.
We covered the OODA loop... Observe, Orient, Decide, Act. It helps you made decisions faster. You want to be farther along on it than your adversary.
We spoke about rings of awareness - Intimate, Friend, Acquaintance, and Unknown, and the natural distances we keep in each of those scenarios. Distance = time and safety. We spoke about that in relation to the Tueller principle, where you realize that it doesn't take much time for someone to close distance on you. You can create artificial distance by stepping to the side or behind an obstacle, too, or even drop levels. Very creative, and stuff that I hadn't really thought about before.
We covered some basics of NC use of force laws, which is always good to reinforce. We also covered what happens to us when we get stressed, with loss of fine motor skills, increased HR, adrenaline dumps, perspiration, tunnel vision, auditory loss, and skewed sense of time... craziness.
We covered retention, and with plastic pistols, we practiced how to guard against people grabbing at your holstered weapon, and how to punch out and pull back if someone tries to grab your weapon when it's already out.
So much new and good content was packed into this class!
Afterwards, I picked up some Cava, before the start of the BBB.
GORUCK MARVEL GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY BASIC 1
The first basic kicked off at 7pm. Independence Park is actually a nice one for events. There's lots of parking. There are restrooms. It's not so big that you have to search really hard to find the start point. There's room for PT, and there's easy access to uptown.
The event started with a downpour. At least it didn't happen during the tactical events, since those are more classroom-style, and you want to be able to focus on the content. When you're doing a physical endurance event, the rain actually helps to add the right amount of extra character-building adversity.
Eric, aka "Steel City Shadow", came down from Pittsburgh to take event photos, which helps me remember all that we did over the weekend.
The custom events led by Cadre LDB often start with a costume contest. He gives points based on how close to the theme you are, along with creativity and effort and the like. I put some, but not a ton of effort into it. I'm never really in the mood to spend a bunch of money on a costume that I'll probably wear one time for an event. I prefer to figure out what I can pull together with stuff that I already have, even if it's not as good of a match.
I did happen to get an opportunity to watch one of the Guardian of the Galaxy movies for the first time a few days before the event. I rarely turn on my TV, but I happened to be scrolling through, and I saw it on one of the channels. I didn't even know that there were multiple movies until some time during the event, but I saw part of the one where they broke out of jail. It wasn't captivating enough for me to try hard to watch the whole thing. Definitely made for kids.
Of the characters, Rocket seemed like the coolest. It looks like he's wearing a plate carrier, and he has a gun. I have a Pikachu costume, so I figured that would be close enough to a racoon.
The event started with a heavy downpour.
We start with a nice warmup and yoga, to reduce unnecessary risks of injury, which I always appreciate.
We learned how to do Cadre LDB's signature exercise, the 20-step Centrion.
Doing PT with a heavy, floppy Pikachu tail is a unique experience, but the giant safety pins that hold the tail in a certain shape comes apart easily and can become a hazard.
Our welcome party included going around the circle, and having each of us lead an exercise of our choice. That's a pretty good one, especially for one of the lower key events. It gives everyone an opportunity to get to know each other a tiny bit, and exercise a bit of leadership. The exercises don't need to be anything crazy, either, although some people try to pick a harder one to show off, at the expense of others.
Fortunately, the downpour didn't last for long. We set off to go into the city.
Our first stop was at a park not too far away. We did a "Star Lord" workout. We were broken up into the Heroes team vs the Villains team. Funnily enough, Melissa was chosen as the leader of the Heroes, and I was chosen as the leader of the Villains. The opposite assignments would've felt more natural.
At the park, we answered trivia questions, and the losing team had to do a harder version of the exercise (ex: with ruck, vs without). Fortunately, we did pretty well there. I didn't know very much about Guardians of the Galaxy, but I could at least try to be a good leader by identifying who were the "knowers" in the team, and using them strategically during the competitions.
Next, we rucked to Pearl Street Park.
At the park, we had an infinity stone color matching relay contest. Unfortunately, we lost, which meant a little bit of PT.
There was an intense game of hot potato with a sand ball afterwards. It can get a little violent!
Since our team lost, we didn't get the superpower of space/time travel, so we didn't have a wormhole to go through and had to do an extra little ruck around the park after we got back to the start point. When we were nearly back, we happened to be present when there was a car accident. It happened behind us, and we heard the noise. Fortunately, nobody was hurt, but emotions were high. One person had been uncertain about lane turning laws here, since he wasn't a local. The Cadre took care of it as we made our way back to the start point through the park. I estimate that we covered about 3 miles. The event was scheduled to end at around midnight.
BETWEEN BASIC 1 & 2
With a 5 hour break between events, it was nice to be able to go home, shower, eat, and nap, before the next one, which started at 5am.
GORUCK SUPER SOLDIER BASIC 2
I know nearly nothing about Guardians of the Galaxy, but I know even less than that about Captain America. I wore an OCRWC Legendborne Team USA jersey for this event, until it got too hot, and I removed the shirt so that I only had a long sleeve on after that. We had another costume contest, which I didn't enter this time.
We began with a nice warmup welcome party, which is especially important for back-to-back events.
The event began at 5am, so as we rucked to our first stopping point, we got to enjoy the sunrise.
The soccer field was enveloped in fog when we got there. At this park, we did a variety of relays... one to get the right sequence of stones on the glove (which both teams struggled mightily with, and our team was glad when at least one of the two teams finally got it, even though that meant that we lost).
We also did a bear crawl frisbee toss game, where everyone had to touch it once, which requires some strategy. Both are relative strengths for me... I'm fast at bear crawling, and I played ultimate frisbee in college. We lost, though.
Next, we rucked to First Ward Park, for more trivia. I had absolutely no clue on any of the answers. I think we lost this one, too. Lots of losses.
A cop happened to be doing some rounds through the park and let us into the restroom, fortunately, before we headed back to the start.
We ended up doing an extra detour on our way back... dunno why... maybe the cadre felt like we were making too good of time and wanted to make sure we got our money's worth. I estimate that we covered about 4 miles.
As we got to the park, people were setting up for a little festival celebrating the outdoors and art, or something like that. On our end of the park, we finished the event with the Captain America WOD. Air punches look pretty cool on camera. So do leaps, although I don't leap very high, even without a ruck.
BETWEEN BASICS 2 AND 3
With the festival happening at the park, I knew that finding a good parking spot would be tough. I had a prime one, and rather than risk losing it, I stayed in the area. I ate, tried to nap, and explored the art festival a bit. One cool thing they had was a little easter egg hunt, but with mini canvas pieces of artwork. They ask you to only take one per person. I located all that I could, to decide which one I liked the most, and kept that. There were a few different artists, based on the different styles I saw multiple instances of. Here were some of the contenders.
I ended up going with one that I wanted to give to my parents as a housewarming gift, though, that was a map of the city.
Derek planned a Cadre gift, a piece of art featuring Spiderman, which we all signed. I also came across some friends getting their costumes ready for the next event.
GORUCK WEBSLINGER BASIC 3
This third event was kid-friendly. Derek's adorable boy came. He loves Spiderman.
We had another costume contest.
The kids led us in a few exercises.
Cadre LDB's kid-friendly events usually feature games, separated by 1/4 or 1/3 mile rucks.
We played puzzles.
We used webslinger darts to knock down villans (I told my team to hold for elevation based on the expected drop of the dart, but they don't listen).
We let the kids try to tag the adults with silly string in an enclosed area... if you get hit, you exit the rectangle to do some PT before you come back in.
We cleaned up afterwards.
At the end, ruck prizes donated by GORUCK, were given to the winners of the costume contests. LDB also gave the games from the third Basic to the kids, which was nice.
I estimate that we covered about 1 mile.
The next day....
RIMFIRE FIELD MATCH
On to shooting!
Field matches are fun, since it requires more thinking and planning and dynamics than PRS-style matches where you know all the target locations and distances up-front. With PRS, it seems to me like the way to get good, beyond shooting fundamentals and having good gear and ammo, is to get really efficient with your movements. With field matches, there is a broader variety of skills to work on, so it feels more well-rounded vs specialized. There's a place for focusing on the PRS-specific skills, but I enjoy the field matches more.
Using rimfire is an added bonus, because it's so cost-effective, at less than 10cpr, vs $1.50-2.00/round. I'm not so worried about barrel life, either... I just looked it up, and it has a 20,000 round barrel life... 10X what you'd get from a 6mm Creedmoor barrel.
For this match, we'd have 6 stages with 4 min PAR times. The scoring system was straightforward... 2 points for a 1st round hit, and 1 point for a second round hit, making 3 points possible for each target.
At the zero range, there were only 100yd targets out... I just dialed my 100yd dope and zeroed off of that.
There were 3 squads of 5-6 people, so this match would hopefully go by pretty quickly and smoothly, which it did.
Stage 3: Coyotes by the Roadside Connex
I've never shot in this direction before. It wasn't at a real bay... that's one thing that's cool about Coleman's matches... they come up with stages at new parts of the range all the time, so it stays fresh.
Here, we'd be shooting at 5x coyote-shaped targets.
I found 2 at 75yd, in the middle of the far left. I shot it from an upright barrel. There wasn't much to the bay, since it was mostly a treeline, and you couldn't really see beyond the treeline, so that's where I looked.
There was a low coyote that was only shootable from a tripod, because the barrel wasn't tall enough. I was glad that I brought the tripod. I mistakenly took the tripod to full height at first, which makes the gun too tall after it's placed on a gamechanger. I had to re-adjust to make it shorter.
I got all the hits on the 3 targets that I could see, getting 9/15 points. I never saw the 2 other coyotes during the stage, but I went back to look for them after the match and found them way to the right. There were orange sticks marking the shooting limits... I should always look for the extreme ends of the shooting areas.
It was a good first stage. I looked with my eyes a lot. I made all my hits.
Stage 4: Gophers on Service Road by the New PRS Barricade Bay
I found 4 gophers, who were along the road along different distances.
I missed both shots on the 110yd target. I should've maybe gone prone for that one. Prone turned out to not be a good option for the new ones, from what others said, because the line of sight wasn't good for the close ones. Maybe I could've done it for a far target, though. My dope was good, because I was able to hit it afterwards when I went back.
I did a good job this time of scanning and moving around the area during my search.
Again, I was glad to have the tripod, since the terrain didn't allow for prone on all of the targets.
I had ranged my first two targets before shooting, which worked out well, because I could stay set up on the tripod and shoot, instead of having to put everything down to range the next target.
Stage 5: Torsos at Load Development Range
All of the torso targets on this stage were easily visible and weren't hard to range, but they were rather away. Unfortunately, I had done the the close target stages when the wind was minimal, and now, I was doing longer range ones when the wind had picked up a bit.
I didn't figure out the wind until the 2nd or 3rd target in. I had to hold 1 target left, on top of my pre-dialed 0.5L.
I did have a failure to eject, and I had to release the mag and dry fire to eject.
I shot from modified prone on the table.
I shot at the last 2 targets with 40s left.
I missed both times on the 4th target... I probably didn't carry forward the wind hold to the farther targets properly... need to be better about that.
I always struggle with the stages at this bay for some reason. I scored 4/15 points here.
Stage 6: Pigs from the Graveyard Mound
I saw 2 with the naked eye on the right side of the bay, in front of a fence. I hit the first target 2x at 120yd, and the second target seemed to be right next to it, but I missed both shots on it for some reason.
I found 2 targets on the left side at 140yd and 150yd, but I wasn't able to hit the 150yd one for some reason.
Low bipods ended up working here, even though the mound was very steep. I was surprised that it worked.
I never saw the 5th pig during the stage, but afterwards, I came back, and found it while standing... I would've needed a tripod to shoot it, because it was in a valley.
I did get another failure to eject during this stage.
I got 8/15 points here.
Stage 1: Beavers from the Shoot House Window
I got to use the shoothouse for the first time. You can pretty much just see a really near tree line, and nothing far, which should make searching easier.
I saw 25yd and 30yd targets on the far left.
There were 40yd and 50yd targets kind of in a cut in the middle, but I missed the 50yd one both times.
My bipods, which were out for convenience of putting the gun down afterwards, did get in the way when I steered the gun to the far right angled in the window. I should know better by now. I tried to put the legs up on the clock, but the buttons were sticking from the rain (an issue with the Ckye Pods), so I completely removed the bipods to continue shooting.
I shot all 10 rounds but only got 10/15 points due to the misses.
Stage 2: KYL at New 100yd BayColeman's keeps expanding, which is awesome. It does get crowded sometimes. They just built a new 100yd zeroing range. We had a non-blind stage this time, where we shot at 2 different KYL racks from prone. We weren't told the exact distances, so it behooved us to range on the clock. With KYLs, the targets get tiny!
We had to go L->R on the bottom row of the close one, go L->R on the top row (which has slightly smaller targets since that's how spinners are designed), and then repeat on the farther KYL rack.
The close one was at 60yd, and the second one was at 80yd.
I got a first round hit on the big target, had to try 2x to hit the middle one, and spent the rest of my ammo on the last one.
I should've thought back to when I zeroed in the morning and needed 0.2-0.3 more than my 100yd dope suggested, so I was probably low. I should've changed something rather than repeating the same thing and expecting a different result. I did hold slightly up once, but it must not have been enough.
To be fair, the target was small, and smaller than my 50yd zeroing groups.
I went back later to try again, and after adding 0.2, I was able to hit more often... not a 100% success rate, but better... I should've remembered.
Overall
- I placed 12th out of 16.
- It was good to always have the tripod at this match, especially because some targets couldn't be shot without it.
- My 10yd dope card that I drew up that morning worked pretty well.
- Something on the Ckye Pod had loosened, giving me loose cant... I didn't figure out and fix it until after the match.
- It was good that I had a wind plan before each stage.
- I need to be better about having binos out and unlatched from its pouch before each stage, to save time.
- I need to remove my bipods more often, if they're not needed on stages... they've gotten in the way for me too many times, when I didn't expect them to
- Good scanning and finding overall, even if it is a bit easier at 22LR distances.
I hope to see more rimfire field matches at Colemans'!
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