Gun Run Night Ops & GBF Operation Contact 1

TRAINING LEAD-UP

Monday, Mar 3:

Yoga for Overthinking & Yoga for Upper Body Strength with Adriene

Tuesday, Mar 4:

Glute and Pec PT v2 in 28:55, Glute and Pec PT v1 in 27:30 because it got sore again today after weeks or months of being fine.  

18A "Dip Abs" in 19:33 afterwards

Thursday, Mar 6:

Day 23 - Dedicate | BREATH & Moon Practice Yoga with Adriene

GUN RUN NIGHT OPS

I hadn't planned on signing up for Gun Run Night Ops, as much as I love the rare opportunities to compete at night shooting events, because I was already signed up for GBF's Operation Contact.

They already worked their way through the waiting list and had a free spot available, though, so when I saw the post on IG, I decided that it was a sign and jumped on the opportunity to double-dip over the weekend.

Before the match, I did try a new approach to zeroing my rifle.  In my house, I used a rifle zeroing target to try to set up a parallel zero.  I made adjustments as best as I could, and then I took it outside to confirm at farther distances... somehow, oddly, what seemed like a parallel zero at closer range made the laser go way high when I tried to confirm at longer ranges.  Maybe that explains why I've had so much trouble at rifle via laser at most matches.  I decided to try to make adjustments based on the far target, more of a converging approach.  When I checked back at close range, the POI actually seems low, which makes no sense, based on the position of the laser.  Typing all this out now, though... I'm realizing that the parallel zero should be relative to my red dot, not the barrel.  That explains it!  Well, whatever I did with the longer distance converging zero ended up working out ok, but now, I'll need to go back and check against a real parallel at close distance.

There was good weather.  No rain.  54 degrees.  I hung out in my car after the 6:30 safety brief, waiting for my 8:42 turn to go.

Stage 1:

There was no rope climb this time.  It is much harder to do with a helmet and NODS on.  Instead, you started the course by running around the pond, which had a low crawl on the far side.  Manage your gear well!  

They did have us bag 8 loose pistol and 8 loose rifle rounds, along with empty mags, for use in the first stage.

- On the clock, with no white light, load 8 rounds R and 8 rounds P.

- Shoot back and forth at 2 rifle targets until you hit each one 4x... if you run out due to any misses, you can reload with fresh mags as needed.

- Do the same on 2 pistol targets.

Learnings/Outcomes: FAIL (5/30 pass)

- I used ambient light to load, which was fine, looking out of the corner of my eye outside the NODS... I've had experience doing this before, when I've needed to look at my watch or do other things during practice.

- I tried to brace off of the table to shoot rifle (the first one to try that, per the RO), but there was vegetation in the way, and that whited out anything behind it.

- I switched to standing afterwards

- I missed rifle about 2x, so I did have to reload

- I ejected the rifle round to make it safe before switching to pistol, out of habit

- I got through 2 pistol hits before timing out... the RO said that I made it further than most... oh well.

- I cleared my pistol at first, after the stage, out of habit... it has been a while since I've done a gun run.  I ended up re-chambering afterwards.

Stage 2:

I ended up having 3:26 of wait time, after catching up to whoever was in front of me... they weren't having a good stage, from the sounds and look sof it.

- carry a large empty ammo can to the first chem light and shoot a hard-to-see shot-up speckled pistol torso, 2x

- move forward with the can to the next chem light and repeat

- come back to the VTAC with the can, and from 1) steps, 2) higher square port, 3) lower square port, shoot 2 rifle hits per position 

Learnings/Outcomes: PASS in 86:05 (18/30 pass)... I'm 18th among those who passed

- I went on safe between rifle positions, which felt like the safe thing to do, even if it ate up a tiny bit of time

- I decided not to turn off my pistol light in between the two positions, even though it's tactically better to do so... but when every second counts and I'm borderline on passing some stages, it's the smart gaming move

- I built decent positions

- I liked how my zero worked out

Stage 3:

I had a 3 minute wait time again, and a guy who I had passed along the way came in just afeter me.  He said he had gotten lost and had no NODS.  I'm not sure what that means... if it ran out of batteries or broke.

- run up to and open an ammo can with a brief inside

- pistol only: there are 4 bad guys advancing.  Shoot each 2x from behind the caution tape

Learnings/Outcomes: FAIL (13/30 pass)

- I lost a good bit of time finding the button that puts the NODS back down after I had moved them up to read (which we could do with an admin light)

- I need to be 100% familiar with my gear when working with such short PAR times

- The trick on this stage was that there were three sides of caution tape.  I had only noticed two.  It was hard to tell under NODS.

- I found 3 targets on two of the sides but didn't look on the third side

- Anyone who did this stage again under white light (or under white light for the first time) would probably do much better, knowing about or seeing all the sides

Stage 4:

- no WMLs allowed, to mimic gear failure

- run to the first crate and shoot 2 targets with pistol, 2 hits each

- repeat from the next crate

- run further up to the log and shoot from 1) standing, 2) kneeling, 3) prone, with 2 hits per position with rifle

Learnings/Outcomes: FAIL (14/30 pass)

- on pistol, my reticle was so bright that it washed own the dim target.  When I kept both eyes open, my left eye helepd me see the target ok... I hadn't tried to add the kiji, but it was ok.

- I had tried to reduce the red dot brightness on the clock, but I'm not sure that my clicks did anything

- I ate up a lot of time trying to reholster my pistol.  I discovered afterwards that this commonly occurring issue is a result of my WML's screw backing out a little bit... I'll have to intentionally retighten it more often

- I timed out when trying to figure out prone... it would've been tough, under NODS.  

- I may need to bring a separate white light handheld or headlamp as a backup light next time, in case this kind of stage barring WMLs comes up again.  I guess I'm not 100% sure if you'd be allowed to use a white light handheld in this NODS event, though.

- Standing and kneeling were fine, even with the small and hard-to-see target

Stage 5:

- go into the house with disco lights and shoot 3 dummies with 2 hits each 

- go into the courtyard and do the same on 3 more dummies

- from the tire (optional use) shoot 4 (turned into 3 and repeat 1 due to a downed target) steel targets up the hill, 2x through (at least I did it as through...)

Learnings/Outcomes: PASS in 65:03 (17/30 pass)... I'm in 10th

- the ROs have to help me find the rifle targets, especially the third one on the bottom of the hill... target finding is always challenging up the hill in this bay, with the vegetation and wide area

- this was so much fun and a great way to end the match on a cleanable, burn-it-down stage

- I am surprised that more people didn't pass, though

Overall - 20th shooting, 11th running, 16th overall

- know your gear, like with the NODS up/down button

- zero worked well, though I now know how I need to confirm it

- bring a WL handheld next time

- search all sides of the shooting area, especially under NODS where it's harder to see

- tighten the pistol WML to avoid holstering issues

- continue changing to fresh mags on the run

- continue using 17 rounders

- would've done well at white light at this match (with the prone rifle stage too)

I covered 2.63 miles in about 75 minutes including 6 minutes of wait time, with 629 feet of ascent.  I felt like I was trying pretty hard to move fast, even if it wasn't super fast in reality.

I love gun runs!

GBF OPERATION CONTACT 1

Saturday, Mar 8:

After the Gun Run prize table, I started my drive out to the Sawmill.  When I arrived, the wind was howling.  I brushed my teeth then slept in the car.  The brief was at 8am.  There wasn't a Friday night start, like there was at the original Operation Contact.

We started in a small bay, verifying that everyone who showed up knew how to do administrative mag changes for rifle.  It was quite taxing to change levels and move with rucks, PCs, and belts on.  It's not always easy stuffing mags back into pouches, either.  Not a quick process.

We practiced bounding at the 100yd range, in pairs, 5x, using mags of 3x30... lots of ammo.

We then bounded in fire teams at the UKD range, down to schoolbus.  We started dry with 2 runs, before doing it live for 2 runs.  

We added in "peel left" break in contact drills, 2x dry.

We combined it all with bounding forward, then peeling left, 4x.

We did some pistol work for fun, on plate racks and a dueling tree.  There was a TX star, too, but one of its paddles broke before I got a turn on it.

This event was more chill, and more about learning, than the original one.  We ended the day at a reasonable time and got some good rest.  No 1am wake-up call.

Sunday, Mar 9:

We did more fire team drills in the morning, but in a different part of the Sawmill Training Complex.  It's cool to have diverse terrains to work with.  We were now by a creek, with a hill on one side.  We had contact left, and ran through that about 4x.

We then leveled up into section drills, doing contact front and peeling left, 3x.  We did have trouble curving with the road that we wanted to progress down.  Instead, our natural rangeism tendency was to follow the 180 rule, so we stayed flat against the other shooters and would end up bee-lining right into the creek.

We then learned how to do a linear and L-shaped ambush up a hill.  

To end the day, we had a mini-stage shooting at 200yd targets.  My comp practice helped, as did the red dot, since the targets were pretty big, and it helped with target acquisition, vs someone who used an LPVO.

Over the course of the weekend, I ended up using about 100 rounds of pistol and 1,100 rounds of rifle... that's a lot!  I should've taken all those reps to practice my rifle trigger reset.  I'm glad I used my beater rifle!

By the end of the weekend, my body felt pretty beat up.  Moving around with kit on will do that!  My right shoulder, especially, which was odd.