GORUCK CLT 9/11 25th Anniversary Light & Dewitt's Gun Run

TRAINING LEAD-UP

Monday, Sep 7:

5.5 mi ruck with a 30#RPC in 2:29:18 wearing MACV2s, playing Ingress, at Rocky Branch Park for Labor Day.

Then Home - Day 3 - Awaken & Yoga for Anxiety and Overthinking with Adriene.

For dry fire, I did 8 mags of draw and shoot.  It took 4 mags to go from inconsistent process and times to being better about snatching the gun and doing the left pinch grip, leading to better times.  The other 4 mags went back to not being great, though... not a fruitful day.

Tuesday, Sep 8:

Glute and Pec PT v1 in 30:16, then HDT 31.1.2 (core) in 31:13, which I survived by being careful with my back

Wednesday, Sep 9:

Worked with Emily on shooting with an elevated HR, carrying 2x20#DBs or 1-2 44#SJKs.  I was still a little sore from yesterday's workout, too, which made the session more realistic for TTG conditions.

- Need to land stable and with a wide stance

- Take the extra half second to get a stable shot on target, because it'll make the difference between a hit and a miss

- Use my sights

- Actually grip with my left hand

- Follow through on the last shot at a position before moving

- Smaller steps in walk and shoot prevents bouncing

Thursday, Sep 10:

3.5 mi ruck in 1:36:35 at Ren Park and a nearby cemetery, wearing Brooks running shoes that are near the end of their life, playing Ingress and going really easy, since my nervous system might be fried.  I didn't go on the trails for long today, because many mosquitos were out.

GORUCK CLT 9/11 25TH ANNIVERSARY LIGHT

There are so many good event options available where I live, every weekend.  It's tough to pick.  The GORUCK event schedule this time around was different... Friday night light, Saturday morning 12 mile city ruck, Saturday evening Tough.  I was used to Friday night Toughs, so I scheduled my flight out to Denver on Sunday morning, thinking I'd be able to do all the GORUCK events.  When I discovered that the Tough would start Saturday night and go into Sunday morning, I had to change plans.  

I ended up only signing up for the 9/11 Light, and I signed up for the Gun Run at Dewitts for my Saturday activity.

We started at Elizabeth Park and rucked to Moo and Brew.  They had a nice outdoor area where our big group could order food and drinks.  There were a number of newbies, so I did my best to try to make them feel welcome.  I know it can feel weird showing up at a place where you don't know anyone, and even one friendly person can make a world of difference.

On the way back, the 9/11 memorial lights were visible, and we got great views of it from the bridge.

I would say that spending time with other great Americans is a good way to spend 9/11 and honor those that we lost that day and remember everything that's happened since then, with the sacrifices that so many have made for the cause of freedom.

DEWITT'S INDIVIDUAL GUN RUN

To me, the theme of this one was fundamentals.  That's what was being tested with the shooting.

Stage 1: <Rifle Only>

- Started loaded at low ready

- On the beep, shoot from the wobbly barricade at 4 targets, L->R, 3x through

Learnings/Outcomes: FAIL (11/114 pass)

- This one was an early kick in the teeth

- The board was wobbly, since it was nailed to tall t-posts in soft ground.  I think that was the main cause of my misses.

- I only tried the upper board, since I wasn't sure that all of the targets would be visible from the lower board due to the vegetation

- I had the option to get a third pallet added for more height to minimize the extent to which I'd have to tiptoe, but there was a rifle on that pallet, and it was on the other side of the tent, so I opted to get to shooting.

- I only got through 1.5 strings, so it wasn't even close

- I shot from the left corner of the board and t-post for the first 2 targets, but I shifted to the middle of the board for the other two because that felt natural based on the angle of the targets and the position of the pallets

- I couldn't see my misses due to the trees in the background, so there wasn't much feedback

- The targets looked surprisingly small, even with 10x

- I shot 22 rounds during this stage

Stage 2: <Rifle Only>

- Start loaded, at low ready

- On the beep, use the VTAC board to shoot at a 100yd target across the pond (12x20), with 2 hits per port

Learnings/Outcomes: Pass in 57.04 - 48/78 passers/114 total

- I looked through my offset dot for a moment to see if that would be a viable option from the diagonal port, but the target was too far away, and I wanted more magnification.  Holds would be hard as it was.

- Initially, I did hold towards the mag like I should, but I forgot to hold high as well... once I added that, I hit

- For prone, I wondered at first if my scope would be too tall, but it was fine.  I'm not sure if I had to cant at all.

- The MD said that many people were putting their barrel or suppressor on the barricade, causing high trajectories

- I probably only missed once or twice

(Photo credit: Jimmy Nutt)

Stage 3:

- From low ready and hot

- On the beep, shoot 5 rounds on the cardboard target with t-shirt with rifle, then go on safe

- Transition to pistol and make 5 hits on a 12" gong at 30yd

- Go back to rifle, and using any position (through prone might not have been an option due to vegetation), shoot diamond, left torso, diamond, right torso, 2x through

Learnings/Outcomes: Pass in 57.39 - 49 / 90 passers / 114 total

- I used my offset dot for the cardboard, and it was fast

- Pistol wasn't clean, and I thought it was me, but the MD said during his AAR that the target was hard since it wasn't big but it was somewhat far... also, I discovered post-match that my pistol dot was loose

- I didn't try prone for rifle, since vegetation seemed high.  I used kneeling while sitting on my right foot, which was not perfect, but acceptable

- The rifle CoF was a bit complex, but the RO helped out

Stage 4: <Rifle Only> with 60s PAR time vs 90s for the other stages

- Load rifle on the clock

- Shoot 1 standing, 1 kneeling or seated, 1 prone on a 12x18" torso @100yd

Learnings/Outcomes: Pass in 21.24 - 45 / 108 passers / 114 total

- I had to do unsupported prone due to vegetation... it's good that I've had to practice that before!

- I might've shot it clean?  

- On a stage this quick, you want to have everything squared away with your gear, since every second counts in the rankings

Stage 5: <Pistol Only>

- On the beep, shoot the array of 4x8" gongs, L->R

- Holster and move one of three implements to the opposite stick (sandbag, jerry can, or ammo can)

- At the other stick, draw and shoot the array again L->R

- Optionally keep the gun out and downrange and run back to the first stick

- Repeat until all three items are at the other stick and you've shot the array one last time at the other stick

Learnings/Outcomes: Pass in 76.01 - 35/68 passers / 114 total

- I shot 27 rounds (24 would've been clean)

- Beforehand, I undid the bungee on my belt for easier reloads

- I missed 2x on the rightmost target from stick 2 on the first go, and 1x on the same target on the last go

- I forgot L->R at first, since the right target was closest to me

- The objects were slightly heavy but doable for this short distance

Stage 6:

- On the beep, go prone and load rifle

- Shoot 3 on the torso, drop mag, and shoot 1 on the diamond at 50yd

- Crawl forward 1 yard under the "barbed wire"

- Repeat the rifle CoF

- Crawl forward 1 yard

- Stand up and shoot the torso with pistol 4x

- If you missed the diamond with rifle at all, do makeup shots as needed, standing unsupported

Learnings/Outcomes: Pass in 83.24 - 59 / 70 passers / 114 total

- I shot 16 pistol rounds trying to get my 4 hits (learning later that my dot was loose)

- I shot rifle clean

- After I did my first mag release of rifle for the HVT, I had one round sticking out, which I had to strip before being able to load that mag again 

- When I did hit pistol, I was using something close to my 100yd hold, even though this was at 50yd maybe

- Shooting the HVT prone with no mag was like shooting unsupported again

(Photo credit: Jimmy Nutt)

Overall

- 23/114 overall, 15/114 run, 39/114 shoot

- I didn't feel like I was running that fast

- I did hang out and talk to more people than usual after I finished my run

- There wasn't much pistol shooting today, so I didn't even need to top off my mags

Coleman's

Since I ran in the morning, I had the afternoon to go over to Coleman's for some more practice...

I did the U-shaped movement drills again.  I realized that the ported pistol's dot was loose, so I switched to my backup gun with occlusion to do the drills.  I'm messy on the middle target for some reason, vs the left and right ones, so I need to take my time and follow through on the transitions.  

After about 500 rounds, I realize that my shots were all towards the right because my zero was towards the right.  I thought it was me the whole time.  I wondered whether it was due to occlusion... I think I've heard that some people will get a POI shift.  I'd have to test that later un-fatigued.

Next, I went to the forest bay to do some tripod rear practice with a Schmedium GC.  I figured out my process.

1. Bag on prop

2. Gun on target

3. Cheek on gun

4. Left hand paw

5. Right hand grip

I only worked this standing and stuck with pure barricade for kneeling, since I don't have enough mobility  and strength while kneeling/seated to deal with the heavy gun plus the tripod.

I did need to start with the tripod not so far away, to make the dragging easier.

It was harder to get the tripod on the stock when I was wearing my binos, but I normally made do.

I did comparisons of barricade only to tripod rear, and tripod rear was definitely more stable.

I could see the benefit of having a big soft pad on the stock, since I was working with the thin strip of rubber on the butt stock.

TPG Team Match & Faith, Fellowship, and Firearms

TRAINING LEAD-UP

Wednesday, Sept 2:

Went to Blackstone for some solo practice.

- 4 mags of ball and dummy @7yd

- 7 mags of cadence on small diamonds @7yd

- 3 mags of cadence on a big diamond to push speed even more @7yd

Thursday, Sept 3:

35 min biking covering 9.5 mi with 78spm, 39% resistance, 290 cal on the Peloton with no subscription, slightly progressive on the resistance.  Afterwards, I did 15 min of arm strengtheners.

Dry fire...

- 2 mags of draw and shoot to build back muscle memory and speed

- 4 more mags, trying to focus on a strong left hand grip and resisting the urge to turtle my neck... not super consistent on speed but got 1.20 and 1.19s at one point.

- 2 mags of mag changes on a high cardboard target, to make myself stay in my workspace

Friday, Sept 4:

Lesson with Emily and SB, working on a mixture of rifle and pistol, including transitions.  I used the offset red dot on the rifle for the most part, since that's new to me.  Pulling the rifle into the shoulder always helps.

We finished with some attempts at the 7yd Bill Drill, where 3.29s was my best result.

I stuck around for Skills and Drills, with the same target array, but pistol only.  Sometimes, I went for head shots (but only for the close targets).

We got to play with a special 22LR, too, which was fun.  You can make a 22LR pistol have a surprising amount of recoil with enough volume over a short period of time!

TPG TEAM MATCH

Love TPG, and love team matches!  It's especially good when the stages are designed with options on who does what, to leverage strengths.  That's what makes a team a good thing, vs 2 people doing the exact same thing and just adding scores.

Stage 2:
- Move 2 light SBs as a team, the whole time

- At pistol spot 1, 1 person shoots the TX star, white popper, then drop mag for the striped popper with 1 attempt to clear the pistol

- The other person can go ahead to the bridge to set up, but don't make ready until the first person finishes shooting and comes over.  Shoot 6 targets N->F 2x through, t hen drop mag and engage the striped target again.

- Move to the rifle area and one person shoots 6 steel @ ~100yd L->R from any ledge of the VTAC, then again from any port of the VTAC.  Clear.

- Once the first rifle person is done, the other shooter shoots rifle from the hood of the car at 3 targets down the alley, one hit each, 2x through, then shoot @ the last 517yd target once at the end and clear.

- Run back and return the SBs at the start.

- Run to pistol spot 1 again, where both shooters must hit the stop plate to end the time.

Learnings/Outcomes:

- SB was the first pistol shooter, and I was the second

- I skipped one pistol target on the first go-around and missed the HVT and fought the others a little

- Bracing on the SB on the bridge helped, even though it wasn't clean shooting

- I shot from the VTAC for rifle, and SB took the longer shots

- We were playing around with the stage plan idea for who did what for a while pre-stage, trying to figure out an optimal arrangement

- SB sho at her 2nd target first, since the first target was in the shadow

- On the last target, she was high right and adjusted a mil at a time and was 3 feet above the target at some point

- I went clean on rifle and chose the low port so that I could use the gamechanger, at the expense of mobility, which just took longer for the wide array of targets

- SB used the SB on the hood of the car

- I was advising her to skip, but she didn't hear... may need to put hands on next time to get noticed... tunnel vision / hearing isn't surprising mid-stage

- We had 15s left by the time we had dumped the SBs, so no real chance at finishing

Stage 3:

- Start seated in the car, and on the beep, load and from the inside of the car or from behind the doors, shoot as a team until all knock-downs (6 larger on left, 6 smaller on right, 1 spinner in the middle) were done.  Drop mag and shoot 1 attempt at the HVT to clear.

- Grab the martial arts dummy from the trunk and carry it to the tower

- Go up the tower, and both shoot 5 targets L->R 2x through at some point (simultaneous is OK)

- Bring the dummy back to the trunk and from the stop stick, both must hit the stop plate to end the time

Learnings/Outcomes:

- We went for the spinner first, so that we could get other targets while waiting for the paddles to be in optimal spots, which worked well

- I did well on pistol, with only a miss or two, even on the skinny bottle targets

- When I was exiting the car, we wondered if I had dropped a mag somewhere, but the only mag we saw was someone else's 

- The tower targets were easy, all in a row at 75-100yd, and I only missed once on the last target of the second string

- I took a long time re-clipping the pint-sized GC, but SB was just getting started with shooting, so it was fine.

- She had arrived earlier but didn't want to move the platform much as I was shooting

Stage 4:

- Start at the punishment cone and run up with one person at the pistol stick and the other person at the punishment stick

- Shooter 1 shoots pistol CLL, CRR, 2x through, drop mag, and shoot the striped target with 1 attempt

- Go on the wobble board with saw horse barricade and shoot rifle CLL, CRR, 2x through.  A miss means your partner must go to the penalty cone and back with 1 coupon, alternating large dumbbell or missle launcher, with a max of 2 trips per array

- Swap shooters and repeat

- The second shooter then reloads the pistol and shoots the stop plate with infinite attempts to tned the time

Learnings/Outcomes:

- I had held high instead of low during my second string, so SB had to do 2 runs then and 1 run during string 1.... I don't remember at which point I forgot.  It had started off well before that :(

- We timed out mid-rifle string 1 while SB was going

- The missile was hot from being in the sun, but if you held it in the places that weren't in the sun, it was tolerable.

- I could carry the dumbbell on my shoulder

- The red dot was dim on my pistol

- I had 1 skip on pistol and somehow missed the giant HVT

- My holds were -0.7, -0.4, 0.6, -0.4, -0.7

- SB said the wobble board was wobbly for her, but I had felt stable

- We shared the schmedium GC

Stage 5:

- Start at the stick and run up to the USPSA zone to shoot IPSCs for 1 person and turtles with 1/2 black for the other person, hitting 2x/target, 1 person at a time

- Go down the trail to the log top and one person shoots 5 squares in the water at ~150yd L->R 2x through and clear.  The other person only needs to shoot L->R 1x through and clear.

- While the lat person is shooting, the other guy can start moving to the pistol spot, with everyone except girls dragging a heavy SB up the hill (this was the only stage element in the match where boys did different things than girls)

- Once together at the pistol spot, one person shoots 5 targets from the tree L->R 2x through, drop mag, and do an extra shot on the striped t-post target

- Swap shooters and repeat pistol

- Bring the SB back if applicable, then shoot the red stop plate

Learnings/Outcomes:

- My suggestion on the cardboard targets was to go slowly and make all the hits, since we wouldn't have the benefit of steel sounds to confirm shots.  We had to know that they were good.

- We each had one miss, though, even with me taking one make-up shot for one that I felt like I might've yanked

- I shot the steel pistol clean, at least

Stage 1: <Pistol Only>

- Hands on the pavilion post to start

- Climb the rope to the top of the pavilion 3x as a team, touching the black bucke

- The other person can go ahead and wait at the top of the slide and be tagged to go down

- Once down the slide, the first person from spot 1 shoots 4 targets L->R 2x through.  From spot 2, shoot LRR 2x through (since the original 3rd target was down).  From spot 3, shoot LRLR, then drop mag for the HVT to clear.  Go to the red bucket further down the creek to retrieve a flag.  Go back and up the chute to tag in your partner.

- Partner repeats the shoot and run sequence.

- Once everyone's back at the top of the slide, load and both try to engage the stop plate until there's 1 hit

Learnings/Outcomes:

- Rope climb was easy because it was short

- I used aluminum mags for lighter weight.  A guy recommended a WML to see a dark target on the first array more easily, but there was no need

- The water was deep near the bucket, so my pants got all wet

- I only had 2 misses, so I was happy with my shooting

- I could've gotten the gun up earlier, but maybe I was trying to save my energy or something, or maybe the mag changes took longer since we had to retain mags for this match

- I did a proactive mag change while moving and tried to convey that to SB, but she didn't remember or hear 

- By the time I got on target, after having trouble racking a round, SB had hit the stop target

Overall

- I may need a more sure way of communicating "skip" or "mag change"

- Good use of the SB or GC as rests

- Good sharing hold info

- Good ammo planning

- Good leveraging pistol vs rifle strengths

- Never needed the offset RD on the rifle today

- Fun stages, creative

- Need to remember to hold in the correct direction on rifle

- Good strategies for minimizing HRs for the shooter

- Happy with my pistol and rifle shooting today

FAITH, FELLOWSHIP, AND FIREARMS

Today's message was about how people in the bible would make altars to commemorate the things that God had done for them.  We can do that in different ways even today, either pretty literally the same way, or in analogous ways.  We each thought about something we were grateful for and put down a rock in a secret spot that all of us will remember in the future.

We checked zero (I shot 5, went down 0.1, then shot 5 more to confirm).

Then, we went out to the convoy bay for a class on tripods.  

We learned about techniques for clipping in:

- Start with the rifle pointed maybe 20mil low so that when you add cheek pressure, you're on

- Push against the tripod and pull against the grip

- Try to avoid free recoil

- Want your left arm positioned the same way you'd have it when you're shooting barricade style (or even pistol)

- Don't grab only the anvil lever... you'll have barely any leverage... grab the upper side of the handguard with your index finger, the lower side of the handguard with your thumb, and the lever with your other three fingers

- Don't need to tighten the ball head tension all the way down... you can keep it in the middle and still be stable

- You can consider getting a thumb rest for the handguard

- Don't jam the gun all the way forward against the ball head, since that will leave no room for your hand

- Ideally have the gun balanced on the ball head

- The quickest option is to start the stage clipped in already, if that's an option

We learned about techniques for using tripod rear:

- Helpful if the barricade is wobbly or if the target is small

- Some tripods have a lock open feature so that the legs don't collapse in while you're moving it

- It's helpful to have a bag attached in front, but worst case, place a bag down first for the front

- Avoid hard on hard... you can find little bags or pads for the butt stock <> tripod connection

- If you have a limited footprint to work with, you can use a short leg on one side

- On a cattle gate, you may be able to keep the tripod in the same place and just work up and down the leg ramp

- Having a diving board in front can be nice for indexing on a landmark

- Always start with the tripod away from you and to your right and bring it in, vs pushing

- Monkey paw drag it instead of forcing it, to avoid having stray legs in the air

- You can sometimes rotate the tripod to get the legs to even out

We learned about techniques for using the tac table technique:

- Set up with a fist height below whatever you want to set up on

- Add a slant towards the target with the tac table, so that you have different height options available

During practice time, I focused on the clip in technique.

I shot 10 rounds of live ammo, with about a 5:1 ratio of dry:live, going for a 670yd torso

I need to adjust cant while the ball head is very loose, since even a little tension is enough to lock it in

It was tough for me to get the arca grip tight enough to not have recoil make it slide, but be loose enough to easily clip in.

I set up for the Bill Drill and did warmups, but then a torrential downpour started and blew my target over the berm.  There was like a 90 min rain delay, waiting out the t-storm.

I forgot my shot timer at home, but I found an app on the phone that worked really well.

My best time was 2.79s with a 1.22s to first shot.  Sub-3 had been my goal.  I got it after about 90 minutes and 225 rounds of trying.

I finished with an hour of practice with the 45 offset red dot and transitions between that and the LPVO.  The fisheye on the Razor G3 is noticeable when you compare it to the red dot.