Mammoth Lead-up Prep 2025

TRAINING & PREP LEAD-UP

Cramming on rifle dope prep!  Fortunately, we had an extra week of prep time this year.

Sunday, Dec 29:

After getting home from Denver, I did 4 miles around the neighborhood at a 13:39/mi pace.  I wanted to get back under a ruck with a little bit of intensity.

Monday, Dec 30:

Field stripped my Peak Meals and loaded up my pack with the new rifle for the first time.

Tuesday, Dec 31:

Even though we couldn't be together in person for NYE now that I was back at home, we did a Family Facetime.

Wednesday, Jan 1:

My friend posted a little IG challenge to do this song with movements... the "Sea Shanty Challenge".  It was fun to figure out, kind of like learning the steps to a dance.  I'm not a dancer, so this is about as close as I get.  You want to visualize it and practice it in your mind as much as possible, and even move your body slightly without actually doing it, so that you don't smoke yourself with a bunch of failed attempts.  Make the attempts count!

Afterwards, I did 18A "Upper Body Prep" in 27:51, followed by HDT 31.1.2 (core) in 29:34.

Thursday, Jan 2:

Flow - Day 16 - Kindness & Prana - Day 1 Yoga with Adriene

Friday, Jan 3:

It was time to get more comfortable with using my new lightweight gun on props while shooting at steel.  I kept it at 242yd and 580yd, since I'd be chasing further targets and rather focus on the props with hittable targets.

A bonus of night shoot weekends at Coleman's is that you get to enjoy some beautiful sunsets, too.

Once it got dark, I headed to the 2-gun bays, set up my own steel, and shot pistol and rifle, from various positions.  My MAWL is off, and I need to adjust its zero.

Saturday, Jan 4:

I stayed overnight nearby, so that I could get in another day at the range the next day.

Zero

I started with zeroing and made a 0.2 mil adjustment left.  

KD Range

Then, it was time to hit the KD range to try to figure out dope for Mammoth.

- I figured out what I needed for 100yd, 600yd, 1200yd, 800yd, 900yd, 400yd, 600yd again, 1200yd again.

- I tended to need about 0.3 mil of elevation difference at 1000yd (with about linear deviations) from what Kestrel was giving me, which was a bit confounding

- I'd later end up trying out a few different BCs that others had inputted in the bullet library for my bullet, to try to make the numbers line up better.  I settled on 0.285.

Prop Bay

SB and I did repeated build and breaks from modified prone and a cattle gate, on 242yd and 580yd targets.  We did some live and did some dry.  It is good to see times go down after a few reps.

Always do pre-stage checks!  It's a lesson you'll learn often, if you don't!

Pistol Bay

Did a little pistol tune-up, just 2 mags worth, from 10 to 30yd... "slow squeeze back" is the ticket.

Check Zero

Did 5 more shots, to see where my velocity was... it was about 9fps lower on average with 5 shots... factory ammo is all over the place anyways.

Sunday, Jan 5:

It was chilly in my house!

I worked on dope cards from the comfort of my bed.

I also did Glute and Pec PT v2 in 30:06, followed by Glute and Pec PT v1 in 26:30.

Monday, Jan 6:

Prana - Day 2 & Day 4 Yoga with Adriene


Tuesday, Jan 7:

I had to re-loctite my red dot on my new CZ, after it had somehow gotten loose with just the built-in blue material during my last Coleman's trip.  

I made a trip to Blackstone to check zero after the re-loctite.  Zero held, fortunately.

I also tried out the iron sights on the new CZ for the first time.  Sprays a little high at 7yd, but passable, I guess.

For Mammoth, though, I combined the new CZ upper with the old CZ lower, since I liked the smushiness of the trigger on the old CZ better.  It's good to have options!

Load-out picture time!

Wednesday, Jan 8:

Yoga for Concentration and Mental Focus & Prana - Day 3 Yoga with Adriene