TSS DMR Finale 2025 @ Clinton House

TRAINING LEAD-UP

Tuesday, Oct 28:

Yoga for Tension Relief & Reunite with Your Body with Adriene

I spent the rest of the night carving a pumpkin for work's pumpkin contest.  It was my first time participating (and maybe my first time carving a pumpkin not as a child).  Some time during the weekend, I figured out my brilliant idea for a theme... the pumpkin boat from our company's BYOB team!

Fortunately, I had my dad's old woodworking tools at my house, so I used those to carve out the designs, after splitting the pumpkin in half.  I saved the insides, in case I wanted to use them as part of the "water" once I did the final arrangement.

The bubblewrap that was leftover from the insides of our boat's giant pumpkin decorations was sufficient to make something that looked quite a bit like whitewater.

I ended up winning the prize for "most creative", which I was proud to get voted for, for a contest between members of our company's R&D org.

Thursday, Oct 30:

Glute and pec PT v1 in 29:06, HDT-KB 12.5.1 (Core) in 1:02:40

Friday, Oct 31:

Rucked Rocky Branch Park with my mom wearing MACV1s with 30# in the v2 Rucker, for a little needed cardio without too much intensity.  We did 3 miles in 1:14:13.  I added on a bit of extra exploration at the end, after following a trail I had never noticed before.  It kept going, but I didn't want to leave my mom waiting, so I turned around before figuring out where it led.  I'll have to go back and explore another day.  The leaves were peaking in color, so it was a nice ruck.

TSS DMR FINALE

The TSS was the first longer range match I ever did back in 2022, so it holds a special place in my heart.  I have been focusing more on 2-gun stuff this year, so I hadn't done as much long range stuff outside of Mammoth and RWSC early in the year.  I wanted to not get too stale on those skills, though, so I signed up for the finale.  I dusted off my 6CM RPR for this.

Stage 1:
- Rifle starts mag in bolt back, high port, pistol cold
- Starting on the far left or far right t-post, shoot 2 targets across the pond at 350yd, 1 hit each, from post 1, 2, 3, 2, 1

- Shoot 3 pistol targets in any order, 2x through

Learnings/Outcomes: 62/69 overall, 14/16 division (bolt)

- I got 3 hits and used up 11 rounds

- The prop was more wobbly than I expected... I had wondered why others were struggling when they shot before me

- The RO says I was 6" to the right when I missed and to check my windage... I wondered whether I should've zeroed my gun beforehand after not touching it in what feels like 1.5 years...

- At spot 1, I reset from using 1 knee to double kneeling for better positioning

- Not a great start

Stage 2:

- You can choose to either start or end with pistol (which I appreciate, since in my early days of TSS, we always started with pistol, and sometimes, I'd never get to rifle, which was the main skill I wanted to test and develop at this match)

- Shoot 2 rifle targets on the road left to right with 1 hit each from the 1) top left, 2) low left, 3) top right, and 4) low right gate rungs in that sequence.

- Shoot pistol card suits L->R 2x through

Learnings/Outcomes: 52/69 overall, 11/16 division 

- I got 7 hits

- I missed 2-3x on target 2, off the high left shoulder (opposite direction for windage on misses than before, so maybe it's not that I have some old windage dialed in, so I figure it's me, not the zero)

- I dialed 1.9 and held 0.4 more for the far target as my strategy.... I did have to think for a moment to make sure I was holding in the right direction

- I wasn't as terrible at this stage

- I could see trace when I spotted for others, but I couldn't see my own trace while shooting

Stage 8:

- From the far right of the plastic tube, shoot 3 steel L->R, 1 hit each. 

- Repeat from the middle and left sides of the plastic tube.

- Shoot 1 hit each L->R on pistol

Learnings/Outcomes: 18/69 overall, 5/16 division 

- Shot 10, got 7 hits

- I felt decently stable, even if I had to tiptoe due to the height of the prop, which did get fatiguing by position 2

- I should've paid more attention to cant at this distance

- I dialed 3.9 and held 0.5 more for the big target that was further

- I used 15x power, which went OK

- I realize that a reason to maybe not dial wind is you might forget to reset it before your next match (unless you bother to zero before the match)

Stage 5:

- Stand on step 1 of the bus and shoot the torso with pistol with 1 hit

- Go to your rifle staged on the bus and from 2 different windows, shoot 4 targets L->R

- Go back to the steps and shoot pistol again with 1 hit

Learnings/Outcomes: 51/69 overall, 12/16 division 

- Hit 6 but shot 12 rounds for rifle

- Hit the pistol target on my second attempt

- I held left edge due to the left to right wind, but I didn't actually need it

- I thought I'd get more first round hits here because the targets were big, but I didn't... maybe I was rushing or slapping?  Not sure.

- I kind of knew that a round didn't chamber on my last shot, but I squeezed the trigger anyways with a click and no bang and had to spend time mag changing after that and timed out

Stage 2:

- Rifle starts on the ground, pointing at a spot on the barricade, with hands on either side of the rifle

- Shoot 6 rifle targets L->R with 1 hit each from 2 different ports

- Crawl out of the hide and shoot 3 pistol targets L->R 1x through

Learnings/Outcomes: 47/69 overall, 12/16 division 

- I used the middle rectangle, followed by right prone off the low wall, to not mess with the netting on top.  The left port wasn't usable unless you were a lefty supposedly, too.

- I dialed 0 for the first 2 targets, then I dialed 0.7 and held 0.1, 0.3, 0.4 for the ones after that.

- Time flew.  I was pretty zoomed in at 10x, so panning was slow.

- I hit 8 and shot 10

Stage 3:

- No glass or LRFs allowed

- You were told ahead of time that targets were at 220-260yd, and the RO pointed out the general instructions and landmarks

- Shoot 5 targets across the pond L->R with 1 hit each, 2x through

- Shoot pistol L->R with 1 hit each

Learnings/Outcomes: 48/69 overall, 10/16 division 

- I shot 11 and hit 10

- I had trouble chambering the first round for some reason, but I worked through it

- It took me a moment to find target #3 which was to the right of the tree in front of me instead of to the left.  I did have the benefit of seeing other shooters work from a specific spot on the barricade.

- I dialed 0.6 and held 0.3 low for the closer mid-pond target

- I was able to get all 5 targets from 1 spot on the log

- I shot 1 round of pistol but missed before timing out

- Target 1 had an odd shape and wasn't sure if it was a target, but I shot it and got an "impact".

Stage 4:

- Start low ready from on top of the shooting platform

- Only allowed to use 10 round mags

- Shoot L->R with 1 hit each at 5 targets, 2x through, from the top rail

- Shoot 4 pistol targets

- Shoot the hostage taker with pistol

Learnings/Outcomes: 41/69 overall, 10/16 division 

- Shot 12, hit 10

- Dialed for 400m to be safe and held left edge, since others were missing right, and it worked

- I timed out after the last rifle shot

- My misses were on the 200yd targets, oddly

- I paid lots of attention to the level this time, which was good.

Stage 1: (Blind stage)

- Start sitting in the back of a car, facing forward, with gun facing back and resting on the seat back

- Shoot 4 targets N->F with 1 hit each, 2x through (R->L)

- Shoot 3 pistol targets in front with 1 hit each

- Shoot 2 humanoids on the left with 1 hit each with pistol, then the circle stop plate

Learnings/Outcomes: 38/69 overall, 6/16 division 

- Shot 12, hit 8

- Missed the most on the closest target, oddly

- Surprised I hit the others, since they looked small and the position on the seat back was a little awkward

- I couldn't make out the shape of the last target, but I shot at the blur and hit

- I timed out before I loaded my pistol... the targets looked small and far, so I had a lower chance of hitting, anyways

- I dialed all the dope to be safe

Overall 50/69 overall, 11/16 div, 2/3 women

- Good use of holds vs dials

- I could pay a little more attention to my bubble and keep both eyes open to see it

- Zoom levels weren't anything crazy, but maybe still a touch high at times

- I feel like I was a little bit unpracticed and less fluent at this match after the time off, but there were no glaring issues

- It went about as well as I could expect, given my time off

- The competition has definitely gotten better at these matches.

- The people you get to spend the day with, as always, are great