TRAINING LEAD-UP
Tuesday, Feb 17:
18A "Upper Body Prep" in 25:13, HDT KB "Kettledoom" 20 min AMRAP with 25-30#KBs with 6 rounds and 4 reps, followed by a 20 min Italian Alps Peloton Ride as a shakeout with 152 cal, 5.65 mi, 122 watts, 79rpm, 40% resistance, 17mph average.
Wednesday, Feb 18:
18A "Dynamic Warmup" in 25:33, HDT-KB 10.4.2 (core) in 42:40 with a nice variety of exercises, good on a day where I'm still sore but need to be fresh before the weekend gun run.
Thursday, Feb 19:
Checked zero on my comp rifle at Blackstone, no changes needed.
I did 4 mags of ball and dummy on pistol, pretty happy with the 2.5-3" spread at 7yds.
Did 6 mags as fast as possible, playing with grip. I ended up liking using my left index finger as a shelf to drive back towards. I got a pretty bell curved even distribution.
TPG RUN & GUN 5K - RUCK DIVISION
This was the first time that TPG was offering a rucking division for their gun run. Since I'm all about rucking, I had to give it a try.
The brief was at 7:30am, and I was the first competitor to step off at 8am, since I'd be ROing afterwards.
This "5K" would actually be 4.3 mi, since we were at Coleman's Creek, and they wanted to take full advantage of the bays here. More for our money!
Stage 1:
- Shoot 4 card suits and hot holster
- Shoot 4 card suits and hot holster
- Shoot 5 (4 normal plus a striped though not obviously striped target) 2x through, then drop mag and shoot the striped one again
- Use the hot pistol to shoot the 4 card suits again, then drop mag for the red stop plate
Learnings/Outcomes: 7/9 division, 49/69 overall
- 2 rifle and 5 pistol misses meant a 110s penalty
- the stage came up on me earlier than I expected, since we weren't at a real bay and were just shooting down an ATV lane... that mattered since I had used a biathlon-style sling and it was more work to get in and out of, at least with the lengths that I had on the straps and the extra depth of the ruck that added to strap length requirements
- I hadn't caught during the brief that the one rifle target was striped and not solid red, so getting that clarification mid-stage ate up some time
- I did standing for rifle at first, but that was slow and wobbly, so I went prone for the rest... should've gone there from the start, as much shooting as there was
- the stop plate for pistol was a stick, so I had no chance on that, but it didn't matter, since I never got that far
- not a good start, but I did my best to shake it off
(footage from another competitor)
Stage 2: (pistol only)
- after a long run to the pistol arcade, where I had reslung my biathlon sling for the movement
- from the red stick, shoot red targets: 2 far, 2 medium, 2 close
- from the white stick, shoot white targets: 2 far, 3 medium, 1 close, and the 5-plate rack
- from the blue stick, shoot blue targets: 2 far, 2 medium, 1 small
Learnings/Outcomes: 7/9 division, 42/68 overall
- accidentally shot a white target while in the red zone, since it was the third in the "el pres" array and felt natural to shoot next
- wasn't clear on what the stop plate situation was, since we did drop mag for HVT elsewhere, so I dropped mag for it, missed, and reloaded, but we could've just kept shooting and clear at the end, which took extra time... wish the course of fire was more consistent
Stage 3:
- shoot 4 pistol targets, 2x through, and hot holster
- from the tank trap, shoot 3 targets doing down the hill on the left
- from teh tire top, shoot 4 targets in teh valley
- from somewhere else, shoot more pistol targets
Learnings/Outcomes: 4/9 division, 19/69 overall
- never got to the last pistol spot
- pistol was closer this time
- the RNG Tactics "Steady Shot" handguard pillow wasn't a magic bullet as far as wobble went
- I got 50s worth of penalties
Stage 4: (rifle only)
- after rucking down and up the big hills
- from 2 windows and 2 horizontal ports, shoot at a ~100yd silhouette
- from the top of the roof, but you're standing on the ground (I missed the standing part during the brief), shoot near to far 2x through and drop mag to shoot the red target on an array of rifle targets
Learnings/Outcomes: 7/9 division, 45/69 overall
- finished before time was called
- me going up and having to get down the roof ate up time mid-stage
- the 2nd horizontal port required canting the rifle... I did hold towards the mag but didn't also hold extra elevation at first and missed, before I adjusted for that
- the 100yd rifle target took some time to find in the vegetation from the different ports and windows... that was a different kind of challenge. I had too much magnification on my LPVO, too, which added to that difficulty. The higher magnification was helpful when it was time to shoot, though.
Stage 5:
- from the pistol box, shoot 8 steel (5 circles fall, card suits stay) left to right, then shoot the remaining card suits again, drop mag, and shoot the red stop plate
- run up to the barrel and shoot 5 steel with rifle L->R 2x through, drop mag and shoot the 5th target again
Learnings/Outcomes: 4/9 division, 27/68 overall
- I didn't get to the last shot before PAR time, which meant a 30s penalty
- I did manage to hit the small pistol stop plate, which was nice
- I shot with my mag on the barrel for rifle
- There was lots of rifle panning involved in this stage by design, which required being very mobile
Stage 6:
- run all the way back by the zero bay but on the opposite side of the road- shoot 5 pistol targets with left hand, shoot them again with right hand, shoot them again 2-handed
- shoot 4 rifle steel normal standing, shoot them again from left shoulder with barricade usage allowed, and then shoot them a third time normal standing
Learnings/Outcomes: 6/9 division, 58/68 overall
- 380s worth of penalties....
- never ended up hitting anything one-handed... way too far and small.... even 2-handed wasn't going to be easy
- I gave too much of a "college try" on the right-handed shooting, especially on teh first target, and started skipping sooner in subsequent targets
- by the time I got to left hand, I knew I had no chance
- by the time I got to rifle, there wasn't going to be much time left
- I got partway through left shoulder rifle shooting before time ran out
- left-shoulder shooting isn't bad... it just takes longer
- looking back, it would've been nice to game it and skip all the 1-handed shooting, but that seems too gamey even if it's within the rules.
- the shooting was way too much, way too hard, for a 90s par.
Run
- I got 2/9 division, 33/68 overall
- took 1:11:50
- the water bottle pocket on the left side of my ruck worked out pretty well as a place to stash extra mags or empty mags and didn't get in the way
- I need to lengthen the straps on the biathlon sling next time... I assume it's possible, if it's made to be 1-size-fits-all
- it was nice to be hands-free with the sling, though.
- the ruck felt like it could've been tightened up higher on my back to clash less with my belt, but the webbing on the rucker v3 is hard to slide through
- I got slightly thirsty, but it wasn't bad
- Salomon speedcross's were good to run in
- my right glute was on fire afterwards
- I kept my ruck on the whole time while shooting, even though we were allowed to take it off... it would've affected my running time. Maybe it had some effects on my shooting, but it's not bad to train with it, and the stages are pretty short.
Overall 5/9 division, 36/69 overall
- I felt like I needed higher magnification to shoot well, but that slowed down target acquisition
- my recoil management on rifle didn't feel great, so I'd lose sight of my targets... high magnification was probably a factor again
- my holds based on swagging it was OK for these target sizes
- my pistol performance was as expected based on the distances and sizes of the targets
- I was surprised (and not surprised) that I hit 0 targets one-handed on pistol based on the target distance/size
- I need to play with the RNG Tactics pillow some more
- I brought 218 pistol, shot 125, ending up with 93 extra
- I brought 150 rifle, shot 60, so I had 90 extra
- I can bring less ammo next time if the stages continue to have such short PAR times, but you never know beforehand
- one thing about going first is that the ROs at each stage haven't gotten practice and experience with how best to brief their stage for the day, which I know I've run into as an RO... so pros and cons of going first.
- It turned out that all women, regardless of whether they ran slick, with a plate carrier, or with a ruck, were ranked together, but somehow, I managed to still come out on top.
ROing
- I ROed for the rest of the day with Devin.
- After a while, I was giving the stage briefs and doing the tablet. Devin did the tough job of resetting the falling pistol steel, which had a tiny and wobbly stand to go on. It was really muddy, so it would've been hard to do both the target resets and the tablet.- Our stage let people make their pistol hot prior to the stage, which people were always excited to hear, after having to start cold at other stages.
- It was interesting to see how people built positions for rifle... a few did standing and still hit, others went flat on the barrel with their handguard. Others did mag on barrel. A few did elbows on barrel. Handguard on barrel can make for some close calls depending on the height of any lips on the barrel, so I do mag on. Many started standing but soon switched to braced.
- I'm getting pretty good at giving calm and clear stage briefs, I think.
- Between runners, I'd squeeze in bathroom and water breaks.
- The mud was like peanut butter and would cake a thick multi-inch layer on, as soon as you took a couple of steps in it. It was a constant game of wiping it off on branches, then getting caked again.
- One guy took a spill in the mud. A little surprised it wasn't more!
- I appreciated it when we were thanked for being out there by the runners. It makes a big difference even if it's nothing!
- We never had more than 1-2 waiting to shoot our stage.
- It was easy to see the rifle hits on this stage by eye because they were close enough, and you could hear them.
- It was nice to be able to take pics of people that I knew
Post-Match AET Drill
Before the last runner and teardown but before awards, I tried to squeeze in a couple of runs of the
"Armored Eagle Training Feb Drill", which was
- 15 yd
- 6 standing
- mag change
- 6 kneeling
- any hits out of the A-zone count as 0.5s penalties
The standard was 10s.
With 15-20s, I still only managed to get about 6 on target... it was hard, and the target was far.
Post-Match Training with KW
After awards, KW and I did another hour of practice.
He introduced me to the
"AMU Drill", where
- from 30yd, shot at the IPSC's big A-zone, and shoot at the half-covered IPSC's A-zone to the left, with 3 and 3 with rifle
- mag change as you run up to the 15yd line and shoot 3 on the big A-zone and 3 head shots on the same target's A-zone head with rifle
- transition to pistol and shoot 3 on the big A-zone, then 3 on the half-covered A-zone's A-zone
- mag change as you run up to the 7yd line and shoot 3 on the big A-zone and 3 head shots on the same target's A-zone head.
We ran this 2x live.
I'd forget to do my mag change on the run up until a little late.
It's a good drill. Tough (complete misses on the head shot and a NS, for example) but good.
I did 3 more attempts of the AET drill but only managed to get about one more shot in in a similar amount of time as before.
We then worked on my trigger pulls in an uncompressed surprise break drill, to check for yanking. When you get good at single shots, you can proress to double taps.
Takeaways:
- focus on the target (a very small dot), not the dot
- let the muzzle rise naturally and let gravity pull it back down... don't drive the gun down
- Don't look at the dot since you might pull the trigger early, as soon as you see the dot on cardboard, vs in the exact spot that you want
- let the trigger finger move freely
- I shot better with no thumbs on the gun, which helped me not push to the right
- try unported guns, try the glock, try skateboard tape to be able to grip with no muscle
No comments:
Post a Comment