GBF Operation Shooter - Summer Edition

TRAINING LEAD-UP

Wednesday, June 10:

Glute and pec PT v1 in 28:47, felt strong, maybe due to all the rest days plus plentiful sleep last night plus caffeine.  HDT 31.1.2 (core) in 33:38.  2:30 dead hang finisher... crazy how I always PR it at the end of a workout, vs mid-day at work, on the same bar.

Thursday, June 11:

Yoga for Flexible Mind and Body & Day 22 - Renew | BREATH yoga with Adirene. My lats and a little bit of abs were sore today.

Stocked up on Chipotle for the weekend...

GBF OPERATION SHOOTER SUMMER

I've done Op Shooter three times now, but this was the first time they'd do it in the summer.  

I was curious what would be changed up for the summer edition.  The heat was definitely going to be a factor.  I had spent some, but not a ton, of time training in the heat to get acclimated.  

I got in on Friday, since we had our first brief at 4:50am on Saturday morning.  We'd be doing a group ruck with rifle at 5am as our first activity.  I was on the second floor of the lodge, so heat liked to stay up there even with the AC, but it's still better than my townhouse, where I don't use AC.

I ended up having a room to myself, which was nice, since I bring a lot of gear and clothes to these events.  With this format of event, you go on a mission at a time, getting briefed at a certain time, having a little bit of time to finalize the gear that you need/want to bring, then stepping off at the designated time.  You do get a little bit of downtime between events sometimes, so you can change clothes or even shower, if you've gotten really dirty or wet. 

Event 1 : Group Recon Ruck
GBF Tactical Ambassador Ed led us on this.  It was a 2.7 mi ruck down to the creek and around a loop and back.  We'd be doing this route again, so we needed to be familiar with it.  We stayed together, for a little team building and to warm up before things really heated up.  We had to bring 25# dry and a rifle, but no pistol or ammo.  Part of the route went through the creek, but it wasn't super deep, since there's been a drought... the base of my ruck might've touched the water.  We did 2.7 mi in 54:06.

Event 2 : Timed Ruck and Rifle Shoot

We'd do the same route as before, but this time, we'd do some shooting at the far side of the route, and back at home base.  On the far side, there were two targets... we'd shoot standing, kneeling, and prone on one, then repeat the positions on the other.  There wasn't enough distance for us to spread out before we got to the first shooting stage, so there was a backup of pretty much everyone.  Gregg jumped in to RO as well and had two people go at a time.  In this case, though, it paid to be a winner and to get to that stage first, since you could gain time on the others, while being a little behind just compounded your delay.  

I had gone with shorts, since the sun wasn't that high up yet, and I wasn't expecting to do any low crawling, so it might be one of my few chances all weekend to wear short sleeves and shorts.  With the prone shots in the sand after coming out of the creek, we did get all sandy, though.

By the time we got back to HQ, things were a little more spread out, so there was no wait when it was my turn to shoot 10 prone hits at 100yd.  The red dot on the SR15 worked fine, but I felt a lot of recoil from prone on this gun for some reason.  I'm not sure if I've shot it prone like that before.

I did 2.8 mi in 41:51.

Event 3 : Heartbreak Hill

We had this brief at 8:30am... already on our third event!

This would be the biggest event of the weekend, it turned out... the most grueling.  We'd do 4 laps.  Each lap out to the pond and the top of the hill, we'd shoot 3 hits left-handed and 3 hits right-handed on some poppers that actually ended up being a decent distance away, vs what I'm used to.  After the end of each lap, at the 100yd bay, we'd shoot 2 standing, 2 kneeling, and 6 prone on ~10" steel.

I chose to wear long sleeves, now that the sun would be out.  There was a 2-hr time cap, too.  I had no idea if I'd make it until we were a couple of laps in.  You naturally slow down a bit as you fatigue, and as the heat of the day rises.  I brought a bottle of water with me and drank it in portions.  Fortunately, Gregg gave us each another bottle later on, so I didn't have to go back to the lodge for more.

On my first go at one-handed shooting, I spent nearly a mag.  I had only brought 3x17, so things weren't looking good for a 4-lap event.  I somehow ended up getting a little bit better as time went on, though.  I realized that it was better to not cant the pistol like I normally would for one-handed shooting, since the popper was tall but not wide.  I went back to the lodge for another mag before my last lap, although I ended up not needing it.

Rifle went a bit better... I tried the BCM with Hornady ammo... no popped primers.

Jose and Morgan smashed this event, taking first and second by a lot.  About 4 didn't complete the 4 laps, since they were done from the heat.

Even though we didn't get in the water for this event, my clothes were dripping pools from sweat alone.

Event 4 : RWB M&Ms

We were split into 3 teams for the first time, randomly.  I was on Team 1, led by GBF Tactical Ambassador Jose.  There was a bowl of RWB M&Ms.  We did a relay where a person from your team goes up, does 2 burpees, and takes the allowed number of M&Ms back to your team's bowl.  The number increased over time, until at the very end, it was a free-for-all where everyone could go up.  We had red.  It turned out that the bag actually has way more red ones than any other color... they probably figured out what ratio to use among the three colors to make it look the best, which isn't necessarily equal portions.  Who knows if this was scored, though.  If it was, we lost, since we were the last to get all our M&Ms back.   It was fun and funny, though.  We had to make sure the dogs didn't get involved, since it was chocolate and chaotic.

Event 5 : Long Range Free Play

To help people continue recovering from the earlier effort in the Heartbreak Hill evolution, the next event was also low-key.  We went to the long known-distance range and got to shoot however much or little we wanted, for fun.  

The volunteers are normally busy administering the event, being out there before we start, and staying until the last participant gets back, and they also need time to recover, so I guessed that even though they were here all weekend, they didn't get much of a chance to shoot.  I get to shoot all the time, so I offered to let a couple of them shoot with my gun.  It probably didn't fit them that well from an eye relief perspective, since both of them are taller than me, and after adjusting the length of pull, the optic probably wasn't in a good spot, but they at least hit 200yd pretty easily and had a good time.  Both were former military, perhaps, and one had never shot a rifle before, so it was cool to be able to s hare that experience with them.

Event 6 : Sniper Tower

We had a brief at 12:30pm.  For the event, we'd go one at a time.  We'd start at the bottom of the big connex structure, climb the stairs to the topmost connex (3rd floor).  From the far window, we'd make one pistol hit at about 25yd (I think it was more, at a minimum due to the vertical distance).  

Then, we'd go to the balcony on the right and shoot prone at 5 targets, L->R, 1 hit ea, then go back to the bottom, with a 25#R.  

I was the third to go.  The first guy spent a lot of pistol ammo on that one target.  I had only brought one mag, so I was worried whether I'd run out.  The second one to go made it in one hit, though.  Fortunately, I made it in one hit, too.  I just held like I normally would.

I shot 7 rounds to make my 5 hits, using 77gr ammo in my FDE LMT.  I think the targets were about 125-250yd, but I forgot to bring my LRF to the stage to know for sure.  I got the second fastest time in the group.  A surprising number of people removed their ruck to shoot rifle, so I think it helped that I kept it on.

Event 7 : Rifle Only Sniper

After everyone shot, we went to the top floor again for a bonus stage.  Each person would take turns and have one minute to shoot those same 5 targets 2 hits ea L->R, as many times as they could.  You'd earn a point for each run-through completed.  I shot 30 rounds exactly and had a mag in but nothing chambered before time ran out.  I got 2x through plus a few shots.  I had been rushing towards the end, not knowing where I was on time, so I missed more.  It would've been nice to have my timer on that stage.  I was happy with 2 laps, though... I think that tied with a couple others for the top result.  I stayed on 5X magnification, since that had worked well during the previous stage.  I had unnecessarily gone back to the lodge before this stage to get more ammo, unsure of how much I'd get through within a minute.  My whole run from the previous stage was really short, so I must've gone through the rifle portion pretty quickly, so I wanted more ammo.  I would've been fine with what I had, though.

Event 8 : Strip & Assemble

It was 4pm for this brief, and the goal was to stay indoors some more to stay cool during some of the hottest hours of the day.  2 at a time, we'd come up and disassemble and reassemble our pistol, followed by our rifle.  The pistol only had to go to 4 pieces.  The rifle only had to go to lower / upper / CH / BC / bolt / firing pin / cam pin / firing pin retaining pin.  The first pair went painfully slow.  I was so ready to speed through this, so I went up to go next.  As someone who shoots a lot and therefore ends up cleaning a lot, I have lots of practice with disassembly.

Unfortunately, during pistol, the spring got stuck in some odd position, and the barrel got stuck poking out, and the slide wouldn't move.  After struggling with that for a while, even trying to pull the trigger while trying to move the slide, Gregg let me grab my backup pistol to start that part from scratch, still with the clock rolling.  The rest was fine, but I lost sooo much time on it.  I used reddit to try to figure out ideas on what to do afterwards.  I think eventually, maybe trying to pull on the barrel to relieve pressure on the spring eventually allowed the trigger to pull and for everything to reset.  I would've liked to get a second go at it, even unofficially, to show what I could do... I'll just wait until next time, though.

Gregg saw a bunch of dirty guns, so he told us that at 6am the next morning, after getting an hour to clean guns, we'd have a random inspection of 3 rifles across the class, and there'd be some kind of group penalty for each dirty rifle.  

Event 9 : Pistol Only

At 4:30, we had our next brief.  At 5pm, we'd bring pistol and ammo and our rucks, but no rifle.  

- We started with pairs going head to head in friendly competition to knock down plate racks.  The plates were slightly different with one rack having plates that were slightly farther apart, but no big deal at the end of the day, unless you're on the ultra pointy end of skill level where tenths matter, and most of us aren't there.  I did have to hold higher on the plate rack, vs on the chevron for 25yd, so it must've been either farther or closer than 25yd.

- Next, we worked draws by having to holster after each shot (hit or miss).

- Next, instead of just going straight across the plate, we worked transitions by having to shoot the big static steel first, then a plate, then repeat static + plate until all the plates are down.  I wasn't using the grip that I've trying to hone, at all.

Now, it was competition time... there was a tournament based on the dueling tree.  I had a rough go in round 1 but ended up winning.  I was pretty sure I was going to get knocked out in round 2, but somehow managed to beat my matchup.  Then, in the finals, I ended up winning that in straight shots... my competition choked and missed the whole time.  I didn't expect to win at all, since there are some really good pistol shots out there, and I hadn't done well the previous year.  It was nice to not completely suck, though.  

During our dinner-time break afterwards, I spent an hour or so of our 90 minutes cleaning rifles, so that I'd be ready and free to help others during our hour of cleaning time later.  I hadn't lubed my guns prior to coming to the comp, so part of the time was spent lubing all my guns.

Event 10 : Buddy Carry

To keep physical demands more reasonable for this summer event, we got to do buddy carries slick this year... no rucks or guns for either person.  Rifle (and ruck as a rest) were staged at the shooting position.  You had to carry your buddy about 100yd, then shoot 5 standing, 5 kneeling, 5 prone, at the 100yd bay.  With 12 people in the class, there are only so many options for pairings, so everyone did their best to pair with someone similarly sized, but inevitably, some people end up with higher differentials, for better or for worse.

My buddy ended up having physical issues being carried in the standard fireman position, which we didn't find out until we were about 20yd in... I wasn't sure whether we'd start this over with a new buddy who could handle the position, but Gregg said to try piggy back, and that worked OK.  More farmers' carry muscles are needed, but it's not the end of the world.

Standing was tricky with the wobble, so I ended up shooting 29 rounds total.  I tried to make up time from the buddy carry, on the final 15yd run, since I wasn't happy about the situation.  This comp isn't about having perfect conditions and a perfectly even playing field, though.  You just roll with the cards you're dealt, and that's fine... that's life sometimes.  This event is more about the experience and dealing with the unknowns and adversity.

Event 11 : Rifle Relay

Now for a bit more teamwork fun... we got back into our three teams of four.  One person at a time would run to the gate and back, then shoot 10 prone hits on steel, then tap in the next person for their turn.  First team to get all 4 people through wins.  We had a good team, with Jose, Morgan, and Shawn.  We lived up to the expectations, too, and won by a hair.  Fast at running and good at shooting!  I was lucky to be on that team.

Event 12 : Night Nav with OPFOR

Still in our teams, we had a mission that required more planning, with a brief at 8:30pm and step-off at 9:30pm.  In pairs, we'd go out, and each pair had to find all 6 checkpoints and get selfies.  At the checkpoints, though, there were opportunities for the first teams to arrive to get tea bags (in honor of the British for America 250), but you were capped on how many you could accumulate before you had to go back to HQ to dump them.  You also had to avoid OPFOR who'd be roaming the roads - if they caught you and IDed you, you'd have to give up your tea bags.  Don't let the map deceive you... the OPFOR are actually everywhere on the roads.

I suggested that Jose and Morgan go together, since they were both fast, and I didn't want them to get slowed down.  They crushed it.  Somehow, my partner and I ended up where OPFOR had a heavy presence.  After lots of waiting in between rounds that they made, we decided that we had no choice but to bushwhack.  That ended up being extremely slow going, though... it took us an hour to go about a mile.  We got one point and searched for but couldn't find the second, before we decided to make our way back to get home before the NLT time.  

At least it was fun, getting chased around and hiding.  We did come across a freaky looking decoy deer in the middle of the woods.  We were uncertain at first about whether it was real.

We did not win this one.

Event 13 : Group Point Retrieval

After duking it out against the other teams, we now got to come together to figure out how we'd expeditiously retrieve all of the points.  Fortunately, we were allowed to use our cars this time.  We were all tired, but it was really cool to see everyone come together to figure out how to get it done, so that we could get more rest afterwards.

Event 14 : O-Course

After some nice rest... well, I was still amped up with adrenaline.  I did laundry, in between laying down and getting a couple hours of sleep.  

I enjoyed some of the captured tea from the previous night...

For the next evolution, we were told to come out to the rope climb with 20# rucks at our 6am brief.  

First, we did an untimed "warmup" of the O-course slick, with hurdles, short log steps, low crawl, passing through the middle of two high bars, tall logs steps, and the rope climb.  I didn't test the obstacles beforehand like the others, since I know I might only have the strength for 1-2 good pulls in me.  I'd just take them as they came.  

I grabbed on to the rubber cover to help me get over the tallest log hurdle.  For the two high bars, I ended up using the toes-to-bars technique that I use for Bender at Spartan Races.  The tall logs were a little scary but doable.  Those were the ones that I was concerned about.

Next, we had to do the same thing with rucks, but in teams.  We could help each other.  Two in our group were no-gos for obstacles due to health concerns or something, but they helped Morgan and I through.  I climbed both ropes at the end... no rucks required for that.  We had to do 2 climbs as a group in total.

I hadn't realized that this was timed between teams, otherwise I might've pushed a little harder.  It was unequal anyways, with two of our team being out, it seemed.

Event 15 : America 250 Balloons

We decided to end the event a little early with the heat, but we'd end it with a bang.  

We set up balloons on a log, for an Op Shooter 2025 re-do.  

On go, we shot from kneeling (with prone, a little bump in the ground prevented you from seeing the balloons) until we got them all.  

Afterwards, we popped confetti and got a cool pic.

Overall:

- No podium for me this time, but some top tier athlete shooters come out to this event, so that's OK.  I'm always inspired to train up for the next one after each event, after getting thrashed so badly on the rucks and runs.

- This was a hard event, but in a different way from the winter version, which has its own discomfort in the form of wet and cold.  You're tired at both events.

- It's always a fun and unique environment, living with the group of people for a whole weekend that is so packed with activity that it feels like an entire week.  A special breed of people come out to this kind of event.  People not afraid to be uncomfortable in many senses of the word... physically and mentally (not knowing what to expect)

Gregg did make a very nice post that I appreciated.