I left out at 1235 and pretty much what's been posted. It didn't get any better on the trails. Shooting was probably easier after the rain stopped pouring, at least cor most people using optics. Slipped several times, glad I kept by barrel taped. Glasses fogged up a couple of time at the start but still shot ok despite this. Blode my charge handle somewhere between last two stages but it was still functional. I'm guessing my optics got knocked off zero a little in between these two stages also because I went from being dead on to three straight misses at station one of the speed wall. Must have been either in the tire/trench obstacle or the V shaped fence obstacle at the last stage.
In all had a great time, as always. I'll be back in April if at all possible.

My EOTech fogged over on the first stage but I could still see the reticule so I superposed the the reticle over where I thought the targets where and s ores 3 first round hits.

My aimpoint never fogged up but my glasses sure did.  Fogged glasses with rain all over the lenses of the aimpoint meant I did that more than a few times.

My glasses fogged up alot until about stage 5.  It was another added feature of the excellent mud fest.  I carried to much ammo aswell.  Only used 19 extra rifle and 20 pistol rounds to complete it.

i will hold them for you for the next go round.

Saturday I was the RO at Stage 4 wearing the 3 color desert Gore-tex jacket. I found what is likely your insight light on the 3rd carpet on Stage 4. I turned it in as lost and found. I'll ask Scout if he can put his hands on it and work out getting it back to you or put your name on it for next time. We found more lost items at this shoot than any other, but most of what we found on Stage 4 was reunited with its owner later. I've even managed to misplace my own camera.

I overheard the results will be linked on the Battle Road USA website in a few days.

I bet you got as much sliding around in the mud as we did since you ran the stage with us.

BattleRoad Zombie Biathlon AAR

This was my first BattleRoad Zombie Biathlon which I had heard about from this ARFCOM post. The premise of covering a distance course carrying all gear intrigued me. I competed in Tiger Valley’s Bug Out Drill a few years ago, which I really enjoyed, but I liked the idea of a shorter course consisting of only shooting and physical obstacles instead of the full gear test of the Bug Out Drill. The preview video on the website made it look like a professionally run event with a staff who knew what they were doing.

The location was excellent providing enough room for a single 4.5 mile loop through a lot of wooded terrain. Making several consecutive smaller loops or trekking through open fields or roads for this distance would have been boring. The range was out far enough in the country to allow freedom for shooting and hiking, but it was not an obscene drive from four major cities: Austin, San Antonio, Dallas/Fort Worth, and Houston. It was an hour drive for me from north Austin, and 2.5 hours for my brother from Houston. The range facilities that we used featured a 100 yard rifle bay, 250 yard rifle bay, and shoot house with two-sided L-shaped berm. The only amenities were two port-o-potties, but overall the facility was adequate for the match.

The course began with an immediate wall climb then a half mile through a field followed by woods to get to the first stage which was at least 1.5 miles from the start position. In fact the first two stages alone felt like half of the course distance. The course stayed in and out of the woods with part of it through a very dense "dry” creek bed that had turned into several inches of mud after the several hours of rain that morning. The course through the woods was well marked with construction tape, but some of the road crossing were not well marked. The physical obstacles included wall and fence climbs, low crawling under wire, climbing over large logs, crossing a narrow bridge over a 10’ drop, and negotiating narrow hallways in addition to the natural terrain obstacles. While the obstacles were not super difficult, they offered a lot of chances to bang your body and gear around which was a good durability test for both.

The stages were challenging without being impossible, but they more like movement tests than shooting tests due to the slick mud that covered most of them. I really liked the natural terrain pistol stages and believed them to be the perfect balance of difficulty. The targets (mostly 8” head plates) were close enough to be hit by the more novice shooters while just far enough to require good fundamentals from the more experienced shooters. The rifle stages were designed by a true masochist. The target size and distances looked fairly easy on paper, but all of the rifle stages (except the one CQB rifle stage) forced the shooter into awkward, unbalanced, and unconventional positions. Whether shooting behind vision obscuring props like underneath a truck or through diagonal slits in a wall, or using unsteady barricades like a chain link fence or flimsy wall, the shooter rarely got to shoot from a stable position with a vertically oriented rifle. The few times a stolid prone stance could be used the target was mostly obscured by grass and range elevation, and the shooter was laying on top of rocks or in the mud. These unconventional shooting positions were good tests for experienced shooters but would quickly frustrate more novice shooters. All of the stages except one used all steel targets, so scoring was simple and immediate. All steel targets is the perfect way to run a match like this.

The staff was friendly and very helpful even after spending all day in the rain. They did an excellent job of keeping everything moving and overcoming several inches of rain being dumped on the range before and during the event to make the match a success. Everyone that I talked to was very happy with the event, and I never heard any complaints.

While I was impressed with the match and had a great time, there are a few things I would change for future events. The first would be Range Officer consistency. Some ROs would include the stage briefing as part of the wait time while others would not. Some would have you load and make your gear ready before the stage time started, while others would arbitrarily say "Go” after the stage briefing while the shooter is forced to figure out where he’s supposed to start, ask if it’s okay to load the rifle, load and make his rifle ready, then find the first target to engage all while the stage time is running. Personally, I would like to see the wait time start as soon as the shooter arrives on a stage and end when he departs the stage. This would allow the shooter to get a proper stage and safety briefing without trying to rush through it and potentially shoot in an unsafe direction. I would also prefer the RO give proper load and make ready commands prior to the stage time beginning. This takes the shooter’s guess work out of knowing where, when, and how to start while also keeping the scoring consistent between shooters and stages.

As a matter of preference, I would have liked the stage scoring to allow for misses instead of just timing out and zeroing the whole stage. A shooter that makes 20 rifle hits on a stage but times out before the very last one should not be scored the same as a shooter who timed out on the first target with few or zero hits. Simply adding 10+ seconds to the shooter’s time per miss would still be easy to score. This would also allow a shooter that gets frustrated with one shooting position to move on and experience the other equally frustrating shooting positions instead of just timing out in one place. The unconventional shooting position experience at this match is invaluable, and it would allow more shooters to gain that experience.

Overall, the match was excellent and a good test of my personal gear and abilities. For the past 9 months I’ve been running 6-10 miles per week along with a few body weight and barbell exercises. I had originally planned to run the entire course, but my brother jumped in last minute and had not been doing any training. Being fairly competitive, he attempted run the course with me, but he gave that up after about a quarter mile. We walked the rest of the trail to the first stage then settled into a rhythm of walking through the woods and jogging the fields. The woods were mostly too thick and muddy to run through after the first stage anyway, so I was happy with the compromise. The obstacles were not very physically demanding, but like a I mentioned above they banged you and your gear around a lot. I banged and scraped up a knee pretty good at some point, but I do not know where.

I used a 16” Larue PredatAR 5.56 with Leupold MR/T 1.5-5x in a Larue mount with Surefire brake and Magpul MS3 sling. I lubed with Slip 2000 EWL before the match, and I had no malfunctions with the rifle. The scope remained zeroed despite it getting banged around on most of the obstacles and natural terrain, and it did not fog. The magnification range was perfect for this match. I only used the sling to support the rifle while climbing obstacles and during the pistol transition on the first stage. Otherwise, the rifle stayed in my hands. I like that the Magpul sling quick adjusts without any extra webbing hanging loose, but it did not adjust as easily as my VTAC slings.

By brother used a Bushmaster M4 upper on a RRA lower with cheap 6x mildot scope. The scope had lost zero by the first stage, and the scope was wobbling heavily in the mount before the course was finished. The rifle itself did not malfunction though.

I used a S&W M&P 9L with factory front night sight, black 10-8 rear sight, and home stipple job. The pistol shot great with no malfunctions, but I found the front sight difficult to pick up in the dark woods with fogged sunglasses. I fiber optic front sight would have been much easier to pick up. My brother used a Gen 4 G17 with Amerigly I-Dot sight, and he had no malfunctions and no complaints.

I carried my handgun, four pistol mags, and one rifle mag on an ATS MOLLE war belt with Safariland ALS duty holster, Diamondback Tactical pistol mag pouches, and ETW FastMag rifle mag holder. Everything was retained throughout the course, and none of it dropped anywhere. All of these proved to be an excellent balance between speed and retention. The belt carried the weight comfortably, and I had no issues running with this setup.

I wore an Osprey Rev 6 hydration pack which carried 1.5 liters of water along with 4 extra rifle mags (one had only 3 rounds for the first stage), a cleaning rod, bottle for lube, gloves, earpro, moleskin, keys, wallet, and cell phone. The weight of the mags caused the bag to move up and down while running more than I liked at the beginning of the course, but that was not an issue by the end after expending most of the ammo in them. I ran out of water on the last stage, so the system proved to be just enough gear to get me through the course.

Overall, I started with 5x17 round pistol mags (85 total; 1 in the gun and 4 on the belt) and 4x30 round rifle mags plus 1x3 round rifle mag (123 total; 1x30 round mag on the belt and the rest in the hydration pack). I returned with 24 rifle rounds and 17 pistol rounds. In the end, I was happy with my gear setup and weapon loadout, and I would not change anything.

My brother and I had a lot of fun running the course and commend the staff for making it so great despite the weather. We both look forward to the next one.

Thanks bro! The match director is going to mail it to me. It has never flown off my G17 or my G34 - guess the G22 was enough to fling it.

Thanks for a great review. Hopefully I can make the April meet. Scout is a great guy and runs a good safe match.

AAR/Thoughts

*Before I continue, let me first apologize. I am bad with names and have forgotten those of the people I have met. *

The road
I left Houston around 12AM and reach the gates around 2-2.30AM. Got confused by the arrow sign on the gate, I drove down the road thinking the entrance was further down. Had to make a U-turn and return back to the entrance when I figured I got lost. Upon further inspection, I eventually got access and took the path up to the camping area.


Camping and weather
So I figured I would sleep in the bed of my truck, the decision was made a few weeks ago. Not my brightest moment. Fell asleep at 3AM under a woobie while looking at the stars. Woke up an hour later to a light drizzle, moved to the cab and continued sleeping. Awoke around 6AM to the guys chatting and setting up their in-processing. The rain was coming down pretty good by now.


In-pro and briefings
In-processing was quick and painless for me, I did it around 7AM and hung around listening to Larry and the guys chat. Briefs were held detailed around 8AM. A prayer was said and they briefed us on safety, the course of fire and stage/obstacle locations.


Stages and obstacles.
I teamed up with 2 black dudes from Fort Worth, they were pretty cool. All 3 of us were new to this. We walked the course, we started around 10:50. Because of the rain, there was some mud. Most of the woods were thick and muddy and the fields were open and dry.
The Ro’s were a big help, they explained and confirmed the course of fire to me multiple times. Also, major thanks to one of the Ro’s who cleared my barrel of mud and saved me from blowing my rifle up. I think that was Michael Adam.

I like the pistol stages but the rifle stages kicked my ass. Mostly stage 5 and 8.

For stage 5, I mostly wasted time finding a shooting position under the truck. In the end I settle for lying on my right side and shooting with my left hand and left eye. (I’m right handed) I made all 4 hits under the palette stack and then timed out.

Stage 8 was the speed wall. I missed all 3 shots on the fence. I think my issue was that I leaned into the fence and just as I was about to get a stable position, I backed off a little.


Gear
A tactical tailor 2 piece mav with shoulder pad, 2x mil surplus 3 mag shingle. One single on each side, Condor triple pistol mag pouch and an LBT dump pouch on the left. A 5.11 pouch and safariland holster. Mil surplus water bladder and bag. Mechanicx fast fit gloves and a mastiff soft shell, which got taken off long before reaching stage 1. Gloves were a bloody awesome, I would have cut my hand on countless torn and branches without em. Ear pro was a pair of sure fire ear plugs, there were hard to wear with gloves but they worked better than carrying a set of electronic ones.


Untitled by Crazy people Concepts, on Flickr

Rifle was an Ares Armor 16” upper with a Primary Arms 1-6 scope, mounted on a San Tan tactical ambi lower. It has a raptor charging handle and spikes trigger. It ran good with no rifle/ammo issues during the biathlon. During cleaning, the allen screws on the gas key were found to be loose. Rifle has only seen 300+ rounds, might have to get it restaked. Sling was from ares armor too. Ammo was federal bulk, the 100’s from Walmart. The barrel did get filled with mud, but entirely user error.


Untitled by Crazy people Concepts, on Flickr

Pistol is a Full size M&P with Trl-1, my ccw. Apex aluminum trigger and apex stuff with some grip tape on the slide. Ran perfectly with zero issues. Might change the front sight to something with fiber optic for faster sight acquisition. Holster has good rendition and pistol was not dropped despite being snagged a lot. Ammo was mostly 115gr ball and JHP reman from Freedom munitions, some 115gr Gold dot HP stuff too.


Untitled by Crazy people Concepts, on Flickr

Thoughts
I might try breaking down the ar and stowing it in a backpack. Would be less obstructive and better protected in the woods and mud. I would decrease the ammo carried on me to 3x rifle/ 3x pistol and move the rest to the backpack. I wore the chest rig like a belt rig, there were several minor issues. It was too low and limited my movement. So did the bulk of the mags. If I go the backpack route, I could swapped them when I assembled the rifle. The backpack would be nice to hold the water bag and misc items. Such as a cleaning rod/kit and rain gear. I had to tie the softshell to the back of the mav, it kept getting lose. My pistol was ridding at around 4:30 and it was harder to reholster the pistol. Also, I do not have enough practice with the safiland locking mechanisms. I came close to doing the holster dance multiple times.

I brought 6x 30 round mags and one with 3 rounds of 223. 7x17 pistol mags and 1 in the chamber. I ended with around 4x 30 rifle and 25 pistol rounds. I blame the excess rifle rounds on being a bad shot.
I’m definitely looking into the backpack/hill gear gear bag combo.

Also: me


Untitled by Crazy people Concepts, on Flickr

All in all, it was a fun time. Can’t wait for the next one.

Any word on results? I'm anxious to see what yall ran. I've gotta set a goal for my training.

Results went out this morning.

1:31 total wasn't bad for the weather. Couldn't get the second link/download to work though to see stage times.

 

Received an email with a download. Doesn't make sense though, because the "adjusted run time" for say #22 is 1:31 and the "adjusted run time" for say #19 is over 2 hours.

PM me your email and I'll forward it to you.

Edit: I think the times are correct, scoring is based on overall time plus stage times this year.

 


 

Looking forward to the next one already.

I have not seen an email yet about results.

IM me your email and I will forward it to you.

Has anybody been able to open the second attachment of the results email?  Does anybody know how the scoring is calculated?  Timing out penalty?

I'd explain it if I could.

The scoring is handled/calculated by a TSU Math Professor FWIW.



topgunpilot20 & tinythief - Thank you for the reviews. Its good to read the experiences of first timers at this event. I'll make sure the powers that be read what you wrote.

I haven't gotten it to work yet, as in can't open it.

Need to get this scheduled outside of college football season next time.  Looks like an awesome event.

The next one will be April 11, 2015.

Think the problem with the data file is it is missing the data subfile the html calls.  I could open it in notepad and it had no data just screen set up information.

Same here, nothing. Not too worried about it but kinda nice to see final result.

IM me your email adress

Shawnson  thanks for the forwarding of standings, it was good news.

Anybody seen any videos from the drone yet? Hoping to see the one of my gf in stage 6, she whooped me in that one by a good amount after my hat blocked my vision thru the cone shot but I probably would have still lost without that gear issue.
I'm also hoping to see the stage times soon too, as we were starting to get pretty competitive in our group, and the RO's said I had some good times on the truck carbine stage and in the pistol "walking dead" stage that I'd like to see in comparison.

If anyone has any pics they want to post that would be great as well.  I never got around to it.

This is about all I took on Friday when I was setting up Stage 4. Sofia got a new wig.

I chose not to get the camera muddy on Saturday.

The drone people seem to keep the footage for their own amusement.

Stage 4 was pretty tricky with the limbs you had to miss to satisfactory hit the steel and the slip/slide factor getting to each carpet.

I think they ought to do off hand with both rifle and pistol at every stage, at least on one target. I can shoot the rifle off hand but the pistol is another story!