All,

If you cannot make the match please put in a withdrawal on Practiscore so that we can adjust the score sheet and attendance expectations.

Thanks!

Keep posting this stuff to Hometown. It’s way easier to find it there than GD. I found out about this way too late.

All my 5.56 ammo is M855. Can’t shoot it half the places I find

@ExpansionShock If you're able to make it, I can bring plenty of 193 for you to shoot.  I will likely still shoot my suppressed 300BO.

@ExpansionShock come on out, bring a friend, bring a girlfriend, whatever is cool...we will make sure you have ammo.

I tried to make it work, but it’s not gonna happen. I have to back out. Y’all have a good time

Please put in a withdrawal on practiscore...we will see you next time!

Last minute addition. I will be joining you fine folks tomorrow.

It looks like the NRA range is open, so I will be passing by on my way to the Staunton area. I'll have extra 5.56 ARs with me if anyone needs to borrow a rifle or 4.

Thanks for the invitation. I would love to be there. I have some obligations to take care of this weekend before I leave town.

I can't make it either.

But Doctor...it has been months man!

Bump.

And in for AAR. Have fun guys!

The registration link has expired- if you want in at this point just show up, but don't be late because we are not going to wait to start for unregistered folks.

@Ben, are we doing the AAR comments in this thread or will there be another somewhere?

I don’t know how I missed this. I’m was in Staunton this morning. Super bummed.

Awesome event!

Let’s put AAR comments in this thread.

Here is one:
Let’s look into ways to improve the time tracking and score keeping. We (LT_Beaker) had to do a lot of work to figure out the score at the end. I don’t have an answer, but will think on it.

@LT_Beaker

Also, how about those commies?!?!

I'm home too after 5 hours of motorcycle saddle time today.  





Absolutely if we continue to do this style event.  And some better planning on establishing a running order to avoid a backup at the shooting portion.  Of course doing such an event at a range where we could have more shooting lanes would alleviate that.  

Of course the current target setup is going to need some improvements.   Anybody been in contact with the steel target shops to see what they can do for us?


   I was not expecting such a guest appearance.

It’s the little things

As far as AAR... we already spoke about having someone (and a vehicle) at the turn around point. I’d also say - maybe have a designated medic, especially if there is a high risk of a heat/cold casualty.

Great event and lots of fun! It was great meeting everyone.

AAR comments I had were already mentioned

I bet those commies were not expecting so many Patriots to be there? I think the USSR shirt guy, walking everywhere with his magazine in, had a U.S made AK. The shiny wood furniture looked like Century made stuff. Kind of ironic if it was a Century gun.

AAR:

Location- I'm not sure how far everyone was traveling, it was about 2-2.5 hours for me, not a bad drive. The road leading up to the range was also accessible to pretty much any vehicle. I know some of the National Forest roads can be severely potted and can be dangerous for anything that isn't at least a crossover. Parking was a little hectic but wasn't too bad of an issue. There was a decent amount of parking in the parking "areas" and the roads had decent shoulders to allow vehicles to park there. The bathrooms were shutdown, but I don't think it caused much of an issue. There was a gas station only about 10 minutes down the road with an ATM and attached hardware/grocery so getting gas and cash wasn't an issue.

Event- I think for the most part everything ran very smoothly and with only a few hiccups. The briefings were informative and I think everyone understood the course of fire, needed equipment, safety protocols, and range protocols. An aid station and water/cool down tent were available and thankfully we didn't have any heat casualties. I think everyone maintained drinking water through out the event.
I think the main, and only, issue cropped with not having enough admin people. The event began fine as we were just releasing runners every 90 seconds, but as soon as the first competitor arrived to put rounds downrange, the admin was having to maintain time for the line of runners, give them warnos so they were ready to go, as well as maintaining timing of the competitor shooting, any issues with the targets, and recording the competitors score, and alibis fired, and stating the penalty received (either X 100 yard laps or a 10 second penalty for alibi fires). I think for the amount of people we had, the admin was handled heroically and everything ran great for competitors; I think the main issue came when trying to collate times to do scoring.
The idea of squading by speed was brought up to help alleviate the backups. I think that would help but I'd be more than happy to forgo competing to help admin so it would run smoother. Having one admin releasing runners and tracking laps/finishes, one admin at the turn around point, and one at the firing point would spread the work out enough to keep everyone focused. I do think of the three, someone at the turn around point was something greatly needed, not so much for keeping people honest but as a safety measure. I know some competitors were carrying comms and could convey a message that someone was injured/down, but having something at the turn around with comms would ensure someone would be watching to make sure everyone was okay and could immediately call for help/vehicles if the need arose.

Overall Impression- Like I said above, I think the event ran very well and everyone left safe and happy. I'm already looking forward to running at another event or just being around to help with it. As much as I have enjoyed the 6 milers I have participated in, having something more stressful and to break up the monotony of just walking was great. I know this isn't a replacement for the hikes, but it's like a treat to look forward to for continuing to train and stay current with my local group and participating in larger activities around the area.

I don't know if the guy belonged to that group, but there was an individual not with us taking video of everyone as they were running 100 yard laps or waiting to go the fire line.

Might've been me you heard, because I did say that.

Another idea I have now is, since we had two shooting lanes we probably should have started two people together.  With three lanes we could start with three.  This would also allow us to have longer intervals between between the starts of pairs or whatever number.  I think that would help to space things out.

I saw a guy filming us also. He didn't look like he was an antifa type, if we are talking about the same guy, a younger guy in a grayish shirt and shorts. I think he was there with a younger female, an older man around 60, and another guy maybe in his 40's? In public, it is going to be nearly impossible to not get filmed doing activities. Especially activities that are interesting like what we did today.

In addition to what was said about improving the target stands, it would be sweet to have targets available that could handle 30-06.  For most events 5.56 proof stuff is fine but this being D-Day I would have "enjoyed" lugging my Garand around to help give me perspective on things.
Now that I think about it though, I probably wouldn't have hit any of those targets with an M1 anyway, so maybe I shoulda just done it.
Are we having a July 4th shoot?  I should buy a flintlock...

For those who couldn’t attend, what was the event? Other than some sort of movement to contact I have no idea how it went.

Centerfire biathlon, with combat equipment, but running instead of skiing.

Pretty fun.

Ruck 1 mile with 25lb minimum pack
Shoot five 4" targets standing
Shoot five 2" targets prone.
Remove pack and run 1 mile
Same course of fire
Put pack back on, run 1 more mile to finish.

Any missed targets incur a 100yd penalty run before you leave for next stage. 5 missed = 500yds

How about some velcro # patches to make it easier for scoring?

https://tacticalbabygear.com/products/numbers-velcro-patch

That’s awesome. How many clean runs?

Lol

Zero.

Shooting after working out, clean is rare. I've seen one clean rifle in my 2 CWs and zero today. Ben has all the data but no one shot clean.

I can't believe those targets were 2".

And clean would be subjective. Ben was the first up to the firing line and blew half the 2" targets off the stand before he was done. We sort of went between only shooting the 4" targets and having one or two try the 2" if they got set back up.

First, I had a great time!

Second, agree on the scoring/timing process but that's been discussed. Addtl admins would def help to RO and keep times.

Third, snickering at commies is fun.

eta, Fourth, I love @MND 's hot sausage

The suggestions I'm bringing are to acquire a large gym / track / marathon digital clock that stands on a tripod. Everyone is given a predetermined and pre-recorded 90 second spaced start time prior to the master clock starting at the beginning of the race.  This would alleviate an administrator telling when the next BB can start.  Clock strikes 2:30, 4:00, 5:30, etc. you go.  This is on you.

Secondly, I'd like to see the time sheet at a table near the finish.  When you complete your 1 mile, you look at the master clock, write down your time, and either immediately shoot, or if you have to wait for a shooting lane to open, you then write down the time you entered the lane so we can subtract your lane start time from your arrival time.

Overall, if we could make those few changes in the future, whomever is the RSO / admin, he can then focus on the safety of the range and scores more and not be task saturated with times.  

Lastly, to make the lanes move quicker, have a time limit on the lane.  I'd like to see a shot timer used, and you get 20 seconds to make all 5 shots upon the "shooter ready call". Some shooters I swear it would have been less time for you to run the 10 penalty laps than for you to acquire your targets.  You'll never kill commies at that speed

The targets need a little work, like pipe clamps to hold the legs in place, and adjusting the J hooks so the hangers don't fly off.  

Overall, I had a great time.  I think we made those commies nervous because fatty put a red sweatshirt on over his CCCP t-shirt near the end.

It was good for me too!

Anyone take photos of folks participating in the Biathlon?

Where will we be able to see our times? Will they be posted on practiscore?

Sounds like this was the best NBB event yet!! I’m sorry I missed it but appreciate the ammo offer.

It seems like most defensive 5.56 ammo for short barrels is heavier than 55gr. For Training with as little re- zeroing as possible (given how little time I am making to shoot), What’s the most economic alternative to m855? Is there some JSP that isn’t premium defensive ammo?

I train with cheap brass M193. I do competition stuff (NBB/Cola Warrior/etc) with my zeroed defensive ammo.

It's never more than a few mags, so it doesn't hurt the wallet that bad.

I'm working on uploading them today. The formatting got a little messed up, so I'm having to manually reenter all the data from our spreadsheet to practiscore.

Match results are up on practiscore.

Wanted to say thanks again to all who helped set up this event. I had a great time and met some good people. Looking forward to the next one.

No pics?

I would say that in the future, if possible, we should have someone filming them. Also make note of their vehicles, tag numbers, etc.

Just of the commies

Thanks again to everyone who planned, organized, coordinated, and participated in the event.  It was tons of fun.



Yeah, lots of good suggestions and especially this one.  It would be good to speed up the shooting portion at least to make the scenario more realistic.

I'm pretty sure my pace was probably something close to Slow Fire during an HP match and I still missed... a lot.  

I'm gonna have to prepare for the next event by improving my marksmanship my 100-yd lap times.

You and me both. My second shooting round was a shit show. I forgot my hold then frustration took over.

eta the scores looks better now. There was no way that I beat Whiskers.

I cleaned the second round of shooting. Did...less good the first round.