What: A 7.5 mile ruck through the forest, followed by small arms qualification with rifle, shotgun, and pistol. There will be an optional NOD's low-light/no-light shoot in the evening. Bring your night vision! . There's no light pollution in this area, NODs should be really fun!

When: July 28th to July 30th. The ruck and shoot will occur on the 29th. The 28th is for setup and acclimation (10,000ft elevation), and the 30th is for AAR, cleanup and camp breakdown.

Where: Northern Colorado, near the town of Red Feather Lakes. Approximate location coordinates: 40.805977, -105.772530

Who: I (pestilence12) will be hosting this event. Anybody from any state is invited. You do not have to be in APC to attend

Here is a live link to the document I made for all the details and plans for the weekend:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vQKMhuL1qGyhCZJEhEwIZt0km8iJs0LPzQPZlaZ_EfwJFhd0t0w2Z-CFgmglsHOpswELUNQFfItbNDs/pub

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Some quick details:

If you just want to come up for the ruck and shoot, or just the ruck, or just the shoot, that is perfectly fine. Please show up!

Site location - I will give out exact location coordinates of the campsite after you have RSVP'd. I will also give out the comm channel after RSVP.

The ruck will be in full gear with the rifle.

Also, please feel free to bring along anybody who may be interested in small arms training. I am willing to spend time with folks getting them up to speed on shooting fundamentals. You do NOT need to be a Top Shot to come to this. It is not a competition.

I strongly encourage people to show up on Friday so they can acclimate before hiking at 10,000+ feet in elevation. Also, I would really appreciate any extra hands to get the range set up.

If you do not have certain pieces of gear: PLEASE reach out to me. I have quite a bit of extra gear (LBV, an extra plate carrier, extra battle belt, extra mag pouches, PPE, firearms, etc) and I can loan out stuff to folks that need it for the event. If you have concerns about ammo, PM me.

If you have any questions, drop me a PM on here, or shoot me an email at [email protected]

RSVP
Please RSVP for this event as soon as possible, at least a week before the scheduled date, so that I can plan for spacing at the campsite and shooters on the line (targets, benches, etc.)

A PM here, a comment saying you're in, or an email to [email protected] will all suffice.

Let's get it

Short-notice event above treeline, with some unknown person as organizer


c'mon man, do some planning


@Ben

It's 2 months out?
Did you look at the location? It most certainly is not above tree line. It's in the forest.
I'm not unknown...I have met several people, at the land nav class. I figured I would offer my experience to the group.

I was told to just get something together and post it. It's not like its mandatory. It's a useful area with a lot of potential.

How about a hello before going balls-deep


Not a hater, just trying to help

Can confirm Pestilence was at land nav and night shoot this month, and he was encouraged to set up an event if he was so inclined. As this is his AO and he has some background in the subject matter, we've been working to setup the event outline he posted, with him as the host and leader.

In an effort to clarify why the event is being organized as described above:

Intent of the shooting instruction is to help folks with their baseline skills followed by with an opportunity to shoot the prescribed APC qual. Some of the basic weapons manipulation skills were a challenge for participants at a previous qual years ago, so this is an effort to help people improve in an approachable manner. It also helps us identify each participants' safety and competence before they're on the clock shooting for score. This way, we can address any  issues before hand, since most of us have not shot together.  We expect there will be an opportunity to run some additional drills following the qual, and its a chance to get out and shoot.

The NV event is meant to be a basic intro, similar to what we did at land nav - two of the four did not own NV nor had they experienced it before. We used our personal equipment to give them exposure and let them see some of the basic capabilities of a PVS-14 while getting some static trigger time at night. If nods are in short supply, we can use white light - another opportunity to use gear in a way that is likely uncommon for most folks.

Planned hike is an opportunity to carry a long gun with pack, which has been a challenge to do with some of the other local APC events due to location.  The route and location have been published publicly so its not a random walk in the woods with someone you've never met. Altitude may be a challenge for some, myself included, which is why its mentioned multiple times, and were insisting that the event be dry of any inebriants.  If we don't make APC time, or need to break in to smaller groups based on pace, so be it.

If events like this are not in concert with the APC mission and vision, I'd appreciate clarification on how events should be organized and we can adjust from there. Can also discuss in person at the hike this weekend for those who are attending.

Ok, hello. Im Pestilence. My first name is Brian. I attended the land nav class last month.

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That's me. I gave permission to not have my face blurred.

I have a lot of training and experience, including as a firearms and tactics instructor, K9 work, wilderness survival, wildland firefighter w/ a Sawyer cert, wilderness rescue including experience with SAR, water rescue, ice rescue, EMR cert with years of medical response experience, I was a climbing arborist for 5 years so ropes and saddles are my jam.

I'm also not a fed. Lol. Though I did carry a security clearance for 2 years.

Sorry if my post was too sudden.

Here to help :)

How about medical and emergency plans?

Hard-print routes to hospital and the closest safe landing for a heli-and peeps who know the signals?

Discussion with the Sheriff/Rangers about pew-pew-pew in the woods?

Yes thats been handled on all ends, and there will be a safety briefing before the festivities begin.

Thanks for the tag. Looks interesting and I'd like to attend, just bad timing. In particular that hike looks fun and challenging... I need to work on cardio. But definitely let me know about the next one, hopefully I'll be able to get out for at least a day.

For any lurkers wondering if they should attend, Brian (pestilence12) is a cool dude and has been super helpful showing me the ropes on some technical stuff with ARs. Even if you're a newbie and learning, I'm sure he and others will be helpful and it will be a great event.

I'm interested but unfortunately my shift changed at work and now I work that weekend. It's a long ways from me as well.  Nice conop and looks well planned.  Anyone else going yet?

Bummer! Maybe next time!

Yeah we've got 6 or so guys coming as of now.

Hope you have a great time.

Already have camping plans for this weekend but will be watching for future events.

How was it?  Any photos?

It was a good time! I'll write more in a bit.

Not many photos this time. I'll see what I can do

Here's the glow from the night shoot

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And the packs after our ruck

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How did things go?

They went great! I'm working on an AAR but work and family business has been hard to catch up on. I'll have one written in a day or two

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@pestilence12

Brother

My starting school and the clusterfuck that is being, job search and current job bullshit, CompTIA training and studying, daughter activities and daycare, wife family drama, wife job search, and chores are crushing my time right now

I know, excuses excuses.

I'll write a quick and dirty one.

Hard deadline, Friday @ 2100

AAR

This was the first event I've held for APC up in this area of Colorado, and for the most part, it went very well.

The area is well suited to APC activities. There is a fair amount of public activity, but it didn't hamper our plans.

The night shoot was perfect. We were able to shoot late into the night with no concerns. The area is very well suited to night operations.

What went well:

The site was great. Good shooting lanes, just 25 or so yards from the campsite. Made for little effort in running the shooting qualifications. Plenty of space (could have accommodated at least 5-6 more campers and sites).

The qualification went great as well. Everyone passed, and there were no concerns or hiccups (except for the weather).

The ruck was an appropriate level of difficulty (despite small setbacks). Even with all the rain, it was not too flooded and very passable on foot.

Instructions were clear on what to expect. Everyone showed up with appropriate gear and equipment.

What needs improvement:

The ruck distance was poorly measured, and was closer to 6.5 miles rather than 5. Not a huge deal, but accuracy in measuring needs to be improved. Also, the ruck route was all uphill after the halfway point. A different route might be more appropriate next time.

The ruck also took us directly through an area that was extremely populated with campers. Not ideal for 4 guys with guns and packs to go rucking right through. Too much public eye there.

I forgot to print more maps for everyone. Not a big deal, but oopsie oversight.

Instructions to bring brass catchers. I failed to mention that we are shooting in a national forest, therefore we need to police our brass. A tarp over the shooting area, or telling people to bring brass catchers if they have them, would have saved some clean-up effort in the end. Again, not a huge deal, but something to remember next time.

Overall thoughts:

I would call this one a success. Everyone showed up with the right gear for camping, shooting, and rucking. Shooting was structured and safe. NODs were great and everyone had a good time with that. The ruck was, despite a couple of details, fun, interesting, and gorgeous. I'm going to stick a pin in this area and try to run something every year up here. There is an area close by where we can safely achieve long distance shooting (500, 800, and 1000 yards) so that may be on the agenda for next year. There is also a lot of timber for chainsaw operations in the future. Overall, everyone had a good time (I hope!) and I look forward to doing it again.

Thanks to everyone for coming!

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