Joined:
Jun 2022
Posts:
1
EE: 0% (0)
IL, USA
Posted: 8/5/2026 10:54:51 PM EDT
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I am really envious of you guys that live out West. I travel for work. All of April, May, June and half of July was spent in the Black Hills area. I took full advantage of the training opportunities in the National Forest. What I would do is park on some Forest Service road way back in there. Put on my ruck, belt/pistol, rifle etc then just go off into the woods. Not on a trail but just up to the top of some random peak. It was rough walking with all the downed trees. If the terrain got steep I just kept going. Any obstacles were looked at as training opportunities. I eventually carried in 6 full size steel targets. The targets were painted camo, marked on my GPS and buried when I left. I would place these among the trees and rocks partially obstructed so I could shoot from different ranges, elevations and positions. I might hike around for a couple hours before I would move to engage the targets but sometimes I would go straight to them then move them around. It was more than just shooting. I practiced rappelling. I practiced rock climbing. I set up a base camp on a peak about 5500 feet since a person can do that as dispersed camping. I set up a primitive sleeping area and fighting positions. I set up perimeter alarms. My water came from the nearest stream. I even set up my Yaesu FT 817 with a 20 m dipole, 40 m dipole, 20 m vertical quarter wave and a nice Vhf/Uhf J pole at about 35 feet. I worked on all aspects of wilderness skills. I probably slept outside 40% of my time out there. Now I am back in the Midwest. It sucks. I am not sure if I could do that same thing in a National Forest in Indiana, Kentucky or Missouri. My plan is to hopefully go back out west again next spring. |
