Hi all,

Some of you saw the pitiful little post that I threw into GD while we were out in the field.  Now that I'm sitting in a nice clean tick and mosquito free environment I have time to let all of you slackers who skipped out see what you missed.

I've got tons of pictures, but several folks have asked that I protect their identity.  I'll try the SAS method (black rectangle) but please let me know if I expose too much of anyone who cares - - you know who you are.

Day 1 - Thursday

Thursday was "setup" day.  I arrived in the stark emptiness of Waverly VA at about 11am to find no one waiting.  After driving around literally in the woods in my Acura for almost an hour, I finally ran into ReelVirginian who led me to the field that we would be camping in.  Here's the field before we started:


RV had done a great job of cutting down the weeds and spraying enough weed killer to whack out all plant life.  

RV in his natural element . . . hanging out with brewsky in hand



Pretty soon others began to arrive to help set up.  Bladerunner and Highwayman were the first to arrive and together we began to assemble the range.

Bladerunner and the "Tactical Popup"



Highwayman busy with the Skilsaw




The targets are ready . . . I can practically hear them begging for lead


Pounding the targets in . . . Highwayman got to play the macho man here.  I was just the wuss that held them up for him.


Finally others began to arrive and the roster began to fill out.  Bmyk, who I was sharing a tent with, didn't arrive until dusk which scared the crap out of me.  RV might have killed the grass but I saw the most ungodly sized spiders in the field and I couldn't image sleeping under the stars there.  Spiders of any size give me the willys but these f$%kers were HUGE. We all hit the sack fairly early with not a round being shot.  That was just weird . . . but we were flat out wasted from the setup effort and the 90+ heat.

Day 2 . . . . to be continued . .

Disconnector

DAY 2 - Pistol training

We all drug ourselves out of our tents at 0600 to get ready.  Bladerunner had scheduled Friday as a day of pistol training so we got geared up for lots of intensive pistol work.  

I want to stop here and thank our three FANTASTIC instructors who spent a weekend sweating themselves into a puddle just for the joy of watching us slackers try to pitifully duplicate their mega-tactical awesomeness.  All of them have requested anonymity, so I will respect that by not pointing them out in the photos, but from myself and all a heartfelt thanks is in order.  Without you all it just wouldn't have been the same.

As the morning wore on many more folks arrived.  Here are some photos of us getting ready to rcok and roll:

Sunrise over the range . . . kinda makes ya misty eyed doesn't it?


Starting to gather together



More folks arriving



Basic instruction on safety and sight alignment



We spent the early part of the morning on utilizing a proper stance, proper sight alignment, and environmental awareness.  

The phrase LOOK LEFT, LOOK RIGHT, LOOK BEHIND - - - DRINK WATER became quickly engraved in our minds.  Hell I check my 6 when I do practice mag changes at home now.  

After a bit of static shooting, we moved onto shooting and reloading on the move.

Preparing for a two man cover drill . . . OUT - - - - IN!



Whenever we did any movement while firing there was always an instructor at your side to check for safety.  M4fun advancing and retreating on a target . . .



Two man lateral movement drills



And they called ME Mr. Hollywood . . . .Highwayman looking ready to KILL KILL KILL



DevotedDad and Fiend(?) practicing movement



I could have SWORN that bmyk had fired 6 shots . . . ??  



Working the barricades . . .



$12,000 worth of NFA aluminum . . . I can just stare at it for hours



Free fire time was after all drills were completed.  Most of us drifted back to zero our rifles or play with the various NFA toys that were available.  I want to thank M4Fun and reloader_bob for tolerating the drool marks that I left on their stuff.  I was one jealous mofo.

Reloader Bob making the bottles dance with his full-auto Uzi.  Yes I got to shoot this and yes you can be jealous



M4Fun's suppressed M4 complete with giggle switch.  I had to change my undies after two mags.



Suppressed .22 goodness



That night we feasted on Venison ribs, deep fried Rockfish, burgers, dogs, and whatever else we could fit on the grill.  In the cool of the evening we all gathered around to discuss the next day and swap BS stories.  It was a grand old time in the great ARFCOM tradition.

Day 3 will be continued tomorrow night.  It was rifle training and it was AWESOME!

Disconnector



<­BR>

Here we are . . . the mythical DAY 3!

Day 3 was devoted to movement, tactics, and transitions while operating the rifle.

Everyone for the class showed up well armed and prepared with an AR-15 style rifle.  I'm glad I left my AK-74 at home . . . it would have been horribly lonely.  Even with my trusty Armalite, I had by far the least "tacticool" rifle - I still have an A2 buttstock fercrissake!  

I was rapidly broken of my habit of grabbing the magwell as a VFG also. I'm still not really sure why though . . . :)

We gathered at 8am for a team photo.



Clockwise from the top we have Bladerunner, ReelVirginian, Bmyk, Highwayman, mandible_6, Shadow6, Fiend, JustOneMore, Disconnector, M4fun, and Reloader_Bob.  Check out RV in the tactical Hawaian shirt!

A couple more folks showed up later, but for most of the day the instructor to student ratio was PERFECT.  You suckers who never showed up really missed it.

Trying to pay attention with itchy trigger fingers . . .



Loading up mags



Yours truly with my official "peasant rifleman" chest rig.  100% made in China goodness



Shooting on the move with M4fun amd bmyk.  Lots of fun transistions - both high and low.



Shooting on the move with transitions . . . oblique advance with direct withdrawl.  I have video where BOTH folks were reduced to their pistols due to operator and rifle malfs.  A little stress just takes all of the edges off of ya.



Note that bmyk has transistioned to pistol.  The 1911 guys about went hoarse shouting "OUT"! . . . 15 + rounds of 9mm = joy.



11 inches of piston powered POF M4 goodness.  This one made me seriously lust . . . Shadow6 has a hot rig.



One of the most important lessons was communication.  The instructors gave us movements that forced us to communicate with each other . . . here is JustOneMore and myself getting ready to move on a series of targets that required quite a bit of speech in order to keep up the rain of steel.



Fiend rockin out on the barricades.  We learned quite a bit about using the "angles" to your advantage.



Highwayman with his trusty Sig



Bladerunner terrorizing a poor defenseless IPSC flash target.



Mandible6 and Shadow6 trying to figure out how to keep Disconnector from shooting up the barricades AGAIN.



Time to police the brass . . . Reloader_Bob and RV_6 lend a hand





We were completely fried due to the heat.  M4fun looks like he's ready to run a 4 minute mile, though.



RV's nemesis . . . Wolf steel casings.  My rifle digested another 1K of malf free cheap ammo, though.



We all gathered afterwards for the absolute best venison that I had ever had the privilege to taste.  Teriyake, Italian dressing, and soy sauce make for KILLER venison niblets.  Corn on the cob, steaks, burgers, and chicken were all subjected to the Blastfest grill with great success.  We ate like kings!

After we finished I was too fried to remember to take any more pics, but after we ate we pretty much packed up and ran out to get ahead of the storm.  At least the storm brought some nice cool breezes towards the end.

Those of you who missed it really missed the perfect ARFCOM gathering.  There were no egos, no attitudes, no BS - just great Americans with hearts of gold.  I didn't even once see a angry glance or a snide word passed between anyone.  It was like Band of Brothers minus WWII, Europe, and a bunch of crazy ass germans.  A totally rockin' good time.

All in all, the class format just flat out beat the shit out of a general "Blastfest".  I far more enjoyed sending lead downrange with a purpose rather than just bumping mags into a dirt berm.  

Thanks again to RV for hosting this event - we couldn't have done it without ya!  Maybe next year you will shoot so I can get some action shots.  I didn't see you shooting the Uzi

Bladerunner, Mandible6, and Shadow6 - I've said it once and I'm sure that I'll say it 1000 times more, but thank you from all of us.  We will NOT forget the lessons you taught us - LOOK LEFT, LOOK RIGHT, LOOK BEHIND - - - - DRINK WATER!!!

Thanks to all for attending and putting up with my crappy photos . . . I enjoyed meeting each and every one of you.

Disconnector