Wondering what this is? Go check out the event thread (CLICK ME)

Synopsis: In the Wild West, the murderous El Peep and gang of obstacles are terrorizing and giving penalties to the region's citizens. With a bounty on El Peep's head, a group of bounty hunters rabid for suffering, come to collect the prize. Upon their first meeting, the group views each other as rivals. Still, they eventually gather around the campfire, enjoying tasty vittles and good company in their mutual pursuit of El peep, his gang of obstacles, and their penalties.

And so our western trilogy in hatchet order comes to an end.

Thanks for making the trip out and trouncing obstacle 0 in favor of suffering and good company. Fewer vehicles were disabled this year, and road improvements helped a lot. Thanks to those who came and helped prepare the site for such a big group! We burned the entire pile of wood as it was cold the entire event. Once again I'm blown away by the quality of people who come out. I enjoyed seeing old friends and making new ones. A huge shout out to the staff who helped in so many ways. This was my favorite event of the 31 I've attended, huge thanks to all who made it so great. In the world we reside within, it brings joy and relief to my heart to know such excellent people exist! There is good in the world - you are proof of it.

It worth repeating: Thanks to all of the event staff who took time out of their lives to prepare the location, run runners, cook delicious food, help handle logistics and a HUGE amount of other things. This was possible because of YOU. Thank you!

Thanks to the sponsors, for sending an overflowing amount of swag for us to enjoy. Some attendees felt the love of cola so deeply they too donated items to the prize table. Barrels, handguns - amazing.
If you won something, or were awarded something at this event - go track those sponsors down. Hit them up on social media, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, their websites, email them & call them. Make an order for the things they sell and leave notes about loving their support of Cola Warrior. Review the items they make, design & sell if you like them so others can find their wonderful products. Have an issue? Please contact them to address. If there is an improvement to be made - they LOVE feedback and improving their wares.

Great were the number who collected a few more penalties, but I'm excited to see scores improving. That's what this is all about! 16 Rifle and 20 Pistol targets graced the range. Many learned that CW West is unlimited capacity for a reason (Also known as standard capacity). A few new shooting challenges hopefully introduced runners to skills needing honing. You don't always have 2 hands/arms, and may need to use just one. Improvised shooting positions may be required in various situations. A large quantity of adversarial steel may be spread in front of you. Knock em all down!

All who attended, I hope you learned something about yourself. A strength you didn't know you possessed. A weakness you identified - to turn into a strength. Never stop improving. Lets keep climbing together!

Do hard things - be excellent to each other.

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Reserved

Another cola warrior west in the books! Pictures in later posts, for whatever reason couldn't upload on this post

First off, I want to apologize again. Over the past couple weeks I've had a lot of personal, family and medical stuff going on that has caused me to not be myself. I knew coming to west might be risky but I didn't want to miss it and be moping around at home. I definitely was more emotional than I normally am and I'm sorry for anyone that I may have yelled at.

This event also reminded me because of said issues above...my body is also not at 100% and I definitely felt it after my run. Ran Thursday morning and then proceeded to ignore the pain and limp around doing staff things the rest of the day. Went to bed early Thursday night and was still very limited in mobility Friday and was feeling it.

Obstacle wise, with the new addition of the lighter tire, I was able to get 2 obstacles which isn't normal for me at west, so that was a win. I could also throughly heckle anyone that didn't do the tire that a very in pain Splat could do.

Range wise it wasn't my best performance. Pistol I did about my normal on, cleared it without issue. Rifle, my normal strong suit I definitely choked on. Got target focused on the evil eye target when I should have just skipped it and did everything else. Picking up 8 rifle penalties (during the day) is definitely not normal, and shows I need to practice rifle more instead of just assuming I'll do fine on it like I have the past few years.

I made the decision after I won high woman at west last year I wouldn't run "normal" anymore, unless I'm not able to run combat or night for whatever reason, or attending a new to me event. So I did my third combat class run this event, still the only female to do it as far as I'm aware. I enjoy the challenge of it and will continue to challenge myself.  I know I need to practice more night things, hoping to do goon things next year at west (whether thats a night run or just playing), it just wasn't in the cards for me this year with all that was going on, but my night run at NW definitely is proof I need practice!

Who knows, maybe I'll do a night combat run just to make more festive color combinations on score cards. We will see what the future holds.

I havent had a chance to get a badass swag picture yet... feel like I've been going nonstop for a week now!

Overall I'm pretty happy with my run this year. I did the obstacles and run at a comfortable pace as I was trying to not "gut check" myself in order to help my chug...

Spoiler alert:
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It did not go as planned.

I'm happy I cleared everything (but the chug) and my big take aways are that I need to continue improving my physical fitness to help reduce my run and obstacle times. I also need to start working on rifle. I've made some HUGE improvements to my handgun shooting, and plan on continuing to improve, but I feel like I wasted a lot of time on rifle.
At some point I'll learn to chug... I cleared a 2 liter at NW in February, so im not sure what changed... maybe I just need to practice more

Here's some action shots of my run thanks to Splat:
Obstacle 1
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Obstacle 2
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Obstacle 3
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Obstacle 4
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Obstacle 5
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Range
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Thanks to our amazing sponsors as always. G got me eyeballing those ODG rails...might need to pick one up now since I wasn't privelaged enough to grab one off the prize table.

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Missed you all!

Looks and sounds like it was another great CWW!

Obstacle 1
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Obstacle 5
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Peep/AK
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Regretting life decisions on the way to the range
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Copper doing Copper things
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Ruby enjoying her post event annual hotel room
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Obstacle 6 was more eventful than obstacle 0...once we hit the Idaho border we were fighting snow on and off all the way home

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I shaved 14:12 off last year and finally did the tire although it took me out and made me do a half summersault that made John think I broke my arm.

My astigmatism made my optic blurry; that’s the excuse I’m using.

Congrats to Mk4dubbin on taking home the high upper as well!

I had a really good time. It was nice to meet some new people as well. Props to John, cooks, staff and helpers for another excellently run event.

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Thanks for the reminder. Huge shout out to everyone who did food this year. I ate very well and there seemed to be ample food!

Agreed, food was great this year. Thanks to the awesome kitchen staff!

Not disappointed.

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Saw that too, lol...



...kids these days

The pistol range (mostly)




Quiet Saturday morning in the wasteland

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Big thanks to JohnStoner for hosting us and all the hard work staff put in running a smooth and great cola war.  Sponsors never cease to amaze with their incredible generosity, thank you so much for your continued support of the cola wars. Congratulations to the top finishers: First over all, Woman, Combat, Night, Youth. Excellent work!

Praise be unto the Ayatollah of Cola for creating this different kind of war.

Finally got off my ass and got my night stuff somewhat squared away and did a night combat class run.  Technically I was 1st in night combat since I was the only one.

Having just assembled the upper a few weeks before, verifying zero on my scope Sunday, then zeroing and shooting my laser for the first time Monday, went into it thinking if I shot pistol well and the 100 rifle targets well, anything beyond that would be "gravy", which I thought was a realistic expectation, and ended up doing just that.

Got 2 obstacles (kettle bells and 3x small tire). Humping all my shiite was a serious cardio ass-kicker. The Asstac backpack was perfect for carrying my pistol, chug, and snivel gear for after the run. It was so comfy I was searching in the dark for it on the ground up at the range and didn't realize I was still wearing it until staff pointed that out.

Shooting passive with NODs and RMR (minus the 100) I ended up shooting what was probably my best pistol at any Cola War. Think I only missed on a couple of shots so was super happy with that. Chinese knock off full power IR illum for the 100 pistol shot made it easy work.

Rifle key factor was lack of familiarity manipulating my laser and illum and the effective use of my clip on. 100 was pretty fast and relatively easy except for the slot.  Think I only got 1 long range target, cazadore on the ridge, and had an entire 40 round mag left because I was just so slow and ran out of time shooting.

Blew the 2 liter chug with probably about 1 can worth of soda left . Chugging in the dark seemed "weird" compared to the normal weirdness of day chugging.

For shits and grins I snuck in a day combat run early Friday getting the same two obstacles, clearing pistol and rifle pretty easily, and 4 cans on the chug. I signed up for night combat so that's the official score I took though.  



Lessons learned:  

Night shooting is hard and takes a lot of familiarity by feel, practice, and skill with your equipment. It's not a magic enabler unless you put the time in to make it such.
Don't break your hand skateboarding 7 weeks before cola war.
If you do break your hand, cover that skin up with sunscreen and a glove so you don't end up with severe sunburn on it.
Cola hosts, sponsors, bros, and sisters are best!

Custom CWW9 Peep sights by HyperScott

Prewar happenings at the ATF C-Store.

Spaceballs on the big screen.


Breakfast by nvgeologist and chefjojo


Let's go against the cola norm and check our zeros before hand.


Set up the Texas star and mini-mo for some pistol practice

Is that ginger kid ass gazing in the first pic and where can I get the ear pro pouch?

Glad you like them, brother!  They make me laugh.

Appears to be looking at the ground, and that's a carabiner clipped to earpro, which has a cover over the headband... when was your last eye exam?

My ass does look good in those yoga pants though, just saying

Yay for being the only one to be crazy and run weird classes that no one else wants to do!

Hit the road as a passenger around 6:00pm Tuesday evening. CaliContractor did the heavy lifting driving. The drive was expected to be ~(12) hours which was extended due to snow in southern Idaho & northern Nevada. The jackknifed diesel & (1) hour delay somewhere before Ely didn't help either. A few attempts to sleep through the night went about as expected.

We arrived at the wasteland around 9:00am-ish Wednesday morning. Got out, stretched & inquired about running. Was recommended to go check out the range. Pistol was easy to see, rifle no so much. Eventually spotted most of the targets & headed back down. Details are fuzzy but I ran the course. HDLS took pitchers and maybe a video or few.

More strength is needed. More cardio is needed. More rifle shooting is needed. Cleared pistol though. Shot the rifle range (that was still up) on Sunday morning prone so the rifle is capable. More rifle shooting is needed.

Overall, had more penalty time vs raw time. NW was about halved between the two. All good, was my first west, had no idea what to expect.

Stayed up top watching the majority of y'all shoot. Reset rifle targets a plenty, pistol a few. Caught chugs at various stages of their happenings. Saw BMSMB get almost there & release. Saw a few more spews, most for penalties.

Camp fire evenings were great. Met some internet friends in person, reconnected with others known & made a bunch more. 100% awesome people in camp.

Great seeing the (5) kids run on Saturday morning. Even better seeing the young men that ran the full course on previous days. Makes a Dad proud.

Food was awesome. Gorilla, HDLS, Baja, John's dad, CaliContractor & everyone else that provided, cooked & helped did a wonderful job. Don't recall the screename of who did the pulled pork, but it was good. Know your face, we spoke a few times. Maybe your wife will run next year after a year of practicing & prepping .

Got Pestoso & SCW to heavily lean toward attending NW in '24. Bring warm clothes and boots. Hope to see y'all there.

Also, y'all shooting MrSprocket's ammo real fast were loud. Keep it down next time...



...10/10, will do it again

Patches, we need stinkin' patches...



I wasn't able to make it to CW NW for reasons.  CaliContractor shows up at West and pulls out a Cold Warrior hoodie and gifted it to me.  Super cool of him and now my favorite hoodie.

Thanks Cola Bro!

Great job everyone

Every once in a while, you find yourself on the way back from some strange competition - in which you perform physical challenges, shooting challenges, and forcefully indulge in sugary treats with other badass Americans - and it’s time to get off the highway and call it for the day.

You take a backroad, bump down a dirt road, hang a few turns here and there as if driven by some inner magnetism, and randomly end up in just the right bivy spot for the night.

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Perfect desert night. Are we in AZ or NV? Coyotes chatting it up. That looks like a weird depression over there right behind our bivy spot.

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Well hot dang…that’s a big ass hole in the ground.

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Is that a man down there?!

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Second year in the books! Much improved from last year but more work to do!! Thanks to all the staff and others that made this event possible! Thank you also to the sponsors! Never need too much of an excuse to build another rifle, but it helps to start with quality parts!

Next year I will need to get through obstacle 0 with more success!

Thanks to everyone- sponsors, host, staff, kitchen (yum!), and everyone else for just being who you are.

Special call outs in no particular order, you all know what you did for the kiddo-
Binnytalls
Boobaloo
Jesse
Awax

Whoever gave my kid a nice pocket knife lol. Eli said some guy just gave him a knife. He didn’t know who.
S55s2kShawn or whatever the heck your name is on here
BinaryOperator

This was a great event for me too. Looking forward to competing with you guys soon.

Eli888 said his favorite parts were shooting Jesse’s guns, the campfires, our hike exploring things, his run, and the night shoots. So pretty much all of it.

I had fun on the night range with you guys. Thanks for letting me be a part of that. Congrats to GetBoth on another green pin! If you didn’t know, green pin is best pin.  


Some pics:

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Nope

Obstacle 0 transit was looking a bit stormy.


That view tho...


Made a wrong turn and ended up backing down about 1/4 mile then a 5 point turn to get turned around. Luckily there was a mostly flat and open area to turn the trailer around in.


No one will ever know you chucklehead, right?  Wrong, cola bro shows up out of nowhere to witness the shenanigans


Almost there...


If you miss the Peep and Bones signs, just look for this shoe and you will be in the right place.


Or KaiK's abandoned boom.


Colors are flyin'.

HDLS searching for cell service...

This looks weird and strange. Where are all the pine trees?

About 18 hours north

Sorry I missed it. But Disneyland was pretty fuckin awesome for the 7 year old(and me).

27k steps a day or so.

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Congrats to all the cola peeps!

Life is very busy and even an abbreviated Cola War is better than no War at all. Pics to come.

Night combat, nice. Congrats on tackling that! Takes some stones and high degree of willingness to suffer.

Did you not run it? Couldn't find your name on the list.

A few targets with views looking back at the shooting point.  Likely some of you couldn't tell what you were actually shooting at or didn't even see some of them.



Not many hits on this one by staff at early runs.

Or taking a leak?

How far out were the targets?