The guys from Scottsdale Gun Club (a.k.a. The Armory) [url]http://www.scottsdalegunclub.com[/url] sell just about every neat toy a boy could wish for (they offer field training also and do classes for a bunch of the local PD's). Well every few months the owner (Terry) gets a wild hair up his ass and puts on a "Death March" with full gear. This is his excuse to go out and T&E the gear they carry (thinly veiled excuse to head to the woods and fuck-off for three days) I must admit he did have some nifty toys that un-named companies actually gave him to take out and beat on and give his opinion of how they worked (lucky bastard). Since I'm his "Friend" he asks me along on these things (to watch me sweat gallons and weez like a sick horse…Sadistic fuck…).

We meet up in the middle of the week and go over the maps with every one. Terry is going on about "It's a little rough right here, but then it's all flat" and bull shit like "Easy walk after this little bit"....[b]Fuck![/b] 12 miles and less then 1/2 of that was with the aid of any real trail! No body got hurt and all went well (I admit, I actually had fun). The "Army Man" portion of it wasn't that big a deal for me, but I fell into the old "Groove" and performed better them I though I would have (Dropping 25-30 pound made a big difference, I was actually able to wear a set of BDU's that I was issued back in the day!).

The new M.O.L.L.E. gear turned out to be good stuff and money well spent (I don’t give a god damn what some 19 year old “Crute” has to say about it). I have just about the whole line of Eagle, Black Hawk and ALICE gear to choose from, but from now on will use the M.O.L.L.E. stuff about 90% of the time… The tac-vest was easy to configure for the task at hand and distributed the weight well while still letting me easily get at my gear.  Most of the guys opted for a “Becker” style assault pack, but again (due to the 3 days worth of gear), I opted for the M.O.L.L.E. pack w/ frame (I stripped all the extra pouches off of it). The pack worked well and was as comfortable as could be expected (my gear weighed in at 70 Lbs.).

I would also like to report that the new [b]CAV-16[/b] came through like a champ. I dropped/fell on it several times and both the rifle and the OKO show no sighs of the abuse they received (I [b]was not[/b] using a steel guard on the OKO!). At one point I ended up trading weapons with one of the fellows for the last day of the trip, I carried his full-auto AUG-LMG and I have this to report about it…[b]Fucking heavy-assed Euro Shit![/b] No way in hell would I ever spend hard earned money on any AUG in any configuration. They are heavy, recoil like a .308 and are not comfortable to patrol with (sorry Styer, but it’s how I feel).

All day Monday my legs hurt like hell! Went and saw the Rev. Horton Heat last night and this morning other then the affects of last nights Vodka, I am fully recovered from the hike….

I'll get Sinistrall to post some pictures if anyone wants to see...

I "thought" you were a working man and I didn't want to interupt your sleep...

Terry  humped the M249(SAW) and Dave humped the "Pig" (MAG-58/M240). I did have to carry a belt for each[:(] but at the end I got to shoot a belt threw each[:)]

sometimes, owning a firearms manufacturing company can be really really cool[;)]