Shot the Grind last year - shooting it again next weekend. K&M is a gorgeous square range facility (as the pictures above attest).
Comments about bringing a water bottle, etc, are spot on. If you end up shooting later on Saturday evening, the low sun is in your face and brutal (plan an ARD and something to help cover your face to cut reflection from your face on the ocular lens - it's gonna suck either way, but hope you get a stage that's a little easier to see on).
Lots of prone stuff, where you start prone on the rifle - it helps with match pace. Props last year included tires, barricades, rocks, cement culverts, a helicopter, cars, cattle feed ring, shipping containers with ports in the walls, etc. Generally all very solid stuff. We were allowed to start with tripod deployed on at least one stage last year, but it didn't make that much difference to stability on the stage.
Expect a couple of long walks, including a hike up ... what, 50' elevation? ... for the highest numbered stages. They have trailers that help with rides between major parts of the range, and some of the gravel is pretty chunky - several of the folks that I shoot with favor carts for their rifles and did nothing but struggled all weekend trying to get their carts around across the range. I'd recommend just hoofing it and catching a ride on the trailers for the big moves.
Friday will be mayhem (they only have one of the three ranges open, and everyone is there). But its manageable with some patience. It's best to not need to get a lot of real work done that day, and instead check out the props for the low numbered stages (you won't know what the stage procedures are, but basically everything there was used last year. We also had three mover stages - and two of the movers were available to shoot on Friday.
If you are toward the end of the results, be prepared for the person running awards (was Shannon last year) to just call a free for all on the prize table toward the end. It's kinda rude (considering that the people who are finishing down that end are the expressed target competitors for the match, typically), so just be ready to find something quickly - there's likely still something useful on the table even at the end.
Make sure to THANK YOUR ROs on every stage...
It's looking like weather will be really nice this weekend, but that can always change. I'm still bringing rain gear and a light jacket. I'd also suggest snacks, bug spray, etc. They serve a boxed lunch, but I usually prefer to sort of graze all day.
in advance
