Ok, first off I want to thank Glen for letting us play on his family farm, next I want to thank all of you for coming out.
Background to J.S.T.M.:
The main two goals of the Juniper Swamp Tactical Matches are the following:
1. To have a gathering of like minded people and to share knowledge, TTP’s and mindset over a fun day of shooting.
2. To introduce Like minded shooters to Individual Marksmanship Training LLC and it’s staff to hopefully grow training classes for people that need them.
I feel that the J.S.T.M. does the two main goals very well.
Planning of J.S.T.M.:
The goal for this match was to kill a lot of the down time by running two separate teams so we could cover more shooting events at once. Also to test different positions and target packages wile keeping the overall day rolling as good as we could. On side goal was not to repeat the same training drills on the Nov 09 J.S.T.M.
Execution:
At the start, we separated the shooters by skill set and buddy aid. Once done I broke the gartering of shooters in to two groups. Once that was done Glen and I took control of our groups.
The C.O.F. was as follows:
1. CBS 600yds
2. Angle Mechanical offset
3. Urban Sniper Hide
4. Barn shot
5. Tree shot
6. Bench shot
7. Truck shot
8. Switch back
9. Position Check
10. KYL
These ten events were to test a well rounded shooter. I would say, if you shot this match and where weak in the fundamentals of marksmanship it showed up REAL fast in the start of the day.
The shooting Drills:
The <span style="font-weight: bold">CBS Shot at 600yds</span> is a true test of your ability to know your rifle. To gain a single round hit on a 2 MOA plate of steel is a test of your ability as a rifleman.
The <span style="font-weight: bold">Angle Mechanical Offset</span> was added due to the fact you go from 600yds to 7yds aiming down hill. The main test here was to see if the shooter reset his riflescope to ZERO and knows the hold off for such a close shot.
We all know that an <span style="font-weight: bold">urban sniper hide</span> is not done off a window frame, but it’s a competition not training right? This drill was to get people to focus on the target, no matter how small it is. This plate rack was 2”, 3” and 4” steel floppers at about 150yds or so. You had to place 1 round per plate.
At this time is when we went to separate groups Glens and mine.
I took my team to the <span style="font-weight: bold">tree shot</span>, in the process of last weekend the tree was cut down. So it turned in to a dirt mound shot. No worries. The shooter had to fire 5 rounds about 175yds in a 1.5 MOA target dot worth 2 pts. The center white dot was worth 10pts but was .308” large. Once done here Glen and I swapped locations and went to the Barn shot.
The <span style="font-weight: bold">barn shot</span> was a prone 175yd 6rnd shot on the 2”, 3” and 4” steel floppers just over the rise of the farm land. This shot was done inside a old barn with a wood floor. Some people have rifles bouncing all over the place due to poor recoil management and a hard shooting platform.
The next event I took my team was to the <span style="font-weight: bold">truck shot</span>. The idea of this shot, in design was GREAT. IN doing it, not so much. I started with a barricade, the barricade failed, so I used my truck. Next the target failed 5 times until I added a 12”x18” steel plate to keep it in the ground. So my group did not have a smooth event unlike Glens team. The lay of the farm on this event was curved. So the target was hard to see and hit on the backside of the hill. If you did not aim into the hill where you think the target is, you missed.
The <span style="font-weight: bold"> Bench shot</span> was next, and I did not do this one. Glen kept my team and I took his team to the truck shot. Glens team had a VERY smooth event at the truck shoot do to the target getting fixed.
<span style="font-weight: bold">Switch Back</span> is a event I love. Basically this is how it goes. I place five shooters down on the ground. Down range is x amount of targets all at unknown distance. I kick your foot and call a color / number and you shoot that target with in a VERY short time frame. You do this for five rounds. I think everyone enjoyed this event due to it being a lot of fun and not a standard square range drill.
<span style="font-weight: bold"> Position Check </span> is a old LEO Sniper drill at X distance you have five dots, the shooter places four rounds on a table, goes to the firing line, shoots one round. Then gets up and recovers there 2nd round and shoots the next dot. We do this until all five rounds are shot.
<span style="font-weight: bold">K.Y.L.</span> Glen and I thought this was a easy collection of points. The shooters had all day to get the rifles shooting and had all day to get ready for this. So we set this up at 400yds with the following steel floppers. 2”, 3”, 4” and 6”. I did not run this event but looking at the score cards, it was a hard event to shoot.
After thoughts:
Looking back at the Jan 10 J.S.T.M., Glen and I covered every training point except offhand, roll over prone and moving targets. I do feel that most of the shooters where not ready for this level of skill sets. I think I placed a lot of new shooters in the deep end of the pool and took away there floaters. But that’s a good thing right? I could see a major improvement to BobinNC’s score from the Nov 09 match to this match. BobinNC came to a class in DEC 09 and it paid off for him in a BIG WAY!!!
I know Glen and I will continue to run these matches and I hope you all continue to come. Please add your AAR to this.
John
