These are my thoughts and ramblings on the experience and certainly not a guide book of what to expect or how to approach one of these events.
Okay here we go - I got an Air B&B on Friday night so I could be closer to the Y.O. Ranch since it's a 3.5 hour drive from home. When I got there on Saturday morning it was a brisk 19 degrees outside, but at least the sun was up and the wind was down (I confirmed my zero on Friday before leaving home with 26mph winds!). I wore my long sleeve wool base shirt, a thermal waffle top over that and a very thin Columbia rain jacket on top of that to keep the heat in. Wool socks, wool gaiter and a fleece beanie to top it all off (the wool beanie I ordered made my forehead itch like crazy but the waffle fleece has never done that to me). We got started around 10AM and finished around 5PM with the weather hovering around the mid 30's all day. We didn't do a whole lot of running, more of a quick ruck pace. My buddy is still in the Army with 21 years in service, and he was leading foot patrols in the DMZ last year and countless deployments under his belt, so the guy's got some miles on his body.
Stage 1 was a total punch in the gut and gave me a good indication of what was to come. It span the entirety of their tactical bay section. These bays had 30' tall berms between them (4 berms in total). The starting point was at the bottom of berm 1 and we had to sprint to the top, engage rifle targets, run down and engage targets with pistol, run up the next berm, engage more rifle targets, run down to more rifle targets, run up and engage a pistol flapper at the top, run down to more rifle, then back up and shoot more rifle targets. There were tons of DNF's on the stage and plenty of people just skipped it entirely, taking the DNF. According to the scoring, I placed 9th overall on this stage. That was my best stage of the weekend!
The next stage started with a sprint that ended in a low crawl under barbed wire. We crawled 30' or so and while still under the barbed wire, we had to rotate 90 degrees and engage rifle targets. Continue crawling another 30' and engage more rifle. Crawl another 30' to the end of the barbed wire and then more rifle targets from behind a tree. Then sprint to a casualty sled with 200lbs of weights placed on it. We had to drag the litter a number of feet and then engage pistol targets one handed while not letting go of the sled. At some point on my way to stage 2, my camelbak leaked water onto my handgun and the low crawl introduced the other ingredient needed for a nice chunky mud. That first pistol shot sent a wave of mud directly to my face lol. My optic was obscured and I DNF'd the stage trying to clear the mud off my RMR.
The stages after this were all kind of a blur honestly. There was one stage with 30+ shots between rifle and handgun, which included mag changes and 4 shooting positions - all had to be done weak handed. So I had to tackle the whole stage shooting left handed. Up to this point, the RO said no one had gotten further than position 2 before the time ran out. I was standing up to go to position 4 when I ran out of time! I almost made it, but they did a fantastic job at hiding these targets in the brush, not to mention the entire background was white/gray rocks so the steel just blended right in.
There was another stage with 100% pistol shots while the RO called out a random position for you to shoot from. You had to run back to the start and then he'd call another position for you to run to. That continued for 3 minutes and was pretty exhausting. They ended the day with a medium range rifle stage that included tank traps and a 50lb sand bag that you had to maintain possession of the entire time or else you had to reset back to the start position.
Day 2 started around 30 degrees and we were told "This is the long course, be prepared". By mid morning we began to get some flurries but nothing that stuck to the ground. Day 2's shooting stages were much more reasonable, but the terrain and distances between the stages were absolutely wild. Not a single patch to dirt to be seen, every step I took was on rocks. There was a good mix of handgun and rifle targets on these stages but nothing wild like an all left-hand stage or carrying anything extra, just lots of move and shoot type of stuff and one 700+ yard stage that everyone using 5.56 struggled with. By afternoon the flurries turned into consistent rain, but at least the temps get into the mid 40's so it made things a bit more comfortable.
When we got to the final stage of the day, it required 22 pistol hits and I had ONE 20 round mag left plus one in the chamber. It started with a Mozambique (2 to the chest, 1 to the head) then moved into engaging smaller square and silhouette targets from various positions and ended with another Mozambique. My buddy went first and he had 4 rounds of 9mm left that he gave to me, so I had 3 rounds to throw away on this stage. Shooter ready? Damn right! BEEP - I sprint to position 1, draw my handgun and my ENTIRE RMR window is fogged over. I have nothing but a grey lens with a giant red starburst covering the middle. I quickly decided to use the top of the RMR as my aiming point and burned my 3 rounds figuring out the Kentucky windage. Somehow, by the grace of Saint Miculek I cleared that stage with time to spare!
My buddy decided that his knees were all done at this point and decided to catch a ride to the finish. That last stage pumped me up so I was ready to sprint to the finish line. My friend's 19 year old son that had been out there with us decided to go with me, so on we went while his dad climbed into the RO's side-by-side. We make it the mile and a half to the finish pretty quickly and after checking in I went over to the porta-shitter to pay the hydration tax. When I came out, the RO's were parked by the finish and I asked "Hey, where's my guy?". They informed me that he decided to finish on his feet, so he's on the trail. I go over to the kid, collect my rifle and started sprinting back in his direction. I wasn't about to make that man cross the line by himself. When I found him, he was hobbling along with a retired Master Sergeant sharing war stories. We all 3 crossed the finish line together in a world of belly laughs and back slaps.
This was by far the most fun I've ever had with a rifle in my hand. I met so many awesome people, kindred spirits and absolute comedians (one guy ran the entire weekend with Whataburger swim trunks, cheeseburger t-shirt, athletic headband and an AK with a drum mag. We always knew when AK guy made it to a stage because he just spray and prayed at every single target with a smile on his face). I can't wait to make it out to another one!
Okay here we go - I got an Air B&B on Friday night so I could be closer to the Y.O. Ranch since it's a 3.5 hour drive from home. When I got there on Saturday morning it was a brisk 19 degrees outside, but at least the sun was up and the wind was down (I confirmed my zero on Friday before leaving home with 26mph winds!). I wore my long sleeve wool base shirt, a thermal waffle top over that and a very thin Columbia rain jacket on top of that to keep the heat in. Wool socks, wool gaiter and a fleece beanie to top it all off (the wool beanie I ordered made my forehead itch like crazy but the waffle fleece has never done that to me). We got started around 10AM and finished around 5PM with the weather hovering around the mid 30's all day. We didn't do a whole lot of running, more of a quick ruck pace. My buddy is still in the Army with 21 years in service, and he was leading foot patrols in the DMZ last year and countless deployments under his belt, so the guy's got some miles on his body.
Stage 1 was a total punch in the gut and gave me a good indication of what was to come. It span the entirety of their tactical bay section. These bays had 30' tall berms between them (4 berms in total). The starting point was at the bottom of berm 1 and we had to sprint to the top, engage rifle targets, run down and engage targets with pistol, run up the next berm, engage more rifle targets, run down to more rifle targets, run up and engage a pistol flapper at the top, run down to more rifle, then back up and shoot more rifle targets. There were tons of DNF's on the stage and plenty of people just skipped it entirely, taking the DNF. According to the scoring, I placed 9th overall on this stage. That was my best stage of the weekend!
The next stage started with a sprint that ended in a low crawl under barbed wire. We crawled 30' or so and while still under the barbed wire, we had to rotate 90 degrees and engage rifle targets. Continue crawling another 30' and engage more rifle. Crawl another 30' to the end of the barbed wire and then more rifle targets from behind a tree. Then sprint to a casualty sled with 200lbs of weights placed on it. We had to drag the litter a number of feet and then engage pistol targets one handed while not letting go of the sled. At some point on my way to stage 2, my camelbak leaked water onto my handgun and the low crawl introduced the other ingredient needed for a nice chunky mud. That first pistol shot sent a wave of mud directly to my face lol. My optic was obscured and I DNF'd the stage trying to clear the mud off my RMR.
The stages after this were all kind of a blur honestly. There was one stage with 30+ shots between rifle and handgun, which included mag changes and 4 shooting positions - all had to be done weak handed. So I had to tackle the whole stage shooting left handed. Up to this point, the RO said no one had gotten further than position 2 before the time ran out. I was standing up to go to position 4 when I ran out of time! I almost made it, but they did a fantastic job at hiding these targets in the brush, not to mention the entire background was white/gray rocks so the steel just blended right in.
There was another stage with 100% pistol shots while the RO called out a random position for you to shoot from. You had to run back to the start and then he'd call another position for you to run to. That continued for 3 minutes and was pretty exhausting. They ended the day with a medium range rifle stage that included tank traps and a 50lb sand bag that you had to maintain possession of the entire time or else you had to reset back to the start position.
Day 2 started around 30 degrees and we were told "This is the long course, be prepared". By mid morning we began to get some flurries but nothing that stuck to the ground. Day 2's shooting stages were much more reasonable, but the terrain and distances between the stages were absolutely wild. Not a single patch to dirt to be seen, every step I took was on rocks. There was a good mix of handgun and rifle targets on these stages but nothing wild like an all left-hand stage or carrying anything extra, just lots of move and shoot type of stuff and one 700+ yard stage that everyone using 5.56 struggled with. By afternoon the flurries turned into consistent rain, but at least the temps get into the mid 40's so it made things a bit more comfortable.
When we got to the final stage of the day, it required 22 pistol hits and I had ONE 20 round mag left plus one in the chamber. It started with a Mozambique (2 to the chest, 1 to the head) then moved into engaging smaller square and silhouette targets from various positions and ended with another Mozambique. My buddy went first and he had 4 rounds of 9mm left that he gave to me, so I had 3 rounds to throw away on this stage. Shooter ready? Damn right! BEEP - I sprint to position 1, draw my handgun and my ENTIRE RMR window is fogged over. I have nothing but a grey lens with a giant red starburst covering the middle. I quickly decided to use the top of the RMR as my aiming point and burned my 3 rounds figuring out the Kentucky windage. Somehow, by the grace of Saint Miculek I cleared that stage with time to spare!
My buddy decided that his knees were all done at this point and decided to catch a ride to the finish. That last stage pumped me up so I was ready to sprint to the finish line. My friend's 19 year old son that had been out there with us decided to go with me, so on we went while his dad climbed into the RO's side-by-side. We make it the mile and a half to the finish pretty quickly and after checking in I went over to the porta-shitter to pay the hydration tax. When I came out, the RO's were parked by the finish and I asked "Hey, where's my guy?". They informed me that he decided to finish on his feet, so he's on the trail. I go over to the kid, collect my rifle and started sprinting back in his direction. I wasn't about to make that man cross the line by himself. When I found him, he was hobbling along with a retired Master Sergeant sharing war stories. We all 3 crossed the finish line together in a world of belly laughs and back slaps.
This was by far the most fun I've ever had with a rifle in my hand. I met so many awesome people, kindred spirits and absolute comedians (one guy ran the entire weekend with Whataburger swim trunks, cheeseburger t-shirt, athletic headband and an AK with a drum mag. We always knew when AK guy made it to a stage because he just spray and prayed at every single target with a smile on his face). I can't wait to make it out to another one!
