the_klenzer
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Vancouver, BC
Hello gents! Thought I'd post a little blurb about my first tactical rifle competition day. I've been black rifles from a bench for a couple years so it was about damn time to get out there and use one in motion.
First, thanks to Dave for running it, great day, no hitches. To Rob for captaining Team Goat and from keeping me from shooting the wood barricade as well as an improptu "how to fix a double feed while the timer is running" lesson. Jon for inviting me out. And thanks to the other volunteers for setting it all up.
Second, can't post pics until I photoshop the "suck" out of the ones with me in them and get permission from others in the photos - give me a day or so.
Third, props to Dave's Surplus/DS tactical for kicking in prizes for the event!
Here's what I learned and how the day went down, in order:
Day at TMSA started cool, it's a mountain, dress warm even in June! Day ended up hot and sunny... not so cool in your 35lb plate carrier then, are ya BCshooterguy?
My setup: Tavor with Vortex 1-4x, sling, and a simple belt and dump pouch setup. Review on this as we go.
ALLLLLL kinds of guns to be found here! Yes that's an SKS.
Stage 1: shoot target at 50, 100, then 6 plates. This is a fairly simple stage for anyone who has shot from bench. Until you get a double feed that adds 45 seconds to your time. This problem started with me not slapping/racking hard enough, and escalated. As a friend of mine says "I can't brain when the nervous!"
First lesson... you can't zero on the day (which I knew ahead of time). So when you're at the bench only range the previous time you are out shooting and your rifle is a little off zero, and you say "f**k it, I'll dial it in next time" and then forget... you'll pay for that. Many people did. I remembered where I was off, roughly. Not great shooting on my part, but I took all the plates down... eventually.
Bring the gun with the best zeroed in scope you have!
Next lesson from stage 1... They say RDS scopes are best for tac rifle. So glad I had the 1-4x on this stage. The top guys all had magnified scopes IIRC.
Stage 2 (we split into teams for the rest of the day) was a speed event, shooting 5 targets at close range, 2 shots per target, with one mag change.
This was super fun, as some of the targets were obscured and you had to change positions as you shot to hit them all.
Lesson here - a 7 second time (NOT my time) with 13 penalty points doesn't beat a 12 second time with no penalty points. It will take me many more stages to learn the time vs penaly thing.
Lesson 2 here - 10rd mags win over 5rd pmags.
Kneeling = +5 on your "to hit" roll.
Stage 3 - a tight CQB type stage, lots of corridors, walls, etc... (the other team shot this as stage 4 I think) Hella-fun! Shoot, move, shoot, move, shoot. This is where the 10rd mags really paid off, with 1/2 the mag changes of the Pmags.
BIG LESSON OF FAIL. The distance between the barrel of a Tavor and the Vortex scope on a mount is about 4". With my already slightly low zero, 4" low on every target is the difference between 0 penalty points and 6 (3pts x 2 holes) on every target.... x10 targets = 60 penalty points. Burn.
At least I didn't shoot through the wood barricade.
LESSON 5 (or are we at 6) Get electronic hearing protection. I had the normal ones, the best that I could get for muffling all sound. Unfortunately, they kept me from hearing the RO behind me saying "YOU CAN'T SHOOT THAT TARGET FROM HERE, YOU HAVE TO GO BACK TO THE LAST STATION..." I'll keep my regular cans for the bench range where I need the extra protection against the big caliber guys, but for tac rifle, I'm going electronic, asap.
Silveragent (If that IS your real name...) reloads
STAGE 4: Combination between some close quarters and 50yd range, 4 positions to shoot from. Fun stage, lots of things to make holes in. Choosing what to shoot and from where really came into play, as some shots were a lot easier to take from certain places. Unfortunately, my time was marred by a bad mag load (def harder to slap the mag hard on a Tavor over an AR - must work on this), and again forgetting that I was shooting 4-6" low, all the time. Massive penalties here.
Must... aim.... hiiiiiiiigher.
Final... amazing day, exactly what I got into shooting to do. Overall suggestions for people who want to get into it:
* All you need to do this is a dump pouch. Just make sure you put your mags in pointing the same way you want to take them out to load. Yes, there's a ton of tactical gear, plate carriers, rigs, etc that you can buy. Don't. Just get a $20 dump pouch and try it once. If you want to get tactical, rock it, but it's not needed at all to be competitive.
* Obvious advantage to having LAR mags, though more than 1/2 the people there ran Pmags (including the winner) and one guy had an SKS. Bring what you have and focus on accuracy and having fun.
* Bring water and munchies and keep them handy. You'll be hungry/thirsty way before lunch.
* Bug repellant. Don't spray it in your mouth, it tastes bad.
* Boots or mud shoes with mud traction. Yes.
* I went through 120rds roughly, fwiw.
* Zero your rifle to 50yds, not 100.
That's about it. See you guys next month - I'm hooked!
First, thanks to Dave for running it, great day, no hitches. To Rob for captaining Team Goat and from keeping me from shooting the wood barricade as well as an improptu "how to fix a double feed while the timer is running" lesson. Jon for inviting me out. And thanks to the other volunteers for setting it all up.
Second, can't post pics until I photoshop the "suck" out of the ones with me in them and get permission from others in the photos - give me a day or so.
Third, props to Dave's Surplus/DS tactical for kicking in prizes for the event!
Here's what I learned and how the day went down, in order:
Day at TMSA started cool, it's a mountain, dress warm even in June! Day ended up hot and sunny... not so cool in your 35lb plate carrier then, are ya BCshooterguy?
My setup: Tavor with Vortex 1-4x, sling, and a simple belt and dump pouch setup. Review on this as we go.
ALLLLLL kinds of guns to be found here! Yes that's an SKS.
Stage 1: shoot target at 50, 100, then 6 plates. This is a fairly simple stage for anyone who has shot from bench. Until you get a double feed that adds 45 seconds to your time. This problem started with me not slapping/racking hard enough, and escalated. As a friend of mine says "I can't brain when the nervous!"
First lesson... you can't zero on the day (which I knew ahead of time). So when you're at the bench only range the previous time you are out shooting and your rifle is a little off zero, and you say "f**k it, I'll dial it in next time" and then forget... you'll pay for that. Many people did. I remembered where I was off, roughly. Not great shooting on my part, but I took all the plates down... eventually.
Bring the gun with the best zeroed in scope you have!
Next lesson from stage 1... They say RDS scopes are best for tac rifle. So glad I had the 1-4x on this stage. The top guys all had magnified scopes IIRC.
Stage 2 (we split into teams for the rest of the day) was a speed event, shooting 5 targets at close range, 2 shots per target, with one mag change.
This was super fun, as some of the targets were obscured and you had to change positions as you shot to hit them all.
Lesson here - a 7 second time (NOT my time) with 13 penalty points doesn't beat a 12 second time with no penalty points. It will take me many more stages to learn the time vs penaly thing.
Lesson 2 here - 10rd mags win over 5rd pmags.
Kneeling = +5 on your "to hit" roll.
Stage 3 - a tight CQB type stage, lots of corridors, walls, etc... (the other team shot this as stage 4 I think) Hella-fun! Shoot, move, shoot, move, shoot. This is where the 10rd mags really paid off, with 1/2 the mag changes of the Pmags.
BIG LESSON OF FAIL. The distance between the barrel of a Tavor and the Vortex scope on a mount is about 4". With my already slightly low zero, 4" low on every target is the difference between 0 penalty points and 6 (3pts x 2 holes) on every target.... x10 targets = 60 penalty points. Burn.
At least I didn't shoot through the wood barricade.
LESSON 5 (or are we at 6) Get electronic hearing protection. I had the normal ones, the best that I could get for muffling all sound. Unfortunately, they kept me from hearing the RO behind me saying "YOU CAN'T SHOOT THAT TARGET FROM HERE, YOU HAVE TO GO BACK TO THE LAST STATION..." I'll keep my regular cans for the bench range where I need the extra protection against the big caliber guys, but for tac rifle, I'm going electronic, asap.
Silveragent (If that IS your real name...) reloads
STAGE 4: Combination between some close quarters and 50yd range, 4 positions to shoot from. Fun stage, lots of things to make holes in. Choosing what to shoot and from where really came into play, as some shots were a lot easier to take from certain places. Unfortunately, my time was marred by a bad mag load (def harder to slap the mag hard on a Tavor over an AR - must work on this), and again forgetting that I was shooting 4-6" low, all the time. Massive penalties here.
Must... aim.... hiiiiiiiigher.
Final... amazing day, exactly what I got into shooting to do. Overall suggestions for people who want to get into it:
* All you need to do this is a dump pouch. Just make sure you put your mags in pointing the same way you want to take them out to load. Yes, there's a ton of tactical gear, plate carriers, rigs, etc that you can buy. Don't. Just get a $20 dump pouch and try it once. If you want to get tactical, rock it, but it's not needed at all to be competitive.
* Obvious advantage to having LAR mags, though more than 1/2 the people there ran Pmags (including the winner) and one guy had an SKS. Bring what you have and focus on accuracy and having fun.
* Bring water and munchies and keep them handy. You'll be hungry/thirsty way before lunch.
* Bug repellant. Don't spray it in your mouth, it tastes bad.
* Boots or mud shoes with mud traction. Yes.
* I went through 120rds roughly, fwiw.
* Zero your rifle to 50yds, not 100.
That's about it. See you guys next month - I'm hooked!
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