01 May 2014

AAR: Battleroad USA Zombie Destruction Biathlon

The Plan:

Run Battleroad USA's Zombie Destruction Biathlon, a 4.2 mile biathlon with eight shooting stations, four rifle and four pistol.

What Actually Happened:

It was pretty straight forward, I ran the course and individual shooting stations as laid out. I finished with an adjusted time (my total time for the run of 1:28:something, minus the time I spent waiting and running individual stations) of 1:11:50, placing 36/77. I successfully completed seven of the eight shooting stations, disqualifying on the last one due to too many missed shots in a row.

What Went Wrong:

1. The primary failure for the course was dehydration-caused exhaustion. I failed to drink enough water the day before, and did not bring extra water to keep my Camelbak full, so I ran out of water about 30 minutes into the race. Due to the central-Texas location, the weather was a mild 85*F, with 75% humidity, and I very nearly became a heat injury.

2. A second major failure point was inexperience with rifle shooting from unusual positions. I did fairly well with prone and kneeling shots, but shots that require standing with the rifle braced on doorframes, canted to shoot under/through obstacles, or from a half-crouched position gave me trouble.

Stage 8. 9 hits from 9 positions in less than 3 minutes. I failed it.

3. Compounding the dehydration was poor diet the previous day, I generally don't eat full meals when I'm on the road, but the biathlon required far more calories than I had eaten. And what I *had* eaten was a sandwich, a couple bags of snack trash foods, washed down with soda and Red Bull. I'm a retard, and I admit it.

4. At one of the early stages, my safety glasses fogged up. This was totally unexpected, as they don't seal up around my eyes, nor should there have been a temperature/humidity change that should have caused that. Simple enough fix (take them off for a shot), but losing vision while shooting is a definite problem.

5. My tac vest was heavy and tight enough to prevent me from drawing full breaths on the trot, so I had to run without being able to breath properly. This was partly remedied by breathing from the belly instead of the chest, but that still doesn't allow me to run without trouble. Loosening the tac vest would have meant more bouncing/digging as I ran, which doesn't really make anything better.

6. At one of the pistol stages, foliage that partially obscured one of the targets kept throwing me off. I'd aim at the steel, but missed wider on that target, repeatedly, than any other target on the course.

7. 7-round 1911 mags on a course that required 57 pistol hits, with stages that required up to 20 hits a piece. 'Nuff said, really.

8. I had my AR mags loaded with 30 rounds, which prevented me from loading them on a closed bolt.

What Went Right:

1. For the most part, my rifle work was acceptable. I need more experience estimating ranges, but I shot acceptably well on three of the rifle stages. The first was "meh" at best due to odd positions and just having jogged 3/4 of a mile, but I was pimp-slapping steel on the other two.

2. I did far better than expected on the pistol stages. When possible, I dropped to a crouch to minimize hand tremors from the runs, and this allowed me to brace my elbow on my knee. It worked very well on the two stages I could do this on, which were 20-yard shots in a wooded area.
3. I wore a basic pair of Mechanix gloves for the whole race, and thoroughly recommend them.

4. My reloads, both pistol and rifle, were smooth if not especially fast. I didn't have any trouble getting mags from my pouches, and retention of mags was perfect. For that matter, I didn't have any problems with my kit except for the vest compressing my rib cage, which is a secondary issue. Even my boots were comfy the entire time.

5. I can bitch about my level of fitness, but by and large the average competitor was...large. I saw more fat wrapped in multicam there in one day than pretty much everywhere else combined. So frankly, I was a lean, mean killing machine compared to a lot of the people there.

6. It did a fantastic job of tying together the various disciplines involved in shooting: PT, marksmanship, terrain navigation, and gear. Hell, throw in a compass course and a requirement to sneak past an observer and it would be perfect.

7. I was only ten minutes behind the fifth-place finisher. Had I not been forced to walk to avoid becoming a heat casualty, I could easily have been near the top ten, if not the top five.

Lessons Learned:

1. I need to diversify my rifle shooting drills to include urban prone, canted-rifle, and other odd positions. Standing, kneeling, and prone just wasn't enough. I also need a steel ringer target to simplify my range trips.

2. Increased shooting distance is an absolute priority. There's just no way to practice accounting for windage or ballistic drop at 50 yards, even if I'm shooting tiny-ass targets that simulate minute-of-dude at 300 yards.

3. I do a lot of PT, but I need to do EVEN MORE PT! Ideally, I should be able to run the entire course length with full kit at a decent pace, during the hot part of the day.

4. I now have an excellent excuse to buy a 9mm pistol. Ideally with 30-round stick mags for those stages with a higher round count... :)

5. I need to take care of myself better. My day-to-day diet is pretty good, but that falls apart on a road trip, and that's unacceptable. 

6. Why aren't all my friends doing this? IT WAS AWESOME!!!

1 comment:

  1. I thought you did a great job. And your AAR is actually a really great example of why we run this event.

    A lot of folks get very little range time, and even folks who do get range time at a bench, or standing straight up etc., get smacked with reality when they have to make a shot in a non bench/standing straight up situation.

    We want to present folks with situations that are things they have been doing so that they can see where there might be holes in their training.

    Like you pointed out, in a situation where you have a 7 round magazine and you end up in a 13 target environment, you need to have a 13+ round mag and precision shooting skills, or extra mags and some mad rapid mag change abilities.

    We set the course up to try and make sure you get tired, and we wanted you to carry the extra ammo all the way to the end (Station 7) so you would have to carry the weight.

    We want folks to look at the course as a diagnostic to see where they might have shortcomings with their personal prep, gear, set up. And the rain really helped out at this event. The number of folks who had problems with optics, especially holographics, in the rain, was really high. And we were glad they got to see what a moderate rain might do to their gear.

    If you wear glasses, get you some that are anti fog and have the elastic strap on them. Even if you don't wear corrective lenses, get some shooting glasses that are fall off proof. In a shooting situation where you are getting return fire, if you get dirt or wood chips in your eye, you will decrease or lose your ability to return accurate fire.

    Hydration starts the week or day before. You must have water to run your machine. Even on a cool day with physical exertion, it takes a lot of water to run the machine. By the time you realize you are thirsty, you are already in a pretty good water deficit. If your body needs water to run major organs, it will steal it from water rich organs, eyes will be first on the list and you need those eyes to make accurate shots. You should be making clear water on an hourly basis before you ask for any type of competition action from your body.

    And you should maintain a good general diet, but when working into a physical stress situation, you need to train on protein, but fight on fat and carbs.

    Remember, when you are shooting with your rifle canted, you will need to make sure you are adjusting your aiming point high to the magazine side. With a D target at 250 meters, and my rifle at 45 degrees, I need to make my aiming point right above left shoulder for my AR.

    Thanks for the write up and thanks for coming out. Hope to see you again in April with a bunch of your buddies in tow.

    Scout

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