AAR L1-3 Re-qualification 27-28 January 2017

**GVC86** · 31-01-2017, 19:34

After Action Report (AAR)
27-28 January 2017
L1-3 Requalification

Hi guys,
Just a quick AAR on the start of the Sas Mpu year. This past weekend saw us (the regulars) re-qualify for the new year. We also had one new L1 qualifier, Splinter – Killroy’s son.

Friday morning at 11h50 Vrystaat and I packed our laptop’s, greeted the office people and headed home to pack. Vrystaat would pick me up just before 13h00 and we would set off to the range. Luckily Murphy didn’t get the memo and all went off without a hitch, 12h55 Vrystaat stopped at my place packed and ready for action. We proceeded to pack my gear as well as the Sas mpu kit. 10-15min later we were on the road to our little piece of heaven situated in the Loskop valley surrounds, the anticipation grew as this was to be our first L2-3 attempt (officially).

We arrived at the range just before 14h00 and started to raise the flags, the official start to our Sas weekend.

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Next up was to get the paperwork sorted, Bigmac arrived and together we did kit checks from L1 to L3 kit for the three of us. Today (27/1/2017) would only see the three (Vrystaat, Bigmac and I) of us try out for L2-3 patches. 15h40 and the kit checks and general catching up was done, a quick safety briefing and off we went.

[URL=http://s42.photobucket.com/user/GVC86/media/20170127_152619_zpsgc5qrnhy.jpg.html][IMG]http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e334/GVC86/20170127_152619_zpsgc5qrnhy.jpg[/IMG][/URL] – Vrystaat

[URL=http://s42.photobucket.com/user/GVC86/media/20170127_152705_zpsddjswmad.jpg.html][IMG]http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e334/GVC86/20170127_152705_zpsddjswmad.jpg[/IMG][/URL] – Bigmac

[URL=http://s42.photobucket.com/user/GVC86/media/20170127_152738_zps8lmy6fbd.jpg.html][IMG]http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e334/GVC86/20170127_152738_zps8lmy6fbd.jpg[/IMG][/URL] – GVC86

Because of logistics and time constraints we decided to set off in a group, stopwatches were started and we set off on the hike. This was the first time we did a L2 hike on the farm and I had to lead the group as per my Google earth plotted map, which worked out at 6.2 odd kilometres. Now the Sas standard is 6.4km but, the route was plotted out in Google earth as the crow flies between checkpoints. Due to the rocky nature and the huge cattails (I think that is what they are called) the only sections where one can walk in a straight line is where there is a road.

The first leg of the hike (start to CP1) has a gradual uphill gradient, after reaching CP1 you travel along a game farm fence to CP2 once again at an uphill gradient albeit a lot less than the first leg. You see the middle of the land we have access to is on a hill (koppie). We were all neck and neck for the first two legs of the hike, thereafter fitness levels and personal drive kicked in and a gap started forming between the three of us. Bigmac took the lead with me closely (20-30m) behind and Vrystaat trailing (more due to new boots - ouch - than anything else).

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This dispersion was good for safety reasons once we reached the shooting range. The rest of the hike was pretty uneventful and saw Bigmac reach the Shooting range first, where he proceeded with the shoot. I was second on the range and Vrystaat 3^rd. We all did our shoot and set off on the last leg of the hike to the finishing point. Now dear readers this is where my devious route planning skills bit us in the rear end. The shooting range is on the valley and the finishing point 200m further to the lookout tower, atop the hill. I really misjudged the gradient of this last portion and we all agreed that this was the most gruelling part of the hike, this we dubbed this hill or part of the hike as “heartbreak hill”.

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At some stages going up heartbreak hill one have to lift your whole weight plus kit weight about 3-400mm at a time, easy right... well try it tired with 27-33kg of weight on your back!!! Suddenly the the 25 odd minutes I had left seemed too little for this clamber up to the tower. To set all the drama aside we all made it up in time, exhausted and thoroughly tested.

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Here we took a looong break Bigmac shared some jelly babies and we reflected on the hike. After about 30min we mustered our last energy and kitted up to go check the scores, the nerves kicked up a gear as we couldn’t imagine doing the 15min penalty hike and shoot after what we went through already.
We dropped out kit at the staging (start area) and went to check the shooting scores, to everyone’s relieve we all passed albeit some of us just scraping over the fence.

Name	Time	Shooting Score	Total score – kit & shoot bonus pts
Bigmac (shotgun)	78m28s	50m – 5/6 100m – 5/6	58 (19.5 kit bonus pts)
Vrystaat (AR15 scoped)	85m42s	50m – 14/15 100m – 9/10	66.27 (14 kit & 5.25 shooting bonus pts)
GVC86 (RSA Musgrave Scoped)	81m10s	50m – 6/6 100m – 5/6	61.55 (19 kit & 0.25 shooting bonus pts)

Elated that we all passed, we went to set up our camps for the L3 sleep out. Some of us put more effort into setting up camp than others, first prize going to Vrystaat!

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And then the rest of us

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I forgot to get more tent stakes and had to, or let’s just say wanted to make some

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Getting a brew on

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And making chow

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After some camp chit chat we headed off to bed, only to be surprised be the sound of breaking twigs and sticks. I immediately jumped up with EDC in hand to investigate the threat. After some 20m of patrolling it dawned on me, where are your buddies? As I swung my head around to scan I saw Vrystaat behind me to my left, EDC in hand in sull position. My backup was in place! I like it when I see good training come to fruition! Any how our searches yielded nothing and we summed it up as being wildlife.

The rest of the night saw the Sas L3 true test come up... Rain! What is a Level 3 without rain right? Well luckily my shelter held up. I saw the lighting flashes and packed my kit around me and lifted the edges of my ground sheet to form a little “boat” which saw the water run around me. I did however need a extra guy line on my shelter, when the rain lulled I quickly jumped up and installed one. After that it was just dealing with the bugs and mozzies which meant little sleep anyway.

The next morning at 05h30 I got up, answered natures call and accessed my L3 kit at 06h00 cleaning up for the new day’s events. As we all did. We packed out kit away and waited for the L1 attendees.
Killroy and his son Splinter was to be the only L1 attendees to pitch up. They quickly zeroed their firearms and we proceeded with the kit checks. They also took off together, but Splinter arrived first at 36 odd minutes into the hike. He unfortunately didn’t make his required amount of hits on his first attempt and had to run the 100m and got 30 seconds to fill in the shots.

Killroy arrived at 38 odd minutes into the hike and qualified first time around. Making 14/20 hits with his Saiga. Splinter then ran the 100m and his 30 seconds started, he ran through the 7 rounds in the cbc’s tube mag and luckily got the required shots in to qualify.

Name	Time	Shooting Score	Outcome
Killroy	38m57s	14/20	Pass
Splinter	36m38s	13/23	Pass

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The rest of the day was spent on zeroing the red dot on Killroy’s BXP, and attempting to make hits on a paper plate at 100m. This unfortunately didn’t go too well and we think it might be due to the ammo as the spread or grouping was +-3m, getting only 5 hits right next to but off of the paper plate.

We then decided we have had enough and packed up, dropped the flags and heeded for home.

All in all a great weekend, I am very happy with our level 1 and 2 routes and wish to see Sas Mpu grow in this new year.

Thanks to everyone who attended and assisted in the organizing.

Regards
George