Sports adventure shooting: Level 3: January 2012

[camouflage762]

Sports adventure shooting: Level 3 January 2012

Purpose:

• To allow regular participants an early chance to requalify for L3 IN 2012
• To develop familiarise regulars with admin/safety/first aid procedures with a view to participating being selected as “staff” in the year to come.

Day 1.
This day was allocated to the level 2 hike.
It entails carrying a level 1 kit as well as overnight/support kit. Think of it as a normal hike with a backpack, but throw in a rifle, 150 round of ammo and a few other goodies.

The par time for the hike is 100minute.
This includes navigation, use of radio, crossing a dam, shooting from 50m & 100m and then moving to the finish line about 700m away.
The route followed is trackless and consists of gentle upward slope most of the way in waist to high grass.

To encourage the sporting aspect, participants get “bonus” for additional items carried and for extra shots placed on target.
These points then translate into time and are deducted from the participants final time. Thus if they had finished in a time of 105 minutes, they would need 5 bonus points to equal par time. This would be made up of either additional kit or extra shots on target, and in the final analysis saved some bacon! A minimum of 5 hits are needed, there after additional hits count as bonus points. Each bonus point equals 1 minute. Minimum hits on target are 5 at 50m and 5 @ 100m. Target is a 230mm white plate.

One of the participants “slipped” in the dam and soaked most of his kit including spare mags for the glock. Whilst performing reloads on the firing line I witnessned brown muck water pouring out of his mag & mag pouch.
The Glock performed without a hiccup.

Some participants got “lost” yet did not give up and used the shooting section to claw themselves back into the game. Well done guys.

These are the results:
BP=Bonus point

Callsign	FNFAL	Rabobi	ADW	GB	BB	Box	LS	SM	C762
L1-kg	10.7	9.5	9	7.5	11	11kg	11.25	14.25	15.5
L2-kg	18	14	10.5	15.5	17	17kg	11	12.5	14kg
FA/Cal	FN/7.62	Roni/40 S&W	LM5/5.56	P14/303	LM6/5.56	Brno bolt/7.62x39	LA/.22lr	Lee/303	G3/7.62
Sights	Scope	RMR	Aimpoint	Iron	Iron	Scoped	Iron	Scoped	Iron
Kit Bonus	21.5	16.5	16.5	21.5	21.5	21.5	16.5	21.5	21.5
Hike time	104	109	87	93	107	96	97	108	96
Shot fired/hits/BP (50m)	10/10/5	15/10/5	15/10/5	8/5/0	12/12/7	10/5/3	5/5/0	10/8/3	12/10/5
Shots Fired/hits/BP (100m)	5/5/0	20/12/7 (50m)	15/10/5	7/5/0	?/2/0	Dnf	18/8/3	14/11/6	13/9/4
Final score	77.5	80.5	60.5	71.5	Dnf**	74.4**	77.5	77.5	65.5

Note:**
A council was held to resolve the following issues:
1) A participant failed to get the requisite hit on the L2 hike and was given the option of a 10minute part time to walk 1km and complete the shooting at 50 & 100m.
2) Another participant’s rifle was destroyed by faulty ammo resulting a dnf on the 100m shooting section. The ammo was not reloaded ammo. The rifle was new & cost in excess of 10G’s, however the council found that as the ammo quality and consequent failure was beyond his control AND that the shooter had completed the same COF the previous week, coupled with the fact that the participant did give up and completed the course, despite some superficial bleeding, was still considered eligible for L3.

It was rather late as everyone made set up camp in the bush and prepared dinner.
It was interesting to see the kit that each one had brought with, from clip together poncho’s, 2 man tents and then those who opted to keep it simple & sleep under the stars, to the accompaniment of the cries of the jackals.

Day 2

Wake up was at 04hearly and after a cup of chicory it various team drills were practiced and then vehicles were moved back to the club house and shoved some food down our throats.

Whilst Box & SM set up for the first practice session, we practiced mounting & dismounting from a moving & stationary bakkie.

Thereafter it was interesting exercise to take cover behind a piece of tin IBR sheeting (simulating a vehicle skin) and then have to full auto paint ball guns have a go at it. This was done twice. The noise is tremendous! The paint balls gave the IBR some serious dents.
The wise amongst us did not stand up before dashing for other cover J

Dot torture drill were held, this to emphasise safety as well as the ability to transition and remain accurate.
Those who nailed all their “dots” could step off the line and watch as the other struggled on.

By now it was very hot and all of us were very tired following a night of a long hot night, hard ground, mozzies and keeping an eye on our vehicles.

As we were ahead of schedule a 2 hour lunch-siesta was in order! Most had some grub & then prostrated themselves on a concrete floor under a roofless club house. It had been a rigorous 24 hours….

After siesta we proceeded back to the range with full gear on proceeded to tackle the next exercises.
By mid afternoon we had returned to the clubhouse for a First Aid discussion & demonstration.
LS explained the advantages of, and practical application of oxygen.
He has a extensive first aid kit and at the end of the demo, we were familiar with LS’s first aid kit. Thanks LS!
By mid afternoon it was time to be back at the clubhouse & prepare for an our L3 task.

Using tools available, the participants had to clear some ground & build a plinth from materials found nearby.
The ultimate purpose was/is to move a beehive that are currently occupying our toilet building to a new “home”.
Thus a new hive would be placed on top of the plinth, hopefully beyond the reach of honey loving creatures & veld fires.

This done, it was time to prep for our second night under the star. Everybody replenished water & food from their L3 kit and geared up for the walk. Vehicles were secured. This time instead of having one large group camping together we split into two groups of three & one of two (Box was busy moving the bee’s, would finish late and thus would remain at the club house)

The whole point of the above exercise was to try to observe other groups.
Noise & light should be reduced to zero. Red lights are just as good a give away as white light.
Couple this with noise from zips or Velcro; the clattering of cutlery on tin billy’s and you have signalled your location.

By now it was dark & an enormous thunderstorm was raging near us.
At first it was huge flashes of lightning, however as the storm moved closer the thunder became louder and louder.
It was awe inspiring to be walking across a flat piece of ground in the dark and to have the lightening flashing nearby. At first it is the most brilliant white, like a strobe light, freeze, framing, everything.
Yet as the brightness receded there a red after glow. It was powerfully beautiful.

As an experiment on that dark night it was observed that a cell phone screen was easily observable from 500m distant.

Then it started to rain: Those with tents were more than comfortable; those without much less so.
The rain was not heavy however it was long in duration.
Those who had opted to trust a bivy strung between trees, or, simply crawl into the their sleeping bags & wrap themselves in a ground sheet did not fare so well.
Couple this with setting one’s bed on a nest of ant’s & it made for a much longer night than should’ve been.


Day 3
Those who had been chewed by the ants woke the reminder of us up at 04hearly.
We had to be off the land by 07h00.
The range flags, targets, steel and sundries were packed away and the club house was cleaned up.

It was a very physical and tiring weekend. Conditions were as comfortable as one could make them. The more tired one was the softer the ground became.
It was great meeting old friends and making new one and doing some good solid training!

2012 is going to be a great year!

Camo

Quote from the weekend:
1) Dude: You look like air softer’s wet dream….
2) Elton!
3) John!
4) GB is going to start a brand of cigarettes called: Light Strike

Sadly:
We departed the range and not long after the “Horse & Hound” brigade were charging across it.
Sadly a horse and rider landed in a ditch.
It appears as the horse struggled to rise to its feet, it kicked the rider, a young girl, on the head and body.
She was airlifted to the Union hospital and is in ICU.
We all wish her a speedy recovery & would humbly ask for your prayers

[LukeS]

Nice report Camo thanks.

and thanks again for a challenging and great weekend.

I think my gear has just about dried off

[camouflage762]

I think my gear has just about dried off

My soles have only just begun to consider forgiving me.....

Well done & great shooting @ 100m!

[JS4]

Wow - my thoughts go out to the young girl - please keep us updated if you can.

2) Another participant’s rifle was destroyed by faulty ammo resulting a dnf on the 100m shooting section. The ammo was not reloaded ammo. The rifle was new & cost in excess of 10G’s...

You are going to have to tell us more! And convince the participant to share details and pictures!

Impressive display by that Glock!

[Grobbie]

Was super fun, but I will have to pick up the slack to be in contention for the Delville Wood Comp later this year.

The PARRA Meic brief was great. The Ants on Sat night not so great.

Organization was super. Thanks for the hard work!

Smoking those Light Strikes right as we speak.

Took me 3 days to recover!

[Sean Murphy]

This is definitely the toughest weekend we have had at Sas to date. I had sore feet and some stiff muscles for a couple of days afterwards. As usual there were many lessons learnt. It was great to have the large turnout that we did. These types of events always seem to be more fun when there is a larger group.

Sean