Matt in TN

I had someone not even attending the match send me a couple mag pouches they were no longer using as a donation for the prize table yesterday. Which got me thinking - I have a whole bunch of that kind of stuff I've tried over the years that for whatever reason I'm not using any more and really isn't worth selling, so I'm going to put it on the prize table too. I'd encourage eveyone to dig through their "MOLLE drawer" and bring with them anything they'd like to donate. You can clear out your junk drawer and give newer folks a chance to try perfectly good gear without having to spend a ton. Please don't bring actual "junk", but Run N Gun related items - mag pouches, holsters, belts, harnesses, chest rigs, etc. We'll do a random draw prize table so the newer competitors will have a good chance to look through gear and get something they can really put to use. And if you have a $3,000 rifle you aren't using that you want to donate, we'll take that too of course! ;-) Thanks for your consideration!

I am thrilled to announce we picked up another stage sponsor! Carolina Smoke and Guns will be sponsoring Stage 5: Make the Shot When It Counts. They are donating a few Aero Precision lowers and possibly a pistol for the prize table. Be sure to visit and like their Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/S2FCLLC/?hc_location=ufi or their webpage at http://starttofinishllc.com/ , thank them for their support, and give them a hard look if you're in the market for firearms, class III stuff, suppressors, holsters, accessories, or training! We still have three other stages available to be sponsored, and several obstacles. There's also some serious talk about a new obstacle that will be the most challenging yet: The Siren's song: 2/3 - 3/4 of the way through the course, when everyone is exhausted and really questioning why they do this to themselves (probably near the top of the big hill coming out of the cave), have a group of guys and pretty girls sitting around drinking beer/coffee/hot chocolate - heckling the people running by and trying their best to get them to quit. "Why are you doing this to yourself? If you'll just stop, you can sit down here, have a beer, and then we'll give you a ride back to the lodge where you can have a nice hot shower and good meal." Remember: in response to any ugly heckling including the words "fat", "slow", or "old", I've given the shooters permission and encouragement to issue a buttstroke to the offender. The whole point here is to encourage the people to quit, not to make them feel bad about themselves. What do you think???

And I take this for granted so I forgot to make it clear - but NO M855/SS109 green tip, or any other "penetrator" type ammo will be allowed at this match. We will be using lots of steel targets and don't want to damage them. If a magnet sticks to your bullet or you have any doubt, don't bring it.

Reposting from the Facebook Event Page just to be sure everyone sees this: There will be FOUR trophies for this match: First, second, and third overall - and the "Mule" trophy for the person who carries the most weight (as a percentage of their bodyweight) and FINISHES the course. Run time and shooting score do not matter to the Mule, just the raw determination to NOT QUIT no matter how hard it is. In Oklahoma I saw a guy run the course in full SWAT gear, including balaclava. Another guy did it with a full plate carrier just to see if he could. And a third did it with what I would call a "bug out bag" on his back, with everything you could think of INCLUDING a grappling hook. They were not the fastest, and not all of them even finished the match - but that's not why they were out there. So I wanted to have some way to recognize the craziest of those folks. The "Mule" trophy was the best I could come up with. We don't have many sponsors since this is the first match of its kind, and I'm spending 99.99% of my time making sure the match goes well and 0.01% of my time chasing sponsors - so the prize table will be small. At the moment I'm thinking we'll give away what prizes we do have by random draw, but that may change if we suddenly have a huge growth in prizes. Everyone feel free to contact me at mstennett@twlakes.net if you'd like to sponsor the match or donate anything to the prize table.

Wow - sold out in twenty minutes. I am humbled and will do my best to do this right for all of you. I guess we have proven that there is demand for this kind of match on this side of the US. Now to see if I can really do all that bull$hit I said I could...

Registration is now open - go get 'em! https://practiscore.com/rockcastle-run-n-gun-5k-2017/register

One last reminder - registration opens tomorrow (Saturday) at 10:00am at the above link. Get in while you can!

It's time. Registration will open on Practiscore two weeks from today, on Saturday December 17th at 10:00am Central Time. I've expanded this to 60 total competitor slots. Please only register if you are very serious about attending. Registration is extremely limited and if you register and don't attend you'll be taking a slot from someone else who really wants to go.Here's the link: https://practiscore.com/rockcastle-r...-2017/registerI'm not sure why it says "registration will open in one week" - the date is set for December 17th. RO's and sponsored shooters will be preregistered by me, and you will receive a notification email from Practiscore probably this week.We still have some sponsorship opportunities available - if you're interested in sponsoring an obstacle, a stage, or the match please email me at mstennett@twlakes.net for details.

This match is not about beating other people, it’s about beating yourself. And your Self is the toughest opponent you will ever face. Start training. If you sign up, show up, and just START the match you’re ahead of every other “internet couch warrior” out there. If you FINISH the match, no matter how long it takes you, you win. One thing I can promise you – is that NO ONE will make fun of you for getting out there and trying. You will only hear words of encouragement and support*, pushing you to keep going and finish this thing. *Marines and Army Drill Instructors have their own special way of giving encouragement and support, and I have a few as RO’s. If they yell at you, know it’s because they love you. They are the only exemptions from this statement. If some lone douchebag tries to prove me wrong on this and makes fun of you for struggling, being too fat, too old, or too slow - give them a swift buttstroke to the side of the head with your rifle and just keep going. As you trample over their crying body, tell them "Matt says hi".

Here's the full course map to give everyone a better idea of where they're going. The red line is the 5k course you'll be following. The other color coding is just to give you an idea of what kind of surfaces you'll be running on:

Leave the powerline cut and run south on Club House Rd. Turn right onto Park Mammoth Rd, run past the pistol bays, and climb over the tire obstacle. Bypassing the obstacle will zero your entire run score. Then begin Stage 5 (0.3 miles). Stage 5: Make The Shot When It Counts Location: Pistol Bays A bad guy is holding your spouse hostage, and only his head is exposed from behind your spouse (a white "no shoot" target). Shoot the bad guy once in the head. Run to the next bay and shoot the plate rack strong-hand only. Run to the next bay and shoot the plate rack weak-hand only. If you hit your spouse you ZERO the stage, but still have to finish the rest of the shooting with that failure on your mind. In real life you cannot stop just because bad things happen. Yes, the penalty for a no shoot is stiff. What would the penalty be if you really shot your spouse??? Leave pistol bays on Park Mammoth Rd, turn right into Lodge parking lot, and finish at the Lodge overhang. (0.3 miles - 3.5 miles in total)

Time for Stage 4 - this one is deceptively simple...if you can make your hits! Leave cave and run south along gravel road to Stage 4. (0.7 miles) Stage 4: The Rifleman Location: Powerline Cut On the buzzer, get two hits on the 100yd target from standing, two hits on the 200yd target from kneeling or sitting, and two hits on the 300yd target from prone.

Remington 870. Old School. ;-)

I did a detail strip and clean last night on my shotgun. I hated to do it so close to the match, as it always threw the zero off on my old shotgun when I pulled the barrel, clamp, and tube. But it was having strange malfunctions during loading practice, so it had to be done. I found nothing wrong or overly dirty, so I looked deeper. Turns out I've worn deep grooves in the rims of my dummy rounds, and pressed the rims themselves out far enough they were jamming both in the tube and in the chamber sometimes. It might just be time to retire these dummies. So I made time to zero the beast today for the "one slug" tomorrow, and started by shooting 3 slugs from kneeling at 50 yds just to see where I was. I'm calling it good - I'm really starting to like this $140 shotgun!

Stage 3: Tunnel Rat, Sponsored by 300 Below (http://www.300below.com/) Leave Cowboy Town down shooting lane and along old railroad bed. Follow signs and flags along rough trail and parts of road to Stage 3. (0.5 miles) Leave your empty rifle (and ruck, if needed) outside, and enter the cave with only the run clock going (the shooting clock has not begun yet). You will have to climb down, crawl over rocks, and through tight spaces to enter the cave and get to the staging area. You may need a light to navigate parts of this portion, and you cannot draw your pistol until the RO gives you the “Fire” command and you enter the shooting portion of the course. If you only have a weapon-mounted light you must navigate this portion of the cave by feel in some places. DRAWING YOUR WEAPON BEFORE BEING INSTRUCTED TO DO SO WILL RESULT IN AN IMMEDIATE MATCH DQ, as you will end up pointing a loaded pistol at your ROs and possibly fellow competitors. If there are several shooters backed up here, ROs may elect to have a staging area outside as well as inside the cave – but either way your time entering and exiting the cave itself will be a part of your total run time. On the buzzer, move forward and engage ten IPDA targets as you find them. If you shoot so close to the target you blow pasters off, you will be scored based on your two WORST hits. Any hits outside the "-0" zone will add either 1 or 3 seconds to your shoot time, depending on the zone hit. A miss will add 5 seconds to your shoot time. Failing to engage a target will add 10 seconds to your shoot time. If you do not have a light on your person when you arrive you will be given a DNF (Zero score) for the stage and not allowed to shoot. Shooters are NOT allowed to share or borrow lights – you can only use what you carry for the entire course. If your light fails in the middle of the stage and you don’t have a back-up light, the RO will stop you wherever you are, escort you out with his light, and your stage will be scored as-is. Night vision will not be allowed unless you bring enough for the RO too.

"One slug" - I love it!

I am thrilled to announce that Eddie Gunks from www.bulletguy.com has stepped up to sponsor ALL of the STAFF t-shirts. Please check out his website and give him a big THANK YOU when you see him in March! And to keep my "trickling it out" pattern alive, here's Stage 2: Leave Doe Valley, run back up Park Mammoth Rd, and turn right on Slave Cave Rd. Turn right on the old railroad bed, and climb over the obstacles before returning to Slave Cave Rd. Bypassing the obstacles gives you a ZERO for your entire run time. Turn left onto Cowboy Town Rd, and begin Stage 2. (1.2 miles) Stage 2: Know Your Enemy Location: Cowboy Town This stage starts with a "battlefield pick-up" AK pattern rifle than you "find" on the ground. You have no idea the status of the rifle, how it's zeroed, or how many/what kind of ammo is in the magazine. The AK pattern rifle is the most prolific rifle in the world, and you need to be able to pick it up and make it work, one way or another. The RO can NOT help you in any way, and will only stop you if you are doing something unsafe. On the buzzer, retrieve empty AK from the ground, load and make 5 hits on the 50 yd target. Clear AK, and leave EMPTY AK on ground pointed downrange (RO will not let you proceed until the AK is empty). Drag your “buddy” (150lb dummy) to safety behind cover. Advance to VTAC board, making up any 50yd hits you missed along the way, and put two rounds on the 100yd target through each of four marked ports.

Andy did a really good job of making this stage interesting stage because the mix of small and large targets was supposed to force you to slow down and speed up depending on the target difficulty instead of just blasting away. Me being me, I had to analyze the video and see if I really did slow down and speed up as I'm supposed to: I took an average of 0.92 seconds to take a shot at the large paper rifle targets. 0.85 seconds to take a shot at the small paper targets, and 0.93 seconds to take a shot at a clay. So I have the "slowing down" part down, but it looks like I'm missing the "speeding up" part!My plan for the swinger at the end didn't quite work out like I thought it would, but luckily neither did anyone else's plan for the swinger so it didn't hurt me too badly. Good times!

I'll say it again: Thanks Andy, for stepping up and filling in so this match can keep going. You won't hurt my feelings at all if you add more pistol steel in next time :-)

Pump gun can hold TWELVE!!! Iron sighted heavy rifle can hold 30 - scoped heavy rifle can only use 20 rd mags. How good are your eyes, DMark?

I should also add here - all of the RO slots are full now, and we have a long waiting list if any of those should back out. THANK YOU to everyone who volunteered, whether you made the cut or not. We could not make this happen without your generous gift of time and hard work.

Yep. There might be some rifle misses on this stage too. Other stages I expect will have fewer hits and more misses. ;-)

I hope that's the new gig you were wanting - congratulations!

You can't say "Heavy Metal" and "colleague" in the same sentence. That's just not very Metal. How about "bandmate", or "headbanger"?