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SOG DonationsThat’s awesome! I’m not familiar with FALs. How much do they weigh?
I’m 52 going on 53 and have mild Crohn’s disease, but it’s in remission. Age is just a number, though!
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An excellent reason why there’s no right or wrong answer, just different solutions for different people with different needs.
I’m glad you have a system that works real well for you.
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That’s great! I’ve only done one so far but want to do more! I’m not that experienced, but after my first one I realized the following:
I brought way too much rifle and pistol ammo, unnecessarily weighing me down, and not enough water. Next time, just 5 or 6 mags each and way more water;
The mud and water made my Blue Force Gear 2-point adjustable sling extremely difficult to adjust. I should’ve used the thinner, nylon-based VTAC 2-point sling under the wet and muddy conditions we had at last October’s WTF biathlon;
I practiced jogging with anywhere from 15 to 25 lbs in a backpack. I also jogged with an empty battlebelt to try to get used to moving with gear. After awhile, the backpack’s shoulder straps would dig in uncomfortably into my shoulders and traps. This was with various different backpacks, including a Hill People Tarahumara pack. So on the day of my first biathlon, I decided to add much more weight to the battle belt (a bunch of mags) and less in my backpack. I also added mags to my cargo pants pockets. Big mistake. All that weight on the belt and pockets just served to weigh down my pants waist, no matter how much I tried tightening my pants belt and battle belt. It also adversely affected my stride to the point where my hip flexors began to hurt after the first mile. That just served to tire me out unnecessarily, even though I had gotten used to jogging up to 7 miles with 20 lbs in my backpack. Next time, more weight in my backpack (or maybe switch to a chest rig?) and less on my belt and pants pockets;
My all cotton cargo pants felt heavy after getting completely wet and muddy. It was difficult to do physical obstacles in them, such as climbing and jumping over stuff. Next time I may try some quick-dry, lighter weight pants;
I cut my finger at the first stage. I didn’t have a first aid kit and got blood everywhere. The course was so muddy, I was covered in mud and was concerned that crawling through mud puddles might get the cut infected, but luckily that didn’t happen. Next time I’ll bring a first aid kit;
I had brought a set of mechanix type gloves to help with climbing obstacles. They got so wet and muddy they became useless. I had also not practiced shooting with them. Next time I need to bring an extra pair and practice shooting with them on.
I brought a cloth rag to wipe stuff down, but it became a wet and muddy mess after putting it in my pants pocket. Next time I need to put it in a plastic bag to keep clean and dry if conditions are wet.
I wore Garmont “running” boots. They’re supposedly Army compliant and can be used to run in. When nice and dry, they worked great, especially as a means to add ankle support. I have a weak ankle and have busted it a few times. But the boots became a heavy mess when they got wet sloughing through mud and water. Their toe section is also too wide to fit through chain link fence holes, and I was unable to climb over the chain link fence obstacle stage. Others with sneakers easily climbed the chain link fence. The boots were great to run in when I was training, but now they’re uncomfortably stiff after having cleaned them up and dried them out. Next time I think I’ll go with light running sneakers and an external ankle brace.
All in all, have fun and give us an after-action-report when you’re done!
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Great info… the round count will be 60 rifle 60 pistol… to get started I got a surplus molle flc and mag pouches plus a camel back. I might carry 1 mag each on my belt dont know yet about that. The first aid kit is next on my list to assemble, glad you brought that up,
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Sounds like you have a good plan! Not sure what flc is, though, but I’m curious to hear how your milsurp stuff does. Please post pictures of your gear before and after and let us know how it all works!
I forgot to mention eye and ear pro. My eye pro got wet and muddy, and since every inch of me also got wet and muddy, I didn’t have anything clean to wipe it down with except for spit and a muddy finger. I was still able to see well enough and even hit the 500 yard gong with mud smeared scope lenses nonetheless (guess I should lens covers to my list!).
Same issues with my ear pro. I had in-ear plugs on a string. They got caught on the rifle sling when moving my rifle from front to back and came off. When they did, they fell in the mud. Not wanting to stick dirty plugs in my ears, I fumbled trying to use some spare foam plugs, the kind you have to roll in your hands to get them thin enough to fit in your ear canal before they expand again. Well, since my hands were all wet and muddy, too, that didn’t work real well. I just spit on my other ear plugs and wiped them clean as best I could with my dirty fingers and stuck them in there hoping not to cause an ear infection with dirty plugs. Luckily, that didn’t happen. Probably some spare baby wipes in a ziploc bag would help for next time in muddy conditions.
I also had a pair of Howard Leight Sport muffs that got real wet and muddy, but they kept jostling around falling off and don’t have the best NRR rating anyway, so I put them in my pack.
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Hmmmm…failure items.
-I usually put a muzzle cover on for starters, but generally end up forgetting about it and shooting it.
-not much point in a med kit if muddy/rainy (but DO treat all cuts afterwards!) I did get a nasty infection at the Carolina match last year.
-if running a plate carrier, be aware of what is rubbing on it, lost a scope cap and also destroyed some wood handguards due to that friction.
Biggest cheap thing I do now is pack a decent quality paper towel packed in a zip lock for each stage the match has.
FAL weighs about 11 lbs IIRC
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Registration is open for our May run and gun in Central Texas.
Come on down!
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Would have like to do that upcoming one but will have to miss it.
