I heard about this match through online videos of last year’s competitors, and instantly knew I wanted to try it. Everything is shot with AK variants or other Combloc weapons, many people come in period costume, the shooting stages are more physical than most shooting competitions, and the emphasis is on having fun over being hyper-competitive.

With this being my first big match, I decided to volunteer. I wanted to see the nuts and bolts of how a match is run, and it was easier to deal with the thought of screwing up when there are 12 people there to see it than when 200 other shooters are on site. Volunteers, in this case, shoot the Thursday and Friday before match weekend so that they can uncover any potential problems with the stages.

Notes: Photos were taken while we were resetting between shooters, so some of my fellow shooters are shown downrange. Everyone is pulled back behind the firing line for safety whenever someone is shooting. Some stages were shot out of order, so my numbers may not match the official stage numbers.

First stage:

Start out in a mass grave. Run to the sloped platform where your rifle is staged, and engage five steel targets from the platform.

Run to another shooting position (marked by a square on the ground) engage the steel again, run to a third position, break all the clay pigeons, engage the steel again…

Then run up a hill to a wooden structure and engage two long-range steel from there.

This one was a blast to do, and I did reasonably well at it. For me, it was a perfect stage to start on.

Before the next stage, I heard the Range Officer giving another shooter advice that I should have realized sooner: Many of us were taking the time to take slow and careful aim on big, close targets that didn’t require it. If you have enough margin for error in what you need to hit, you can get a quick and dirty sight picture, shoot faster,  hit well enough, and complete the stage faster.

Second stage:

Start in a foxhole, shoot 5 steel targets, climb out of the foxhole into a trench (I got cool points for doing a combat roll) engage targets inside the trench, engage paper targets and steel again from a concrete block gunner’s port, run to the end of the trench, climb into another foxhole, shoot the steel again, and then shoot the dreaded spinner target until you flip it.

I failed to rotate the spinner before the time limit, but still had a lot of fun on this stage. I also found that it takes a good bit of mental focus to shift gears between shooting quickly at big targets and shooting more carefully at small targets. (The clay pigeons in the middle of no-shoot targets were particularly evil.)

Stage 3, that I somehow failed to get pictures of:

California Build Party: Four magazines of ten rounds each are staged on barrels throughout the stage. Start seated at a press, and pump the handle to compress a 7.62 case to the height of a 9mm case. When that is done, retrieve your rifle and first magazine, then work your way through a series of corridors, engaging targets as you come to them and reloading as you come to your magazines. I got a bit of a curve ball on this one: as I was staging my mags, the shooter before me was picking up his mags which look very similar. He grabbed my mag of ten, leaving his mag with four rounds left. I was still able to make it work, but it did make me realize I need to mark my mags.

Stage 4, Cooper Tunnel.

Start on the blue line, rifle and first mag on the table. Engage what targets you can, then crawl under the table and shoot targets as they become visible. the last targets must be shot under a wall. I went back and took a picture with the water bottle for scale.

I did okay with shooting from under the table (although my muzzle blast echoing through steel drums around me was an interesting experience) but when I got to the wall I couldn’t get low enough to see under it. The RO called out instructions, rolling all the way onto my side, sights aligned sideways, got me low enough to shoot. the gasses escaping the breach of my rifle kicked up enough dust to entirely hide the target with each shot, and it was suggested after that shooting left shoulder/ left eye would point the breach up, lessening this problem.

Stage 5 brought in some OCR and a cool Rube Goldberg device.

Climb a tunnel onto a platform, where a pistol is staged. You shoot a steel target that, when it falls, releases a bowling ball rolling down a track. When it reaches the end, it activates some swinging no-shoots and exposes one target that will show only once, so you have to run, retrieve your rifle, and be in shooting position when that target shows itself. Then you proceed through the barricades as needed to engage the rest of the targets.

My learning moment: If it is necessary to knock over a target to make everything else happen, make sure you do that. We had to leave the pistol empty, I went first and made the mistake of trying to knock it over on my last shot, and failed. The rest of the squad learned from my mistake, knocked it over first, then fired off the remaining shots as quickly as possible.

Stage 6: Colonel Kaput

Crawl through a tunnel carrying a single 8mm round, take the Mauser off of Col. Kaput, and shoot the steel target that activates the moving targets. (On this stage, if you miss the target, you then run up and punch it.) Then run to the other side of the stage, pick up your rifle, and proceed through the barriers to engage all the targets.

That was the end of day one. Back to the hotel, rest up, clean up the gear, back at it in the morning.

Stage 7: Shoot house.

Breach the door of the house with a hammer, throw in a flash bang, grab your rifle and shoot the targets as visible through the doors and windows. There was a steel activator that had to be pushed/kicked, as it was too close to shoot safely. I had video taken of this one, so of course this was the stage that I lost track of what target I was on and looked somewhat Keystone-Cop-like.

Video Here.

Stage 8- Bayonets and sniper towers.

We started this stage by stabbing a straw bale with a bayonet. Battle cries were encouraged.

“Shooter ready. Stand by. BEEP.”

“WOLVERINES!!!!”

Stab the bale, leave that rifle there, grab your rifle, engage a lot of paper targets…

Then run up a trail with various targets along it…

To a sniper tower, from which you engage two long-range steel targets.

Stage 9: Voodoo Valley

This stage started with a rifle provided by Rifle Dynamics, a maker of high-end AKs and sponsor of the match. My AK is very much on the budget end of the spectrum, so it was cool to compare it to top of the line.

The course of fire was to start with six rounds in the stage rifle, and hit three steel targets from a wooden “tank trap.”

From there, leave the stage rifle, grab your rifle, run down a trail engaging paper targets, get to the end and re-engage one of the steel.

That was officially the end of the match, but there was one more unofficial stage. The match organizers put together a dinner Saturday night, a chance to hang out and get to know your fellow shooters. They put in a night team relay match. I was there alone, but the Range Master paired me up with Matt, a shooter from California, under the title of Team Thrown Together.

Both teammates start in a square, rifle and pistol staged in slant boxes. First shooter runs to his rifle, clears a rack of steel plates, puts down rifle, runs back and tags teammate. Second shooter does the same, then tags first shooter, who runs to his pistol, cleans a plate rack, turns 90 degrees to engage a single popper target, pistol down, tag. Second shooter completes pistol, and time recorded is when the last shooter makes it back to the start point.

We both knew we were not the varsity at this event, but we shot relatively well, and it was a lot of fun. Only big mistake I made was forgetting that last pistol target, putting the pistol down and starting to go to tag, only to have to run back and get that last shot in.

This is an awesome event, and particularly good as a first-time rifle match. The match design is a balance that is both difficult to do really well (a challenge for skilled shooters) and reasonably easy to just get through for new shooters (time limits are generous and targets require no more than 10 MOA accuracy). They are also more forgiving of newbie mistakes than many other matches. (That is not to say that their safety protocol is lax, just that they are more gentle in enforcing it. A mistake that will get you a stern talking-to or a stage disqualification here will often get you sent home from other matches. So if you get any sort of safety reprimand, learn from it and understand that it will be enforced more harshly when you go to other ranges.)

I am looking forward to doing more matches like this.