17 South Sweat N' Bullets Run and Gun
At the time of this writing, I am just over 24 hours removed from my second of four scheduled Run and Gun events this year. This was a 5k R&G event that took place near Savannah, Ga. Unlike the other R&G events I have participated in, I felt quite unprepared this time around. Not in the sense of gear, as I assume at this point I have that fairly well sorted, (although you will read I still need improvement there) but I felt unprepared from a training standpoint. Just three days prior this event, I had only shot pistol and carbine one time since the last Run and Gun event nearly 2 months ago. I had been trying to conserve on ammo, not knowing how long the current shortage will continue and I certainly want to be able to practice before my other two events this year with no worries. Needless to say I needed to cram for this test so I tried to shoot a little bit in the 3 days leading up to the event both with pistol and carbine just to knock off the rust.
I would be moving back to my 13.7” setup for this event and back to the LPVO/MRDS combo. I recently changed from the Kahles K16i to the K18i with a custom exposed top turret and had yet to zero the setup so I set out to make sure I got a good solid zero a couple of days prior to the event along with some more chrono data. I like to have chrono data at different temperature ranges to make sure my data is as tight as possible. This event was not one where such precision was necessary but I wanted to go ahead and get that work done to carry me through some of the longer range stages I will see at other events later on this year.
Chrono/Zero day. A necessary evil if you want to have confidence in your weapon system.
Given the limited range of this event, I opted to just run standard 55 grain bulk .223 ammo. There was no need for my match ammo so it would stay at home. The bulk ammo is still sub MOA @ 50y in my rifle and that would be more than enough for the 200-300 yard ranges that were advertised for the event.
My 13.7” go-to rifle has been through several changes as well since the last time it was run. Other than going from the K16i to K18i I made the following changes:
Dedicated Geissele lower and now a pinned and welded brake-No longer needed to use my SBR lower from another rifle
VLTOR A5 system with H3 buffer-Softer shooting
Geissele Ambi Posi-snap safety-I’ve tried a ton of safeties, this one is my favorite
Magpul K grip-Found I much prefer no-tang grips for getting back on the safety quickly
BCM MOD 0 Stock-Found it to have better lockup and less play/slop than the Magpul SL-K stock
My belt setup would remain the same, as would my attire/footwear. Those can be viewed in any of my other Run and Gun articles. The good thing about having run a few of these now, I spend much less time doing gear preparation as I continue to dial in what works for me and what doesn’t. As for pistol, I would be running my Sig P365 subcompact once again. Closing in on 5,000 rounds the gun just continues to be an accurate workhorse that I have complete confidence in. Its also the gun that will likely defend my life as it is my EDC, so it’s always good to put in real work with it.
Trusty 4500+ Round Sig P365
I had an 8:18am launch time for this event so Friday night I wanted to try to get some rest. As usual, it’s hard for me to sleep the night prior to these events and I always wake up earlier than my alarm, regardless of how early that alarm is actually set. This time I think I finally went to bed around 23:00 after 2 hours of trying and then I woke up about 45 minutes prior to my 05:00 alarm time.
I tried something new for this event and at 05:00 I left the hotel for a short 1 mile run. I have been reading that these short, very easy runs can help get the blood flowing and muscles loosened up when performed 2-3 hours prior to your event. This being a shorter 5k event, I thought it was a perfect time to test that out. Regardless of whether or not that was going to help me settle into my event run any quicker, I knew immediately after this early warm-up run that it was the right thing to do. It helped shake off the nerves and get me ready to go. I will definitely be implementing these in the future. I showered up, started hydrating and light snacking and then headed out the door about 30 minutes prior to the 07:00 safety briefing.
I arrived at 17 South Gun Club and this being my first time here, I can say the facilities were really nice. Such a great place to host an event such as this. The weather was warm and muggy, but overcast, so I feel us early runners were lucky in that regard. After the safety briefing I checked through all my gear one last time and the mental checklists in my head and then put my on my belt, rifle and pistol and headed to the start line about 3 minutes prior to my launch.
Quick disclaimer as usual, these are not my photos so if you want them removed, please let me know and I will do so. Additionally if you are featured in these photos and don’t want to be, let me know. Finally, just like last time, not a single photo was taken of me during the event…not even at the award ceremony, ha! I think I passed away 20 years ago doing something really stupid in a car and God is just letting me hang out with all my friends and family for a while….because the cameras just can’t see me.
A competitor launching off from the starting line.
The digital clock hit 8:18 and the match director yelled “Go!” I took off toward the first stage that was setup after a run around the lake. I could tell immediately that the early morning run 3 hours prior was the right thing to do. It usually takes me about 1 mile to get warmed up but I felt ready to go right from the start. The run toward Stage 1 was filled with a lot of mud from rutted out tire tracks and lots of water. I avoided it where I could but in some places you had no choice. If you happened to get lucky enough to somehow avoid the water and mud, it didn’t matter. Right before the start of the first stage there was a roped off area in the lake that you had to go into to get wet. I got soaked up to just below my belt line and headed to the stage. Best I can tell from my Garmin watch, Stage 1 arrived after about 5 minutes of run-time.
Water and Woodland fatigues makes me want to go watch Commando.
Upon arriving at Stage 1 the RO began reading off the stage briefing and for some reason I really had a hard time both hearing…and listening. At the time, it seemed like quite a lengthy stage description and I am looking out over the stage trying to piece together exactly what I was supposed to be doing. When he finished, I had no choice but to ask him to read it to me again. I knew this would cost some run time, but I couldn’t afford to zero out on the first stage. Make no mistake, 90% of that is my fault as my mind is often racing far ahead of what is actually going on in the moment. I try to be more cognizant of this but I guess its just in my genes. The other 10%, is my ear-pro. My custom molded plugs close out the world and I really do need to get a second set just for Run and Guns that has the baffle inside so I can hear talking better.
After listening to the description a second time and understanding the course of fire. I was ready to go:
I decided to start by shooting with my strong hand first and didn’t have too much trouble knocking down the steel on the right-hand side. I then swapped to shooting left-handed and certainly had to engage a couple of the targets more than once with my weak hand. I was quite a bit shaky on that side but that was too be expected on Stage 1 where my nerves are typically at their highest. I completed the course and headed toward stage 2.
My shooting ranking for this stage was 14th place.
A participant successfully navigating the weak side portion of Stage 1.
After another 5 min run through the woods, mud and sand I arrived at Stage 2:
Stage 2 was pretty straightforward. On the buzzer I loaded up the ammo can and ran over to the first shooting block. I engaged each target in all three shooting positions and sprinted back. The last target I decided to just go prone when I really didn’t need to but I felt like flopping to the ground quickly would be a small time deficit vs possibly having to engage each target more than once. Looking back, at these distances that was probably the wrong move and likely cost me more time than needed. I engaged this entire course with the the Delta Point Pro sitting atop my LPVO.
My ranking for this stage was 12th place.
The overall winner using the tank trap as he should. Funny, I built one of these in my yard to use and then skipped right over it during the event…
Stage 3 was just a short 2 min run from stage 2 and included a mud crawl. I did my best to keep my weapons out of the mud and advance through it as quickly as possible.
This gentlemen certainly got much lower than I did. I tried to stay as clean as possible, even if my pack was hitting the barricade.
Perhaps the easiest stage of this match was Stage 3, yet it turned out to be my worst stage ranking. I just simply took too much time engaging each target. As someone who practices accuracy more often than speed, I now realize its time to start leaning into speed. I took time ensuring hits with pistol at the farthest distance, eating up valuable time. The second engagement with my pistol was definitely my quickest but when I moved to the rifle on paper, I certainly took far more time than I needed here to get the head shots.
It can be tough to see 5.56 holes on paper so for good measure I zoomed into about 3-4 power on my LPVO and I engaged each of them 7 times instead of 5. I also have quite a bit of holdover at this range with my rifle so I was really concentrating on getting that right as well. In hindsight my 3GR reticle has a 2nd illuminated dot designed for this range and I did not utilize it at all. Also, considering there was not a possibility of zeroing out on the stage due to a miss, and only getting a penalty of jumping jacks, I should have just hosed this stage down instead of proceeding with needless caution.
My stage ranking here was 33th place…..argh!
There was a short run to stage 4, which in my opinion, was the most fun stage of the whole match:
I remember specifically telling myself that on this stage I would work for speed as much as possible. I knew I was over halfway through the match at this point and had not used much ammo at all, so having a few misses in order to get a quicker stage time was going to be the goal from here on out. Upon the buzzer I flipped the tire and engaged the steel with my pistol before flipping the tire back over and quickly moving to the VTAC barricade with my rifle. I felt like this was a good stage for me as I ran it fairly quickly, only having to send one or two extra shots on both the carbine and pistol. I used my Delta Point Pro for all of the rifle part of this stage except for the horizontal VTAC hole, where I used my LPVO because that has much less of a hold off. Earlier this year I had been practicing the completely horizontal VTAC hole at 100 yards with a 25% IPSC and knew exactly where I needed to be aiming to get my hits with a completely sideways rifle. My prep work earlier this year along with a conscientious effort to speed things up paid off here.
My ranking for this stage was 6th place.
A competitor running the VTAC Barricade on Stage 4.
There was another relatively long 6 minute run heading into stage 5 along with a MOAT crossing that did a great job of ensuring you were both muddy and wet.
The coolest looking Magnum PI S.O.B you will ever see crossing a moat.
Upon listening to this stage brief I became a little worried as I don’t practice support side rifle shooting very much at all. I also had some difficulty making out the smaller steel poppers as they were partially obstructed by tall grass and also a bit difficult to see due to the coloring. I was afraid I may need quite a bit of time on my support side to hit those poppers so I wanted to blaze through the pistol and my strong side rifle as quickly as possible. Despite two misses right off the bat with pistol where I believe I was shooting into a limb obstruction between me and the target, I engaged all the steel with my pistol fairly quickly. I dropped down and zoomed in on my scope to engage the rifle targets as quickly as I could. Surprisingly, when I switched to support side rifle, I had zero issues getting my cheek weld correct, finding the targets or squeezing off clean shots. I think using the barrel certainly helped a lot in that regard.
The surprise of the day was that this ended up being my best stage with a 3rd place finish.
2nd place overall engaging the poppers on Stage 5.
There was about a three and a half minute run to the final stage which would turn out to be a no time limit bonus stage:
This was simple. 5 shots only, standing with pistol, no time limit. Each hit removes 1 min of run time. I was excited to see this. THIS is what I practice all the time. THIS should be an extra 5 minutes off my run time. The C zone IPSC target was approximately 45 yards away. Just three days prior I was making repeated hits on the same size target at 60 yards. I probably couldn’t hide my grin as the RO was reading off the stage description.
Unfortunately, practicing and competition are two different things. This was my most disappointing part of the match. I made the first two hits easily and quickly and then missed my third shot and thought something was wrong with my pistol. It “felt” like there was a malfunction so before firing the next shot I racked the slide and out went a live round. At this point for some reason, I really had a problem holding my pistol steady. I was shaking pretty badly and just could not seem to settle in. I fired a 4th time and again it felt like I had a malfunction with a dead trigger. I racked the slide again and another live round came out. I believe the gun was seating just outside of battery and I can only think that the moat/water crossing combined with a pretty dirty magazine that I had dropped earlier in the mud was the issue. My last round also missed and I left the bonus stage with only 2 of 5 hits.
I was a bit heartbroken but before leaving the stage I asked the RO if there was another stage left and he said “no.” This made me feel good as I knew I had completed all stages and now all I had to do was run. At that point I put my rifle on my back and ran as quickly as possible back to the finish line which was about 4 minutes from the last stage. I felt like I shot a good match and ran fairly well. Other than my performance on the bonus stage, I had no complaints. I ended up with zero wait time throughout the entire match and I was certainly tired at the finish line but not overly so.
My constant goal in all of these events is two-fold: Have fun and do not fail a stage. Knock on all the wood in my house and outside of it, I have always managed to do both so far. The first one is easier said than done. These events are fun, but you can certainly put yourself in a position where they are not. For me, being prepared, being competitive, but realizing at the end of the day that I do this for enjoyment keeps me from sweating the small stuff and turning a great day into a frustrating one.
The second one, not failing a stage, is a double-edge sword. As I am now becoming more comfortable at these events, I realize that it is time to crank up my speed a bit and sacrifice having to throw an extra round or two in the name of a faster stage time. In short, I need to throttle back when I absolutely have to, but put the pedal down when I know I am well within my comfort zone.
When all the scores were tallied up, I ended up 5th in run time and 9th in shooting for an overall course ranking of 5th out of 53 participants.
This leads me to my third goal and that is always event specific. For this one, my goal was a finish in the top 10% of the field, and I accomplished that. I was very happy with this finish and all the guys above me are outstanding shooters and/or runners. Just to be a part the top 5 with those other four killers is a big accomplishment for me. I’ll be honest, this finish has sparked a bit of a fire under me. There are a few small gear changes and a few training areas that I believe I could work on that could make substantial differences in my placement in these events.
Most importantly, this was my first Run and Gun event that I did not have to take off immediately after completion. I ran early, finished early and I got to sit around and hang out with friends I have met from the shooting industry, from Run and Gun events and from theoutdoorstrader.com. I had a blast just sitting around talking R&G’s, gear, work and whatever else us guys like to talk about in our spare time. It was a relaxing time and a great event shared with good people.
As for the gang from The Outdoors Trader, we finished 1, 3, 5, and 8 in this event, at least of the guys I know. The winner Sean, puts an asterisk on all these scores and rankings because he actually ran it twice, and end up both 1st AND 2nd. His first run was with a KAC SR-25 and a Staccato pistol. Then he ran it a couple hours later with a carry handle, iron sight AR15 and a Beretta 92F. What can I say, the rest of us are just competing for 2nd…or 3rd place when he decides to show up. Hats off to you Sean.
My next event is the Legion 9/11 Memorial 10K R&G in Spencer, Tennessee. This is known to be one of the toughest events both physically and mentally and is full of active duty SF guys. My goal for that event will actually be to slow down on the run and focus on the more complex shooting stages. My streak of zero DNF’s will likely be in jeopardy here with any small mistake so I hope to throttle back my run enough to have full focus at the stages.
As for lessons learned at this event, there are a couple. One is I need to rethink my belt setup. My musical chairs of magazines between mag pouches and my GP pouch is not working out like I want it to. Too much thinking involved to figure out which mags are full or partial. The way I access my water is not very effective either. I don’t have the solution to these two issues yet, but I will be working on it before my next event.
Most concerning is at the end of the event I checked my rifle and my custom top exposed turret had been moved off of zero. I really did not think this would happen and I still have not been able to duplicate how that could have occurred…but it did. This did not affect my shooting as I had no issue in any of the rifle stages so this could have happened early or late, but at the distances we were engaging, it did not matter. My solution for now is to go back to the capped turret for courses that are 700 yards and under…which is nearly everyone of them. I will certainly have to use the exposed turret on the 850 yard Zombie bonus stage later this year, so I will just have to be conscientious of my turret positioning during that event.
At some point, I am going to consider either changing pistols and/or moving to a red dot on my pistol. I do not feel outgunned at all from an accuracy standpoint with my P365 and I feel like I can shoot with anyone with the gun, but there is no doubt I cannot do it as quickly. When I have time, I can do anything with the P365 that I need to do, but when time is of the essence the short sight radius and relatively long trigger pull make it tough to run the gun hard and fast. It just not forgiving and when I am tired and shaky, I would take all the forgiveness I could get. Of all the areas I could make some real improvement the quickest, I think a change of pistol would be number one.
The Shadow Systems MR920 is going to start getting warmed up in the bullpen.
The 17 South Run and Gun was a great event, in a great place with great people. I certainly will be back for their 2nd annual event next year. Maybe with a little luck I can try to squeeze into the top 3 but I know that would not be easy. Everyone is getting better and better at these events and the margin for error is tightening up considerably. This just goes to show that they are becoming more and more popular and attracting shooters from other forms of competition. It also proves they are addicting enough to keep everyone coming back for more.
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