Nelson Bermas

Dec 23, 20187 min read

Carolina 8K Run & Gun After Action Report

Updated: Dec 25, 2018

Clinton House Clinton, SC — Carolina Run & Gun August 4, 2018

Date: August 4th, 2018

Where: Clinton House Plantation Clinton, SC

Conditions: 70s for morning start time but climbed to 80s when sun came out around 11am.

It has been raining the whole week and race coordinator and ROs (Range Officers) mentioned that the creek was running fast and to be careful during the crossing.

The big concern for YHC (your humble correspondent) was the weather leading up to the event. It could be dry or a sopping mess. The race gods were kind and gave us a clear day to run the event.

YHC was going up solo from Lexington. No pax was able to make it up with me. The drive was 70 miles from my home so convenient enough drive back home unlike the Carolina Reaper in Greenville. YHC got there early for the Safety Briefing at 0700. While YHC was registering and signing the CYA waivers, I saw a fellow F3 brother also signing in. Introduction made with the customary nicknames exchange. F3 Youkilis from Greenville was here with F3 Seal. Met with F3 Seal and recognized him from the Harbison 50K. 3 pax posted for this CSAUP. The start times were staggered and worked out that the 3 of us were right after each other.

Gear:

Condor Recon chest rig w/ water bladder holder, pistol holster, 2 pistol mag holder.
My AR build 16” light Odinworks barrel, elftman 3 gun trigger,
Canik TP9SFX w/ extended mag for 22 rounds, 4 magazines
9mm Remington bucket - nothing special
Freedom Munitions 223 69g HPBT. 4x 30 Magpul magazines and 1X20 round Lancer magazine.
Mechanix Gloves
Carabiner
Rigger Belt
Peltor Eye Protection (for show since they were fogging up the whole time.)
Peltor ear buds
Bite and Sting Wipe (my luck I get stung)

Total weight was around 21-23 lbs. Got lighter when used up ammo and drank water but dragging wet clothes and mud at the end so evened out.

Stage 1 - The long haul.

This stage was the furthest. We ran majority of the race on the service roads but some of them were steep. From strava about 11-14 degrees. No point running them and conserved my energy by walking the steep hills. YHC was averaging about 12 min/miles which I had trained for. Finally got to the stage and of course had the first barbed wire crawl. Not very long but they picked the muddiest part of the trail. Got through with plugging up my barrel with some mud

VTAC board - Pic Courtesy of Carolina Run&Gun

and had to clear it out before continuing. The VTAC board was not your standard placements of cuts. The lowest cut out was about 1.5 feet off the ground which was challenge. I did well on the pistol but ran out of time in the rifle. The foggy eye protec slowed me down when I had to reacquire the target in the next hole.

The targets also are not spray painted white and not reset for each shooter. Expect to fire at a green or whatever paint was available the day before the race.

Personal Improvement Points (PIP) -

Learn how to crawl without rifle and pistol getting mud on them. Cleaning barrel and magwell took up time and a possible malfunction to occur.

Practice the VTAC wall for both rifle and pistol. Get quicker in transition and sight acquisition (especially for rifle) moving from port to port.

Wear of not wear gloves. Wore the mechanix gloves and did fine. Maybe next time use some mud run gloves with the trigger fingers cut off. The wet red clay was hard to remove from hand.

Stage 2 - Across the pond

Barricades walls with 3 different shooting ports to shoot from. Very close to stage one so you weren’t gassed when you got there. YHC made all my shots.

Shooting Ports - Pics Courtesy of Carolina Run&Gun

Personal Improvement Points (PIP) -

I used the barricade to post from. Just need to get in the habit of moving my right knee up to help brace my right arm for a steadier shot. Also need to practice with my scope in acquiring far targets faster. Need to develop shooting drill for distance shooting with my rifle.

Stage 3 - Slackline and OFFhand

Didn’t know when the slack line crossing would be at in case I need to use the riggers belt but it came early enough my arms were still fresh. Crossing was not a problem until right at the end

Shooting Tree - Pic Courtesy of Carolina Run & Gun

when I ended dragging a dead bush in my

barrel. One of the ROs offered to take it off me. The dueling tree (15 yds) was close enough to do without any problems. The offhand plate rack was a challenge. Started with standing with a hasty sling. That was not working so decided to go sitting. Only recall hitting 2 targets and just called it then got timed out. Also again, don’t expect clean white targets, they were painted dark green (from what I recall).

Slackline - Pic Courtesy of Carolina Run&Gun

Personal Improvement Points (PIP) -

More practice with shooting offhand with rifle. All positions.

Keep practicing with pistol fine aiming.

Used my legs more to help traverse slackline.

Stage 4 - Rooftop Distance

My worst stage and after speaking with others, it also gave them the most difficult time. The

Rooftop - Pic Courtesy of Carolina Run&Gun

400 and 300 yd targets took most of my time. 180 seconds go by quick. Smart planning was needed for this stage. I timed out not having completed the pistol stage and many penalties in missing the long targets.

Personal Improvement Points (PIP) -

Should have used my 20 round magazine for the rooftop to help stabilize rifle on roof frame. The magazine was hard get out off my chest rig. Needed a better set up.

Practice the 400-300 yd range a lot.

A better plan. Skip the hard targets and focus what I am capable of. Make up time on the run. After 2 shots at long targets, should have skipped and moved on or started on shorter ranges and saved the long ones for last.

Stage 5 - Creek, Lefty and Righty, and Rocks

This is when it fell apart. I missed my turn off the main road to the creek. I ended up running an extra mile. It didn’t look I was going the right direction and had to ask some folks who worked there where it was unfortunately they didn’t know the race route either. I backtracked until the race director found me and redirected me to the turn. That wasted about 20 minutes so my goal

Creek to River - Pic Courtesy of Carolina Run and Gun

was just to finish it. The field to creek was 1000 yard stretch of mud. The rain from the week made the normal creek to a swift little river. ROs over there were very helpful. I just let the

Rocks & Rifle - Pic Courtesy of Carolina Run and Gun

water current float me and used my arms to traverse over with the guidelines. Stuck my time card on my hat to keep it dry and from losing it. Next time bring an extra paracord to keep the card holder tied to me. All my equipment was wet but nothing lost. There were a few runners that lost their time cards from that creek crossing so ended up with a DNF. That sucked for them since we were over the halfway point at that stage.

Now I had to wait since a few of the runners have passed me. I was using my phone as my stopwatch. Besides missing the turn, also had to watch out for wasp nests. Heard later that some folks stirred up a nest and got stung. So in case you are allergic to bee stings, bring your epipen or an insect bite kit. The hazards getting to the creek were more of the challenge than the actual targets.

Personal Improvement Points (PIP) -

If using your Iphone as your stopwatch, take it off the screen lock. The mud and water on my fingers caused me to start my stopwatch late and lost a few minutes on my wait time. I had a tough time unlocking my phone to access the timer. Lesson learned the hard way. The LifeProof case kept it dry though. Buy a inexpensive watch with a stopwatch timer with buttons large enough to use with gloves.

Practice shooting support hand and listen to instructions. Some runners forgot to change hands.

Stage 6 Pistol Flip Plates Rifle Offhand

This stage would be challenging if you were not a good pistol shooter since the targets were 20 yards away (3” X 5” targets). Shooting both left and right handed with your rifle at 100-200 yards. You had a barrier to support from which made it easier.

Personal Improvement Points (PIP) -

Continue practice shooting support side or left handed. Getting used to looking through your scope and manipulating trigger.

Stage 7 Spinner and School Bus

Shooting the spinner was a challenge which I just quit to use my time on the rifle stage. There

Large Spinner - Pic Courtesy of Carolina Run & Gun

was not Isuzu Trooper to crawl under but replaced with shooting in a school bus. Some folks did not bring enough ammo to finish this round. Shooting from the bus was not that bad.

Personal Improvement Points (PIP) -

Bring enough ammo but not too much. Need to work on shooting a heavy spinner.

School Bus - Pic Courtesy of Carolina Run & Gun

Conclusion:

It was an awesome time. Learned a lot personally on what I need to improve on. It tested my equipment and myself. All my firearms performed and worked well. My semi running background helped. Running in the heat with 25+ pounds of gear was a test for some. For a first Run and Gun event it was not bad and could have been worse. For the first event of this kind at the Clinton House, it was well organized. The organizers and ROs were great! The weather was humid, hot, muddy, and wet but was well worth it. Definitely signing up for 2019 and looking for some other Run and Gun events in the area.