Competition Dynamics Sniper Adventure Challenge

[LRRPF52]

I just got back from providing medical support for the 24hr (actually up to 34hr) Sniper Adventure Challenge down in Southern New Mexico at the Felix Canyon Ranch.

The Ranch Owner is a big fan of the Grendel because his kids can hunt with it due to low recoil, and they actually hear an audible impact on game, with immediate animal dropping.

Each 2-person team had to have a long-range rifle, a carbine, and pistols. The Team from Ares Armor, who are both former Recon Marines, used a 16" Grendel for their carbine. A competitor from the US Border Patrol also is a Grendel owner, and all were happy to get 6.5 Grendel Reloading Handbooks.

Anyway, working with an ER/Prison/Search & Rescue Doctor/ultra marathon runner/fellow long-range shooter, he and I covered about 90 miles rendering medical aid and evacuating teams throughout the competition, using these awesome Israeli all-terrain vehicles called TOMCARs. http://tomcar.com/ Here are some pics from the event:






I have to tell you that the Israeli TOMCAR is an amazing ATV with suspension that allows you to basically drive over insane terrain at high speed with almost no felt impact or bumps. We crossed rocky streams, drove up and down sharp rock formations on rudimentary paths, cut corners over fields, climbed and descended inclines that wouldn't be normally possible, and transported personnel and equipment over this terrain. I can't say enough good things about these vehicles, which already had over 5000 miles on them before the competition.




Competition Dynamics
If you are interested in these types of events, check Competition Dynamic's website for upcoming matches. They run a professional network of accomplished shooters and RO's, combined with appropriate staff for other contingencies, and are great people to work with. http://competition-dynamics.com/

On the medical/health aspect of this, every team we had to provide aid to experienced electrolyte loss, causing reduced muscle function to the point that continued physical exertion was no longer possible. Treatment involved IV and glucose therapy, as well as advisement on continued nutritional and rest recovery once back at the Ranch Headquarters.

I was very surprised that we didn't have any severe ankle injuries, because that terrain is some of the most unforgiving that I've seen due to the high saturation of jagged rocks, cacti, high altitude, and heat.

I have the utmost respect for those who showed up for this event, and even more for those that completed a significant number of Mandatory Checkpoints and events, and returned on their own foot power.

Sponsors
I would like to publicly thank all the sponsors listed on CD's Facebook page, and also add my gratitude to Pro Bar Whole Foods Organic Meal Replacement Bars and energy boost products, as well as MagHolder.com, manufacturers of horizontal concealed magazine solutions.

We used the Pro Bar Bolt Strawberry products for patient treatment to help get glucose quickly into the patients' bloodstreams while IV therapy was being administered. http://theprobar.com/

MagHolder products were placed on the prize tables at the end of the event. http://magholder.com/

Competitor backgrounds
To give you an idea of what types of backgrounds the competitors come from, we had several teams of former and active Marine Recon/MARSOC, Army Rangers, Army Special Forces, Army and Marine Infantry, Navy SERE Instructors, Professional Extreme Endurance Racers, US Border Patrol, Minneapolis/St. Paul SWAT, and civilians from various walks of life.

It was a pleasure to be surrounded by so many people with the skill sets and mental toughness necessary to even complete 1/3 of the challenges this competition presented. My hat goes off especially to those who placed, as well as those who didn't quit.

[LRRPF52]

Here's a video of us checking the Teams' mandatory minimum equipment before the Endurance Class competitors embarked on their trek.

[video=youtube;dle4SpE4PjQ]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=dle4SpE4PjQ#at=57[/video]

[video]http://youtu.be/dle4SpE4PjQ[/video]

[davidj]

Who is the Chick with the great smile?

[LRRPF52]

Who is the Chick with the great smile?

One of the competitors. Her male teammate went down in the night I think before she had a chance to show her full potential.

[bwaites]

Here's a video of us checking the Teams' mandatory minimum equipment before the Endurance Class competitors embarked on their trek.

[video=youtube;dle4SpE4PjQ]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=dle4SpE4PjQ#at=57[/video]

[video]http://youtu.be/dle4SpE4PjQ[/video]

Yep, that was you asking the Armor team to go back and do it again because you didn't get it, too!

[LRRPF52]

Notice what you get when you take an ER Doctor who is also a long-range shooter?

Tripod + carabiners + 550 cord = excellent IV bag hangar in the field.

Some teams walked over 40 miles, with at least 40lbs per competitor.



Here's one of the first challenges at Checkpoint 1. You had to build a fire with materials you brought and anything you could gather in the area, and bring a cup of water to boil in the little can. This was after digging a hole that was 6 ft x 2.5 ft and 1 ft deep IIRC.





Team Ares Armor made it first to the 1st Checkpoint and Challenge. They also finished the race on their own foot power-hard core men. The guy on the left eventually went down in the dining facility after they returned, but they still finished. The guy on the right is a gifted seamster, and made his own rucksack for the competition, complete with padded rifle holder. It was very snug and balanced.

[neenjuh]

This is really cool. Thanks for sharing this, I never knew about these type of events.

[LRRPF52]

Here is Team Ares Armor's gear. Top carbine is a 16" 6.5 Grendel built by the competitor, to include starting with his own lower receiver and doing the machine work. The rucksack up-close is the one that was built from scratch for a lightweight solution that allows you to carry your weapon, while keeping the optics and muzzle padded.





Here is Doc doing some minor exploratory excavation on one of our fellow staff member's foot. He had stepped in some cacti before the competition, and needed splinters removed. This guy is a retired Air Force senior enlisted guy who was on the Air Force's Parachute Demonstration Team-very good dude, proactive, takes initiative to get things done before you thought you needed it done.


Here's a point where we were out putting in cache bags the teams had pre-packed.

[LRRPF52]

Here is the winning team. These guys are professional extreme endurance racers. They do long-range canoe racing, long-range foot racing, and who knows what else. Very low-key guys who you don't even notice are there until you see them standing with trophies in their hands. They just got into long-range shooting 3 years ago. One of the things Competition Dynamics has done with the Sniper Adventure Challenge is combine extreme sports with competitive action shooting sports, paving the way for a new genre of outdoor competition sporting events.



Doing some more patient treatment in the early morning hours when one of the more competitive teams had pushed so hard, one of them went down from electrolyte depletion (hyponatremia).




The excellent dining facility at the Felix Canyon Ranch:



Me in one of the TOMCARs:

[Bill Alexander]

Headed up to the ranch at the end of this month to do some long range stuff with the 338 and work with a couple of writers. That and goof off.

Felix canyon is one of those best kept secrets. They were tied to Matrix training for a lot of government jobs but they always did hunting stuff and have amazing facilities. Tomcar got a start there just testing vehicles to destruction, the terrain was bad enough that they stayed and keep vehicles on hand for other events.

For the history buffs the ranch encompasses the old Tunstall ranch of Lincoln County wars fame. It is something for a Brit to be able to say I hunted coyote over the same ground that Billy the Kid worked.

Best of all the owner and his wife are just good people! Facilities are awesome and you always feel welcome.

My ultimate challenge is hunting the few feral sheep. They are like ghosts with invisibility cloaks and kevlar vests. Yet to even see one!

I think events like the CD Sniper Adventure Challenge will reshape the way people think about tactical shoots. It is certainly reshaping how the rifles are being built and the equipment that goes with them.

[SHORT-N-SASSY]

[SIZE="3"]Thank you for the enlightening Report, LRRPF52![/SIZE]

[lilharcher]

Very interesting read....thanks for sharing.

[LRRPF52]

Headed up to the ranch at the end of this month to do some long range stuff with the 338 and work with a couple of writers. That and goof off.

Felix canyon is one of those best kept secrets. They were tied to Matrix training for a lot of government jobs but they always did hunting stuff and have amazing facilities. Tomcar got a start there just testing vehicles to destruction, the terrain was bad enough that they stayed and keep vehicles on hand for other events.

For the history buffs the ranch encompasses the old Tunstall ranch of Lincoln County wars fame. It is something for a Brit to be able to say I hunted coyote over the same ground that Billy the Kid worked.

Best of all the owner and his wife are just good people! Facilities are awesome and you always feel welcome.

My ultimate challenge is hunting the few feral sheep. They are like ghosts with invisibility cloaks and kevlar vests. Yet to even see one!

I think events like the CD Sniper Adventure Challenge will reshape the way people think about tactical shoots. It is certainly reshaping how the rifles are being built and the equipment that goes with them.

Yeah, they said you had been out there before. One of the little children there shot a Barbary Sheep with a 6.5 Grendel AR15. They said they could hear the bullet impact when it hit the hide of the sheep, and it went down hard.

+1 on the ownership being wonderful people. We had a great time, and their support across the board was top-notch. The facilities have the ability to lodge up to 120 people.

The Competition Dynamics crew has a unique approach to competitive action shooting, in that there is an expectation of high standards for Staff. It was great to work with such a group of self-starters who are driven and well-accomplished. Some of the staff have been running 3-gun, multigun, and long-range matches for well over a decade on an active schedule. CD uses RO's who know what hits look like at distance that might mistakenly be called misses by less experienced observers, and sources specialty staff from their network of contacts who have extensive military special operations and competitive backgrounds.

They also run regular training events throughout the year, and are dialed-in long-range shooters. Competition Dynamics is an affiliate of Thunderbeast Arms Corp. (TBAC), who have quickly risen in the suppressor industry as one of the go-to companies for high-end Titanium and quality alloy suppressors, with a reputation for minimal POI shift, and 2nd-to-none customer service.

One thing I noticed with the SAC event is that it makes a lot of sense to use a 6.5 Grendel AR15 for your team's carbine, which is what Team Ares Armor did. For one, a 16" Grendel with the same barrel profile as a 5.56 will be lighter, will suffer from wind deflection significantly less, and will impact steel with authority. Many of the rifle shooting stages were structured so that the competitor with the carbine had to successfully engage closer targets before the member with the rifle could engage long-range targets. They used 107gr SMK's in the 16" Grendel.

Team Magpul had a beautiful custom-built long-range rifle chambered in 6.5 Creedmoor by Proof Research. It had a carbon fiber wrapped barrel, custom low-profile stock, custom action, custom bottom metal, and was topped with a Vortex Viper PST FFP. The rifle balanced amazingly, and was very lightweight. The shooter, who has an extensive military sniping background, said it shoots in the .1's. He said he shot a 6" group with it at 1200yds.

So yes, I also see some trends in weapons development being driven by these types of matches, because the benefits of lightweight but capable guns for extreme endurance racing/shooting transfer over to military and hunting disciplines, where lightweight and reach are equally important.

[rcvisket]

Great meeting you out there, buddy. the loading book is already getting put to the test for a special project we are working on for Thunderbeast Team Challenge.