The Home of Heavy Artillery... At Home (aka, gun lovers thread)

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The Home of Heavy Artillery... At Home (aka, gun lovers thread)
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flag ctmtb98
Posted: Mar 19, 2018 at 12:04 Quote
Outstanding! That sounds like a helluva experience.
flag chaserider
Posted: Mar 20, 2018 at 2:09 Quote
So to elaborate, here´s more of the story.

Background: I have been shooting precision rifles for the last few years, long range shooting has been a motivator all along. But in Sweden in general, there are few chances to go beyond 600 meters, and pretty much every range is limited to 300 meters. Its also of some value to state that I consider myself to be of good physical fitness, I work at the hospital and there is seldom a slow day, I ride my bike to work every day, year around unless its pouring rain. I dont drink or smoke.

The competition, NM Langhold (roughly translates to the Nordic championships in long range shooting) is held annually in the mountains around the small village of Bjoneroa by match director Christian S who I figure have a background in the Norwegian Army. This years competition would span over two days, and had targets set beyond 1300 meters. I knew it was a tough competition, both physically and mentally, but I never knew just how tough it would be.

So, after a 7,5 hour drive from my home up to Bjoneroa in Norway, we slept on the floor of a gym and at 04:00 it was time to get ready to go out. Safety briefing was at 05:30 and then it was time to hike up the mountain, it was -21 C when we started out, and it was a 1 hour and 45 minutes walk to the top of the mountain, where we would start shooting. The hike for the first half hour was on decently plowed backroads, and after that it was time to put on snow shoes.
The thing is, that at 05:20 when we loaded our gear out to my car, which we were going to use for the short drive to the other side of the town, then the car would not start. After a night out with temperatures reaching as low as -30 C proved to be too much for my poor BMW. So in a fit of panic we threw the regular gear in to another competitors car and headed out. It just so happens that I forgot my damn snowshoes in my car, as this is not regular gear to me. And by the time the safety brief was over, there was no time to go and get them. So I was handed a vintage pair of old snow shoes from one of the RO guys, these were made from wood and straps, they were bad, but they would have to do. The mountain was covered in 4 feet of snow, and it would be impossible to get around up there without the damn snowshoes.
Anyhow, back to the hike up the mountain, I really cant remember that I have ever been so cold in my life, it was crazy. My hands were completely numb and I started to get scared of frostnip, which some people got during the day. But after a while the sun came up and the temperature rose to about -7 C which was comfortable by comparison.

Safety breifing (day two)
photo

The scenery on one of the stages, forgot which one. There are targets where the arrows point, at 1090 meters and 970 meters.
Borrowed photo with added arrows for forum use.

Needless to say, the scenery was epic.
After shooting the first 6 stages on top of the mountain, were I hit steel at both 970 meters and 1090 meters it was time to hike back down, about 45 minutes or so, to the other 5 stages of the day. By now it was lunchtime and I had spent at least 4 hours with the damned snowshoes strapped to my feet. It was rough, and it started to get painful. But I pressed on and did my best to try to score some more hits, but fatigue was starting to get to me, and some stages had more than a bit of PRS-influence to them, which meant planning, milling and alternating targets which would have been tough on a normal day, in these conditions, they proved to be way too much for my brain. So I figured that I would try to stick to the fundamentals, and maybe score some hits that way. You know, build a good position behind the rifle, shoot well. or at least as good as possible, but it just proved to be too much. The pain and fatigue had gotten to me, and I hit nothing.

Here I am, trying to score a hit or two at a small steel plate at about 515 meters:
photo

On my way out to the last stage, my body was a blob of pain, every step was a struggle and after a while, I figured that if, and only if, I make the hike out to the last stage, I might not have the power to get back down the mountain, let alone shoot worth a damn. So I figured I have had enough, after a long brake with some heated MRE and water, I started to make my way back down the mountain. By now I had been up on the mountain for over 8 hours, and it was another hour or so to get down from the mountain, back to the cars and then back to the gym for more food and sleep.

I fell a sleep by 21:00 or so, completely knocked out from fatigue.
The next morning, by now, my body was a mess, and it was no small struggle to make it down roughly 15 steps indoors to get to the showers. All I felt was pain, crippling pain. To even contemplate going out on the mountain again, now in -25 C to hike up a steep trail up another mountain was completely out of the question. Hell, I felt lucky to have made it down the mountain just yesterday. And I was still worried that the car would not start, and we were supposed to drive back home that same afternoon. So I stayed back in the gym for the day, eating, sleeping and trying to get the car to start back up again. I estimate that about 5-6 other guys had also dropped out of the competition by now, most of them from fatigue and some from frostnip.
I can only salute the guys that not only made it back out to the mountain on day two, to stay competitive and to actually make hits on steel beyond a 1000 meters in those conditions are admirable, and down right bad ass.

By 15:30 most of the guys were back in the gym, and the winners was declared. Huge respect to everyone that was part of this competition, from the director, to the RO:s, the catering and naturally all of the competitors.
I hope that Christian and his friends will keep doing this competition for years to come. It is an awesome experience, however I have a feeling that I wont be there again, for me, it is just too damn hard. But now I know. I dont just talk and dream, I go places and try stuff. I learned a lot this weekend, and first and foremost I learned some of my limits.

Thanks for reading this, and thanks again to everyone involved.

(pictures are borrowed from social media)
flag togood2die
Posted: Mar 20, 2018 at 6:42 Quote
That's EPIC man!

Love it... Love seeing PRS style stuff, it motivates me to get into it.




Thanks - T
flag chaserider
Posted: Mar 20, 2018 at 7:46 Quote
togood2die wrote:
That's EPIC man!

Love it... Love seeing PRS style stuff, it motivates me to get into it.




Thanks - T

As far as I can tell, this competition is as epic as epic gets around this part of the world.
The stage with the most PRS-style was a hot mess, it combined milling, color combinations (red targets from red shooting station etc), three different shooting positions and 8 targets if memory serves. It was horrid.
Most other stages were more "typical" long range stuff. If there are such a thing.
flag cougar797
Posted: Mar 20, 2018 at 8:12 Quote
chaserider wrote:
togood2die wrote:
That's EPIC man!

Love it... Love seeing PRS style stuff, it motivates me to get into it.




Thanks - T

As far as I can tell, this competition is as epic as epic gets around this part of the world.
The stage with the most PRS-style was a hot mess, it combined milling, color combinations (red targets from red shooting station etc), three different shooting positions and 8 targets if memory serves. It was horrid.
Most other stages were more "typical" long range stuff. If there are such a thing.

So chaos stages, long range precision and extreme environment / terrain all in one day.

Props for hanging in on a special forces level event for a full day with some success. That’s rather impressive.
flag chaserider
Posted: Mar 20, 2018 at 8:17 Quote
cougar797 wrote:

So chaos stages, long range precision and extreme environment / terrain all in one day.

Props for hanging in on a special forces level event for a full day with some success. That’s rather impressive.

That pretty much sums it up, although I can't say for sure as I have no military experience. I can tell you that it was the single hardest outdoor experience I have ever had.
flag togood2die
Posted: Mar 20, 2018 at 12:04 Quote
Even in a SOF pipeline, which I was in for nearly two years, we didn't do precision LR shooting, at least not with bolt guns. I wasn't a sniper, so that's obvious, but many recreational PRS pros can outshoot some of us with those firearms simply by the nature of repetition and practice.
Now, spending a couple hours in the shoot house 3-4 days a week is another kind of ass-kickery... That's what I miss.


Thanks - T
flag seraph
Posted: Mar 20, 2018 at 13:04 Quote
Ordered two more Readymod PF940 frames, one compact one regular. I figure this most recent school shooting in Maryland might spark more strict gun laws in the US so better to get them now while I can.
flag togood2die
Posted: Mar 20, 2018 at 13:14 Quote
Unfortunately, yes.

Thanks - T
flag mountainbiker929
Posted: Mar 23, 2018 at 19:57 Quote
Damn. Almost everyone I know is going to the "March for Our Lives" event tomorrow. Why is it that almost no one my age can see what a terrible idea the legislation they're asking for truly is. I'm all for real solutions to preventing more tragedies like Florida or Maryland but more gun control is not a realistic solution.
flag ctmtb98
Posted: Mar 24, 2018 at 7:32 Quote
mountainbiker929 wrote:
Damn. Almost everyone I know is going to the "March for Our Lives" event tomorrow. Why is it that almost no one my age can see what a terrible idea the legislation they're asking for truly is. I'm all for real solutions to preventing more tragedies like Florida or Maryland but more gun control is not a realistic solution.

They have no clue what would happen if they passed all the bills they want. They've only passed these crazy laws in liberal states. If they passed these laws they want to apply everywhere, there will be resistance.
flag cougar797
Posted: Mar 24, 2018 at 9:18 Quote
ctmtb98 wrote:
mountainbiker929 wrote:
Damn. Almost everyone I know is going to the "March for Our Lives" event tomorrow. Why is it that almost no one my age can see what a terrible idea the legislation they're asking for truly is. I'm all for real solutions to preventing more tragedies like Florida or Maryland but more gun control is not a realistic solution.

They have no clue what would happen if they passed all the bills they want. They've only passed these crazy laws in liberal states. If they passed these laws they want to apply everywhere, there will be resistance.

The gov doesn’t have the balls yet to pass full scale gun control laws. They know what would happen. Military wouldn’t support it, neither would most law enforcement. These gun grabbers sure wouldn’t be the ones to take arms so it’s all just whinny noise.
flag ctmtb98
Posted: Mar 24, 2018 at 10:12 Quote
Yeah man the cops around CO don’t enforce the unconstitutional 15 round limit and people buy complete or parts kit mags all the time. Outside of Denver downtown and Boulder of course lol. These liberals who never step outside their liberal state or city have no clue how the things they want would work outside their bubble.
flag ctmtb98
Posted: Mar 24, 2018 at 10:26 Quote
Also, the 2018 AWB just so everyone knows WILL ban every single semi auto rifle unless it is specifically exempted in the bill. This is due to the way it defines a pistol grip as being “anything that can function as a grip”. That means that if your semi auto rifle has a grip which every single one does it will be banned unless it’s specifically exempted like the Mini 14, 10/22, etc.
flag mountainbiker929
Posted: Mar 24, 2018 at 23:22 Quote
Ya... Unfortunately I live in Boulder, but at least Longmont and Broomfield are pretty close.

 


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