RnG's - Stop Your Bitchin’
I have been wanting to write this blog for quite some time, but I am glad that I have put this off for so long. It seems as if the timing is right for me to finally gather my thoughts on Run and Guns and give my own personal opinion on these events.
I ran my first RnG in November of 2019. It was “Tiger’s” Zombie Event held at Rockcastle. I remember all the preparation I put into making my first event as successful as I could. I remember how excited I was to attempt such a nutty sounding thing. I remember thinking meticulously through all the possible setups for my rifle, my pistol, my belt and my clothing. I probably approached it more like it was my 10th instead of my 1st RnG, but that is not atypical of how I go about things. Before I ever launched off that morning, I already knew I was hooked.
Over the years I have optimized my setup, my training and my preparation to help meet the goals that I set for myself with these events. The endgame for me in these events have always been exactly same:
Increase my real world survivability and increase my potential to protect others.
That’s it. That’s my entire goal. I also believe this is the goal that the originators had in mind as they began to conjure up the idea of events like these.
There are many things I love about RnG events, but here are some of my favorites:
The people: The participants, the Match Directors and the RO’s are all some of the most helpful people you will find in the shooting sports industry.
The gear: You truly, for the most part, get to run-what-you-brung. This is very important, because if you refer back to why I run these events, I want to be carrying what I will be using in the real world.
The realism: I haven’t found anything else that would simulate a real world SHTF scenario like a RnG does along with all of it’s baked-in complications.
The test: These events test you physically, they test your equipment and they test you mentally.
We are now several years into these events and there seems to be some dissension among participants on how these events should be run, how they should be scored, how the RO’s should react to certain situations, etc. I have even heard talks about a RnG organization, almost like an IDPA or an IPSC to try to standardize certain aspects of the events. Finally, I have heard a lot of people lately shooting the sport that talk a lot about making things as “fair” as possible.
One of the things I absolutely love about these events is that the wonderful Match Directors we have such as Ellis, Matt, Tiger, Tim, Bruce, etc. (sorry to all the wonderful match directors not located in the S.E. where I normally shoot, I know you are great too!) is that each of one these guys gets to create their own “art.” Every director has his own spin, his own style, his own special flavor of S&M that they love to put us through. Not being restricted by a standardized template, these guys get outside the box and create some really special experiences…like Stage 1 of Legion this year, which I unfortunately had to miss. I can assure you, if there was an attempt to standardize these events, they would very likely not have the level of creativity that you see today.
Additionally, every match director likes to score their matches differently. Some look at this as a negative, but I do not see it that way. We all have our preferences and personally, I would love for all RnG matches to be scored “DNF” style. I think it fits the narrative of the SHTF scenario best…if you leave a target standing you are “dead” on that stage. I like to think that the timer going beep as you run out of time is the moment that an enemy combatant fires a lethal round in my direction. It’s a kill or be killed scenario. My job is to not let him get that shot off. Consequently, if I was a director, no participant that didn’t complete all stages would ever be able to place higher than a participant who did complete all stages. This however, is just my opinion, and everybody has one.
On the flip side, the beauty of Time Plus scoring, is that it creates an entirely different way to shoot the match and allows me to work on a completely different skill set, which usually involves being a bit less careful and a bit more expedient in my shooting. This is a good thing and a good mix to have. Let’s be very clear, if you are allowing the villain to get off 5 shots to every 1 of yours, you likely will not have a high probability of survival for very long. Speed does matter.
I could argue, that the best method would be to use DNF style scoring and greatly reduce the par times, but understand that this would likely create events that are not very fun for new people to participate in as high stage failures are discouraging. The goal of a match director is to grow participation in their event and I do not blame them one bit. If you spent X dollars and X amount of time on your first event and drove X hours to fail 5 of 6 stages, you may not come back and that is a disservice to everyone involved.
Maximum range is another debatable issue. Personally, I absolutely love the 500-800y range with a carbine, but I completely understand the appeal of running a 300 yard max. This greatly reduces stage failure and let’s be honest is far more realistic. Honestly, I think the toughest stage I shot was stage 1 at the first Zombie event in Missouri. You were 20 ft up in the top of a shaky box stand that moved every time you shifted position. You were overlooking some very small targets at around 250-300 yards with the wind whipping like crazy. This was far harder than say the 600 yarder on a full size torso at Riverbend…you don’t need a ton of distance to make things difficult.
I know there are some events that prioritize the shooting vs running differently than 50/50. This is fine, but I am telling you right now that quite possibly the most important thing you have in a really bad situation is your ability to GTFO of Dodge quickly using your legs. Additionally, if you can’t get yourself over a wall or a fence unassisted, you also have decreased survivability. If you are shooting Run and Guns to just get better at shooting, you are missing out on the chance to make yourself a more complete combatant and a more complete protector. I feel like you should look at all aspects of a RnG through that lens. You don’t get ready for these events, you stay ready. If you aren’t able to grab your gear and hop on a waitlist at a moments notice because you suddenly have a free weekend, you are doing it wrong.
Finally, let’s talk about “fair” in RnGs. It’s simple, if you want fair, go shoot IPSC. Go shoot IDPA. I remember my first Legion event in 2020 reading Matt’s rule and procedures and he states:
“If you are the type of person who gets upset when minor changes are made to a plan or when you don’t always get your way, this is not the event for you.”
That’s just beautiful. It’s so true too. (edit: Matt tells me he stole that quote, "with permission” from Al and Daniel, who themselves got it from Smokey) While match directors do everything in their power to keep things as fair as possible, these events are not designed to be “fair.” Someone is going to get more wait time than you. Someone is going to run when it’s cooler than you. Someone is going to shoot pretty white steel with the sun at their back and you are going to have to find grey steel in the shady woods. Someone is going to have a better optic, a better rifle. Someone isn’t going to have sun in their eyes on stage 5. Someone is going to shoot when it wasn’t raining. Someone is going to run when it’s not muddy. Someone got much better sleep the night before. Someone doesn’t have to work full time for a living. Someone didn’t have to run with hemorrhoids…
Get over it. No one is calling time-out in the middle of a gun fight to level things up. Violence is asymmetric, if you have a hard time dealing with that, find a different shooting event that suits your needs, there are certainly plenty of them out there. The large variety of environmental factors in the these events is what makes it oh-so-sweet when you place high on the leaderboard. You know that you worked hard enough to tip the odds in your favor. You know that you double and triple checked your equipment, that you put in the time to get your fitness level up and that you maintained mental clarity when things didn’t go the way you expected them to. The same skills that it takes to become “successful” in one of these events directly translates to the skills you need in the real world.
The next time you think about complaining about how the event coulda, shoulda or woulda gone, had the universe not been betting against you, take the time to thank your Match Director for allowing you the opportunity to hone the skills that could very well save the life of you or the ones that you love.
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