Sometimes you want to do something just so that you can say that you did it. You know it’s not going be easy, you know it’s not going to play to your strengths, but you just have to get out there and test yourself. The regret of trying and failing would sting far less than the regret of never suiting up and giving it a go. For me, this was my motivation for the Tactical Games.

While I love to mix shooting and fitness, clearly evident through my love for Run and Gun events, I was a bit less enthusiastic about shooting after lifting really heavy weights and bringing myself to the edge of puking multiple times per day. But I just had to do it. The hardest part for me mentally, was the preparation beforehand. While I didn’t go all out and join a Crossfit gym months in advance, I did purchase my own sandbags and came up with some basic workouts at home to help get a bit more prepared.

When I say basic, I mean basic. In addition to my usual 2x per week pullup/rope climb, pushup, overhead press and grip strength workouts, I simply added squatting and/or lunges with the sandbags, sandbag carries over shoulder and farmers carry with the sandbags. I have a small hill out back that I would walk down and back up with the bags, and I hated every minute of it. I have always said I am a quitter at heart…my brain begs me to do so all the time, just somehow my inherited stubbornness never allows me to actually follow through. I still am not sure if this is ultimately a good thing or a bad thing.

Gear preparation for the event was fairly minimal as I used most of the same kit I use for Run and Gun competitions with a few modifications. Tactical Games requires wearing a plate carrier that weighs 15lbs, so I used a T.Rex AC1 carrier with Jacked Rabbit plates. If you are so inclined to spend a little extra, Jacked Rabbit plates are incredible. They are made with sand and formed in a corrugated type manner that flexes around the body. The difference in wearing these plates versus solid plates is huge. The quality of the product is incredibly high. It was one of those purchases where I expected buyers remorse but after receiving them realized they are worth ever penny and then some.

Jacked Rabbit Plates. Pic taken from website, which coincidently features the same colored T.Rex AC1 I used.

Due to Tactical Games having a one-optic-only rule, I could not run my normal Run and Gun rifle which has both a LPVO and red dot (as well as a illegal-for-tac-games pin & welded brake) so I opted to run my 12.5” SBR instead. Normally, an EOTECH EXPS3-2 with magnifier rides on this rifle, but I wanted to use an LPVO for the Tactical Games since I was not sure exactly what I would be getting in to. I chose to mount up a Tan Vudu 1-10x pulled from my varmint hunting AR in a Nightforce 1.54” Ultra mount. I originally mounted the Vudu up with a 1.9” high Ultramount but did not like the manipulations around a VTAC barricade so I dropped to the 1.54” mount.

I did change my handstop to a Heathen Barricade Stop and added some wrap and a cheekpad for the event, but other than that, this was my rifle/optic setup for the Tac Games.

Gear check started the Friday prior to the event so I showed up to make sure everything I was running would be deemed legal for the event. Proper weight in vest, single optic, proper muzzle device (Dead Air Xeno mount flash hider). After passing check-in I headed to the hotel to rest up as much as possible before the next day’s events.

Stages get kicked off right at daybreak on Saturday. You are grouped into squads, mostly with people in the same division (Intermediate) and you will stay with that squad throughout the day as you move from stage to stage. This way they can be running all stages at once and reduce the amount of down time.

Stage 1 -Grocery Jokes

The first stage for us was called “Grocery Jokes”, and this stage would have zero shooting involved. As far as stages go, this was as simple as it gets. You were to carry (3) three sandbags for 5 minutes as far you could. Your score would be the distance covered in those 5 minutes. The sandbag weights were 40lb, 45lb and 55lb. And of course with all events you would have your 15lb weight vest on as well. At 155# of total weight, this is 15 lbs beyond my total body weight (140#), so I was a little concerned, but farmers carries were something I had been practicing religiously so I was anxious to see if my hard work would pay off. I put the 40lb bag across the back of my shoulders and picked up the 45 and 55lb bags in each hand, grocery style.

Unfortunately, I didn’t get to display my capabilities in this event because the 40lb sandbag that I threw across my back just kept falling off every few feet. I just could not keep it from either sliding to one side or rolling off my back. I had to constantly stop and pick the bag up, reposition it on my shoulders and start all over. This was frustrating because it felt like I really did have the grip strength to do well here. I think it would help if I wasn’t so darn skinny and had a bit more surface area for the bag to lay across on my shoulders. Had the bag stayed on, I likely would have covered 50-100% more ground, but it wasn’t to be. I ended up in 21st place out of 26 in this event.

Stage 2 - Tac2Gun

Unlike Stage 1, which was fitness only, Stage 2 was shooting only. This stage featured both rifle and pistol with various target arrays of paper, steel, dueling trees and plate racks. I did not start the stage off that great with my rifle, completely misunderstanding how many hits I needed on paper and where they needed to be located. To make a long story short, I took more time than I needed to take on those shots, and fired many more rounds than were needed. Once I got to the steel portion on rifle and pistol, things sped up and I was able to finish out the course fairly strong, albeit with one particular piece of steel on the plate rack that gave me some fits. I probably had in my head all the time I needed to make up from the first part of the stage and I over ran myself a bit. Despite a couple of errors, I finished this stage in 2nd place.

Stage 3 - Long Movement

This was another fitness only stage. It was simply a 2 mile run carrying roughly 45 lbs. You had weight in your go-ruck pack and of course your weight vest. Thinking that running is one my biggest strengths, I expected to do well here. While I have run with roughly half that amount of weight many times before, I was shocked at how much 45 lbs affected me. It was enough to completely change my gait, and it was rough. Walking with it wouldn’t have been so bad, but this was for time so I pushed myself the entire way. It was a far tougher challenge than I expected both physically and mentally. The guys that did really well were actually a bit larger in this event, my thinking was that the weight did not affect them nearly as much as the smaller more “runner” types like myself. I ended up in 9th place for this event with a time of 19.5 minutes, which was 3min and 1 sec off of the 1st place time.

Stage 4 - Inman

This was to be the final stage of Saturday and the stage I dreaded the most by far. This stage involved 3 round sandbags, a 60lb bag, a 100lb bag and a 125lb bag. You were to throw the bags over the bar on a yoke as follows: 60lb bag goes over 5x, 100lb bag goes over 3x and 125lb bag goes over 1x. After doing this you were to engage targets with both pistol and rifle from behind and while touching a tank trap. Pistol was 7-10y with targets about like what you would find on dot torture and rifle was in the 165y range on small circle. All paper. There was 4 rounds of this total so you would perform your 5,3,1 bag-over-bar, go shoot, come back and do it all over again four times.

I was not sure if I could get the 100 or 125lb bag over the bar, so I really did everything I could to conserve all my energy until those tasks were required. I also purposely paced myself so I could focus on shooting as well as possible. There was a 15 minute time cap, so I couldn’t slow down too much, but I didn’t mind using up all of that time if I could shoot really well to make up for the slower time to completion.

Unbelievably, I was able to complete this stage with time remaining and as expected that 125lb sandbag gave me fits but I worked through it. My pistol shooting was great but for some reason I was low on my rifle hits on paper. I still have not figured out why this was and it kills me. This really sucked, because my groups were really good, but mostly all located just below the circle so I was unable to score as many points as I would have liked for this stage. Despite that I ended up tied for 4th in shooting and placed 17th for the work portion which put me at overall 14th place for this stage.

After a long day, I ate like a race horse and passed out for the night.

Day 2 brought soreness which I tried to work out with a hot shower but it was certainly going to stick around for the day. Having gotten through Day 1 completing all fitness stages, I was determined to keep that streak alive.

Stage 5 - Carbine

This was another shooting only stage, and I was very happy to be back in my wheelhouse. To top it off, it was rifle only, small steel targets at 75-260 yards at multiple positions and locations which plays to my strengths. My enthusiasm quickly waned however after the timer went off. Unfortunately day was breaking and the sun was peaking over the top of the berm directly into my eyes when it came time for me to shoot this stage. The sun created extreme ghosting in my optic and I could not find targets that I could see with the naked eye prior to shooting. I was rendered helpless.

I tried everything from using my hand to cover the objective, curving my hat around my objective, changing positions, changing magnifications…I could see nothing. I was able to find 7 close large targets and that was it. I sat there looking through my scope as time ran out, leaving 13 targets standing, completely un-engaged. This by far was the biggest disappointment for me of the entire event. Just a few minutes difference in shooting time made a difference in what type of light you were getting here. It was a tough pill to swallow. I ended up in 15th place.

Stage 6 - Bright Eyed and Chipper

This was another shooting + fitness stage that involved pistol and rifle and a lot of work with sandbags. There were burpees, bag-thrown-over-line, bag carries, and over the box drills in a repeating manner. This one was designed to get your heart rate up and then make you shoot off-handed with no support anywhere in sight. Once again my goal was to pace myself to complete the event inside the time cap, but still be able to shoot well.

I really took time to calm myself before shooting the pistol portion and I used my Armeggedon gear sling to remove as much of the shakes from my arms while engaging with my rifle. When you are breathing as heavy as you are during this type of event, and shaking because your arms are tired, any type of support from your equipment is welcome. Without the bungee in that Armeggedon Gear sling, I don’t think I shoot nearly as well here. Additionally, because my chest was moving so much during the rifle portion, I began doing something I had never done before, but it worked fantastically: I held my breath.

Taking a lot of time to be steady…and holding my breath.

Whenever I would go to engage with my rifle I would hold my breath, fire 4-5 rounds, get a deep breath and hold it again before firing. It may sound simple, or stupid, but it worked. For the shooting portion of this event I ended up in 1st in shooting which helped pull up my slower completion time and bring my overall stage score to 8th.

Stage 7 - The Hills Have Why’s

The final stage of the entire event proved to be pretty freakin’ tough. This stage was shot with pistol only, strong and weak hand on small paper shapes and included pulling a metal sled loaded with a 25lb plate…while carrying a ruck loaded with 30lbs…up and down a hill until 800 meters was complete. There was shooting for every 200m completed and a 15 minute time cap.

At this point in the event, my legs were sore, tired and my body was feeling it. I completed this stage with only 1 minute remaining, which meant I was the 2nd to last person to finish it. My legs burned, possibly more than they ever have at any point in my life and I actually resorted to walking some of the hills backwards while using my arms to pull the sled to me in order to finish. My legs were that worn out. While my completion time was terrible, I was actually tied for 1st place in shooting for the stage. Ha! Go figure. This pulled my overall stage score to 12th place.

Overall for the match I ended up in 10th place. I couldn’t be upset at myself. I shot pretty well, being at the top for most all of the shooting portions of stages except for one. I completed the fitness portion of every single stage inside the time cap, something I honestly did not expect to do. Most importantly, I did something I knew was going to be tough for me, I fought through it mentally and came out on the other end having learned a new thing or two.

The experience of the Tactical Games was top notch to be honest. The staff is incredibly courteous and helpful, the competitors are welcoming and will go to the ends of the earth to make you feel part of the group. The prize table is ridiculously good and it all runs like a very well-oiled machine.

A good competition would be a waste if you didn’t find a few takeaways:

If you are completely gassed and breathing heavy, holding your breath between shots works
Carry a shemagh in your pack or something to cover your entire head and optic in case you have to shoot directly into the sun (BTW kill flashes do NOTHING to help with this…I tried)
For me personally, if I am going to run just a LPVO only, I would choose a 1.9” high mount the next time. While not as easy on a VTAC, it is quicker for me than crouching to look through a 1.54” mount. I was considerably slower on target transitions than usual with the 1.54 LPVO only setup.

I had said from the beginning that this event was a one-and-done bucket list thing for me. Afterwards, I still felt somewhat of the same way despite having varying degrees of success during the competition. I would simply have to completely change my routine to become markedly improved at this type of competition and right now, I have different plans in sight. I asked myself if would I ever do the Tactical Games again. For now my answer is I might give it another go in 4 years when I can join the 50+ division. You know, just to say I did it.

Dec 22 My Tactical Games Experience

Sep 30 RnG's - Stop Your Bitchin’