AAR Mammoth 2020 Fort Gordon Georgia

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  • teddy12b

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    Nov 25, 2008
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    (Edited to Add) For those who aren't familiar with the Mammoth Sniper Challenge, it's a 2 and a half day precision rifle competition that includes timed rucking with two divisions to compete in. In the toughman division (which is what we did) you take all that you'll need or want for 3 days to shoot for a long range competition, sleep outdoors regardless of weather in January and eat. In the regular division you still do the rucking and carry your gear but at the end of the day you go to a hotel, resupply for another day, and then come back the next morning with much less to carry. The individual rucks vary in distances of less than 1 mile to several miles and if you go over the pace of 16 minutes per mile you're out. You sign up for this event in two person teams with one person designated as the primary shooter who can chose whatever caliber rifle they'd like, and a secondary shooter who is limited to either 223 or 308. Each team member also had to carry a pistol for stages as well. Guns can be whatever you'd like within those boundaries, but keep in mind you're going to carry it for at least 10 miles per day.

    Mammoth 2020 started for me in 2018 or earlier. When I looked at getting into the Mammoth 2019 Challenge I found out that registration sold out in days if not moments after it opened, and I’d have to wait another year to get in on the event. Not only would I have to be ready to jump on it when it opened up, but I’d have to find someone else who’d also commit to such an event who’d also be ready to jump on it as soon as we were able to.

    Review of Preparation:
    To prepare for Mammoth I went to a Guardian long range match at Marksmanship Training Center in Lake City Michigan in July so that I could learn how the gaming part of such a match went. I wanted to bring those lessons back to the team for us both to benefit from and it was a fun excuse to go to a great match.

    Physically, I would ruck at nights after the kids went to bed, or get up early and do box steps, treadmill, squats, pushups, or something else. I had heard Ft Gordon was flat, but that was relative to other Army bases amongst soldiers. Compared to flatlands of northeast Indiana it was full of rolling hills. The hills weren’t particularly steep, but they were there.

    Mentally, we both read many after action reviews of the event, watched videos, and listened to podcasts about the event. There’s not a lot of detailed AAR’s out there, but there’s enough to get some kind of feel for the event. We both went into this with an assumption that it’d be worst case scenario of cold and nasty at a January Mammoth based on the reputation of the event. The closer we got to the event the better we could see what the forecasted weather was likely to be and we adjusted loadouts accordingly.

    Shooting skills were practiced out to 1,000 yards at two separate range with very different layouts. We shot off handrails from elevated decks, prone on concrete or mud, standing supported off a wood stool laid sideways on a concrete bench, over barrels and barricades and any other weird awful shooting position we could find or create.


    Review of Rucks & Stages:
    All stages were blind, meaning no teams could see what the other teams did or didn’t do before our turn and when we were done we went to an area separate from the rest of the competitors who were waiting to go. This kept competitors from giving any advanced notice of things coming up on the next stage and I think the range staff did a great job keeping each stage “blind”.

    Day 1:

    Our first ruck was over 2.5 miles to our first event stage. While there we were both shooting pistol & rifle. If the pistol shots weren’t taken from over the “shipping crates” ie hardigg military hard shell cases none of the points were counted. We were given specific colors of targets we had to locate, call out and makes hits for points to count. The little trick of the stage was them putting a red steel plate target out there for competitors to forget they weren’t supposed to shoot at and when they made hits they’d be surprised to hear it didn’t get them any points of hearing the RO’s yell “Hit”. At the end of the stage from the range crews we’d heard that 5 teams didn’t make their first ruck time of the event.

    Second ruck was around 1.0 miles

    Our second stage had us going up an awkwardly narrow stairs where one teammate was to shoot 3 cardboard paper targets with a provided airsoft pistol while the other teammate started to find and range targets using the reticle of their scope. No live rounds were fired.

    Third ruck was .7 mile and just down the road.

    Third stage had primary shooting red targets and secondary shooting blue targets.

    Fourth ruck was 2.5 miles and we had 5 teams of our 10 team squad fail the ruck. It felt mostly uphill than downhill, but I could be wrong on that. We barely made this particular ruck by 30 seconds or so. Four of the ten teams on our squad were taken out of the competition on this ruck.

    Fourth stage was at a long distance range with rifle targets at 385, 500, 801, 899, and 680 yards. Each of these targets had 3 chances to make a hit, but the target had to be called out to the RO spotter if the hits were to count. The target at 680 was a plate that we could not see from the prone position and a teammate would have to run up the stairs on a nearby tower to view the target and walk the other shooter in on the target much like a mortar round. When we were able to ask questions I asked if anyone had hit that target yet and the answer was no, so most people we saw didn’t even try because there wasn’t much point unless you’d ever practiced that before and we surely hadn’t. We ran up and got prone, and started doing the best we could.

    Our fifth ruck of the day was 2.5 miles back to the days starting point and where the Toughman division would be setting up camp for the night and the regular division would be getting into their cars to drive to their hotels and do a 1 day resupply before the next day.

    Day 2:

    The second day started was the same format with 5 rucks, 4 stages starting and ending the day with a ruck. Just like the day before they were about exactly 10 miles of rucking. The stages were similarly challenging for the teams with both communication and shooting. The teams who’d failed a ruck were driven from stage to stage in a passenger van with all their gear. They were still allowed to shoot the stages, but regardless of points earned they would score lower than those who completed the rucks in time.

    Review of Gear:
    Unless otherwise noted, the gear taken worked well. Key take aways were:

    1. I was told earlier a hammock was allowed, I asked to confirm while at the event and was told the Army made a last minute rule change that they weren’t allowed. A couple guys didn’t ask and went ahead with theirs on some chain link fencing and a telephone pole, but since I had asked and was told no it seemed the right thing for me was to go to the ground. If I do the event again, I won’t take a hammock and I’ll just use tarp, bivy, and a sleeping bag on a pad.
    2. Bigger bandaids, and better selection of blister equipment. Despite all the miles I’d put in these boots & socks before the event I set a new personal record for size and quantity of blisters during this event. New boots and more pairs of socks are in the future as well as anything else that helps feet. In hindsight, I did a lot of shorter rucks more often, and I should have done longer rucks less often to prepare.
    3. My hiking zip off pants were a godsend because it got very warm for me while rucking in 70+ degree weather on sandy roads. I loved that I was in shorts and then I could unbutton my shirt somewhat to ventilate. I sweat like a pig so nearly all clothes were soaked through after any 2+ mile ruck. Clothes that dried off quickly with a little breeze were awesome. Also, switching to a long sleeve merino wool shirt at night that I new was clean and would be warm if/when wet turned out pretty good too.
    4. Food wise, I think I could have packed another one or two Probar meal replacement bars in there and been fine. When we missed our ruck time, it was the first time I was just out of gas and had I eaten a little something I think I’d have had more energy to have made it.
    5. My rifle with scope, bipod, and sling weighed in at just over 16 and a half pounds. For a rucking event this was huge a mistake. In hindsight the weather was decent enough and the stages were short enough an AR in 223/5.56 would have been more than fine for most of the points for most of the stages. It was a rookie mistake bringing a big heavy gun for the long shots that we hardly even got to because we ran out of time before we got to them.
    6. At the end of one stage when picking up my gear I saw where I had tossed an empty steel AICS mag off to the side and I noticed the baseplate had started to slide off the bottom. That was a little unsettling considering that it’s the all metal mags. Upon inspection and cleaning when I got home that same baseplate was tough to get undone as it should be so I think it must have just hit something just right. It was an easy field fix, but it made me nervous that I even had to.
    7. 140 rounds of rifle was way too much ammo for this event. In two full days, I only fired 65rds. We should have packed 80 ish each of ammo we could cross load after stages or end of day and we’d have been fine.
    8. The glock 17, two mags and 75rds of ammo was a good setup and I’d repeat that even though I only fired 45rds of pistol in two full days.
    9. The mil-dot master was a good idea for one stage and made a big difference on the time constraint. Other competitors were scrambling with their phones trying to figure out formulas, I had duct tape covering the mil stuff on the mil dot master so all I saw was the MOA info that matched my reticle.
    10. Allen and Torque wrenches should have been brought for every screw on both guns. Another team had a turret get all messed up during a ruck and was hitting 8’ to the left on a 350 yard stage. We debated on bringing a set of only what sizes we could have needed but decided not to bring anything. In hindsight that was a mistake.
    11. Another competitor broke the bolt stop in his rifle during a stage and afterwards was looking for duct tape to make a temporary fixed bolt stop to his stock that would physically keep the bolt in his rifle when he was cycling it for another round. He took a little Tylenol bottle and duct taped it to the stock behind his bolt at the point it should stop at. It was cool to see the whole squad come together to help bubba up the foreign guys gun so he could continue to repeat. Glad I had gorilla tape wrapped on a trekking pole.
    12. Another competitor had an issue come up with the trigger in his rifle. He mentioned having had a custom trigger job done on the gun before and that it’d never acted up on him before. I don’t know the details of if or how he got that fixed or back up and running, but his rifle was down temporarily. I think some sand got in there.
    13. My trekking poles were a life saver and I’ve very glad I took them. I have no regrets about that. With all the rolling hills the poles felt like having a handrail to pull myself up the steep parts with. They are not tactical and I wouldn’t use them for a real life mission, but for an event like this then why not.

    Review of Match:
    I can’t begin to imagine what went into getting this setup from beginning to end. Logistics of getting enough volunteers is hard enough but adding in having a military base be the host with civilians coming on base and wondering around with weapons can’t be an easy task. On top of that how they got sponsors involved to pay for and supply prizes and goodies is an amazing feat in itself. The staff of this event for the most part were exceptionally kind, friendly and outright fun to be around. Aside from one stage where the RO guys acted like every bad stereotype of military types that makes it an easy call to not re-up and another stage where a fiery redhead sure didn’t like the slightest chatter while she was trying to talk. Even those were minor gripes at best, and I was thankful to have met the staff we did. Overall the people running the stages couldn’t have been better. Maybe we just got lucky, but I really felt like everyone on our squad was a genuinely great person who was cheering each other on and wanted to see everyone doing their best. It was competitive, but there’s still that sense of community in the gun world that was very present at this event.

    Our two man team had a combined age of 93 and I’m pretty sure we were on the older side of the spectrum in competitors at this event. My back had a flare up the Thursday night prior to the event and I had chiropractor appointment the next day on Friday, then Monday and Tuesday before the event with a follow up the day after I got back. My partner had been working with a physical therapist to make sure he was ready and he’s a fitness stud to start with.

    On the last ruck of the second full day we missed the time cutoff by 15 seconds. Despite all the preparation and training leading up to this, after 20 miles of rucking we jogged it in at the end and still missed it. My partner has bone on bone contact in his spine and was using breathing techniques and mind games to push through the pain. I knew my partner wouldn’t quit unless his back actually broke. I had enough blisters on my feet it felt like I was walking on a water balloon on my left foot. He knew I wasn’t going to quit unless my feet broke off. If we were going to fall short, it couldn’t have ended in a better way for two guys who didn’t want to disappoint the other. We both missed the same time hack on the same ruck and whether it was by a second or an hour, a miss is a miss. Oddly enough though, after dreaming about this event and focusing on it for a year I really don’t feel bad about our performance. We did two full days of mammoth competing against a group of people I have a lot of respect for and we came up short by 15 seconds. We skipped the last half day of the event on Sunday because other than shooting just to shoot we knew we weren’t going to finish the Mammoth the way we’d set out to. We didn’t see much point to sticking around once we knew we weren’t going to complete the whole challenge, and getting home a day earlier, saving a vacation day at work and keeping wives happy will help us get to another event in the future.

    Coulda, Woulda, Shooulda’s:
    If we were to do the 2021 Mammoth I would make a few changes. I think as a team, we could both run lightweight scoped AR-15’s with 80rds each of 77gr match ammo with 65rds of 9mm each. For shelter, if it’s going to be as warm as it was in 2020 I’d do the same tarp, bivy, woobie on an air pad like I did in 2020. If it were going to be colder or rainy, I’d consider doing a free standing tent instead of a tarp.

    I spent a lot of time trying to figure out what pack would hold a rifle well and my gear. This was a part of the challenge for me that was very unique. In my life, when I’ve been outdoors with a pack and a rifle it was never a consideration to have the weapon stowed away. I settled on a 5# Mystery Ranch Selway 60L and I’m happy with how it performed. If I were to go back, knowing what I know now, I would have less to haul and would probably take a smaller & lighter pack.

    The change in rifle, reduced amount and lighter weight of ammo, possibly a smaller backpack, removing the hammock, adding a couple meal bars, and adding more socks alone would save me around 10#’s. For an event like this, I would make those compromises and more.

    Overall, we outshot and out rucked some people and other people outshot and out rucked us. It was a great experience and I’m better at all the things I like to do because of it. Mammoth is a unique challenge and on the way to the event we were both in agreement that the real benefit of doing this event was the preparation. We both grew as shooters, outdoorsman, and hikers because of this event. I’m glad I did it, and I can say that when I turned 40 I was at an sniper contest with international competitors rucking away.
     
    Last edited:

    teddy12b

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    You did not say what pace you had to keep to stay in the event. That's important.

    Excellent point!

    For the mammoth sniper challenge in the tough man and regular division you have to ruck at a pace of 16 minutes per mile or less or you are disqualified and out of the competition. You can continue to shoot and get points for fun, but you're out of the rucking competition.

    This is a rucking competition with shooting stages, not a shooting competition with rucks between the stages.
     

    teddy12b

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    This is 2.5 days of food the the event:
    OGm28Ju.jpg


    First aid kit for the event, keep in mind this wasn't a wilderness excursion it was hosted on an active military base:
    j7mCd8S.jpg


    Everything packed up and ready to go:
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    Opening morning briefing to all competitors:
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    Afer shooting a stage and waiting for the next ruck:
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    7ZkM4o7.jpg

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    jXA6HwH.jpg


    Rucking away:
    yIqkCE1.jpg


    Turning 40 at mammoth and putting a candle in a snickers as a birthday cake was my treat at the end of the first day:
    eVYknSI.jpg
     
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