The Proving Grounds-Texas

Let me open up by saying I have assisted at three TPG events prior to this match and have been working with Sarah for a long time now. 

 

Photo credit- Steve Malone

The Proving Grounds competitions consist of 6-8 stages, four day and 2-4 night stages. The night stages are done Friday night and the day are Saturday. It is a fitness and marksmanship event with rifles and pistols

Equipment used
Rifle– Knight’s Armament Company SR-15 KS-2 with Nightforce ATACR 1-8, Modlite OKW and 5.56 QDC/PRT suppressor
Pistol– Glock 19X with Holosun and X300T-Turbo in Safariland holster
Arbor Arms SALT belt

 

Photo credit Steve Malone

I flew to Texas and met up with Sarah at The Ranch in Dilley to set up what I refer to as a double header with Quantified Performance. On Friday a couple of us ran all the day stages before meeting up with all the other Athletes to shoot the night stages.

Stage 1(night) Carnival.
This stage was pistol only and consisted of two plate racks, a Texas Star, two poppers and other plates for 24 hits. There was no movement and straight forward white light pistol stage.
I took a stage win in my Division with a time of 45.18

Stage 2 (N) Single Shot
This stage was pistol and rifle with a plate rack and Three small poppers at 15 – 20 yards followed by rifle Hits at 80 yards. This was done standing then a barricade. 
I took a Division stage win with a time of 43.73

Stage 3 Double Trouble (N)
This stage was pistol and rifle but had a bit of movement. Two pistol positions on two targets then four rifle targets at about 80 yards.
I was second with a time of 54.99

Stage 4 (N) Run Away.
This was a mostly a rifle stage at 50 yards. It was 6 positions and six target sets with a pistol shot to stop time. I took third with a time of 94.89

I was leading the Division once the night stages finished Friday night. While this felt nice, you may have picked up on a trend. The more movement the worse my score.
The rest of the Athletes shot the following stages on Saturday, but I shot them along with Clement Ho on Friday before the night stages.

Stage 5 Ball and Chain
This stage was rifle and pistol. You started blindfolded, zip strips in wrists, tied to a concrete block.
On the beep, break the zip strips, remove blindfold and carry block to your firearms, load and engage targets from three positions before running 80 yards and shooting pistol and rifle in another bay, with your ball and chain tagging along. You then ran back to first bay and shot a pistol target to stop time.
I got 4th in this stage.

Stage 6 Highway to Hell
This stage was a lot of fun. It opened up with pistol shots and dragging a sled with two full sandbags. The drag was about 100 yards long with pistol targets spread out on both sides.
Then you climbed a small hill and engaged rifles targets from 5 to 25 yards. You then ran to a barrel and shot more rifle targets at 100 yards. Then you engaged rifle targets while moving down range to a 150lbs dummy. After dragging the dummy, engage two more rifle targets at 250 yards
Then you went back the same way you came.
I got 7th on this stage with a time of 551 seconds.

 

Photo Credit – Steve Malone

After this stage I was smoked. Not so much that I couldn’t recover but definitely beyond high performance

Stage 7 Football
This stage was aggravating. It was the same set up as a Quantified match with addition of a 100-yard sprint.
I had trouble getting hits since I didn’t game it with 77 grain.
I got 9th place on this stage. #sadpanda

Stage 8 Fast and Furious
This stage was pistol only and required a lot of running. Shooting was fine but I was smoked at half way. I ground through slowly and finally got done.
I did manage to get 8th.

Stand by for part 2 in a few days.