Zombie Apocalypse Run and Shoot, Buckholts, TX Feb. 23, 2013

henschman · Dec 10, 2012

http://battleroadusa.com/

The course will have 4 pistol stations and 3 rifle stations. Pistol stages will be from "brain breath distance" to 30 yards, and rifles will be from 50 to 400. The course will be approximately 2.5 to 3.5 miles long, and you will have to carry your rifle, pistol, ammo, water, and all other gear with you the whole way. There will be plenty of obstacles along the course to help get the blood pumping. If you shoot the course with no misses, you would need a minimum round count of 177 handgun rounds and 150 rifle rounds. Yes, that is a lot of ammo to carry... it is set up that way on purpose!

More info can be found on the above-linked website. Check out the detailed course of fire and BattleRoad's blog entries for more details.

Buckholts, TX (north of Austin) is a bit of a drive from Oklahoma, but this shoot will be completely worth it. I will be one of the RSOs and running as well. I did one of these "Run n' Guns" in Pecos, TX back in October, and it was an absolute blast. It is a real test of yourself and your equipment. It would be great to see some fellow Oklahoma boys down there representing!

jtischauser · Dec 10, 2012

Sounds awesome! Thanks for posting.

Corey · Dec 10, 2012

Sounds great I may need to add a bike rack to my back pack while I shoot the stages lol

larry lebeau · Dec 10, 2012

HOLLLLY COW... Will the rifle always be slung or can you use a gunslinger pac to haul all yer stuff ????

henschman · Dec 10, 2012

If you want to carry it for 3.5 miles, climb through tunnels, low crawl under wire, and over obstacles with it, then you can bring whatever equipment you want. This is true field-style shooting.

JamesB74 · Dec 10, 2012

I'm definitely going to have to see if my fat ass can do this.

Sent from my island villa by carrier pigeon.

jtischauser · Dec 10, 2012

get us some video. i want to watch the mayhem!

henschman · Dec 11, 2012

Will do!

henschman · Dec 18, 2012

Oh snap, the GF just won one of those waterproof, shock proof cameras with a helmet mount in a Christmas giveaway at work...

larry lebeau · Dec 24, 2012

Can you recommend a hotel ? I figure you cannot [walk] the stages but can you get there a day before to get my bearings ?

kdf9511 · Dec 24, 2012

This one sound like a lot of fun.

henschman · Jan 16, 2013

larry lebeau said:
Can you recommend a hotel ? I figure you cannot [walk] the stages but can you get there a day before to get my bearings ?

I don't know about hotels... I've never been there myself. I would just search for "lodging near buckholts, tx" on google for starters. Also, camping is allowed at the range, if you want to "rough it." That is where I plan on staying. I know all of us who are RSOing are going to be there a day early, on the 22nd... that's when we will run the course, so there will definitely be people there. As to whether you can show up early as well, I can't imagine there being a problem with you coming and hanging out at the start/finish line with all the other guys who will surely be hanging around there, but to be sure I would just contact the range and ask. Their contact info is on their website.

henschman · Jan 16, 2013

Due to the ammo crisis, Battle Road has lowered the round count for this event. They recently posted this on their website:

The King of the United States of America has stated he intends to implement new gun control measures upon the subjects of this great nation. This has led to an outrageous increase in ammunition prices.

We at Battle Road USA don't want people going through a large amount of their ammunition for this run. We are changing the ammunition count to 30 rounds of Rifle ammunition and 50 rounds of handgun ammunition . The distance of the course will remain approximately 3 miles long and the obstacles will stay the same.

Let's not allow the anti-gunners to keep us home and off the range, that's exactly what they want. Please help spread the word about the Zombie Run and together we can pack the house with good like minded people. This would be a great time to network, talk about guns, and discuss this King of ours.

henschman · Jan 28, 2013

They tweaked the rules just a little bit more, and created 2 classes... "Combat ready," for those who want the original high round count, and "target," for the low round count:

The King of the United States of America has stated he intends to implement new gun control measures upon the subjects of this great nation. This has led to an outrageous increase in ammunition prices.

We at Battle Road USA don't want people going through a large amount of their ammunition for this run. We will now have two divisions for the run. There will be a "Target Division" and a "Combat Ready Division".

The Target Division will have a low round count. The participant will only have to hit each target one time in order to move to the next target. This will keep the round count at no more than 30 rounds of Rifle ammunition and no more than 50 rounds of handgun ammunition . The distance of the course will remain approximately 3 miles long and the obstacles will stay the same.

For those who may have some extra ammo laying around and want a little more of the Bug Out experience, we have created the Combat Ready Division. This division will operate by the original course of fire and with the original high ammunition count .

Let's not allow the anti-gunners to keep us home and off the range, that's exactly what they want. Please help spread the word about the Zombie Run and together we can pack the house with good like minded people. This would be a great time to network, talk about guns, and discuss this King of ours.

henschman · Mar 4, 2013

As requested, videos of the carnage can be found on Battle Road's website here: http://www.battleroadusa.com/zombie-aar.html

FYI, they are doing another one of these on October 12!

jtischauser · Mar 4, 2013

Looks interesting to say the least. I see on the AR15.com thread that they are doing one near lake Thunderbird in July?

I don't quite understand the scoring or timing. Do you get timed for the run and the shooting. Do they stop the time for the stage briefing and the unload and load? Looks like a lot of wasted time in there.

henschman · Mar 5, 2013

Yes, I am organizing the Thunderbird Run n' Gun. It will be on July 13 at the Thunderbird Range. I will post all the details in a new thread when they are finalized.

It is a biathlon, not a multi-gun competition, so it is definitely a lot different than the types of events most of you guys are used to. Basically it is a trail run with several shooting stations along the way, all of which can safely be hot at the same time. You have to carry all your gear for the whole course with you. A runner is turned loose from the start line every 5 minutes. Your run time is calculated by how long it takes you to get from the start line back to the finish line, minus any wait time. When you get to a shooting stage, you must first show a RO a clear rifle. If someone else is currently on the stage, you start your stopwatch to record your wait time. When it is your turn, you give the RO your wait time, you get a quick brief of the COF for that stage (which is done on your run time -- it applies the same to everybody, so it works out), and you are given the "fire" command, which is when your shoot time begins for that stage. You have to load your rifle on the clock. Handguns may be carried loaded as long as they stay secured in a holster when you aren't on a shooting stage. Your time stops when you complete the stage. You get a zero for the stage if you time out or run out of ammo. You unload on your run time, rather than on your shooting time, and must show the RO a clear rifle before continuing on down the trail.

The competitors are given a percentile score based on their run time, with the fastest being 100. Everyone is also given a percentile score for their shooting time on each stage. Your shooting score is the average of all your percentile scores on each stage. Your final score is your run percentile score plus your average shooting percentile score. The highest possible score is 200, if you are the fastest runner and have the fastest shoot time on every stage.

It might be a fun change of pace for you who mostly do 3-gun. It will put you a little out of your comfort zone and test your skills in some new ways, yet it will be familiar enough that you will be able to jump right in.

benjamin-benjamin · Mar 5, 2013

maybe i am confused but people have hot pistols at one point of the "run" while other people are currently "further down" the run??

jtischauser · Mar 6, 2013

So was the guy that win this last one a fast runner or fast shooter?

The shooting I saw on the videos looked pretty east so I assume the fast runners are winning. Just trying to figure out if my skill set applies here.

henschman · Mar 6, 2013

The guys who won the Zombie shoot were real fast shooters. You can't place in this kind of competition if you aren't. Like you said, the targets were not hard to hit, so it definitely came down to how fast you could get your hits. The top 3 finishers were pretty quick on the run too... but to put things in perspective, there was a guy who ran the thing MUCH faster than everybody else... no one else cleared the run in anything less than an hour and this guy did it in like 37 minutes... but he only wound up with 4th place because the other guys out-shot him. You definitely don't see marathon runners who aren't shooters show up to these things and kick everybody's ass or anything like that.

We are modelling our COF more after the Pecos Run n' Gun than the Zombie shoot. Pecos was a little more challenging on the shooting, I thought... definitely on the rifle stuff. Maybe part of it was that the competition was a lot more fierce at Pecos. I cleared a lot of the shooting stages in what I thought was a pretty quick time, but I ended up being just a little above average in the rankings. Since it is all about percentile rankings, how big of an impact your superior marksmanship will have on your final score will depend on how MUCH better than everybody else your shooting is.

maybe i am confused but people have hot pistols at one point of the "run" while other people are currently "further down" the run??

Yes, it is kind of a big boy rule. Loaded pistols have to stay holstered until you get the "fire" command on a stage. Kind of like in real life when people are carrying loaded pistols around each other in public, and nobody gets shot. The rule originated from the Pecos Run n' Gun, where loaded pistols are allowed in case you run into snakes out in the desert. They haven't had any issues with it for 11 years.