"Desert Brutality 2020" Competition AAR

American Revival Apparel Company

Herk

Hunter
Mar 16, 2017
86
89
113
Colorado
Zip code
80537
Who: 208 shooters (excluding DQs), Andrew and myself included.
What: 2-Gun ACM
Where: The Compass Training Center, Chino Valley, Arizona
When: Thursday & Friday, Jan 30 & 31, 2020; 8:30am start - 4pm finish. Andrew shot the following two days as well, but I only spectated.
Conditions: Chilly mornings (about 20-25 degrees) but temps climbed into the 60s in the afternoons and as soon as sunlight started hitting us it began warming up. Light clouds but mostly sunny both days. No precipitation. Wind picked up both afternoons.
Division: Retro Light
Gear: Heat costume, featuring “Bank Robber” CAR-15 build, Heat Vest made from Condor MOLLE vest and Velcro One Wrap material, Kareen Hi-Power, Bravo Concealment IWB holster, more details below.

Outcome: 56/208 overall w/ 45.59% of winner’s score; 8/45 in Retro Light division w/ 61.11% of division winner’s score. 60 sec penalties but these were eliminated with the Russian Roulette Challenge (see below).

Preface:

2GACM is the style of competition shooting that I wished for for years. I had participated in this style of shooting, in a sense, with two groups of friends over the years. One was in NE Wyoming when I lived there (the Sundance Shoot, which is still extant, as far as I know) and another was in Northern Colorado in the form of the Second Saturday Shooter’s Society. Both of these were very informal, private ‘competitions’ that involved shooting pistols and carbines mainly, though sometimes other guns were introduced to shake things up. Physical challenges were the norm as were unusual ‘curve balls’ to get you thinking. For many years I had the impression that these two venues, both “managed” by groups of my close friends, were anomalies, and would never find mainstream acceptance. What caught my attention when InRange TV started showing a similar style of match in their online vids was that I wasn’t alone in my desire for this kind of shooting and that, apparently, it could be done in an “official” way with a paying audience on a respectable, real shooting range. This gave me hope that I’d live to see the kind of shooting competition that truly spoke to me become more mainstream.

InRange runs the Two Gun Action Challenge Match (2GACM) in Arizona and posts videos from the match on several distribution platforms online (most notoriously, perhaps, being Pornhub, but that’s another story). By the time I’d learned of their match I had moved to a place in Colorado where the most accessible types of matches were 3-Gun and IPSC-style pistol matches and I’d returned to shooting these. This style of shooting is a good way to hone skills, but never totally scratched the itch that I’ve always had where shooting is concerned. I wanted to check out 2GACM but it seemed like quite an ordeal to travel all the way to Arizona just to do a day of shooting, no matter how cool it might have been.

While at a local WCFW 3-Gun match in 2019 I met Andrew and he mentioned that he’d gone to Desert Brutality 2019 and expressed interest in going again in 2020. I mentioned that I wanted to go to DB2020 as well and he said that we should consider going together. As simple as that, we had the basis for a plan to attend DB2020 together.

Gear

As soon as I built my CAR15 clone I instantly thought of the movie “Heat” thanks to the iconic bank robbery scene where Robert DeNiro and Val Kilmer, armed with similar carbines, shoot it out with the police. I had watched videos from previous Desert Brutality matches where many (though far from all) competitors decided to dress up in costume for the event. This really doesn’t help the shooter do better (indeed, it can be a struggle to create a costume that doesn’t actually hold the shooter back) but the atmosphere of the Desert Brutality match is truly one of “for the fun of it”. I’ve been to lots of 3-Gun and pistol matches where people will claim that they’re there primarily to have fun and, honestly, I believe them when they say that. I also show up to have fun but it’s very rare that someone will embrace the fun aspect at a “normal” match to the point where they show up in a costume that, while memorable and fun to shoot in, significantly hampers their ability to turn in a good score. I also think that the average shooting match crowd would consider someone weird for showing up in a costume, rather than being someone embracing the fun atmosphere. Desert Brutality encourages costumes (though a majority of attendees don’t wear one) and this adds to the unique ambiance of the event.

I hoped to create a costume that would be fun and cool (both to me and to others) that would also not be a huge pain to wear for the event. Many of the costumes at previous Desert Brutality events were military-themed. While I appreciate the effort that is put into acquiring and using these historical uniforms, I wanted to do something that would stand out a little more from the camo and web-gear crowd. Between the "Heat" aesthetic of the CAR15 clone and the relative simplicity of the costume from that movie, I decided to head on down to the local thrift store and see what kind of suits they had on the rack. When I found a black, double-breasted suit that was just a little oversized (i.e.: exactly what I had in mind) I decided that this was meant to be. I picked up a white dress shirt at the same store (total for the suit and shirt was less than $25). I found a pair of sunglasses and leather gloves on Amazon that looked reasonably like the ones that DeNiro wore in Heat as well as a cheap black necktie. A black duffle bag nearly completed the ensemble but I suspected that, based on vids from previous InRange matches, there would be stages that would require crawling through tight confines or sitting in vehicles, both of which would be either frustrating or even literally impossible while carrying a duffel bag. So as to stay in character without the duffel bag, I also bought a lightweight ninja mask like the ones worn by the bank robbers in the bank heist scene before they load up their duffle bags with stolen cash.

The final piece of the costume was the iconic vest worn by the robbers beneath their suit jackets during the scene. I looked online for one that I could buy and found a place that offered a reproduction of the vest but was out of stock. I started looking into recreating the vest with 90 degree MOLLE pouches of some kind and quickly realized that the cost of this vest (which I'd likely not use again) was going to climb beyond that which I was willing to casually pay for a few laughs. At some point the idea came to me to make the skeletonized "pouches" out of Velcro One Wrap material, which is a strip of webbing about 1.5" wide that has loop one one side and hook on the other. This could easily be threaded through the loops of webbing on a MOLLE vest in any configuration and would be very cheap to do. A 50' roll of One Wrap cost about $15 and I needed only a fraction of it for this project. The host vest wound up being a black Condor MOLLE vest that was low cost and of surprisingly good quality.

The sling I wound up using was not technically correct for the costume; in the movie the robbers used bungee cords as ersatz slings which allowed them to keep their rifles concealed beneath their suit jackets while entering and leaving the bank. I was concerned about the stage designs at Desert Brutality requiring abandoning the rifle, shooting from the non-dominant side, or some other thing that this sort of sling setup would be wholly unsuited for. I had a 1980's vintage camcorder sling lying around that I've had for years that has "RCA" in red letters on it. Since I was shooting in "Retro" division at the match, I thought it was appropriate that I should have a fun nod to something "retro" if I was going to deviate from the costume for practical reasons. I attached paracord to each end of the RCA sling and looped one end through the front sight tower. The other end was secured to the buttstock with an old carabiner, which in turn was held on with a strip of Velcro One Wrap.

I think I spent less than $100 on the costume and that most of it I'll be able to use again in the future or at least donate to a clothing drive in good enough shape for someone else to get some use out of.

The Trip Down:

Andrew rented a Volkswagen Atlas for the drive down which had ample room for the two of us and our gear (pretty nice ride too, BTW). The drive was mostly uneventful except for me missing the turnoff onto Highway 40 in Albuquerque which resulted in us taking Highway 60 instead. Fortunately, this really didn’t add much time to the trip and it gave us a very scenic drive through western New Mexico and eastern Arizona’s mountains. This route rather reminded me of the Black Hills in northwestern Wyoming, nearby where I used to live. We arrived in Prescott, AZ in the afternoon and we checked into the hotel with lots of time to get everything ready for the next day.

Day 1

We arrived at the range already wearing our suits (coincidentally, Andrew also picked out a costume that included a suit, leading multiple people to ask us if we were doing a group costume throughout the weekend). I put on the Heat vest beneath my jacket and began wandering around to see who else was in my squad. I was almost instantly greeted with the two most common reactions to my attire that I would get throughout the weekend: 1) a bewildered stare or 2) a face brightening with recognition and delight and an excited finger pointed in my direction, often accompanied by a positive exclamation. The former group also frequently informed me of a video game called "Payday", which seems to be modeled loosely on Heat, and asked if I was paying homage to that game. I took this as an opportunity to inform the up-and-coming generation of shooters at the match about a movie that was made back when some of what came out of Hollywood was actually worth watching.

I quickly realized that this match wouldn't be the normal 3-Gun scene in almost any respect; first, the number of people that had traveled from Europe was surprising: on our squad there was a guy from Wales and we also found out that there was another guy who had made the voyage from Germany to participate. Desert Brutality is, of course, sponsored by Varusteleka of Finland who sent four of their staff over to participate in the match, though they didn't show up until Friday afternoon and shot on Saturday and Sunday.

There was also a remarkable contingent of "Guntubers" present, including Bloke on the Range (all the way from Switzerland), Kit Badger, Sinistral Rifleman, and, of course, InRange TV's Ian and Karl. I suppose that none of these guys are very famous outside of the shooting world but since I watch all of them online regularly, I thought it was pretty cool to get to talk to them. I was especially honored that Ian came up to me and asked if he could take my photo in my costume to put up on Facebook and Instagram. Iain Harrison, winner of season 1 of Top Shot and now at Recoil magazine would also show up (dressed as Jesus from “The Big Lebowski”, no less) but I didn't get a chance to talk to him.

All these minor celebrities aside, I also enjoyed talking to just ordinary guys like me who had shown up to take part in this unique event. I found everyone very easy to get along with and nobody was taking themselves too seriously.

The variety of guns was also staggering; while most 3-Gun competitions feature a veritable sea of variations on the AR15 and CZ P-01 or 2011, the first two days of Desert Brutality 2020 were devoted to the two Classic divisions (Auto and Manual), the two Retro divisions (Light and Heavy), and Kalashnikov division. While there was no shortage of AR15s at this match (indeed, Andrew and I both shot them) there was a bunch of stuff that you'd never see at a 3-Gun or "ordinary" carbine match: there was plenty of M1 Garands, a couple of M1 Carbines, several FALs, at least one G3 clone, a Walther G43 (the third one I've ever seen in my life) and an original, transferrable Stg. 44! The Classic Manual division brought in a bunch of bolt-action military rifles, including Mausers, Lee-Enfields, and Mosin-Nagants. Karl shot a Winchester 1873 lever action in .45 Colt, the only lever action in the competition, to my knowledge.

Pistols ran the gamut from my Hi Power (many other competitors also shot Hi Powers), Andrew's S&W 59, a number of Walther P-38s and P-1s, 1911s, Beretta 92s, SIG P226s, a surprising number of HK P7s, an HK VP70, and (I'm told) even a revolver of some sort. The AK division could use more modern pistols (Retro was 1946-1986, Classic was pre-1946, and Kalashnikov was any “true” AK that didn’t fit into Retro, paired with any iron-sighted handgun in a service cartridge) and so those carried in that division were a little more what you'd expect at a 3-Gun match in Tactical Optics or Limited divisions. Even then, the holster choices were much more reserved than normal for the competition world. No race holsters were worn, as the physical challenges of this match posed too much risk of losing the pistol in such a rig and many competitors even wore military flap holsters to better protect and retain their pistols.

Even clothing was different at this event: while camouflage clothing is frowned at to varying degrees at many shooting competitions, it was very much embraced at this one. Some people turned it into a costume (more on that in a minute) but others just wore it as a practical type of clothing for a combination of physical activity and shooting.

The costumes here were worth attending just to see: an entire squad had dressed up like US troops from Operation Just Cause, ca. 1983, complete with ALICE gear, Kevlar helmets, and M16A1 or M16A2 clones. I saw WWII-era uniforms from Germany, USA, UK, Portugal, and Belgium as well as Ian's WWII French Resistance costume. The guy who flew in from Germany dressed in Cold War era Bundeswehr feldgrau and a few others dressed in Flecktarn. Swiss uniforms from various eras were in evidence as well as a guy dressed as a British soldier from the Falklands era (I was told that this same guy dressed in his issued kit from Desert Storm the year prior). One guy made it really hard on himself by dressing as one of the SAS troops that stormed the Iranian embassy in London in 1980. This meant that he was not only running an MP5 clone (the only PCC at the match that I know of, unless you count Karl's 1873 Winchester) but also dressed totally in black in the Arizona desert... including a gas mask. There were other military uniforms present but those are the ones that I can recall.

As for the non-military/paramilitary costumes, Andrew and I were almost unique for competing in suits (Kit Badger wore one as well, saying that it was one of the few costume ideas that he hadn't done at a competition yet) but these were rather tame compared to others. Karl had a full cowboy getup, one guy dressed up like Super Mario, one guy was an Imperial Guardsman from Warhammer 40,000 (if you know what that is then you and 14 year-old me might get along), and another had a French GIGN uniform (complete with an HK 416 clone)... but with a "furry" bunny mask/helmet/thing. I must be getting old because I don't get it...

After signing in, Andrew and I went to our first stage.

First Stage, Day 1, “Stage 2: Kasarda Drill +P"

This drill had the shooter begin in a hula hoop with their rifle slung in Condition 3 and their pistol holstered with a round chambered, safety on or decocked as appropriate for the pistol’s trigger action. On signal, the shooter would run 50 yards downrange to a shooting area where they'd draw their pistol and shoot three round steel targets with two shots, no double-taps. This meant that "sweeps" of 1-2-3-1-2-3 were to be used to maximize target transitions. Once the targets were each hit twice, the pistol was abandoned in a bucket, safety on, and the shooter then picked up a 62lbs kettlebell and ran it back uprange to the start position. He would then deposit the kettlebell in a hula hoop on the ground, unsling his rifle, and chamber a round. The cycle that would then begin would be to shoot an IPSC-sized steel downrange (it was perhaps 100 yards from the hula hoop), place the rifle on safe, set it on the ground, pick up the kettlebell, swing-throw the kettlebell as far downrange as possible (a two-handed throw, starting between the legs and launching directly forwards was mandated since other methods had resulted in at least one shoulder injury at a previous match), recover the grounded rifle, run to the spot where the kettlebell had landed, and then start the process anew. Every 10 yards was a 2x2 piece of wood lying across the path of the shooter's advance. A 15 second bonus was awarded for every strip of wood that was cleared, as long as the points were "banked" by making the hit on target after the throw. Once the piece of wood at 50 yards was cleared, the next hit on target would end the stage.

This was the first stage of the match and so I had the normal “first stage jitters” combined with anxiety that I haven't felt for any reason for a very long time. I was nervous that I'd do poorly with everyone watching and this is a very intimidating and exhausting drill at the best of times. After the start signal I felt like I was running at less than 100% speed (as I often do at matches) but I made my pistol hits in very short order as they weren't challenging shots; I actually shot a little slow, expecting the challenge to be greater and not wanting to miss. My kettlebell at home is only 35lbs so I was caught off guard at how heavy the 62lbs model was but I carried it suitcase-style to the start box with not too much extra effort. My next mistake was to drop the KB outside of the hula hoop, so I had to bend back down and move it a foot back into the hoop after being yelled at by the RO. The throwing/moving/shooting cycle is a bit of a blur but I know I missed more than I should have and it felt like I wasn't throwing the KB very far. I wish I had video to look back at and compare my performance to what others accomplished in this regard. Finally, I lost track of where I was at towards the end and did a time-consuming full throw of the KB when I only needed to move it a couple feet forwards to clear the final stick. I broke my last shot less than a second before the par time beep and that shot sailed over the top of the target downrange, meaning that I got only four out of five 15 second bonuses taken off of my 180 par time.

I decided beforehand to carry my duffel bag on this stage and that really didn't help my performance. I was also missing too much, which I attribute to First Stage Jitters. Finally, I was practicing at home with a KB that was far lighter than this one, meaning that I was in for a nasty surprise when I picked it up and also every time I threw it.

Time: 180-60 (bonuses) = 120, Overall 91/208 (16.78%), Division 26/45 (43.46%), no penalties.

Second Stage, Day 1, “Stage 3: Riot Control"

On this stage the shooter began standing in a hula hoop, holding their pistol in one hand, loaded and ready. The shooter's other hand held a particle board shield with two metal handles and a vision port cut into it. There was an array of five mini autopoppers in front of the shooter, perhaps ten yards away. The shooter was to engage the five poppers with one hit each while holding the shield in one hand and looking through the port in the shield. Once all poppers were hit once each, the pistol was to be safely abandoned in a bucket and the shield abandoned on the ground in such a way that it wasn't damaged by dropping (it was emphasized that damaging the shield significantly, even by accident, would be a match DQ). The shooter would then run to a tractor tire that was lying on the ground, perhaps 50 yards away while unslinging their rifle which they'd been carrying the whole time in Condition 3. Once at the tire the shooter would double-tap two steel IPSC targets that were downrange about 100 yards, spaced about 75 yards apart. The shooter had to touch the lying tire with their rifle or their hand while shooting. The shooter would then run about 20 yards to the left and shoot through the middle of a standing (i.e.: as if it were to be rolled) tire of similar size. The muzzle was not allowed to poke through the tire at all. The two targets were double tapped from this position and then the shooter would run to a similarly configured tire about 20 yards to the front and right of the previous position and repeat the engagement. Finally, the shooter would run about another 20 yards to a stack of similarly-sized tires with a Brownells banner on it and repeat the engagement from there.

I walked up to this stage thinking that it would be a cold day in hell before I'd fail to clean five mini poppers from ten yards within a 15 round magazine, one hand holding a shield be damned. This hubris caught up with me and I found it really tough to get my hits with my right eye obscured by the small port of the shield and my hand going "gangster style" to bring the sights in line with my vision. I shot to slide lock without even understanding why I was missing and chose to set the shield down to reload (one-handed "Instructor Zero bullshit" reloads were expressly forbidden for safety's sake). I only brought two magazines to the line, thinking that I wouldn't even need the second one so it's a good thing that I figured out my hold by the second mag! I cleared the five targets, though with more shooting than I would have liked or expected.

Flustered by my poor shooting with the pistol, I ran to the first rifle shooting position and cleared the targets, albeit with more misses than I'd have preferred. I then ran to the standing tire and quickly learned why they didn't allow shooters to stick their muzzle through the hole in the tire: by forcing shooters to stand back from the tire, the huge, hollow rubber surface reflected a substantial amount of the sound from the muzzle back at the shooter and also created an echoy, hollow "twang" noise, all of which was very disorienting and distracting. This caused me to lose focus and miss quite a bit and I eventually needed a reload at one of these tires. I made it through the third position and got to the fourth and ran into another pitfall: I forgot about my sight height over bore and blasted the first two or three shots directly into the top of the stack of tires I was leaning on (this happened to many shooters at the match, I’m told). The RO yelled at me which allowed me to realize my error and alter my position to get my hits before parring out.

I'm pretty sure I'll never encounter this situation again, but now I want to make up this shield prop (perhaps out of cardboard) just so that I can understand what I was doing to miss so much and so badly with the pistol. The physical challenge of this stage was minimal compared to the Kasarda Drill but the shooting was more difficult for sure.

Time: 170.78, Overall 120/208 (42.22%), Division 24/45 (52.32%), no penalties.

Third Stage, Day 1, “Stage 1: Trench Assault"

This stage was in a long (maybe a little more than 100 yards) bay that sloped gently but noticeably uphill as you went downrange. A series of trenches and foxholes were dug into the range, two of them containing standard IPSC targets (the only paper targets of the whole match). Four circular steel targets were arranged roughly in a square pattern downrange, two of them at about 50 yards and the other two at about 75 yards from the start position. A Spinner was located downrange at about 100 yards and a steel tank trap prop was located about 15 yards from the start box.

On start signal, the shooter would run to the tank trap and double tap the four round steel targets with his rifle. There was a large trench about 10 yards away with two paper IPSC targets in it; the shooter could either engage these from the tank trap or on the move towards the trench, but not from inside the trench itself... unless it was engaged with a bayonet. Yes, this match had rules for engaging targets with bayonets and I personally witnessed a number of people actually do it! This was actually a legitimate move for shooters in the Classic divisions, particularly Classic Manual, who had lower capacity rifles and slower reloads. That aside, most shooters engaged the paper IPSCs with bullets, not blades.

The shooter was then required to enter the first large trench and shoot the steel targets again from between a pair of wooden stakes driven into the ground at the edge of the trench. Another trench, similar in size and layout was another ten or so yards downrange. Again, this trench contained two paper IPSC targets which could be shot from the first trench, on the move, or even bayoneted. Upon engaging these two targets, the rifle portion of the stage was complete and the shooter was required to unload and show the RO a clear chamber.

The shooter was then required to enter the second trench and draw his pistol. He then shot from a similar position to the first trench (i.e.: marked with wooden stakes) at the nearest of the four round steel targets. Once two hits were scored on the steel, the shooter could then leave the trench with a slung rifle and pistol in hand and move to a foxhole right next to the target that was just engaged about 15 yards away. Each of the four steel had a foxhole near it and from each one the shooter was to double-tap the closest round steel with his pistol before moving on to the next foxhole.

The final round steel was located next to a larger trench, similar to the first two, that was about ten yards away from an MGM Spinner target. The trench was entered and the Spinner rotated with the pistol, after which the stage was complete.

This was one of the more fun stages to me and I elected to shoot the paper in the first two trenches on the move. I don't recall aiming at the paper and shot them all from the hip since I was so close. The trenches themselves served as a great backstop to this kind of shooting, making it safer to do than on a normal flat, hard-packed dirt range. The rifle shots on steel were not hard but I missed a little because I was rushing. The pistol shots were very easy and I missed very little, if at all. Finally, the Spinner target, while never really easy, seemed like it would be quite doable to me, as I've shot many Spinners in 3-Gun at similar ranges with the exact ammo that I was using at this match. I managed to get the Spinner past horizontal and almost even turned it, but wound up expending all my ammo without succeeding. This was my only penalty of the match and I later learned that only 18 out of 208 shooters in all of DB2020 were able to rotate the spinner. This is far below average and there were many theories as to why this might be. Several shooters with 15-shot 9mm pistols did spin it successfully so it was doable but most of us just couldn't make it happen.

Time: 240 (with penalties), Overall 32/208 (33.72%), Division 30/45 (41.94%), 60 sec penalties.

With that stage done, the first day of Desert Brutality 2020 was complete.

Day 2

Only three stages were shot per day by all squads. The bays that were used for one stage on the first day were used for a totally different stage on day 2. I'd never seen a match run like that so I was curious to see how well it would work out.

First Stage, Day 2, “Stage 5: Center Axis Relock"

This stage was run in the same bay as the Kasarda Drill. The stage actually began in a wash slightly behind the bay proper with the shooter standing in a hula hoop start box, rifle in condition 3, slung or in hand, shooter's choice. The pistol was not used on this stage so it was not loaded however shooters had the option of seating an empty mag into their pistol to keep sand out of the magazine well and the pistol's internals overall (I was carrying IWB beneath a suit jacket and didn’t think I’d need the extra protection from sand).

On the start signal, the shooter would run forwards about 10 yards to a steel tank trap prop and crawl underneath it. The tank trap was quite low to the ground and some of the larger shooters had difficulty fitting underneath it. That said, many shooters were wearing bulky vintage web gear with butt packs, body armor, and other items and they could generally fit under the trap quite well. After crawling under the tank trap, the shooter would get up and run forward another 15-20 yards to another tank trap and crawl under it. The shooter would then get up and scramble up out of the wash and into the bay where they would find a hula hoop shooting position. From this position the shooter had to neutralize five mini autopoppers before they could move on. The position was freestyle but most shooters chose to shoot from prone.

The shooter would then get up and run to the first traffic cone in an Iron Cross drill. The Iron Cross is a relatively popular drill to shoot in the training world where five cones or other markers are placed in a cross pattern. The shooter moves in the following pattern, shooting a target (or, in the case of this particular stage, double-tapping two steel IPSC targets) from each position: rear, middle, left, middle, right, middle, and finally front, the last hit ending the drill.

I suspected, based on my viewings of footage from previous Desert Brutality matches, that there would be a requirement to crawl under stuff at this match and this stage proved my suspicions correct. I had committed to carrying my duffle bag as part of my costume as long as it wasn't such a liability that it would make me hate my life and totally ruin my score. This stage was the only one at DB2020 that I felt met this criteria and so I put on my ninja mask instead, rationalizing that if I didn't have the bag of cash yet that I should have the mask on as part of my costume. Additionally, I would remove my sunglasses when wearing the mask and put on clear eyepro instead to stay more true to the costume. I had purchased a bottle of anti-fog spray for my safety glasses but it was ridiculously tiny and I managed to lose it somewhere in my house before ever getting to try it out. Wearing the mask and glasses together resulted in the glasses fogging up quite a bit and I found the fogging to be a much greater (or at least more apparent) burden than carrying around that duffel bag on the rest of the stages.

I crawled under the tank traps in a way that seemed pretty fast and shot the autopoppers from prone. The fogged glasses made shooting such small targets at about 50 yards quite challenging with iron sights but I did hit them all eventually. I also got an odd dead-trigger malfunction whose source I'm still unsure of; I just racked the action on my CAR-15 and the next trigger pull resulted in a bang. The Iron Cross portion of the stage went well, though I missed more shots than I felt like I should have. I needed to reload at one point (this stage's round count was 33 shots minimum, which meant that all shooters except for those in Armored +P division had a reload as well) which I did flat-footed but otherwise pretty smoothly.

It's interesting to note that my placement in the standings for this stage is not very impressive, but my score, as a percentage of the winner's time (especially in my division) is my second-best of the match.

Another note: Kuan Watson was on my squad and wound up taking first place in Retro Light division. His times were phenomenal up to this point but after this stage he was very obviously limping due to a leg injury. He managed to tear a calf muscle while sprinting up the hill, out of the wash on the first stage of the day. This was sobering to me as I'd forgotten to warm up before this stage like I'd done before the first stage of day 1. Thankfully, I had no injuries or unusual soreness after this stage or even after the whole match.

Time: 134.20, Overall 104/208 (47.26%), Division 21/45 (68.14%), no penalties

Second Stage, Day 2, “Stage 6: Corona Virus Party"

This stage was quite possibly the most fun of the whole match, in my opinion. The shooter started out in a hula hoop, rifle slung in Condition 3 and pistol in carry condition, holstered. The shooter was facing a Mini Mo target from MOA Targets (this company was a sponsor for DB2020 and their owner shot the match) from about 15 yards away. Two railroad ties were lying downrange, one at about 10 yards and the other at 5 yards from the target. On signal, the shooter would draw his pistol and neutralize the Mini Mo. The way this target works is that it has a hinged circular plate in the center of the torso that, when hit, would flap backwards and pop up the target's hinged head plate. The shooter then shoots the head plate, knocking it down. This target worked flawlessly during this match (and has been used in prior Desert Brutalities with great success) and provided a good marksmanship challenge with no reset required.

After shooting the Mini Mo from the hula hoop at 15 yards, freestyle, the shooter would advance to the 10 yard railroad tie and repeat the Mini Mo, this time one-handed. The shooter then advanced to the 5 yard railroad tie and neutralized the Mini Mo again, this time one-handed with their other hand only. Since this was the closest that shooters got to the Mini Mo, most of them elected to shoot with their non-dominant hand for greatest chances of success. Once the Mini Mo was neutralized for the third time, the pistol was abandoned in a bucket.

The shooter would then run to a wooden prop, shaped like a green pickup truck. The prop had three black "X" marks spray painted on it, one on the middle of the tailgate, one under the driver's door, and one over top of the hood. The shooter went to this prop and charged their rifle and had to double-tap a steel IPSC silhouette downrange that had a SAPI plate-shaped hole cut in it, representing armor. If you shot through the hole, you didn't get a hit, just like if you'd hit your opponent's plate. The biggest piece to shoot at was the hips. Once all three positions were shot from, the shooter would move to the left of the truck prop to a rectangular barricade where they were required to shoot from one side or the other, shooter's choice. The shooter would then unload and show clear to the RO before moving farther to the left where there was a crude staircase built out of more railroad ties. The stairs would allow the shooter to get more than halfway up the side of a Conex box, which they would then climb on top of. Once on the Conex, the shooter could reload and then shoot through another wooden prop with a "T"-shaped hole cut in it at two steel IPSC targets downrange that were about 75 yards apart from one-another which forced the shooter to shift their shooting position fairly radically to move from target to target. Additionally, the shooter needed to hit each target four times, alternating back and forth between the two targets; multiple hits on a single target in a row did not count.

This stage was on the same very large bay as the stage with the shield from the day before, which I didn't do well on. I had some trepidation about shooting what appeared to be very easy pistol shots when I'd done so poorly on exactly that 24 hours earlier. I even considered not wearing my somewhat bulky leather gloves to get greater dexterity with the pistol shots but in the end I decided to honor the costume I was wearing and to let the chips fall where they may.

Before I started, someone asked the RO who had taken the least number of shots on the Mini Mo. The RO replied that he'd seen two different people clear the pistol portion of the stage with eight shots to get all six hits. On the start signal I got two hits two-handed, then missed once on the right-handed position before clearing it. I ran to the final pistol position and made my first hit on the heart box, left-handed, and then I clearly remember thinking that if I made the next shot I would have the fewest misses of anyone on the Mini Mo at DB2020. Of course, since I was thinking about that, I wasn't thinking about making a proper trigger press and I pulled my second miss of the stage. My third shot from the final position tied me with the other two shooters who cleared the Mini Mo with only two misses.

After abandoning the pistol, I ran to the truck prop and got some fairly fast hits with few misses. I did the same from the rectangular barricade before showing clear and running to the stairs to get on the Conex. I felt like it took more effort to climb up the rest of the way than it should have, but many in my squad later commented that I got up on the Conex quite fast, especially considering that I was carrying that duffel bag. I then had to perform a reload from my Heat vest, which seemed to go slower than any other reload of the match for some reason. After loading I got into position and actually pushed the T prop forward a little. We were warned that we had to stick our muzzles all the way through this prop, since if someone wrecked the prop with muzzle blast that they'd be heavily penalized for it. The trick here was that the prop was not bolted or weighed down and could be pushed around, even knocked off the Conex! If this happened then the shooter would have to unload, climb down, get the prop, and carry it back up to the top of the Conex, which would probably cause them to time out.

I recall getting reasonably good hits with few misses, but as soon as I started shooting from this position I started getting malfunctions; my bolt would cycle back and then come forward and only partially strip a round out of the magazine. Racking the bolt would chamber the round but I got the brilliant idea to try banging the bottom of the magazine on the "ground" (i.e.: top of the Conex) to see if that would dislodge the bolt and clear the malfunction without me having to take my support hand off the rifle. What I actually did was cause a double-feed, which took even more time to clear! After that I went back to racking the charging handle to fix this issue when it cropped up.

All rifle shots were about 150 yards (I think?), almost certainly the farthest shots of the match. Curiously, I had fewer misses on this stage (that I remember) than on many stages with closer targets. Perhaps I was just getting back in the zone at this point and finally remembering my marksmanship fundamentals?

After this stage I unloaded magazine #2, which might have caused the problems I was having, and sprayed some oil into my AR in case the issue was that the bolt had been slowed down too much due to lack of lubrication. I also noted that when I climbed out of my final shooting position that the shoulder strap from the duffle bag was really tangled up around me and that if I'd had to move again, that could have been a liability.

This stage is also the one where I placed highest in the standings for my division, curiously. Perhaps some people in Retro division got intimidated by shooting at farther targets with iron sights? In the overall standings my score isn't bad but it's proportionally much farther down the list. Certainly my quick dispatching of the Mini Mo also improved my placement in the standings.

Time: 148.36, Overall 52/208 (52.35%), Division 7/45 (65.44%), no penalties

Third Stage, Day 2, “Stage 4: Retreat"

This stage was held on the same bay as the "Trench Assault" stage the day before. The shooter started all the way downrange at the berm. The berm was oddly shaped, having a step about halfway along its width on the left side of the bay where it was perhaps 20 yards deeper than on the right side of the bay. This recess contained two steel IPSC targets that were visible from all the way downrange and one smaller hanging steel plate off to the right, against the wall of the recess that ran perpendicular to the usual firing line. On the start signal, the shooter would draw his pistol and double-tap the two steel IPSC targets with it. The shooter would then eject his magazine and fire the chambered round at the target on his right, having only that round to hit the target before being out of ammo. This shot also cleared the pistol, making it more safe to reholster, which the shooter then did.

Behind the shooter was a "rocket launcher" prop; in actuality it was a 120mm cartridge tube, originally meant to hold a single round of ammo for the main gun of an Abrams tank. The prop looked big and intimidating, but was actually quite lightweight, (note: I looked up this tube online while writing this and found a "PA116 Storage Container'' on Sportsman's Guide that looks very similar to the tube used on this stage. Its weight is listed as 20.75lbs on that website, though it seemed lighter than that at the time). The tube also had a lip on each end and in the middle that was quite convenient to grab onto, making it pretty easy to carry securely. The shooter was to pick up this tube and carry it back to the first trench (the one that the spinner was shot from the day before), drop the tube, and enter the trench. From there, the two visible steel IPSC targets were to be engaged with a double tap each with the rifle before recovering the tube and running to the next trench. This was repeated with all three trenches and by the time you were done, you'd run about 100 yards and were making shots at about that distance.

The trick with this whole stage was to avoid "breaking the 180" and pointing your muzzle uprange. Some shooters took the time to unload and show clear between positions so that they could run with the rifle slung (a gun that is verified clear at DB is treated like a stick, with no way to handle it in a way that would get you DQed) but many others found it quite easy to grab the rifle with it pointing backwards so that the muzzle remained downrange while running uprange. The carry handle on my CAR-15 made this task especially easy.

I don't think I missed more than once (if at all) on the pistol targets and managed to reholster quickly too; I was perhaps the only competitor drawing from a concealment holster (again, thanks to my costume) and in addition to fighting a cover garment, I was also hard-pressed to see my holster thanks to the Heat vest I wore beneath the jacket. My extensive practice with this kind of holster must have paid off since I reholstered pretty smoothly and was able to then get moving.

The "rocket launcher" prop was not really heavy or awkward as previously stated and upon reaching each trench I was able to toss it forward a little bit to not only get it downrange a little farther but also to throw it out of my way so I wouldn't trip over it while entering the trench. I would run with the CAR-15's carry handle in my left hand, the muzzle pointing behind me, and the tube in my right. After tossing the tube I would turn into the rifle and grab the pistol grip with my right hand, maintaining the muzzle downrange.

Maybe it was because it was the last stage of the match for me, but I distinctly recall running about halfway through the stage and the words "I don't want to do this anymore" flashed into my mind. I ignored the thought and kept running as fast as I could but it's interesting to note that this occurred to me on the clock. This was the stage where I got the highest percentage of the winner's score, both overall and in my division. I don't think I missed too much here, unlike on many other stages at this match. There was a point where I had to reload while I was shooting from a trench, leaning on the wall of the trench and steadying the rifle on the parapet. I leaned away from the trench's wall to access a magazine from the vest and once I'd reloaded I just started shooting again without rebuilding my steady position. After a few misses I quickly leaned back into the parapet again to get steadier and resumed getting my hits. That's about the only error I remember making on this stage though, which might account for me getting the higher score.

Time: 102.22, Overall 80/208 (54.28%), Division 19/45 (73.05%), no penalties

Optional Stage: “Russian Roulette”

Shooters were given the option of playing “Russian Roulette” with a twist at DB2020. A 6-shot .38 Special revolver and ammo were provided. The staff would load four fired cases and two live rounds into the revolver, spin the cylinder, close it, and set it down on the bench. A shooter could approach, announce their name (so that the score keeper could find them on the tablet and record what happened), and try one trigger pull on the revolver. A ‘click’ meant that one 60 second penalty was removed from the shooter’s score but a ‘bang’ meant that a 60 second penalty was added. I got a click, which removed my only penalty of the match, for not turning the Spinner target on Stage 1. Andrew, unfortunately, not only got a ‘bang’ on his turn but tried again in his Armored +P run and got another one there! The whole “stage” was optional and not everyone tried their luck but many did.

All Over 'Cept The Cryin'

After the final stage was over there was an awards ceremony. This was a chance to schmooze with the other competitors and discuss the match. The ceremony began before sundown (kind of remarkable for any match, much less one in January) and awards were handed out. The first one was a costume award which was given to one guy in a combloc uniform, complete with lead codpiece, inspired by the HBO series "Chernobyl". The second one was to me! When Karl first announced the award, he said that the winner was “Val Kilmer from ‘Heat’”. Since I’d modeled my costume on Robert DeNiro’s character, not Val Kilmer (who I’m probably not good-looking enough to portray), and Kit Badger also showed up in a suit (Val Kilmer’s suit was gray in “Heat”, as was Kit Badger’s at DB2020), I briefly wondered if perhaps he was getting the award and not me. A lot of heads swiveled in my direction, though, so I walked on up to the podium and got the certificate. This is the first award I've ever won at a shooting competition and the certificate was humorously worded. I was really pleased that my efforts at pulling off the costume were appreciated and I am grateful for the recognition and for the “official” fostering of the costume aspect of Desert Brutality.

Awards, as well as prizes (mostly in the form of gift certificates) were handed out to "Last But Not Dead" (i.e.: lowest-scoring but not DQed) shooters in each division. This was a nice move on InRange's part to take the sting out of losing but also to encourage the "fun above all" atmosphere at this match. There would be a lot fewer costumes and wacky guns/gear at this match if people were shooting for prizes and that would take something away from Desert Brutality, I think. I was glad to see one guy from my squad get this award, since he showed up with a G3 clone that would flawlessly extract cases when fired but would never eject them; the tilting ejector of his G3 wouldn't rise high enough to contact the case and so he was basically getting a double-feed after every shot for the whole match. It was painful to watch and he timed out on every stage, all thanks to his rifle.

Awards were also given to the top 3 shooters in each division and then a random number generator was used to determine in what order shooters would walk the prize table. I only got a Brownells branded aluminum AR15 magazine but there were some rather large prizes being given away too, including several guns.

What Went Right

  • There were some injuries (notably Kuan) but these were all relatively minor. As the name implies, this is a brutal event and there’s lots of chances to get hurt. Still, this was quite minimal for all of the physical activity that was involved. Also, hundreds of strangers with guns concentrating in one place could increase the chances of someone getting shot by accident but nothing even approaching this occurred. This is the norm for competitions, in my experience, but I’m still always thankful when everyone goes home safe.
  • This was possibly the most fun I’ve ever had at a competition. At many competitions the shooters are all business and the atmosphere is consequentially subdued. Desert Brutality had something of a festival atmosphere and it really made it fun just to be there hanging around.
  • Apart from one stage where I had multiple failures to feed, my CAR-15 build ran quite well. The rules of my division required that I run metal magazines instead of my tried and true PMags, which made me a bit nervous, but it all worked out in the end.
  • My costume was a hit and didn’t really hold me back as a shooter.
  • My fitness level was adequate for the challenges presented. When it comes to events like this, you can always be more fit but I was never gassed out to the point that I was roadkill on any particular stage.
  • I got to meet some really great people, including some that I’d been watching online for years. All of them were really genuine and came across exactly like they do in their vids. Other folks who I’d never heard of before were also great to talk to and, in some cases, our discussions revealed that we’d been at matches together in the past without realizing it.

What Could Have Gone Better

  • I only have one kettlebell and it’s 35lbs. When I picked up the 62lbs kettlebell on the first stage it really took me aback. I should have trained for this event with heavier weight.
  • Overall, I could have had better fitness. I just barely timed out on the Kasarda Drill (the most physically intensive stage of the match) and just didn’t feel particularly spry the entire time.
  • I missed with my rifle more than I should have. It never killed me on any stage, but I wasted a second here, a second there throughout the two days of the match, one miss at a time, and those added up.

Stuff I Had That I Was Glad For

  • 32oz Powerade bottles for water. That’s a quart of water in a bottle that is sturdy and doesn’t leak… and that I don’t care if I lose. I drank a bunch of well water at the Compass Training Center out of those bottles by refilling them over and over.
  • Chapstick. Between the wind and the sun, my lips dried out real fast. I used the chapstick quite a lot at this match.
  • My costume. It didn’t help me shoot any better (quite the opposite, if anything) but it put a lot of smiles on a lot of faces and I got a lot of compliments on it, not to mention an award for it.
  • Gorilla tape. I passed this out on the stage where people were crawling through the dirt so they wouldn’t get a clogged muzzle, which could blow up a gun. This actually happened more than once, I’m told, at Desert Brutality 2019. I’m not sure that I saved anyone’s gun from this fate by handing out tape, but no guns blew up!
  • Volleyball knee pads. I bought these at the last minute at a sporting goods store in Prescott, AZ, the night before the match. Unlike every other pair of knee pads I’ve ever worn, these stayed in place and were comfortable (there was minor irritation the first day from the tags sewn into them; I tore the tags out that night and was even more comfortable the next day). Additionally, they were low-profile enough that I could wear them under my dress pants with nobody the wiser.
  • My Kore Essentials belt. This has become my new favorite belt, primarily because of how fast and easy it is to adjust in ¼” increments. This allowed me to snug the belt down before a stage to keep my gear and pants in place but loosen the belt after I was done for more comfort.

Stuff I Had That I Wish I Didn’t

  • A heavy, floppy duffel bag. It completed the costume and it’s nobody’s fault but mine that I carried it around on five of the six stages, but it was quite a pain to do. After running the last stage of the match, I offered to film Andrew on his run. In the video you can hear me still breathing hard from my run but when I was running to keep pace with Andrew while filming him, I had no trouble keeping up and feeling fine while doing so. I was still wearing the Heat vest but not the duffel bag, so I think that really made a difference to leave behind.
  • Dress shoes. Again, great for the costume, not so great for sprinting around on a sandy Arizona shooting range in. Also not great for just standing around in; my feet hurt more while wearing these than they have in a very long time.
  • A retention strap on my holster. I made up a strap out of shock cord to stretch over top of my pistol’s backstrap when holstered for extra retention but it wasn’t necessary and got in the way of reholstering more than once. The retention from the Kydex was enough to keep my pistol in place.
  • My IWB pistol mag pouch. This is a double-magazine pouch made of Kydex that I converted to IWB mode with some pull-the-dot soft loops and, in the past, found it quite comfortable. At DB2020 it was really digging into my pelvis painfully for some reason and I had to constantly fiddle with the tension of my belt to balance comfort with keeping my pants up.

Stuff I Didn’t Have That I Wish I Did

  • Anti-fog treatment for glasses. The one stage where I wore my clear eyepro with the ninja mask caused instant and major fogging when I breathed. I foresaw this issue and bought some anti-fog spray but managed to misplace it before the match.
  • A hat. I didn’t wear one because of the costume and I’m amazed that I didn’t get more sunburned than I did.

Stuff I Didn’t Have That I Was Glad For

  • A sling that was accurate for the costume. It would have been a major pain in numerous areas.
  • Broken guns or gear. Not everything went perfectly for me but I didn’t have the horrible experience that others did of breaking rare or expensive (or just plain critical) pieces of gear.

Lessons Learned

  • More fitness is needed. I’ve been more lazy since I injured myself back in 2016 than I’ve ever been since I made a commitment to being in shape in my mid 20’s. I’m probably still a lot better off now than when I was 24, but that mentality allows me to justify my laziness since “it could be worse”. I’m thankful that this match showed me where I’ve become deficient and now I can start fixing that.
  • If you know you have a good, fun, harmless idea then go for it! I hemmed and hawed about doing the Heat costume before committing and it actually turned out to be as cool as I’d hoped. I normally am not one who likes being the center of attention but I did like seeing people nod appreciatively at my efforts.
  • The Heat vest is actually a pretty legit design. In the movie it looks cool and I thought that maybe that was the only reason it was designed that way but in reality it was actually comfortable and allowed fairly fast reloads. The mag on the right shoulder compromised my stock placement at least once but that was something that I could get used to and work around. I’m sure that this design could be even more refined and useful than the MacGyver result that I got.
  • I should do some tests to figure out how to run with a sixty-something pound thing that is small and dense. It’s one thing to toss a sandbag over your shoulder and let it rest there, but that’s not a great way to go with what is essentially a steel ball and I’m not convinced that carrying a 62lbs kettlebell like a suitcase is the best solution for speed and stability. Maybe doing a clean and then cradling it with both arms like a baby would work best?
  • Not shooting well with the shield in one hand really bothered me! I want to figure out how to do that efficiently, not because I think I’ll ever do that specific thing again, but because whatever principles would allow me to shoot well in that situation could also be applied to shooting in a different awkward position.
  • Some of the placements in the standings are a little meaningless since the score that I got was the same as a ton of other people, thanks to timing out. For example, on the Kasarda Drill my time, after bonuses, was 120 seconds, putting me in 91st place, according to Practiscore. In reality, places 87 through 139 all had the same score of 120. Even more remarkable, the Trench Assault stage had every shooter from 19th place through 172nd place tied with a score of 240 seconds! Perhaps Practiscore needs to be updated to reflect the possibility of numerous shooters getting the exact same score?
  • Limber up! Kuan Watson tore his calf muscle and it really looked painful to walk around after that, much less shoot an entire day of a match.
  • HTFU. In spite of that serious injury, Kuan took first place in his division. The whole day he refused any help or special treatment. The only time he really seemed concerned was when he mentioned that he’d have to tell his wife about the injury.

Other Notables:

This might be the first major match I've ever attended with no female competitors. Not totally sure why; maybe the physical challenges were perceived to be unfair for women? Or maybe chicks just don't dig us.

Gear issues were rampant here and the reasons were numerous: many attendees were very interested in guns from a technical perspective (i.e.: they thought they were cool and had memorized lots of facts and details about them) but weren't always very seasoned shooters and didn’t have experience keeping guns and gear up and running, especially in this kind of environment. Many guns used were quite old (especially in the Classic and Retro divisions) and, in some cases, worn out; many of the guns that were old but in good condition (or newly-made reproductions of older guns) were simply older, less refined designs that were more prone to failure; many costumes incorporated old web gear and/or clothing that was falling apart with age; in some cases the designs were fragile or just sub-par, even when the gear was new. The dusty, gritty desert environment made for a challenge all on its own. This probably hurt shooters' scores even when their skills were up to the task.

One guy brought an original Valmet and his firing pin broke while he was checking his zero between stages. I guess that's better than having it break on a stage, on the clock, but still, that's a very expensive rifle to be breaking. Another guy showed up with a transferable Stg.44 and broke the hammer! This is especially sucky since the Sturmgewehr's trigger group is a Rube Goldberg nightmare that was designed to be discarded and replaced with a completely new unit when the old one broke.

The owner of MOD Outfitters pulled me aside when he saw my costume and wanted to video me shooting an 11.5” CAR-15 on full auto. Naturally I said “Hell yes!” and got to shoot a mag of 5.56mm on rock-n’-roll for free. I had been thinking of a buttstock pouch for the Magpul AK triangle stock for a while and so I bought one of their triangle AK stock pouches to see if it will work on the Magpul stock.

The food truck at the event, “The Hungry Badger”, had some very friendly staff and I ate what is legitimately one of the very best hamburgers of my life from that truck. There was an In N’ Out Burger in Prescott that I also dined at on this trip and their burger didn’t hold a candle to the one I had from that food truck. I hope they’re back next time!

Conclusion

I feel confident in saying that this is the best match I’ve ever shot. I wish that more matches were like Desert Brutality because it’s the most like what I want out of competitive shooting. I think that the physical challenges are a big part of what makes DB better and the simple but tough and practical stage designs are also superb. I think that stages should be designed to take shooters outside their comfort zone a little bit and a culture of “improvise, adapt, and overcome” should be encouraged.

On the topic of stage designs, this is the first match, major or otherwise, with little to no help needed for stage reset. There was only one stage with paper targets (these were scored and taped before the shooter was done) and besides that, there was the Kasarda Drill which required the kettlebell to be carried a few feet to its start position between shooters. Apart from that, very little reset was needed. Some target stands were damaged, especially by historical firearms in powerful calibers like .30-06, 7.62x54R, and 8mm Mauser, but there were extras on hand and spare parts to fix the broken ones while the extras were in play. The match ran very smoothly.

I really appreciated the “big boy rules” mindset of this match, which is in stark contrast to the “mother may I” attitude that has always exasperated me about competitive shooting. This isn’t to say that DB2020 had no rules, but I could actually touch one of my own guns in between stages without fear that I’d cross some line that I didn’t know about and get DQed. To be fair, this has never happened to me at a match but I am always a little paranoid about it at any given match; not so at Desert Brutality.

This is also the first match I’ve ever attended with a time-based schedule. There were times that squads were to show up to their stage at and shooting actually began at those times! I am far more used to the attitude of “it takes as long as it takes” in the competitive shooting world. To be honest, I’m not totally sure how I feel about this schedule: if you know that you have a couple of hours before you need to shoot your next stage then you can run into town for something, resting assured that you won’t miss out on your turn to shoot while you’re gone. Even if you hang around the range, you’re never rushing around, afraid that you zoned out and didn’t get to where you need to go next. On the other hand, a quick YouTube search reveals that DB2019 had 8 stages but DB2020 had only 6. More shooting is more better; is a shorter match a natural and unavoidable consequence of this scheduling system? If so, I’m not convinced that it’s necessarily the better way to go. If I’m making the sacrifices to travel to a big match then I want to do as much shooting as I can while I’m there.

I’m also a little torn about the amount/level of the physical challenges. Part of me thinks that they were just right for my fitness level and another part of me wishes (soley in retrospect, mind you) that I’d gotten smoked just a little harder. I’m already way too good at justifying my relatively sedentary lifestyle and I could use a bit of a kick in the pants to inspire me to do better next time. Then again, DB2020 already has inspired me to do better in this respect so maybe I’m more uncertain about my fitness than I am about the balance of the match.

The Compass Training Center was a superb venue for this match. The staff were all very friendly and very cool with a match that would probably cause most shooters’ hair to turn white. They allowed trenches to be dug in one bay and for full-auto guns to be used (by vendors as well as competitors) and had very non-intrusive and sensible rules. They were extremely accommodating and great hosts.

There were a ton of great sponsors for the match: Varusteleka of Finland was the main sponsor and their crew came all the way to the USA to shoot the match. They also host Finnish Brutality for the convenience of shooters living outside the Occidental hemisphere. Brownells sponsored the match too and after seeing huge numbers of shooters rocking Brownells’ “Retro” lineup of AR15s and magazines, I think Brownells is very smart to do so. MOD Outfitters was selling medical stuff and renting machine guns (I was told they’d be around until Sunday and so I waited to shoot more of their stuff but they didn’t come back after Saturday). KE Arms sponsored the match and several of their guys shot it and also helped out with various things on the range. Wise Lite Arms was also on site with some really awesome semi-auto builds of the MG-42 and BREN Gun, as well as machine gun rentals. Polaris Worldwide Logistics was on site and their owner shot the match in Retro Heavy division with a FAL. The owner of MOA Targets was on site and shot the match on staff day; he also provided several targets for the match. Vortex Optics, Apex Gun Parts, Lee Armory, Vltor, XTech Tactical, Weapon Outfitters, and We Plead the 2nd were all also on hand, and I’m thankful for their sponsorship.

There’s been talk of expanding the Brutality matches and during the closing ceremonies of DB2020 Karl mentioned that there would be a Winter Brutality in Idaho in November. If I can make that one then I will; I suspect that bad driving conditions could be a big problem for such a match but I’m sure it’s something that the InRange crew have already thought of.

I’m going to DB2021, barring some sort of disaster that makes it impossible for me to attend. I suppose I’ll have to defend my ‘best costume’ title so I’ll need to think on what to do about that. I’ll also be in better physical shape and will practice shooting more with my irons. This is the best match I’ve ever shot and I will be back.