A Pecos, Tx. Run and Gun in the Sun Report

[Esq.]

18th Annual Pecos Run & Gun was held last weekend. More than 80 shooters from across Texas, New Mexico and Oklahoma participated. Course was 5.5 miles long this year and included 7 stages balanced between pistol, rifle and pistol/rifle with transition.

Range officers of course shot on Friday and we were done early, probably 2:30 or so. I served as a range officer on Stage 5 which consisted of three steel plates at 150, 200 and 150 yards arranged in a fan. Two rifle hits to each were required and due to terrain the shooting had to be either offhand or seated. Best time I saw on the stage was 15 seconds which is pretty friggen smoking honestly....It was hot pretty much all day, when I began my run it was 96 and over 100 when I finished. Took me a little longer than last year but I shot better. It rained on Saturday early for the first half a dozen folks or so sent out but after that it cleared up and was fairly cool for the rest of the day, easy running.

Always interesting to see what gear people bring. I saw one AK, one Ruger Scout rifle, two Tavors, one Mini 14. Everything else I saw was some flavor of AR15, the vast majority of which-95% or so, were .223. I saw one 6.5 Grendel and two .300 Blackouts. I only saw four red dots, two of which were Eotechs with magnifiers, an old Trijicon and the other was a Primary Arms model. BY FAR Primary Arms scopes were the most popular - a third or more of the LPVOS present.....lots of Vortex, Leupolds, Acogs....even a couple of Night Force that I recall. Vast majority of competitors were running brass case ammo, lots of Federal M193.

Handguns were much more diverse than in the past. Usually Glocks dominated and there were still quite a few but I saw much more diversity- Smith M&P's made a good showing, Sig 320's and a Legion or two, several FN's, more Beretta 92's than I recall in past years and a few 1911's. Biggest surprise was probably the number of Caniks- quite a few actually.

Everyone seemed to have pretty well figured out their gear for the most part. Very little milsurp gear anymore, lots of battle belts, a few chest rigs but most people don't like them due to the heat. Still a few people with vests- also hot.

I only saw two malfunctions that were not operator induced. Which, is pretty friggen amazing considering we were pretty far along on the course and after the river walk. Seems most people have figured out- Decent rifle, Good ammo, good mags, Lube and watch it run even when abused.

[TomMcC]

Man that sounds like a really fun day. Even though I'm getting a bit old and have a jacked right knee, I still love to compete.

Is this the type of match where you have to carry everything you'll need for the 5.5 miles?

[Esq.]

Man that sounds like a really fun day. Even though I'm getting a bit old and have a jacked right knee, I still love to compete.

Is this the type of match where you have to carry everything you'll need for the 5.5 miles?

Yes, everything you will need you have to carry. I ran 3 mags ( USGI, 30 rounders loaded to 28 with some old WCC M193) on a Velocity Systems belt. Carried the mags in Tacos with pistol mag holders. I used a Camelbak to carry my water....two 16 oz bottles and one that was nearly frozen to help keep things cool.

I shot a Glock 34 for a pistol and a pretty much stock Colt 6920- I did swap out the buttstock for a Magpul SL stock. My optic is a 3.5x Acog with red chevron in a GDI surplus mount.....nothing special really.

As much fun as the match is, the fellowship is even better. We have men of all ages....my dad ran it at SEVENTY TWO a few years ago. We had an 11 year old boy run this year, several ladies.....Run, walk....whatever...all about testing you and your gear. Compete against others or yourself or just go for a walk in the desert with your rifle....good stuff.

[TomMcC]

How did you carry the rest of your ammo. I'm thinking you had to stuff mags at some point.

[Esq.]

How did you carry the rest of your ammo. I'm thinking you had to stuff mags at some point.

Course of fire only required 34 rifle rounds if you shoot it clean, 34 pistol.

I used 47 rifle rounds and 46 from my 34. One thing that I do is after I shoot a stage i will pull the 3rd mag from my belt and reload the #1 mag to full capacity. You run between stations with an empty rifle, pistol hot, you load your rifle right before shooting the stage, show clear when leaving....

The shooting and run times are weighted equally for your score....all the cool guns and mad shooting skills dont mean much if you have a hard time carting your stuff from your car to the bench.....

[TomMcC]

Low round count...sounds like it's very much geared toward accuracy and definitely not hosing.

[Esq.]

Low round count...sounds like it's very much geared toward accuracy and definitely not hosing.

The name of the game is fast hits....

[SteyrAUG]

Course of fire only required 34 rifle rounds if you shoot it clean, 34 pistol.

I used 47 rifle rounds and 46 from my 34. One thing that I do is after I shoot a stage i will pull the 3rd mag from my belt and reload the #1 mag to full capacity. You run between stations with an empty rifle, pistol hot, you load your rifle right before shooting the stage, show clear when leaving....

The shooting and run times are weighted equally for your score....all the cool guns and mad shooting skills dont mean much if you have a hard time carting your stuff from your car to the bench.....

That is some serious self control. We run a 10 stage match on a 150 yard course and sometimes fire more than 100 rounds and that is assuming 90% hits.

[Esq.]

That is some serious self control. We run a 10 stage match on a 150 yard course and sometimes fire more than 100 rounds and that is assuming 90% hits.

For me that was a "bad" run. Normally I run about 42 rifle rounds. While the course of fire changes from year to year slightly the round count is pretty consistent within a few plus or minus. I carry plenty of ammo (double a "perfect) but try to be pretty miserly with it because if you run out- you take a DNF for those stages left and if I've run 3-4 miles already I damn sure don't want to take a DNF because I've run out of ammo! But, I don't want to carry a half a case of ammo either, shits heavy!

You have up to 2 minutes to complete a stage, we have a few people who "time out", not many, but a few. I've seen people burn an entire 30 rounds trying to get their hits in time. We had one guy come into the stage who was shooting a scope with un capped turrets- He literally had to sight his rifle in at the stage when the Fire command was given as his turrets had shifted during the run and he didn't have them marked or know his setting. He didn't make time and burned a shit ton of ammo...felt sorry for him but Lesson Learned!

[SilverBullet432]

Hmm. I had no idea things like this went down in Pecos lol. Don’t miss that place at all..