USAR Postal Matches - I'm in the discovery phase

[Snoopy47]

Just got back from Annual Training and spent two weeks in the same working office as a SGM in the USAR Marksmanship Team. So I had his ear for just about every question I had.

Anyway.............. I'm annoyed by the lack of USAR competitive shooting available to us out in the West.

If anything is going to be done about it, it's going to have to be done by one of us (or myself in this case).

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BLUF:
Conduct USAR Postal Matches at my local range (I'm a private member) during public hours. Sunnyvale Rod and Gun.

Here's where the bounds get stretched.
1) Personal Owned ammo
2) Personal Owned weapon
3) On your own time to get to the range, and pay the range fee of $20.

I already reached out to the Marksmanship Team. It's doable.

So............. if I can get past all the administrative hurdles and submit the scores that are shot, then everything else will fall into place.

Who is up for it? Link to Postal Match courses of fire.

https://americangunsmith.files.wordpress.com/2019/08/usarcmp-postal_matches.pdf#:~:text=The%20Margaret%20Thompson%20Murdock%20Postal%20Match%20is%20derived,exercises%20during%20routine%20unit%20qualification.%20COURSE%20OF%20FIRE

Here's how I think it could work:

Eligible: CAC ID holding Army and Reserve service members. Possibly "any" DOD CAC ID holding personnel, but I have to check.

Weapon: AR-15 in .223
Sights: Anything the Army uses (yes, you can sandbag with ACOG, and Magnified Optics).

Course of fire: See attached link

Now........ as a private range, and private weapons you'll have to pay the range fee to Sunnyvale Rod and Gun, and all associated costs.

Basically.......... it would be like going to Sunnyvale Rod and Gun and just shooting on your own like any other time.

The difference would be I would be there to observe the course of fire is executed correctly per the Match Rules.

I foresee barely getting any interest at first, and this system would probably be conducted over the course of the summer. That way I can get 1 or 2 participance here and there and then just lump all the results at the end.

The upside I see in this is one could shoot ALL the Postal Matches Course of Fire right then and there. They are basically zeroing exercises to be shot during the zero portion of a Range Qual weekend.

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What's the benefit to you doing this.
#1 you want to get better at shooting your assigned weapon platform.
#2 shooting is fun
#3 this could be a bullet in your NCOER/OER
#4 I could probably issue some sort of memo of participation and or memo for record on USAR letter head signed by me the USAR CPT that is putting this on. So that could be used for whatever brownie points with your unit you can milk them for. I don't think I can issue certificates of achievements with my rank.

I do intend to have some sort of tangible award like a plaque for each course of fire for the top shooters, but I don't think any of this really translates into career leveraging achievements (outside of milking an NCOER bullet).

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Anyway.............. let me hear it folks. If you want to shoot USAR postal matches I think I can really make this happen.

Oh, my unit doesn't have weapons assigned to us. We don't go to the range. So I don't have the luxury pushing this through my units training schedule.

This is the best I can think of, and if the participants come (basically come whatever fits your schedule) it should become a sustainable thing.

[kevman0154]

I would be interested forsure!!!

Sucks we would still have to use featureless rifles or mag locked mags. Unless theres a way,since we are all CAC card holding service members, to get a unit to help sponser the event and bring thier MTOE'd Rifles. Maybe expand it to the Guardor other branches... IDK?

Either way, im in!!

[Snoopy47]

Neither the Club nor myself are obligated to unravel the semantics around how one possesses or owns a pistol grip or normal magazine. Merely having it in your possession doesn't make it illegal, just how and when they were acquired does.

The problems with military rifles in this scenario are numerous. Mainly, they cannot be transported in POV's. Then there goes the use of them on a private range, then there goes the use of non Army issued ammo.

These "postal matches" do not take much to execute if conducted in the course of a range qual weekend, other than someone has to champion the cause, and execute the action through their chain of command.

I'm open to making these matches cover a larger base of participants, but then we are outside the regulations of said USAR postal match, and then it basically becomes someone I am doing on my own. I'm happy to do that, and will see how interests fairs when things actually start moving forward.

Right now I'm balancing how I can execute this with the least amount of drama from the accessibility of the range to the executability from the USAR.

[kevman0154]

Ah , very good points. I am in either way.