OPERATION: BEANSICLE 08 JAN 05

Camp Stasa, Michigan. Jan 8th, 2005.

Temperature in the 20's. Several inches of snow on the ground. Road condition: mostly frozen with some muddy sections; walking difficult but not impossible.

Training agenda: Mostly new rifle sighting in, rifle function testing and troubleshooting, and Level One re-qualification for the new year. Also gear and camo check for upcoming Snow Dog '05.

We were happy to see Cpl Punishment from Bay County back out. He brought along a couple of new range tables, sturdy and well put-together. He also schemed (he's good at this) about a mo' betta backstop for the spring.

Above left: A spool with re-enforced top, sealed against bees. Right: The man who made them, Cpl Punishment.

I was happy with my new RealTree Hardwoods Snow camo pajamas. You might be able to find them at Cabela's, or click here for the Realtree link. Effective winter camo is not merely white. you clearly need to break up the white with grays, blacks, and maybe some brown and green in many cases, merely wearing your web gear can add to the break up, giving you much more effective snow camo. Look at the group picture above for ideas about snow camo. Be advised, however, that Super Six wears an extremely rare winter camo pattern that you will not be able to find anywhere. If you are curious about what it is and where it came from, you are advised to come to training and ask him.

A few of the guys hiked back in, with some pulling their sleds along. Good practice for next month, no doubt. It's never a bad idea to try out various movement and transportation methods. You might be able to find small, cheap plastic sleds on clearance around this time of year, and if you ever have to transport gear into the woods, even if it's just what you would carry in a backpack, a sled is a good way to go.

Super Six with rare winter camo. Notice that his rifle is also camouflaged. Right: A sled with ruck and other gear.

Two SMVM members re-qualified Level One, with a hard, snow and mud filled walk coming in at 37 minutes and 10 seconds or so. Cpl Punishment also did this. This was a good test for my nine dollar surplus winter boots, which are sort of a cheaper European (yah, that's redundant) version of the US Mickey Mouse boots. With two pairs of good heavy wool socks, they worked well. Damn good nine dollars spent, there. Pac, snowmobile boots, or some other kind of dedicated cold weather boots are needed in the winter. Danner Go-Devils are excellent boots, but you should either get them re-soled if they are FLAT ON THE BOTTOM LIKE MATT'S, or get a new pair. As we get along into the winter, you can find some pretty good clearance deals on winter boots at Meijer's and Dunham's and other good stores.

In the snow, a good tread is necessary. We know how hard it is to let go of a pair of Danner's, though....

The shooting was filled with problems for some. My AR did ok. I am shooting noticeably better since I added that low-budget clamp-on scope. Even removing it every time to put the gun away does not throw off the zero. Militiamedic had some issues with the rear sight on his AR, but he determined that it had somehow been cranked all the way down, and this pushed it past the point where the bearing "seats" in place, securing the whole rear sight assembly. After this, he got on target, sort of. This is the kind of thing you only learn by coming out and doing it. Mak9 had a feed issue, but qualified easily by simply loading and shooting one round at a time.

I tried shooting with my gas mask on. The really stinky part of this is that my glasses do not fit inside this mask (reason number 469 to get that eye surgery...), so I have to shoot without them. Luckily, my rifle scope helped a lot, if I pressed it up against the mask, so I hit three out of four pins at 100 yards with about 20 shots. I had to hold the rifle sort of tilted, in the best "G-money" fashion, but I did bust some caps at those pins, fo' shizzle. If you have a mask (and you should), you need to find out how well or poorly you shoot with it on. I rarely see this in the woods, and will be bothervating you guys to do so more often.

Left: Nearly blind, Weapon M relies heavily upon his scope to see. Right: The dorkiest hat in Militia land...

We have a few folks with newer rifles or scopes, and this is among the best of places to come out and get these things on target. Work these things out at training, and they will not present problems in any real action, that hopefully you will never encounter...

 Chuckwagon doing the burger and bean thing. They were tasty this day, especially the sweet red onions. The garlic and onion beans were also good, but the end result required certain protective measures.

A routine weapon inspection found Mouse really pushing the limits on his AR15, as far as gunk and crud accumulation. It is possible that he has been spoiled by his dearly departed AK, and does not realize the care and loving attention that such a precise instrument needs. Of course, some of us have a certain proclivity toward sniffing rifle chambers for carbon build-up, too....

Left: Weapon M sniffs out that nasty carbon. Right: Mak9 spotting for Super Six. That's what friends are for....

As we were on our way out, we ran into an inbound Scopemaster V, who was beyond happy with his new M1A. But hell, who WOULDN'T be? He headed on back to do some sighting in and stuff, and we hope to hear from him soon.

The license plate reads: "Tread on This."

Next time out, from Feb 4th-6th, we will do our "Snow Dog '05" winter survival and testing exercise. We hope to see you there...

-Lee