My First Tactical Mission
Going into the tactical experience for the first time I wasn’t told much. You’ll be driving humvees and shooting guns. I googled what a humvee is, chose an outfit that will likely get covered in gun powder residue, packed a water and a protein bar, and headed out with my team. My goal for the day was to keep an open mind, and do the best I could. Just the idea of shooting rifles terrified me but, I had to play it cool… or at least try and pretend to.
Pulling into the parking lot of an old elementary school doesn’t shout ‘get ready for a hardcore experience’, but in hindsight the nostalgic feeling of stepping into an elementary school probably helped calm my nerves just a bit. After meeting the team and a quick debrief, it was game time.
First up, humvees. We were all hooked up to heart rate monitors, and as we stood beside the quarry one of the pro’s looked at the ipad to make sure all of the heart rate monitors were tracking properly, and with a amused tone noted that someone was already pretty nervous… Me, obviously. My heart rate was probably elevated the entire time we were at the quarry, and I loved every minute of it. Riding as a passenger in the humvee was so cool and driving it was incredible. It’s so big and low to the ground that you pretty much can’t flip it, so you hit the gas as hard, break hard, turn hard. You’re buckled in but there’s no doors, and the harder you drive, the more dirt and dust flies up around you. The thrill and the adrenaline rush I got from ‘hot laps’ in a humvee was so unique — I’ve been craving that same feeling ever since.
Next up, shooting. One time I shot my friend’s old hunting rifle at an empty can of beer, and that’s about my entire history with guns. Being surrounded by ex-military guys who really knew what they were talking about made me as comfortable as I could be. We started in a classroom to learn about safety, loading, stance, etc. Learning everything from a military perspective gave me so much more appreciation for the military, their training, and real life combat.
After our training we headed to the gun range. If you expected we’d stand there and shoot some targets then you are gravely mistaken, this was no walk in the park. We loaded our magazines, we went over safety, protected our eyes and ears, chose our lanes, and we were ready.
I remember that feeling after firing off my first few shots, lets just say my whole body was shaking. I was using an assault rifle, which is quite big, relatively heavy, and has a little kickback. After a few shots, once I got comfortable, lets use ‘comfortable’ as a relative term here, things got even more fun. I was told quickly where to shoot on the target, to get down on my one knee, lay on my stomach, all while using the combat techniques I had just been taught. I knew this wasn’t your average gun range experience.
After we had finished with the rifles, we did it all over again with handguns.
By the end of the day I was spent. I had learned so much, got to try so many new things, and stepped quite far outside of my comfort zone. If you’re looking for a fun yet challenging day, I would definitely recommend XPR’s tactical experiences. I loved every minute of it, and can’t wait to do it again.
