ISC said:
I was hoping to get an "amen brother" and some ideas about other exercises and stuff to work into my training program. I've thought about carrying a peice of pipe or a weighted axe handle when I run to simulate carrying my rifle, but that's not that big of a concern for me.
As an old vet who's been there and done that as well as done a lot of action competition shooting, I think you're both over-doing it and I think you need to step back and re-examine your attitude.
There are a lot of ways you can practice precision during physical stress/exhaustion. Try throwing darts. It's eye to hand coordination and try doing that after having whipped out four or five dozen pushups or running in place for fifteen minutes.
You can also dry fire--holding a sight picture when breathing and sweating heavily is a lot different than under relaxed, controlled situations.
Lot of things you can do to reach your goal without annoying or disturbing other shooters.
I'm not in the military anymore. Haven't been in a long while. I respect and appreciate those who are, but if I saw you at my range doing what you describe and if it bothered me or my wife, I'd ask you to tone it down. If you didn't, I'd be raising hell with the owner.
You're in the military. You're there to protect and defend your fellow citizens' rights--not use your service as an excuse to do what you want or train how you want at a general public firing range.
Many ranges I've shot at around the country have areas, bays or stalls that you can get that are either segregated from other shooters or are far enough away that your stress-training will not be a distraction. Try asking the rangemaster to assign you to one of those areas.
Or, find out when the range is least busy and try to shoot then.
Lot of things someone who's been around as long as a ssgt should know/be able to do to where this isn't an issue.
You stated yourself that you came here "looking for an amen brother." I'll give you an "amen brother" for serving your country and working to be a better shot, but I'm not going to give you an "amen brother" for thinking that because you're taking shooting more serious that somehow you're entitled to disturb or annoy other shooters.
Jeff