AAR - Sunland, CA - Mar 02/03, 2013

[gonejohnny]

Sunland, CA

This weekend saw six wonderful, fierce and determined individuals grace the Eagles Nest in Sunland, CALIF. All those in attendance showed tremendous spirit, teachable attitudes and true persistence.

Shooter Jeremiah stuck with it all weekend... still putting it all together one fraction at a time!

Shooter John couldn't make it back on Sunday, but we've already heard that he's hooked and making plans to come again!

Shooter Kevin was back from his visit with us last June! Always a pleasure to work with the true heart of a Rifleman!

Shooters Burt and Jeffrey worked with .22's all day Saturday to prep them for many rounds downrange Sunday with their .556 Carbines. Jeff had to leave early on Sunday and missed the opportunity to shoot with Burt as he just devastated steel targets out to 250+ yards and beyond...

And then there's Kyle... Supposedly a one-day walk-on... with a borrowed rifle, got the dreaded bayonet first thing Saturday morning... By end of day, he'd cleared it... qualifying 1/2/3 & 400-yards (including the HS)! As you can imagine, that one-day turned into a full weekend real fast...

End-of-day on Sunday, saw all the shooters take a little field trip to our adjacent range behind the lunch area. Usually a place for tactical classes to set up benches and tables for "sniper instruction", this area doesn't have a flat piece of ground available with a clear line of sight to the steel out to 400-yards away... Seemed like a perfect opportunity to try out some of those new "field positions" we'd been talking about all weekend. From assumed positions, on extremely uneven ground... all of our shooters spent some good solid time with Instructor provided M1-Garand's... each and every one qual'd at least 7 for 8 in cadence... shifting their Natural Point of Aim between multiple targets like the best of em... Those steel gong's never stood a chance... (too bad the battery on our cameras were all dead by this time!).

This lot all have Rifleman Patches in their future for sure. You can bet on it.

Rock & Roll,
GoneJohnny

Now for some pics:

[Phocion]

Just wanted to drop a note and say thanks to the instructors and my fellow shooters for a safe, instructional, and entertaining weekend! I left with a new found respect for what can be done with a set of iron sights in trained hands. When I got home on Sunday, after not qualifying, I have to admit that I started browsing new 10/22 barrels and looking at my glassed Savage with a mixture of malice and desire. It took a while for me to let the lessons (and humility) sink in and remember what I should have learned.

Mr. B's 400 yard 3/3 on the pig gong from a seated position really blew my mind, and reinforced that I could throw every gimmick and part at my rifle to make it "better", but shot placement really comes down to the skill of the man behind the rifle. I steered away from the temptation of a new green mountain barrel that would magically "fix" my marksmanship, and picked up several stacks of AQT targets instead. When the rifle becomes the limiting factor, I will throw some new parts at it, until then it is time to practice.

Thanks for opening my eyes!