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Unknown Distance Course October 10-11, 2015 NRA Whittington Center Raton, NM

Started by TaosGlock, October 13, 2015, 06:58:25 PM

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TaosGlock

This was our first 2 day stand alone Unknown Distance (UD) event. And what a success it was. :---
Find it, range it and shoot it! All at the prestigious NRA Whittington Center in Raton, New Mexico.
There will be more of these in the future!

A huge thanks to the shooters whose teachable attitude enabled us to teach the fundamentals of
traditional combat/field expedient riflery using the essence of simplicity and precision to get great results! :---

Thanks to the WC staff for making this event a success and for letting us use one of their back country ranges.

The students who attended are current Project Appleseed instructors and former students who have attended our previous Appleseed courses.

The prerequisites for this course are a standard 2 day Appleseed AND our Appleseed KD or Known Distance event. 
At the KD course, you will become one with your rifle, your specific load and how to make hits at distance to a least 400 yards or more! 
The KD course deals goes into vast detail on trajectory, come ups, battle sight zero (BSZ). We shoot 4 MOA squares to 400 yards.
Then we shoot a full distance AQT!

In our standard 2 day Appleseed event we ask the question. Why shoot distance?
The answer is: because it proves that the fundamentals you learn at 25 yard work at real distances.
In our standard 2 day Appleseed event we can only touch on the tasks of a Rifleman in the field, in real world conditions,
far from the groomed static ranges on even increments of a hundred yards.
These tasks include target detection, range estimation, wind/angle estimation/corrections.
The last task involves taking the shot and a Rifleman needs to know how to adjust his sights for long distance.
That is where the KD course really kicks in.

The UD course we just completed is perfectly suited for the wide open spaces of the west where there is varied terrain.
Here we take the aforementioned tasks of the rifleman and put it action vs just theorizing about it.

The first day we do some quick reviews of our 2 aforementioned courses. Then we get a solid near zero and far zero.
We zero for 300 Yards or what is basically BSZ. This works pretty well for modern day ammo and many rifle platforms.
On day 2, we go to another range far form the other ranges.

Shooters are greeted with the usual NRA Whittington Center sunrise.


Don't tread on us. We are on a private range the hoi poli never see.


Long Rifle starts the reviews. Before we head into the wilds of the UD range we need to be zeroed and confirm the accuracy of the click values.
If you get lost when dialing up or down, do you know how many clicks from your base line setting (bottomed out) back up to your rifles zero?
This is especially important info for scoped rifles.



We sight in at 25 yards. We dial up to 300. Then we shoot at at 300 yards. We check the groups, record data, then make corrections to fine tune for a 300 yard zero.
There are a few front sight/reticle ranging targets at the 300 yard line next to the big backers with full size AQT's.
Those are used to determine the MOA between crosshair/duplex, various reticle types, front sight width/length, etc.
Also the 575, 710 and 810 yard targets are barely visible.



At the 300 yard line. How big is my group and where is my group.
Shooters measure groups in MOA and convert to clicks.
Meticulous record keeping is a must.






WoW! Look at some of the groups!




At the end of day 1 we head to the berm to gather data for 375, 410, 510 and 625 yards. This is after they range them using their front sight or scope reticle.
All non 100 yard increments, making it a real world exercise.
One of the targets is extremely difficult to find and range. ^-^
89 fantastic Appleseeds since 2008/24 Libertyseeds!
Adventure Camp Director/Current Lead Rifle Instructor: NRA WC Raton,NM
New Mexico's first Rifleman: Sept. 2008 NRAWC
Their walls are filled with cannonballs, their motto is don't tread on me-Grateful Dead
Liberty is not a cruise ship full of pampered passengers. It is a man of war and we are all crew-Boston T. Party
"Make no mistake, when you cheer for the people of the American Revolution, you are cheering for traitors and criminals.
They broke the law, because liberty is always illegal"- Larken Rose

TaosGlock

Day 2 begins with a traffic jam at the range.
Halt! This range belongs to the deer and antelope that have roamed here for centuries.


Below, the UD range is in full view. This little basin is now home to our UD course.
It is used by YHEC (Youth Hunter Education Challenge).
It is also home to the NRA WC ADVC (Adventure Camp) for the short range rifle instruction portion.

The bluff is at 845 yards. The 19 targets for this range will be from about 145 to 420 yards. Most will be within Battle Sight Zero.


The view back to the range angling down to the firing line from the 320 yard steel target.
Is there enough angle that a Rifleman needs to correct to get the true ballistic range?



89 fantastic Appleseeds since 2008/24 Libertyseeds!
Adventure Camp Director/Current Lead Rifle Instructor: NRA WC Raton,NM
New Mexico's first Rifleman: Sept. 2008 NRAWC
Their walls are filled with cannonballs, their motto is don't tread on me-Grateful Dead
Liberty is not a cruise ship full of pampered passengers. It is a man of war and we are all crew-Boston T. Party
"Make no mistake, when you cheer for the people of the American Revolution, you are cheering for traitors and criminals.
They broke the law, because liberty is always illegal"- Larken Rose

TaosGlock


The beauty of the NRA Whittington Center has no peer.



The covered area makes a great field expedient classroom.
Here BlueFeather does a quick review of Target Detection, Range Estimation and making a field map in relation to the days UD mission:
find it, range it and shoot it. :~



Your friendly shoot boss. @&)


Intermediate come up notes in our field classroom on the fly.


Range cards for your rifle and detailed scan sheets for target detection and range estimation are a must for a Rifleman.
Recording data for every shot you take can be useful for later.

89 fantastic Appleseeds since 2008/24 Libertyseeds!
Adventure Camp Director/Current Lead Rifle Instructor: NRA WC Raton,NM
New Mexico's first Rifleman: Sept. 2008 NRAWC
Their walls are filled with cannonballs, their motto is don't tread on me-Grateful Dead
Liberty is not a cruise ship full of pampered passengers. It is a man of war and we are all crew-Boston T. Party
"Make no mistake, when you cheer for the people of the American Revolution, you are cheering for traitors and criminals.
They broke the law, because liberty is always illegal"- Larken Rose

TaosGlock

Below are some of the targets used at ranges from 145-420 yards.
Some are easy and we called these a "gimme".
Many blend in incredibly well. Many appear to change shape/color as the light moves or as it heats up and the mirage comes up.
Some are only visible in certain light conditions therefore only observed easily, even with optics, at a certain time of day.

So most of the day was spent here finding, ranging and finally shooting these steel targets! Most all could be found.
Targets shapes vary and are sized at 6x5", 12'', 8", 8x16", and 25x18". Placing these fixed sizes targets at various distances allows one to vary the MOA size.
However, some were placed at odd angles so a 6MOA target placed as such is no longer 6MOA. See telephoto pics.

These were set up before the shooters arrived:














The 420 yard. It is in a small tan opening below and left of the butte summit in the previous post's panorama pic.




89 fantastic Appleseeds since 2008/24 Libertyseeds!
Adventure Camp Director/Current Lead Rifle Instructor: NRA WC Raton,NM
New Mexico's first Rifleman: Sept. 2008 NRAWC
Their walls are filled with cannonballs, their motto is don't tread on me-Grateful Dead
Liberty is not a cruise ship full of pampered passengers. It is a man of war and we are all crew-Boston T. Party
"Make no mistake, when you cheer for the people of the American Revolution, you are cheering for traitors and criminals.
They broke the law, because liberty is always illegal"- Larken Rose

TaosGlock

These small AR500's measure roughly 6"x5". When placed at 100 yards, each represents a torso at about 400 yards.
Placing this target at 300 yards makes the target detection equal to 1200 yards! Three of these were placed at 145, 190 and 310 yards.
Since inches divided by yards equals minutes of angle, you can figure out how many MOA these targets are at a specific yardage.




89 fantastic Appleseeds since 2008/24 Libertyseeds!
Adventure Camp Director/Current Lead Rifle Instructor: NRA WC Raton,NM
New Mexico's first Rifleman: Sept. 2008 NRAWC
Their walls are filled with cannonballs, their motto is don't tread on me-Grateful Dead
Liberty is not a cruise ship full of pampered passengers. It is a man of war and we are all crew-Boston T. Party
"Make no mistake, when you cheer for the people of the American Revolution, you are cheering for traitors and criminals.
They broke the law, because liberty is always illegal"- Larken Rose

TaosGlock

Time to get to work on target detection and range estimation.
Targets are identified first, then plotted on a standard range sheet. Then the shooters go back and estimate the range of the targets .
They use either the front sight method or their scope reticle. The light changes rapidly so some have to be reacquired then ranged.
Then they get the true range with their rangefinder and note any discrepancies.
Since we had benches at this range, we merely set up shop here for this exercise.
Then it is time to shoot! The white firing line is in front of the bench where we shot prone between the benches.

This exercise will be a test of any optical equipment that the shooters brought.
One will also see the value of optics and thus the quality of their scopes, rangefinders and binocs.
Iron sight shooters are really tested!












89 fantastic Appleseeds since 2008/24 Libertyseeds!
Adventure Camp Director/Current Lead Rifle Instructor: NRA WC Raton,NM
New Mexico's first Rifleman: Sept. 2008 NRAWC
Their walls are filled with cannonballs, their motto is don't tread on me-Grateful Dead
Liberty is not a cruise ship full of pampered passengers. It is a man of war and we are all crew-Boston T. Party
"Make no mistake, when you cheer for the people of the American Revolution, you are cheering for traitors and criminals.
They broke the law, because liberty is always illegal"- Larken Rose

TaosGlock

A Mil-Dot reticle also makes a quick and dirty ballistic drop reticle.
This is created by doing real world shooting. A computerized ballistic readout based on your load is merely a starting place.
These work great on torso sized targets.
Here is an example for my rifle. It works on 3 MOA targets just fine.
For 1000M or roughly 1125 yards, I use 6 power and the top of the duplex below the last Mil-Dot. Confirmed!



The data sheet can be transferred to your own secret code to fit inside the rear scope cover.

89 fantastic Appleseeds since 2008/24 Libertyseeds!
Adventure Camp Director/Current Lead Rifle Instructor: NRA WC Raton,NM
New Mexico's first Rifleman: Sept. 2008 NRAWC
Their walls are filled with cannonballs, their motto is don't tread on me-Grateful Dead
Liberty is not a cruise ship full of pampered passengers. It is a man of war and we are all crew-Boston T. Party
"Make no mistake, when you cheer for the people of the American Revolution, you are cheering for traitors and criminals.
They broke the law, because liberty is always illegal"- Larken Rose

TaosGlock

Off to the 1000M range! :~ :~

More data is acquired here. Meters are converted to yards to conform with the existing data in yards-a good exercise.
This static range also has steel from 200-500M with roughly 3-4 MOA steel.
Knowing the meters to yards conversion is necessary so you can calculate hit probability based on differences between the 2 systems.
This is naturally based on target size in relation to your rifle/ammo specs.
It may or may not matter on man sized targets. But out to how many yards?

308 caliber in bolt guns ruled for the most part.
Everyone scored on the White Buff and all hit the tiny 3 MOA rock next to the Buff!

Below this spotter/shooter team used a Scout set up with a 2X scope and a Savage Model 12. :---
All shooters ran the UD course like champs-true Rifleman indeed!


An LRB M1A with a Shepherd scope-an awesome set up in any Rifleman's book. :---


As is a suppressed 6.5 Grendel! :~


In the long shadows of the fading light, the last shots were taken at the infamous White Buffalo. The shooters data books were complete.
A full day at the NRA Whittington Center was about to end.


The sun may be fading on this last event at the NRA Whittington Center, but is only the beginning for this Unknown Distance course offered by Project Appleseed.
A huge thanks to the shooters who made this event possible!
As always, a big thanks to the NRA WC staff!

Our Founders would be proud that their shooting heritage is alive and well!
We can never repay their sacrifices they made to create this Nation :bow:

Charleston Heston statue in the last glory of the colorful sunset...along the historic Santa Fe Trail.

89 fantastic Appleseeds since 2008/24 Libertyseeds!
Adventure Camp Director/Current Lead Rifle Instructor: NRA WC Raton,NM
New Mexico's first Rifleman: Sept. 2008 NRAWC
Their walls are filled with cannonballs, their motto is don't tread on me-Grateful Dead
Liberty is not a cruise ship full of pampered passengers. It is a man of war and we are all crew-Boston T. Party
"Make no mistake, when you cheer for the people of the American Revolution, you are cheering for traitors and criminals.
They broke the law, because liberty is always illegal"- Larken Rose

TaosGlock

I have no idea why the above posts are edited where both the copy and pics are gone? %) :slap:
Sorry....
89 fantastic Appleseeds since 2008/24 Libertyseeds!
Adventure Camp Director/Current Lead Rifle Instructor: NRA WC Raton,NM
New Mexico's first Rifleman: Sept. 2008 NRAWC
Their walls are filled with cannonballs, their motto is don't tread on me-Grateful Dead
Liberty is not a cruise ship full of pampered passengers. It is a man of war and we are all crew-Boston T. Party
"Make no mistake, when you cheer for the people of the American Revolution, you are cheering for traitors and criminals.
They broke the law, because liberty is always illegal"- Larken Rose

TaosGlock

It was an Imageshak problem, I just got an email from them apologizing. ???
89 fantastic Appleseeds since 2008/24 Libertyseeds!
Adventure Camp Director/Current Lead Rifle Instructor: NRA WC Raton,NM
New Mexico's first Rifleman: Sept. 2008 NRAWC
Their walls are filled with cannonballs, their motto is don't tread on me-Grateful Dead
Liberty is not a cruise ship full of pampered passengers. It is a man of war and we are all crew-Boston T. Party
"Make no mistake, when you cheer for the people of the American Revolution, you are cheering for traitors and criminals.
They broke the law, because liberty is always illegal"- Larken Rose

TaosGlock

89 fantastic Appleseeds since 2008/24 Libertyseeds!
Adventure Camp Director/Current Lead Rifle Instructor: NRA WC Raton,NM
New Mexico's first Rifleman: Sept. 2008 NRAWC
Their walls are filled with cannonballs, their motto is don't tread on me-Grateful Dead
Liberty is not a cruise ship full of pampered passengers. It is a man of war and we are all crew-Boston T. Party
"Make no mistake, when you cheer for the people of the American Revolution, you are cheering for traitors and criminals.
They broke the law, because liberty is always illegal"- Larken Rose