++++Scoutseed. Jeff Cooper Range. NRA Whittington Center. Sept. 24-25,2016

[TaosGlock]

Just rolling in from another back to back, 2 Day Appleseed, this time, with one of the finest group of young men: The Boy Scouts of America.

We held the event at the prestigious and very private Jeff Cooper Range.

This range may well be the new home for Project Appleseed here at NM's home range.

Sunrise at the NRA Whittington Center.


The Cooper cabin known as "Jeff's Place".


Inside...
A perfect marriage: Cooper and Appleseed.


Cooper's motto on his trademark logo: The Raven (his symbol for excellence) with his motto: "Diligentia, Vis, Celeritas"...accuracy, power, speed."
A Rifleman can't get much better....


A very patriotic place indeed.
We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of happinessâ€"That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed, that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its Foundation on such Principles, and organizing its Powers in such Form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and happiness.


Scoring AQT's inside the Cooper cabin.


Founders flags outside the Cooper cabin.



Jon does an outstanding job on the First Strike of the Match. Paul Revere's Ride on the fateful night.


...more later.

[TaosGlock]

Outside the range goes out to what we call "The Rifleman's Quarter Mile".
While we do not use the term "weapon" at our shoots, Jeff Cooper was spot on when he said:

"Personal weapons are what raised mankind out of the mud, and the rifle is the queen of personal weapons."



So we had to get a bit creative for the firing line. Use what you got. Adapt, persist and overcome: The Rifleman's motto.


The most beautiful classroom around. Jones does a review of Safety Rules.
Jeff Cooper said, "Safety is something that happens between your ears, not something you hold in your hands."



40+MPH winds hammered the range while setting up the backers and steel.


On the line with the Scouts. During prep period before the slow prone. The brought rifles of various styles.
Jeff Cooper said: "A fine marksman with a second rate rifle is better than the reverse."



Taos_Dovahokiin121 and Jones explain the AQT.

[TaosGlock]

The "Soul and the Spirit" of Jeff Cooper definitely resides here at this range.


The sheer beauty of the Cooper Range at the NRA Whittington Center has no peer...even out West...along the historic Santa Fe Trail.
A Rifleman's paradise, the Scouts/instructors go downrange to check AQT's:


Last target of day 2. Cleaned it!! Congrats! And with a tube fed rifle!!
Take that King George! Your Regular Army is toast!


Last men standing! About a third of the Scout group from Colorado shown here.


Standing instruction with desert_diver and BlueFeather.


Don't forget to let down and rest, but hold your position tightly.
Take a few breaths, rise up, find your NPOA and squeeze the trigger as the front sight just comes into the target. Timing is everything.


Rack grade rifles. 2 M1's and a Mauser in 8mm. Ready for the Rifleman's Quarter Mile Shooting contest.
A 10/22 waits for the 100 yard steel shoot. More center fires will appear later during the KD portion.


Jones on the line. The famous Cooper Rifle Walk is behind him on the bermed road.
We safely curved the line slightly to allow more spacing between shooters and to avoid a Pinon tree down range.

[TaosGlock]

Jeff Cooper said: "Pick up a rifle and you instantly change from a subject to a citizen."
These "citizens" got a flag prize for smallest group and most centered group. Congrats!

These flags are more than just colorful fabric. They represent the blood shed to secure our liberties!

Words like "live free or die" and ''give me liberty or give me death"
were not just patriotic slogans bandied about like bumper stickers on todays cars.
They represented a code that the colonists lived by.
A code which was the essence of the American Revolution, not the Revolutionary War.
There is a difference between the two. Do you know what it is?
John Adams defined these terms after the Revolutionary War.



Jeff Cooper. Born May 10, 1920. Died September 25, 2006.
Exactly 10 years ago from this shoot. RIP Col. Cooper. We got it from here.


One of the last pics of Jeff Cooper at the NRA Whittington Center.

[TaosGlock]

BlueFeather delivers another impassioned message to the Scouts.


KD time. 2 Garands go head to head on the 500 yard steel IDPA man.


At 200 yards. A backer, man size steel and a smaller pop up that represents a man size target at 400 yards.
Garands, M1A and Service rifle style AR's with the 200 yard peep engaged, get to check near zero/far zero.
Then it is off to the rifleman's Quarter Mile.


BlueFeather watches over a shooter with an AR-15. Shots to 500 yards are a piece of cake.


Instructor/Shooter swap rifles. A Rifleman should be able to pick up any rifle and make hits.


A true sub MOA rifle. A 5R in 308. Now where did that chamber flag go!


This is how you adjust the rear sight drum on a Garand.  Taos_Dovahokiin121 gets it done for one of the Scout's Dad.

[TaosGlock]

Some of the steel we shoot. 22 shooters will love this range as well as the centerfire folks!
A birds eye view to 500 yards. We have plan for a 1000 M target!


These 100 yard targets represent mansize at 200 yards. The rimfire shooters get distance, wind and NPOA on this one!


Our famous 100 yard spinning groundhog target.
A group of rimfire shooters can make this spin at many RPMS once they get their wind, NPOA and rifleman's cadence down!


Below, we have these similar man size targets at 200, 300, 400 and 500 yards.
This is the 500 yard Rifleman's Quarter Mile target.
The center swinger is about 8 inches-quick how many MOA is that?
A modern day Murphy Shingle/head shot for an accurate bolt gun.
You can see it swing back after a hit!


To give perspective, that famous Santa Fe Trail landmark, Red River Pk., is about 1250 yards above BlueFeather's head.

[TaosGlock]

Another fine Appleseed under the belt with some of the finest folks on earth!
Here we are almost packed up and ready to head back thru the Sangre de Cristo's to our home.



Our schedule for 2017 will be up in a couple weeks.
Our next Appleseed will be at this range in February.
I can guarantee we will be in warmer clothes for the February Winterseed!



A huge thanks to the NRA WC staff for all their support!

A huge thanks to our founders for committing treason against the King to secure our liberties.

And an especially big thanks for our instructor staff of Jones, desert_diver and Taos_Dovahokiin121 for their commitment....and to my lovely wife Gillian aka BlueFeather.

[desert_diver]

The Cooper range is quite fine - in some respects, superior to the Coors range as a venue for Appleseed.

I think every Rifleman should own a copy of Cooper's "The Art of The Rifle"