Pelham, TN KD, June 14-15, 2022

[CokeGuy]

Following the one-day RKD at Pelham on Monday, we continued with a centerfire Known Distance on Tuesday and Wednesday. In spite of the crushing heat (106 degree F heat index), we had no complaints. It was, however, necessary to take frequent cool-down breaks in the air conditioned classroom and continually remind folks to drink lots of water. Ramblin' Wreck was the only individual who really suffered noticeably from the heat, and the pictures of his hat below shows what the sweltering heat can do to a new hat! Thanks to wileycoyote and others we made good use of the many popups to protect us from the direct sun, but very little breeze still made these two days a challenge. Also, thanks to wiley for trailering his 4-wheeler and to the range for lending us their trailer, we were able to shuttle folks to each of the 100, 200, 300 & 400 yard targets to examine sighters and to score targets at each stage. In spite of the heat, the Trail Life folks continued to camp on site through Wednesday night.

Thanks also to Maximum Ordinate who drove over from Alabama for a day and kindly volunteered to share his wisdom on trajectory with the group. With a full cadre of instructors (thanks to all), the attendees got lots of one-on-one attention. We again had 11 on the line with mostly .223s and a couple of 308s. Not only the heat, but also a number of the usual equipment problems forced us to proceed slowly. For most of the folks on the line, this was their first introduction to a centerfire event, and it had been a while since most had attended a 25 meter event. However, the 2 days proceeded safely. We did have one unusual ammo problem. One shooter had a bullet separation (not a squib) from the casing. The primer was not struck, and powder poured out of the casing. The bullet was lodged in the barrel. Thanks to the watchful eye of Leadslinger66 who noticed that the chamber flag would not fully insert into the chamber, the barrel was checked with a rod and the bullet removed. See the pictures below of the brand and the separated bullet.

Swiftbolt qualified with a respectable score. Tate (Aimbot) also qualified and was also the only one to score the Morgan shingle at 250 yards. But, all left with a lot more experience with their centerfire rifles and a lot of data on how to adjust at the KD actual distances. Mark, range instructor and manager, provided the group an unexpected, but much appreciated, opportunity to shoot at night with night vision and laser gear. All who participated were raving about the experience on Wednesday morning. Thanks so much, Mark! Then, later on Wednesday, 'Wreck uncased his Garand and gave everyone a chance to try their hand at 200 and 100 yards shooting steel with what he referred to as "a man's rifle". Another very enjoyable experience for these new shooters.  On Tuesday, Cokeguy presented the Battle of Alamance, followed on Wednesday by 'Wreck sharing the Battle of King's Mountain and Booney presenting key messages from Tomas Paine's pamphlet that changed the course of the war.

We hope to have another opportunity to do a KD with Trail Life folks and others in a bit milder weather and with gear working properly to provide them with the best opportunity to score the 40 hits for the KD Rifleman patch.