We scheduled this shoot hoping for lots and lots of snow and cold weather. While we got a little bit of the cold, and some residual snow from prior storms, we did have lots and lots of mud. And not just your regular mud, but mud that was ~4 inches deep in places, and exceptionally sticky. See pics below. Shooters would be 2-3" taller every hundred yards they walked. Columbia Falls had "AquaSeed" a few years ago. Great Falls had "MudSeed" this weekend.
Nine hearty Montanans joined me at the GFSSC Silhouette Range this weekend for our first KD Winterseed in Great Falls. Special thanks to Dave (our newest blue hat!) for helping so much with setup, teardown, watching the line, and just general support throughout the weekend. Shooters spent two full days in the mud and snow gathering dope for their rifles, estimating wind speed and direction, and making hits out to 400 yards. We had an excellent group of shooters that were all eager and willing to learn, and help one another out. I like to think that no one shooter made a wind call, but rather the group made a wind call. Wind calls were democratic, and it was genuinely satisfying to watch the group make better and better wind calls as the weekend progressed. I was very pleased with everyone's progress, and I know that while some were disappointed with their performance on the KD AQTs, I know that everyone left with a better understanding of their rifle, their dope, and how to read the wind better. I had an absolute blast with the shooters, and I look forward to our next KD shoot in Great Falls! Keep your eyes peeled on the schedule and forum for the next date (we're looking at June...)
Pics!
Take note of Mark and Jared writing down their dope. Remember kids, if you don't write it down, you're just turning money into noise.
More pics.
A wind with more bite seemed to get higher estimated speed.
Once you get over the mud, we had a pretty plush weekend, thanks very much to the Landsiedel support group who brought chili on Saturday and chicken enchiladas on Sunday.