Saturday, Sept. 3, 2011 - Pennsylvania's first instructor KD day!
Hazy, 2-3mph breeze, temp was 70 in the morning, but rose to "pretty hot" in the afternoon, overall a very nice day for shooting.
Nine instructors got to shoot on the 500 and 1,000 yard ranges at the Mifflin County Sportsmen's Association, Lewiston, PA. This range is a real treasure located in Central PA halfway between State College and Harrisburg.
BigRob, Brickhouse, CharlieHotel, EZ3, lprgcfrank, Mal, sgtrock, stevepelle91, and SunnyAM tore up the mountainside with the big guns, 3 - AR15s, 1 -AR10, 1 - Mosin and 4 - M1s. What a beautiful sound!
We didn't have a 400yard target line and opted to use the 500 yard line for the 4th stage of the AQT. This obviously makes for quite a challenge. Sgtrock rose to that challenge and screwed 88% of his 62s into the black. His fellow instructors were suitably impressed. Of course he really outdid himself after hours when he put a round dead center into the 1,000 yard target with his Garand, offhand.
We all learned some valuable information about our rifles and made good use of that rare occasion when instructors get to do the shooting. If you have the facility available I highly recommend setting up a KD day. We can do much better as instructors with the first hand knowledge afforded us by quality days on the range.
Big thanks for the use of the SUVs. Checking targets would have been really difficult without them... Only Steve P has Steve Ps energy!
States represented:
NY 5 - 1 upstate, 1 Queens, 3 LI
PA 3
WV 1
Here's to many more!
-Tom
Many more indeed! It was a blast. Thanks Tom for getting it all set up and running the darn thing. Learned lots.
What's wrong Tom? It looks like you just got a whiff of Stoner's shooting glove.
(http://i938.photobucket.com/albums/ad229/brickhouse_RWVA/PA%20Instructor%20KD%20day/Tom.jpg)
The man himself. Showing how it's done.
1000 yard shot offhand!?
"Damn, this $hit works!" --Anonymous instructor present
(http://i938.photobucket.com/albums/ad229/brickhouse_RWVA/PA%20Instructor%20KD%20day/Stoner_offhand.jpg)
Charlie Hotel and SunnyAM
(http://i938.photobucket.com/albums/ad229/brickhouse_RWVA/PA%20Instructor%20KD%20day/Chris.jpg)
EZ3
(http://i938.photobucket.com/albums/ad229/brickhouse_RWVA/PA%20Instructor%20KD%20day/Lee.jpg)
SunnyAM... ready for her close up
(http://i938.photobucket.com/albums/ad229/brickhouse_RWVA/PA%20Instructor%20KD%20day/Ashley.jpg)
Tom,
Thanks for running the shoot. I need more practice!
Here is a link to the photo's and videos you took: http://gallery.me.com/franktait/100016 (http://gallery.me.com/franktait/100016)
Great to catch up with Brickhouse and EZ3 and with the NY contingent!
Whomever has my AR front sight tool (on the NRA bore gauge) - please give it to Sgt Rock and he can get it to me for the shoot we're working in Oct at Lewistown.
Frank
Mal shows great form-- hitting steel at 400 yards.
(http://i938.photobucket.com/albums/ad229/brickhouse_RWVA/PA%20Instructor%20KD%20day/Mal_offhand.jpg)
Steve
(http://i938.photobucket.com/albums/ad229/brickhouse_RWVA/PA%20Instructor%20KD%20day/Steve.jpg)
Hmm.. missing pics of BigRob, sorry.
High level consultations out from under natures heat lamp
(http://i938.photobucket.com/albums/ad229/brickhouse_RWVA/PA%20Instructor%20KD%20day/clubhouse.jpg)
Chainsaw
Thank you for putting this event together!!
This KD day in Mifflin County, PA was a day of great instruction and shooting.
Days like these are a necessity to our organization, I hope to see a few more of these every year in this neck of the woods,,,,
This range is an absolute beauty, with an entire mountain as a back stop, it is very impressive,,,
It was a very good time on the range, with people that I have worked with, and with people that I will work with in the future,
It is extremely important to be able to go to distance with our rifles to better get what we teach down to a working knowledge so we can as instructors be better teachers for our students at our shoots,, They deserve that,,, having a dead on zero at 25yds/m is so important, to be able to use the come ups to effectively engage targets at longer ranges, we had no wind to speak of so it was only focusing on everything else.
The off hand shots, are they practical, maybe not, but they sure are fun, and with a range like this you can't say no, I was thinking we should try to put together a fun day here and shoot a full AQT at distance off hand, that would prove to be interesting.
It may have been quite a drive for everybody to go there, but it was well worth the time and effort,
This is a day to remember and I will help out as much as you need me to for future shoots,
The Mifflin County Sportsmen's Association, Inc has my Thanks for letting us come and improve our knowledge and experience,,,
sgtrock
Thanks for organizing the shoot and for running it, Chainsaw. It was a humbling yet gratifying experience. Can we make it an annual event? Next time you need to shoot, though. Heck, we had plenty of instructors there.
Thanks Tom for running this event! Can't wait to do it again.
The Mifflin County Sportsman's Assoc. is indeed an awesome range.
I think these 'train-the-trainer' events are invaluable in keeping up the quality of our instruction. I'm always learning something new & i think this event has made me a better instructor. Hopefully i can pass that on to my students as well as you have. As EZ3 said, a humbling yet gratifying experience.
Thank you again!
mal
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