We had some really glorious weather for the first week of November, warm and partly sunny with plenty of wind to make the 200-yard Rifle range at Beaver Valley Rifle & Pistol Club a challenging experience for our Rimfire KD shooters. Depending on prevailing weather conditions, the range can either be a wind tunnel with the breeze at 12 o'clock or 6 o'clock, or it can be a swirling maelstrom with wind flags pointing in every direction but up. Saturday we experienced the latter.
Covering the lessons on IMC (as applied to KD marksmanship), the 3 Challenges of a Rifleman, Trajectory, Battle Sight Zero, and Managing Wind took a good bit of the morning. Then we did the Safety Briefing and brought rifles to the line for a shot at Morgan's Shingle. Nine of us took our cold bore shot, but only Yates hit the shingle. O0
Then we began trekking up and down the range, gathering data on come-ups or hold-overs at 50, 100, 150 and 200 yards. We broke for lunch before gathering DOPE at 200 yards. Yates regaled us with some Heritage vignettes (and even a poem!) and we covered Range Estimation, including a practical exercise. This is when the wind started to really act up. One of our ranging targets was blown down before everyone could get an estimate. Another followed shortly after the exercise was concluded.
Then we began the AQTs. One of the students opined that a 200-yard AQT is even more challenging than a full distance center fire KD. Ohio Piper took high score honors with a 44/50, followed by Tick Magnet with a 40/50. Most of the other students shot well, but not quite well enough to earn their Rimfire KD bars, yet. Everyone gained some valuable marksmanship experience that will benefit them in the future.
Thanks to BVRPC for letting us use their Rifle range for the day, and apologies to the members who wanted to take advantage of the beautiful weather but forgot to check the Club calendar. :(
Nicely done, gentlemen! And Thanks to our border-raiders!
Forty hits in fifty shots = Rifleman!
Looks like a great event!
A thoroughly enjoyable day. The host club facilities are great and EZ3 made my first RKD experience a good one.
Nice shooting Yates, Ohio Piper and Tick Magnet!