Bang! ... ... "HIT!" ... DING!
One of the coolest sounds in the world.
If you know, you know, and there's a bunch of shooters that now have first hand experience with the speed of sound.
On the Weekend of August 5th and 6th, Instructors from Project Appleseed conducted a Known Distance Clinic at the Upper Susitna Shooters Association range near Talkeetna, Alaska. https://susitnashooters.org/
On paper, the Known Distance Clinic is just another Appleseed event, but held at longer distances. It's so much more than that though. There's a deeper sense of camaraderie that gets built among the participants, instructor and student alike at a Known Distance Clinic; I can't put my finger on *why*, but there's no mistaking it.
Saturday morning got off to a rocky start. The illustrious Master Instructor (yours truly) couldn't figure out how to open the gate to the range, (it helps if you use the correct key, FYI) and before long, a line of cars was waiting at the gate- students eager to learn, and fellow Instructors anxious to get started.
Once we finally gained entry to the facility, we set up shop in the range clubhouse, where we covered the Three Tasks of a Rifleman:
- Target Detection
- Range Estimation
- Making the Shot (compensating for wind and gravity)
After learning the theory, it was time for the practical, hands-on portion, so we left the club house and made our way to the only publicly accessible 1,000yd range in Alaska, where a host of steel targets were arrayed.
As with every other Appleseed event, the first rounds fired at this Known Distance event were an exercise in determining each shooters maximum effective range- typically, this is done by using the "Hits Count!" target, affectionally known as the "Redcoats" target. That's 25m stuff, and simply wouldn't do... This class is for Full Distance! So, we set up full-size D-Silhouettes at 100, 200, 300 and 400 yards, and even had a shingle at 250 yards.
Back in 1775, some very talented Riflemen were able to engage what is described as a (roofing) shingle at 250 paces, with
very rudimentary muzzle-loading flint lock rifles.
Could our students hit the same target that their forbears did? They'd only get one shot, and it was to be the very first shot of the day. No warm ups, no sighter shots, cold bore, make it or break it.
For four of our students, the answer was yes; yes they could, indeed, join the illustrious group known as Morgan's Rifles. For some, this wasn't the first time they had engaged that target, and so they made the attempt at hitting the shingle from a standing position- alas, none were successful.
With the cold bore challenge out of the way, each student began engaging the rest of the Full Distance Redcoat- 3 rounds at 100 yards, 3 @ 200 yards, 3 @ 300 yards, and finally 3 rounds at 400 yards. A single miss stopped the test.. For some reason, the 100 yard target seemed impossible to consistently hit, even for those who had successfully engaged the shingle at 250 yards :slap: No shooter successfully engaged at 400 yards, indicating that some practice and data collection was in order.
The rest of Saturday was spent alternating between shooting at a paper target to get data, and then engaging steel targets to prove the data worked. A HUGE shoutout to Steve Weseman, who allowed us to use his personal Shotmarker electronic target system. (https://autotrickler.com/pages/shotmarker (https://autotrickler.com/pages/shotmarker))
The Shotmarker system provides near-instantaneous feedback on the location of the bullet impact, displaying the hit location on any wifi-capable phone, tablet or laptop screen. While not inexpensive, these electronic target systems have been a complete game changer when it comes to gathering data, representing a significant savings in time spent going back and forth to the targets, not to mention the savings in ammunition..
I'll let the other instructors chime in with their take on the weekend and post pictures.
-ItsanSKS
Had a great time at this shoot! Have to get some more practice in with the M1, and I'll try again next year to qualify with it. Here's some pictures from the event!
Two reasons I can think of for that deeper camaraderie: first, we instructors have been able to shoot alongside the participants (tho if we get many more participants to KDs that'll need to change), and secondly the immediate and obvious feedback from the steel and hit indicator lights brings a little bit of a spectator element we just don't get with paper targets
Thirdly there's a bit of "shared misery" when we're shooting "not under the overhead cover" in the baking sun and the pouring rain and the mud (and mosquitoes!).
We had a great time and continued to learn. Thank you to the instructors for all your efforts and time.
Looks like another great KD clinic at Talkeetna! I agree with 509gman: spectator appeal of bullets hitting steel is very satisfying. That's why I was attracted to metallic silhouettes so long ago. Dearly love the boom and clang of big bore steel slamming.
Anyway, hello to you all and congratulations to the new KD riflemen!
In Liberty,
Gus