A Weekend of Blessings!
I'll start this AAR by saying how much of an honor it was to teach a wonderful group of eager students at Patriot Academy in Fredericksburg, TX during our October Rimfire Known Distance Event. The students who dedicated their weekend to attending our Rimfire Known Distance clinic were asked to absorb a lot of new information quickly and put it into action. Our event line had the capacity to hold 12 shooters, but with only nine students showing up it gave us plenty of room to breathe easy on the shooting line. Speaking of breathing, the weekend started out with barely a breath's movement in terms of wind so we knew this weekend had great potential from the start!
We began the weekend by discussing the additional challenges faced by a Rifleman when in real world scenarios. Target Detection was explained in simple terms and examples provided. Similarly, Range Estimation was introduced and quickly overviewed with the knowledge a more detailed discussion would happen later in the weekend. We immediately began to focus on the final challenge of a Rifleman – "Making The Shot". We introduced the concepts of ballistic trajectory and how it can be accounted for and used to a Rifleman's advantage. We also briefly discussed wind corrections and specifically the accommodation which need to be made for 22LR cartridges.
Once the introductory information was provided, we began the task of zeroing our rifles at the 50 yrd mark. We did so because the ballistic maximum for the majority of 22LR cartridges occurs at this range. Once zeroed, longer distance targets can be addressed by properly adjusting the rifle's sighting system. Our students were able to accomplish the 50 yrd zeroing quickly which allowed us to transition to further ranges to witness the ballistic drop. We made note of the ballistic drop at 100, 150 and 200 yrd distances so our students had appropriate information for the necessary sighting system adjustments.
While the previously mentioned activities could be summarized quickly, they actually took more time than you may realize to finish. As such, we were able to finally get to our last zeroing session at 200 yrds. finished around ~2:00 p.m. We took our time and made sure all shooters were comfortable with their distance related zeros before moving on to the actual AQT. With everyone's rifles now dialed-in and key information gathered we proceeded to work through our first AQT of the weekend. We did allow inspection at each stage so participants could se how things looked. Oddly, as we worked our way back from 50 yrds. to 200 yrds. one participant's rifle decided it did not like its extractor and summarily launched it into the void!!!! Ryan finally got it diagnosed on the first 200yrd string. Luckily, Gus, was able to help him with a temporary rifle to complete the day's tasks. Sad part was, this was a brand new 10/22!!!!
Our second AQT of the weekend went much quicker since we no longer inspected our targets after each stage. This allowed our final AQT of the day to finish up right on time at 4:00 p.m. When we went to inspect the targets it was great to see Josh had accomplished Rimfire Known Distance Rifleman with a solid 43/50 hits count. The cool part was, this was actually Josh's first Rimfire Known Distance event. He absolutely upholds his Jones' family name with regard to marksmanship. His father Richard Jones in the Waco, TX area is one of our Instructors with a very high level of natural marksmanship. We wrapped up this day on a very high-note and decided to go grab some good food with friends in town.
The next morning welcomed us with the same amazing warm weather and clear skies as the previous day, and the wind was actually more calm than before which was hard to believe. The first challenge our students faced this morning was making a solid hit on a Cedar Shingle sized target at 125 yrds. properly scaled to replicated Captain Daniel Morgan's qualifying target to become one of his company of Sharp Shooters. Each student was directed to take a single shot at the target and see if they could mark themselves as one of Captain Morgan's Rifleman or a cook helping the cause from behind the lines. The challenge proved itself to be greater than most of our participants expected. Some students forgot to properly compensate for the new range or greatly over corrected. One of our Instructors, Gus, was able to connect with a solid hit on the shingle from the STANDING position making him our only Morgan's Rifleman for this weekend. Way to go Gus!!!!! Amazing as always sir to see your skills put into practice!!!
After Morgan's Shingle introductory shot to Sunday morning, we began verifying our rifle's 50-yard zero status. Luckily, there was not a lot of time needed for this task as all of our students had not needed to make any serious changes to their rifles in the meantime. We got this accomplished rather quick and moved to completing our Stage 1 of our Sunday morning AQT. Once completed, we backed up to 100 yrds. and verified groups again just to make sure everyone was happy with their information collected from the previous day. We then moved on to Stage 2. Once completed, we proceeded to do a similar exercise for 150 yrd. and 200 yrd. distances.
We rocked through two full AQTs before needing a break for lunch. While at lunch we talked about the important Rifleman in history and the difference they truly make. Our example for this day was the Battle of King's Mountain. It was great to share how the "Over The Mountain" men had avoided the errors made a decade before when facing the British and prevailed. This battle was a key pivotal moment in the British plan to conquer the southern half of the colonies.
While everyone was finishing their lunches, I introduced our students to the concept of Range Estimation. I provided them with a number of theoretical examples and how to quickly do some Rifleman math to determine the distance to an object of known size using our rifle's sighting system. Once outside again, we ran through a range estimation exercise with a number of random objects placed down range. Scot was the participant who got closest to all range estimation targets. He did an excellent job of putting a difficult concept into immediate practice. Way to go Scot!!!
The weekend wrapped up after completing 5 AQTs on Sunday after already having completed 2 AQTs on the previous day. Our students most certainly got their workout in for the weekend completing more than 14,000 steps easily for each day marching up and down the amazing 200 yrd range at Patriot Academy. Luckily there were ample opportunities for our other students to achieve a Rimfire Known Distance Rifleman score and two more participants took advantage of this. Nathaniel, one of our local IITs, came out and requalified as Rimfire Known Distance qualified with a 43 using a bolt action (his usual rifle of choice). Way to go sir!!!!! And I'm happy to say, Scot, was also able to make Rifleman – Rimfire Known Distance with a great score of 41/50 hits. This is actually Scot's third or fourth Appleseed event – ever!!! Way to go sir!!!!
It was a wonderful challenge for our students during this event and an amazing privilege to teach a great group of attentive and eager students. I hope to see all of them return and complete the 22LR Rimfire Known Distance Challenge and achieve a Rifleman score.
Chad Stovell – GenX Minuteman
Event Cadre
Chad Stovell – GenX Minuteman (Shoot Boss)
Mike – Gus (Instructor)
Josh – cypherpunk (Instructor)
Photos will hopefully follow shortly. Sadly, Apple has changed their default image format. I didn't realize all of my photos for this event were taken in Apple .HEIC format.
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More photos to follow shortly. There is a 10 image conversions/day limit on the free HEIC to JPG converter I am having to use.
That is a really nice range. I love the rim fire KD's they are a challenge but you learn so much.