When it's your birthday where would you rather spend it? At the best shooting range in the country of course wearing a green hat! Absolutely! ^:)^
This was a one day event at the most advanced marksmanship park in the country before the weekend Instructor Boot Camp in Calera, Alabama hosted by Double Tap range. We had 10 shooters on the line to qualify, or re-qualify for most, and prove that what works at 25 works farther. Our instructors are expected to remain sharp and marksmanship skills are perishable if not frequently used. Special thanks to Appleseed's National Applecore co-ordinator Rascal21 for coming down to help work the event. HUZZAH lady!
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On a one day event we don't do a lot of classroom work because this is an event for folks who have already qualified Rifleman or who are very experienced shooters. Everyone on the line had already proven their skills at least at 25 meters. Classroom time focused only on what we intended to put into practice that day so the focus was on trajectory, battle sight zero and come-ups. Most of the trajectory block was delivered by SI Maximum Ordinate who did his usual excellent job of tieing together trajectory and come-ups while encouraging shooters to shoot BSZ if possible.
We then moved to Range 2, the only range with targets (electronic targets by the way) at 100 yards. We gave 20 minutes for sighters and then shot 4 Stage 1 qualifying rounds with scores to be carried back up to Range 1 where we would shoot stages 2-4 on e-targets out to 600 yards.
Yours truly was the line boss all day and everyone else got at least one chance to shoot a qualifying round. One returning Orange Hat, Agrivere, was on hand after me pestering him for months to get reengaged. He had a vacation from Appleseed for the last couple of years while he was chasing another program's highest award, the CMP Distinguished Rifleman badge. If you don't know what this is you should look it up. In short, he completed his mission a couple of months ago and showed up to help run the shoot and to re-qualify KD. Yep, even the best shooters in the country need to re-qualify.
Here is Agrivere's 100 yard prone sighter string I asked him to take. The X ring is one inch. This was his first shot. Close enough I suppose.
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Yeah, I see it. Does that thing glow in the dark. ;D Nice shooting!
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Everyone recorded scores at 100 yards and we moved gear to the long range and took a break for history and a block on reading the wind delivered by our newly minted CMP Distinguished Rifleman Agrivere. In the middle of my telling of the Battle of Alamance and subesequent Battle of King's Mountain I was rudely interrupted by my fellow SI Maximum Ordinate. Good thing he was bringing a peace offering or it could have turned out ugly. Not sure about that flyer though. A real buddy would have given me 10 in the scoring without the flyer. Everybody had cake with their sammich.
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After dinner and the block on wind by Agrivere, which was helpful since a couple of our stages would be at 600 yards, we got back on the line for stages 2-4. At this shoot I experimented with something we hadn't done before on sighters. Instead of treating this e-KD like a paper KD (go to prep, shoot 5 rounds, cease fire, clear the line, look at holes, go to prep, shoot 5 rounds, repeat, repeat) I decided to give shooters up to 20 minutes to shoot as many sighters as they needed since there was no need to walk down range to check/paste holes. This turned out to be more efficient overall in my opinion. Did I mention NO WALKING? Shooters recorded data at 200 then shot the stage. We did the same thing at 300 for stage 3 and again for stage 4 at 300 (no sighters needed) on a reduced target. This is where our first group of KD Riflemen appeared. Nashville Stage rang up a 41, Old Navy Doc a 45 and Woodstock 16 a 46/50. Two men proved that they know VERY well what they are about with both Agrivere and Maximum Ordinate shooting it clean with a perfect KD score of 50/50. Nice going guys.
Nashville Stage
(http://i.imgur.com/bp4x8cW.jpg)
Old Navy Doc
(http://i.imgur.com/uEl9FuZ.jpg)
Woodstock16
(http://i.imgur.com/8iyIi7c.jpg)
Agrivere 50/50
(http://i.imgur.com/gZuPXhU.jpg)
Maximum Ordinate, the cake bearer, 50/50.
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Before the day ended we shot another AQT round at a reduced course at 300 yards and two AQT's with stage 4 at 600 yards.
Overall, in addition to the two perfect scores by Agrivere and MO, Nashville Stage qualified on every AQT at both 300 and 600 yards, Old Navy Doc went 3 for 4 Woodstock 16 qualified twice and our iron(s) man of the day award goes to Cossack for re qualifying with a 40 using his A2 with iron sights. We had several more who were very, very close and I think we'll see them back on the line soon. If I've missed any of these please let me know and I'll correct the record.
Cossack re-quals with Irons.
(http://i.imgur.com/Oh4bhZ0.jpg)
We had a great time and I had a very special birthday. Thanks for showing up y'all and shoot straight till we get together again.
Following are a couple more random pics and if you took any please feel free to post them.
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On anybody else that hat would look funny but it looks good on you. ;D Oh, and remind me to quit eating so much cake. Thanks to Bluegrass Colonel for the pictures.
(http://i.imgur.com/39HNN35.jpg)
Wreck
QuoteOn anybody else that hat would look funny but it looks good on you.
Yeah, but I got a free bowl of soup with that hat...
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Thanks to Ramblin' Wreck for organizing & running a great KD. This was a big day of firsts for me: first KD, first time shooting past 100 yards, first Appleseed using my brand-new AR, and first time at the Talladega CMP range. It was great meeting a bunch of instructors who I hadn't gotten the pleasure of seeing face-to-face before. Special thanks to Agrivere, who not only loaned me one of his shooting jackets to use for the day, but let me shoot an AQT stage using his amazing Kawasaki green AR when my rifle's gas block decided to walk off the job. Congrats to Maximum Ordinate & Agrivere for shooting a perfect score! You guys give me something to look up to. Now that I've got a list of things to work on, I can't wait for the next time!
It was a blast, literally :snipersmi with the .30 cal!! Happy Birthday again, Wreck.
Max Ord: Strong, the family resemblance is, with that one.
Super range, great fellowship, and an excellent lead in to the IBC later that evening.
Cossack's talk reminded us again of why we do this. Thanks, buddy, glad to have made your acquaintance. :F