Project Appleseed

A True Weekend of Firsts!

    I'll start this AAR by saying how much of an honor it was to teach a wonderful group of eager students this past weekend at Patriot Academy in Fredericksburg, TX.  The five 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 five students signed up I asked several Instructors to attend and shoot the event for fun as well.  We had a healthy line of 10 shooters for the weekend, all of which helped each other learn and grow as Rifleman!  This ended up being a very fun event for us all.
   
    We started the weekend by discussing the additional challenges faced by a Rifleman when faced with 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 first AQT of the day by ~ 2:00 p.m.  We took our time and inspected our targets after each AQT stage.  As expected, Randy was able to obtain a Rimfire Known Distance score of 50 hits out of a possible 50 (score of 242 out of 250) on his first AQT of the weekend!!!  Way to go Randy!!!!!  Amazing to see as always!!!!

    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 Devin had also accomplished Rimfire Known Distance Rifleman with a solid 40/50 hits count.  The cool part was, this was actually Devin's first Rifleman score as well.  Double congratulations to Devin for earing both Rifleman and Rimfire Known Distance Rifleman at the same time.  Wonderful to see Devin!!!!!  There is certainly no further need for you to use a rifle rest when at the range, hahahahahaha!!!

    The next morning welcomed us with the same amazing warm weather and clear skies as the previous day, but this time a bit more wind than we expected.  I was happy our shooters would have an opportunity to put some of the wind correction estimation methods into action which were discussed on the previous day.  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.  Jonathan was able to make a solid hit on the shingle from the prone position making him our only Morgan's Rifleman for this weekend.  Way to go Jonathan!!!!! 

    After Morgan's Shingle introductory shot to Sunday morning, we began verifying our rifle's 50-yard zero status.  A number of students had to go through a number of re-zeroing strings due to the fact they had lost their initial zero from the day before.  This shows the importance of good equipment choices for the task of a 22LR Rimfire Known Distance Challenge.  A scope with a good zero stop adjustment and a absolute return to zero position is a MUST!!!!

    Once our rifles were re-zeroed the AQT marathon began for the day.  We made it only a short way through our first complete AQT when Jonathan C. raised his hand and asked us to check his rifle for possibility of a stuck "squib" round in his barrel.  Wow!!!!!  This young man correctly identified a squib and took appropriate action!!!!  Way to go Jonathan!!!!

    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 one individual can truly make.  Our example for this day was Timothy Murphy!  It was great to share with our students how important this one individual to not only to the Revolutionary War, but also his local community during the later parts of the war.  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.  Mark (our very own Fredericksburg Instructor – "El Tejano") was the participant who got closest to all of the range estimation targets.  Way to go Mark!!!!

    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.  While there were ample opportunities for our other students to achieve a Rimfire Known Distance Rifleman score, there were no more successful scores on Sunday.  This is of course not to say our students didn't improve.  Quite the opposite!  Dan was able to make a very close score of 38/50 by the end of the weekend.  Almost there Dan!  Keep at it sir.

    Actually, the previous statement was made all to soon!!!  On our very last AQT of the weekend, Mark was able to squeak under the wire with a 40/50 hit score.  Way to go Mark!!!!  Wonderful to see some Instructor representation in the Rifleman Score ranks!  Way to go!   

    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)
Mark – El Tejano (Instructor)
Dan – Danoman (IIT)
Zack – Zboy74 (IIT)
Colin – Apprentice Carpenter (Instructor)
Jerry – Twinkle Toes (IIT)

Thanks for the AAR, Chad! I have to say that I've never shot in so much wind before, and it was a great learning experience. I had a great time stepping out of my comfort zone as a shooter and challenging myself by shooting these little 22's at distance getting pushed around by the wind.

Already signed up for the next RKD in October, and have been acquiring more gear to make the rifle fit me better. Next up: more practice getting DOPE at range and an Appleseed in April to help me refine my fundamentals in the AQT. Might even squeeze in a centerfire KD as well, LOL!

See you all on the firing line!

- Jon

Looks like a great weekend of fun. I really like that range set-up and wow those were some good looking targets.