Project Appleseed

We have far too few opportunities to shoot at distances greater than 25M. The Flagler Gun & Archery Club in Bunnell, Florida gave us an opportunity to shoot 200 Yard Rimfire Known Distance. This is welcoming club with excellent, well-maintained facilities. (Their porta-potties even smell good!) The new clubhouse contains a classroom we were allowed to use for our morning lecture before going to the firing line. That was a blessing since we  are having a cold spell in Florida with morning temps in the 30's and 40's. Our normal morning temps this time of year are 50-60. Weather, while cold early in the day, remained dry and pleasant as the sun rose.
 
The 200 yard range we had at our disposal was perfect for ten shooters. Because of its bowling alley  layout the wind was mostly head wind in the morning switching to a tail wind in the afternoon. Not much of a wind challenge but more fun as the shooters concentrated on their come-ups. Ah, come-ups. Some folks either didn't believe my warnings about how easy it is to get lost in the dial or they just had bad luck. Several saw their hits wander as the day progressed. We took extra opportunities to re-zero and got some back on track. Believe me, KD is  pretty technical, but simple if you follow the directions closely.

Five of the ten students plus one Instructor scored 40/50 or better. Kevin had earned the KD Rocker before at 100 yards. The first AQT was the high score for all of them. Bruce, 9mm4545 turned in a perfect 50 score.

Sunday morning everyone accepted the challenge to mark the shingle at 125 yards.
Bruce and Bud were successful at the cold bore prone shot and joined Morgan's Rifle Company. Huzzah!

Many thanks to the Flagler Gun Club for their hospitality allowing us to use the classroom and their only long range rifle bay. We look forward to returning soon.

Photos are available at:  https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjCK8ib

This was a fantastic event! Rimfire KDs are a lot of fun, but often prove quite the challenge.

A big thank you to Shoot Boss Dennis for running the event. Extra special thanks to Glenn (FLawyer) and Bruce (9mm4545) for setting up the range on Friday.

The Flagler Gun & Archery Club should be proud of their facilities. This was an amazing place to hold an RKD.

As I struggled my way out of bed on Monday I was reminded how physically challenging a KD event is on aging bodies! The club allowed us the use of a couple golf carts and that made a huge difference by the end of the day. Aches and pains aside, I had a marvelous time and learned bunches.

Things I will try to remember for the next RKD will be to make sure that sight adjustments are made and checked twice (thrice?) before each stage. We shot AQTs using either the doubling of Stage 4 points or firing 20 rounds in stage 4 (shooting every stage straight through with 20 rounds on Stage 4) and totaling all the hits at once. While the latter method saves having to paste the target after each of the first three stages it removes much of the feedback gained by checking the target after each stage. In particular seeing the effects of wind at the longer distances is hard when the shots from all the stages are mixed together. It's telling that the high scores were achieved when we checked and pasted the target after each stage. The Appleseed guideline of "simplicity and precision" certainly applies when a moving firing line is required. By Sunday afternoon the kit I dragged around had been pared down substantially! Last advice to my future self is to ramp up dry practice starting weeks, if not months, before the next KD, especially the getting up and transitioning down part! Kudos to the instructors who made it possible. Can't wait to do it again.

Sounds like a great shoot.  Congrats on all the RKD Riflemen, especially the perfect score!     

I want to add my sincere thanks to Dennis and everyone who attended and contributed to this superior event!  While I'm still "mathematically challenged," I'm getting a grip on it and will continue to strive to be "better than myself." I want to send a special thanks to Bruce, Glenn, John and Pete who have carried me and encouraged me!  I look forward to our next meeting.

I will echo the gratitude for the Shoot Boss and to Flagler Gun and Archery Club. Jaron (2BearArms) and I enjoyed visiting our "home range away from home" in Bunnell. It was such a great weekend spent with some great guys and talented marksmen.

We could not have asked for better weather.

Jaron and I already have a plan of how to start working on our own Come Up tables in preparation for any chance we get for an RKD in the future!

Great event, great range, awesome instructors!

This sounds like a great event!  CONGRATS Bruce on your perfect score -- and all the others who scored Rifleman -- and of course those who made great progress!

Also had a great crew of instructors!  Wish we could've made it.

Whoa, perfect score- congrats!

Any chance you'd snap a pic of the target? I'd love to see it.

Sadly I don't believe any target photos were taken. We shot the first AQT by first verifying the 50 yard zero before shooting stage one. Shoot a sighter group at the next distance, then shoot the stage. Back up another 50 yards and repeat the process. After each stage the target was scored and pasted. By doing this process it made it harder to mess up and the come ups for each stage were spot on and the wind corrections were confirmed by the sighter groups. The club provided a stretch golf cart which did remove a fair bit of walking back and forth to the target line. Tellingly, the best score of my weekend was done earlier in the day before fatigue began to creep in.