Project Appleseed

Last weekend we held our annual Mile High Known Distance shoot at the beautiful Ben Lomond Gun Club in Ramah, CO!

The weather forecast was classic springtime in Colorado. Maybe warm and nice, maybe torrential rain. However, the firing line is covered at BLGC! Ben Lomond Gun Club is a world class facility and we greatly appreciate all they do for Appleseed in letting us use their range.

On day 1, we kicked off the weekend shooting Morgan's Shingle! The satisfying PING of rounds impacting steel rang out across the range as we had three students nail the shingle. Asher, Steve and Keith were the newest members of Morgan's Rifle Corps! Everyone certainly gained a newfound appreciation for the level of marksmanship required to be a rifleman during the American Revolution.

We moved on to an introduction of the three challenges of a rifleman so everyone could get familiar with the plan for tackling those challenges throughout the weekend. We quickly reviewed sling use and the prone position as a refresher for everyone before getting sighted in at 100 yards. Once everyone was zeroed, we reviewed the standing position and shot stage 1 of the AQT.

We then spent some time deep diving trajectory and ballistics and how to effectively collect data. The wind was calm on Saturday morning, so we got onto the range and started gathering trajectory data and formulating come ups and refining those. We talked about effective data gathering and the importance of data and recording meaningful data. We started with the standard come ups, which got everyone on paper and with a little refinement, everyone was making good hits. Once everyone had solid come ups, we reviewed sitting and kneeling positions, transitions and shot each stage of the AQT before moving on to a new distance.

By lunchtime, the wind was becoming a factor that couldn't be ignored, so over lunch we talked about wind, making wind calls and heard history about The Battle of Alamance and the Forage Wars.

After lunch, we spent the remainder of the afternoon shooting the AQT, refining come ups and looking at how wind could affect making the shot at the various distances. We had to take a brief rain delay between stages 3 and 4. After we wrapped up the AQT, riflemen emerged!  Matt and Andy took home a Known Distance rocker! We ended the day there with everyone eager to get another chance to shoot the score on day 2.

On day 2, we kicked off again by giving everyone the chance to shoot the shingle. Bill, Andy, Matt and Keith made the cold bore shot on day 2!

We dove back into practice after a reconfirmation of zero at 100 yards. We did some additional data confirmation out to 400 yards and after everyone felt comfortable we dove into a couple more AQTs. After the dust settled, we had more riflemen! Jon, Steve, Brian, Keith and Bill all shot the score. We broke for lunch between AQTs and heard the stories of the Battle of Trenton, Timothy Murphy, The Battle of King's Mountain and Ephraim Bank. In the midst of all that, we dove into the one challenge of the rifleman we hadn't covered in detail up to that point: range estimation. We covered techniques for range estimation and battlesight zero along with some equipment considerations relating to both. Everyone had a chance to practice range estimation with a practical exercise to allow students to measure their reticles or sights and employ our range estimation formulas.

By midafternoon, we could see thunderclouds building. The sky grew very dark and out of the blue we were hit with gale force winds and driving rain and hail. Luckily we took shelter under the cover, but after about 40 minutes, the range was completely flooded, and with about 2 inches of hail covering most everything, we decided to call it quits for the weekend.

Despite having to end a little early, I think everyone came away with a wealth of knowledge about addressing the three challenges of a rifleman, about their equipment and about the importance of marksmanship during the American Revolution.

A big thanks to our students for spending the weekend with us at this KD. Your positive attitudes and willingness to learn made the weekend really enjoyable. It was a great shooting with you!

Many thanks to our team of instructors: bravhrt, Hezekiah75, happy_camper, Humongous and codefogey for making this event happen. It was a great weekend!

Morgan's Riflemen!

KD Qualified!

Action shots!

More action shots!

The crazy weather....

Much gratitude to Ben Lomond Gun Club for the use of their awesome facility and for the cover that was installed last year on the 400 yard range.
Traditionally shielding us from the blazing high plains sun, it served well to protect us from an intense rain/hail storm.

As always, kudos to Shoot Boss Lead Sled for running another spectacular KD event.
Your passion for long distance marksmanship and dedication to the principles of liberty truly shine through. 

Thanks also to the CO cadre for their outstanding performance, displaying knowledge, skill, and adaptability.

Kudos to our shooters, who showed that they knew very much what they were about.

Number One star of the event goes to 11 year old Asher, who was chosen to fire the very first shot of the weekend.
He settled in behind the .223 Howa 1500 Mini, and cooler than the back side of the pillow, center punched Morgan's shingle!

As the 250th anniversary of our Independence Day approaches, consider the words of founding father Samuel Adams:
If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude than the animating contest of freedom, go from us in peace.
We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you.
May your chains sit lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen.

Aim small, miss small.

Thank you to Colby and the Most Excellent Cadre of Instructors for their educational presentations on a multitude of marksmanship topics as well as our American Revolutionary War heritage. You all went above and beyond in making sure that every shooter had their rifle and load dialed in perfectly. You kept it Safe and Chill ! The coaching and knowledge shared with all the participants certainly contributed to making us better Rifleman!

Ben Lomand Gun Club is a gem on the high plains of Colorado! Having a nicely bermed 400 yard range with a covered shooting line all to ourselves for the weekend made for a great experience.

I (and I suspect the entire class) had a great time and learned a tremendous amount about shooting at longer distances and our great nation's history so a big THANK YOU for a fantastic well spent weekend!!

Rolling into the parking area at BLGC on Saturday morning, I spied the Project Appleseed flag and the black version of the Gadsden flag flying high on the long flagpole mounted on Hezekiah75's camping trailer. Huzzah!

No AI or fancy effects were used in the production of this photo.
The sky *is* actually this blue at Ramah, CO (2020 pop 111), the center of the universe.