****3 Day KD Event Raton, New Mexico NRA Whittington Center Sept. 12-14, 2014***

[TaosGlock]

BF and I are just rollin' in to Taos from another fantastic 3 day centerfire known/unknown full distance camp.
This is the 8th event of this type we have done at the NRA Whittington Center here in Raton, NM.

Awesome in every regard.

We had a fantastic group of instructors shoot with us who were from from CO, NM, CA and OK.
And a fantastic group of non-instructor shooters, all from New Mexico.

Below are 2 group shots.



And our only full distance rifleman, Anthony aka SKSRifleman. Huzzah! He did it twice with his M1A!


...more later.

[TaosGlock]

On Day 1, a cold mist like drizzle, not quite turning to snow descended to the hi country of the NRA WC.



Down coats and cold weather rain gear were donned and the show went on.



Target detection was the first subject taught followed by range estimation.


Shooting in the cold misty weather sure beats the scorching heat of summer!
BF does not agree though!



Long Rifle helps Dan with his Mosin Nagant, a most capable rifle even in todays world of synthetic and stainless.


...more to follow.

[pennys dad]

By far the most excellent Riflemen's Boot Camp/Known Distance Long Distance Learn a Bunch Class I have taken!

Thank You Gill, Dan and Alan for being a Cut Above the Rest as Senior Instructors.

I have a few pictures to add:

Some of the Locals:









Discussion on Wind



Dan, Alan and 400 yards of targets.





Math: Inches\Yards = Minutes





Fun Time After Class

[TaosGlock]

The weather did clear and warm up. This is a typical sunrise at the NRA WC.


Along the historic Santa Fe trail:


With 33,300 acres at the NRA WC it is a perfect place for a Rifleman to learn the fundamentals of field expedient riflery. BF opens the gate to the mere 500 acres we will use for this course.


Telephoto showing the immensity of the range.


The 4 MOA squares at 300 yards. Shooters get data for their rifle, then record the data and eventually make a chart for their own come ups.



The firing line is moved to the field to shoot the 400 yard stage.
BlueFeather as LB.


Warm up shooting for the FD AQT on the Greencoats.
pennys dad below:


Soon the 4 MOA squares will come down and the typical "repair centers" will be put up.
BlueFeather finishes the last 400 yard repair center, shortly after sunrise and before the shooters arrive.


James in seated position with a Mosin Nagant.


At the 400 yard backers:

[TaosGlock]

 Off to the 1125 yard White Buffalo.
Why not standing at 1000M? It is a 6 1/2x 8 MOA Target. James gets it done with his Mosin.


Jeff and Dan use an M1 Garand and  FAL in prone as Jeff and I spot. We all will hear the "whock" after about 4 seconds or less:




What about me? SKSRifleman used his M1A and later his Garand to make hits on the White Buff.

Note: We shoot at yards over at the AQT range and shoot at meters on this range. Some sights are in M and some in Y.
Shooters are given a small M to Y/Y to M card to help convert.
Your rifles sights may be either, so you better know how to convert.

[Nero]

I am officially jealous.

And I am so stealing that windage chart when we manage to get real KD running up here.

[TaosGlock]

The last couple hours are the KD final exam so to speak. An Unknown Distance exercise.
This is a fun teamwork/teambuilding activity that is in reality the raison d'être of the entire 3 days.
It combines all the POI into one exercise, IOW the 4 duties of a Rifleman.

In the future I could see this as a whole day advanced KD class.

The group was split into 2 teams. Each team had one well cammoed repair center size steel target to find, range and shoot.
It was essential they stay in one small area on the firing for safety and to see the target. When done, they rotated to the other side to find the other target.
Each shooter gets 3 shots. Team with the most hits/both targets win. Each shooter must use his rifle.
No gaming allowed by picking best scoped rifle, top shooter, etc.
Remember, this is a real world learning experience not a game, though it is the fun highlight of the 3 days.
And it brings out teamwork and comradery that makes for a great event and builds a strong IC.

We had 2 Mosins, various M1A's and  M1Garands, AR's and a FAL.



James scores a hit on his Mosin!


As does Anthony on his M1A. Others made hits as well!




To save time, after each team ID'd their target we told them the range.

The target was at a yardage that was not on even increments of 100 yards like the static range AQT's. IOW, our goal was to create a real world field scenario. It is absolutely essential you have your come ups for your particular rifle and load for ranges to 400 yards.

If the target was 600 something yards then you would have to extrapolate from the standard "Big 3" come ups as we did not get data for ranges beyond 400 yards. But for this event we kept the targets within their data (100-400 yards) points. Next time that will change and we will be adding 2 more targets at each station, one of which they must figure the range on their own. Again, we told them the range simply to speed things up so we did not have to triage any precious POI during the previous days.

The vast acreage of the NRA WC is a true UD Rifleman's instructional base. The 300 yard berm is the staging area.
Max target range from this point would be 600+ yards.
Below David takes his turn with the M1A and Jeff gets ready with his FAL.

[BlueFeather]

The final exam was so much fun!  It was great to see the teams develop and work together! They even tried to trick their opponents by pointing their mats in the wrong direction. It really brought the whole course together and employed everything we taught.

[TaosGlock]

Some hidden targets from the Target Detection/Range Detection exercises.



Cammo, especially as seen in nature, breaks up the outline of many objects:


Moving targets such as these elk require considerable lead when moving at 40 MPH.
These bulls, down from the hi-country to breed in the lowlands, were spotted about a mile from the entrance to the range on the last day.


BlueFeather closes the gate as we close another fine season at the NRA Whittington Center.
Our next 2 shoots will be in Carson, NM! See you there!

[Jamesonama]

I can't say enough good things about this event. The instructors were great and so were the students. This was my first Appleseed and it was such a positive experience. The attentive instruction and entertaining "shooting tests" we're awesome. You know you're having fun when it's 50 and rainy outside and you stool lose track of time cause you're having so much fun! I see a lot of appleseedin' (if that's not a word it is now!) in my future.  Great range guys!

[TaosGlock]

The sun rises are great here at the NRA Whittington Center. Another great KDC Appleseed.
Looking E towards the volcano country.


A huge thanks to all the shooters, shooters/instructors from other states who helped make this shoot possible.
It was an honor to work with you all.
And to the tireless main instructor corp of BF and LR who worked tirelessly at this KDC.

A big thanks to the NRA WC staff for the use of this fine range.

As Jamesonama says, we will be doin' much more Appleseedin' at this range.

Our next 2014 KDC like this one will be in May and then again in September.
See you all again!
Dan

[Massasauga]

Thanks to Dan, Jill, and Alan for a great shoot!

I've started on teaching known distance in Colorado and learned so much from this event. I've already converted my notes to a word doc outline and used it in Bailey this weekend.

I plan to make time for next year!