KD Rifle Selection

[DragginWood]

I am interested in the KD shoots. Currently I have a 350 Legend bolt action and a Mosin Nagant M44 that I'm looking to possibly rechassis or buy a one already moved over. Is the 7.62x54r or the 350 Legend ammo suitable for this type of event or should I be looking elsewhere? Thanks for any help on this...

[Sieggie]

We always say "Shoot what ya brung" but keep in mind you will most likely shoot 200 to 300 rounds over 2 days. KD is the same format as a regular Appleseed so you need to be able to keep up with the rapid fire transition stages. If you can't shoot rifleman with a bolt action .22 at 25M, you will have a real hard time with a large caliber center-fire bolt gun.

Dave

[MrZeke]

Possible-yes
Recommended-probably not.

I ran a bolt gun for my first appleseed.  I really struggled to focus on the fundamentals becuase I was at a time disadvantage.
Keeping NPOA is EXTREMELY difficult to master with a bolt gun.

That said, a bolt action rifleman patch is still one of my goals. 
But if you're looking for an excuse to bring a new gun, this is it.

[EZ3]

FWIW, my strategy was to learn to shoot well at 25m with a bolt, then attend some rimfire KD quals with a bolt, then go full distance with a center fire.  As long as you can perform efficient reloads with your rifle of choice, either of the calibers you mentioned should suffice for 400 yards.

[DragginWood]

Thank you to all.

[Charles McKinley]

Do you have adequate magazine capacity on the 350 legend and clips to load the Mosin?  That many rounds out of a Mosin makes my arm hurt just thinking about it.

[jmdavis]

The fact is that if you are organized, have an accurate rifle and have a smooth bolt, you can do it with a single shot. But no one would recommend it.

What type of groups do the Mosin and the Legend shoot at 400 yards, in the prone position? 2/5 of your score takes place there. Can either of them shoot a consistent 1 inch group (4moa) at 25m? Do you have sight settings for 100, 200, 300 and 400 yards.  Personally working a Mosin bolt over two days is far more work than I find interesting or productive. But you might want to try.

I can tell you from experience that even extremely well trained shooters can and do fail with certain rifles with great regularity. Rifle and Ammo play a role and most non-US service rifles are not designed to be accurate at 400 yards.

[spitstickler]

As others have said, not recommended ...but doable. 

jmdavis's single load comment made me think of a KD from a few years back. A right handed shooter, that had lost sight in his right eye an had to relearn everything from a left handed position.

He didn't get all of his rapid prone shots off in time, but overall he still shot a Rifleman's score .

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M1xddxpQ9Fs





Others advice at basically working up to a KD with a bolt gun makes a lot of sense. Work out the kinks of transitioning position, loading (singles, stripper clips, or mag fed... which ever applies to your tool), and general rifle manipulation with dummy rounds and focused dry-fire. When you feel like you're getting it down, add a timer and make you're ready for the rapid fire stages.

After that, put in the work at 25m to get used to the report and recoil and strive for the 4 moa standard. You'll build both skill and confidence. Once you're squared away and can score up towards 200, then go shoot KD with the rifle you've been getting to know. This might seem like the long road to reach your goal, but for most folks, there's a lot less walking and frustration involved with this process & you'll learn a lot more faster.

[Gus]

Hi DragginWood,

Last September I went through a KD with a bolt action .308 at Talkeetna, Alaska.  I did fine and made a couple of Rifleman's scores.

But.....

To do well you must be organized in the rapid fire stages. I fumbled a mag change in the sitting phase of the first AQT and I only got 8 shots off. Good thing they were all in the black.

Next, and this was the thing that slowed me down too many times: I was using my reloads and some of them were a tad oversized and made camming the bolt down a bit of an issue. If you're a reloader and you choose to run your own ammo, make sure they all fit in a check gauge first. if they fit a check gauge, they're good to go for a KD. They will chamber effortlessly at the clinic.

Last, Known Distance shoots are all about hits: hits count!  Anywhere in the black is good.  ItsanSKS gave me some really good feedback after my rapid fire AQT in that I was probably trying too hard to centerpunch the targets, and I ran out of time. KDs are not benchrest matches; ultra-precision is not required. Hits count. One of our favorite sayings in Project Appleseed is "don't let perfection get in the way of good enough'.  It's good advice.

God bless the bolt action and those that run one!

In Liberty,

Gus

[LogCabinShooter]

 I'd advise against both. The 350 legend is not suited for 400 yard shots, and will be subsonic before the 400 yard target. Typically, you want to keep a projectile above mach 1.3, which you'd be at or under at the 300 yard target. You can forget about accuracy at that point.
As for the Mosin, it's better suited than the 350, but they weren't very accurate to begin with, nor were they ergonomic. Ammo choices are terrible as well. You'd be better suited to buy the cheapest AR platform you can, a mediocre scope, and some 55 grain steel case ammo, and run that. I promise that you'll have a much more enjoyable time. Hope this helps. Good luck!