Rimfire KD, Mechanicville, Va. September 17-18, 2022, AAR

[The Wolfhound]

Another Rimfire KD for Virginia.  Great weather and a couple of great shooters.  Many thanks to BrotherPilot for helping with coordination, safety, and stories on Saturday!   Started with Redcoats and shot data collection and correction squares for 25, 50, 75 and 100 yards then progressed to AQTS with 25yards-standing, 50 yards-transition to seated, 75 yards-transition to Prone and 100 yards slow fire prone.  Mixed in some stories, lunch, a couple of breaks, and a 50 yard Redcoat (Who doesn't love stretching out to 50 for a Redcoat?) and it made for a full Saturday.  Congratulations to "Messer" for scoring for his Rimfire KD tab and earning his "Distinguished" tab as well.  Toss in a cleaned Redcoat (at 25) and he had a trifecta!
Sunday had shooting delayed until 1PM so we began with stories, Known Distance, Ballistics Theory, and a review of safety, 6 Steps and lunch before launching into shooting.  Redcoats, KD AQTs, followed by Velociraptor eradication drills and the "Wacky Ammo Experience" with "unknowns" of varying velocities, bullet weights and manufacture, and closed with Redcoats at 50 and 25 yards.  The "Black Powder" range at Black Creek was again ideal for what we were up to, and our thanks go out to the club for its use.

[Messer]

What can I say - this was a great event! The weather was almost perfect (just a few degrees cooler would have been nice), and the range facilities were perfect for an Appleseed event.

I'm a Blue Hat and it was at one of the events I was helping with that I was told about the KD Clinics that Wolfhound runs a couple of times a year, and it sounded like it would be the perfect place to come and be a student again.

I was not disappointed!

As always, safe gun handling was always job 1, and Wolfhound & BrotherPilot did an excellent job with that.

With only 3 students on day 1, and everyone having been to at least one Appleseed Rifle Clinic already, we were able to spend time working on sighting in, shooting form/technique, and equipment adjustments. It was a lot of fun, and everyone improved over the course of the day. We shot a couple of AQT's and the usual Redcoats.

With all of my previous Appleseed Rifle experience being at 25 meters, moving back to 50, 75 and 100 yards was a fun challenge! Knowing your guns "DOPE" is essential, and we spent time making sure everyone had the info they needed (as long as they remembered to use it! and yes, I'm talking about me). It also drove home the point it really is all about the fundamentals of making a good shot, no matter what the distance is.

On the 2nd day we were down to 2 students, we finished off the 3 strikes since we couldn't shoot until 1pm, and we spent time just having fun on the range with friends & family.

When shooting time came around we shot more AQT's, took on the challenge of hitting a small Velociraptor steel target from 100 yards with Wolfhound being our spotter. We also had the pleasure of Wolfhounds Wacky Ammo Challenge - I call it a challenge because he would load your mags with some unknown ammo, and have you shoot it at 50 yards. He handed out note sheets so you could write down your thoughts/impressions about the ammo being shot - higher/lower velocity? bullet weight? Did it cycle the action? etc...  It was great fun to both see the changes on target and to see if you could figure it out before being told what it was!!

Shooting a Redcoat clean from 50 yards is not an easy task!  It is now a goal of mine to do it!

My challenge to others...

If you have been through an Appleseed Rifle clinic and want to step up the challenge level, get yourself to a Rimfire KD event! It is a huge amount of fun, and you will learn more about you and your rifle than you can at the regular rifle clinic.

My thanks to Wolfhound & BrotherPilot for being great instructors, Black Creek range for hosting the event, and to my fellow students that shared the range that weekend.

Stay Vigilant,
Messer