Coeur d'Alene, ID, Sept 14/15,2024 KD Event, AAR

[Prescott]

I would like to thank the Fernan Rod and Gun Club for their great support of Project Appleseed and for allowing us to take up the long distance range for a whole weekend in September.   A few of the other NW ranges do not allow for KD event in September and October as their members want to zero their hunting rifles.  We did end up turning away quite a few members who had that plan.

While we had a good group of enthusiastic shooters, 5/12 shooters did not make it to the event.  A family of three came down with the flu and we had two no shows.  This was unfortunate, as this was the only centerfire KD in the Pacific NW for 2024 and it sold out quickly.

The event started with the traditional cold bore shot.  A local instructor, P7, had a steel plate cut to the dimension of the 250 yard paper shingle target.  I love the sound of ringing steel in the morning.  On Saturday; Pat, Stuart, Richard and Barry hit the target.  On Sunday; Ryan, Denis and Barry connected with the target.

The rest of the weekend went very well, with great marksmanship skills being demonstrated.  We only shot one AQT on Saturday as we were developing our come up from 100 - 400 yards.  No one shot a rifleman on that AQT.  However on Sunday, the patches bag was kept busy.  Stuart earned his first Rifleman patch at this event.  Huzzah.  Sam earned his first centerfire KD patch as well.  Barry, Pat, Tim and myself requalified our KD rifleman scores.  Pat shot an impressive 47 hit, with optics, and took high score honors for the weekend.  Barry did great shooting his AR with ironsights, as he scored multiple targets with 9/10 hits at 400 yards.  However, when he broke out his M1 Garand, the hits at 400 yards were not as impressive.

If you did not earn your KD rifleman patch, hopefully there will be more opportunities to shoot one next year.  The NW instructors are working with a couple other ranges that could host centerfire KD events.

[American Amazon]

Sorry, Prescott, I can't take credit for a 47 with my scope, I only shot a 46. Still, I'm extremely pleased with how much better I shot at my second long distance shoot! I was better at mag swaps, and better at post-swap target reacquisition, not to mention my significantly improved score.
We were fortunate in that the rain showers didn't interfere much with the event, and there was little to no wind.
Next time, I'll try for that 48 and a Distinguished patch.