AAR: Known Distance at SKSC, Dorr, MI September 21-22, 2024

[SteelThunder]

This is the event I look forward to every year.  1) Great club with wonderful facilities, 2) great, advanced shooters all looking to stretch their rifle's legs, 3) it's fall and the surroundings are beautiful, 4) there's always old and new friends to meet.

9 intrepid patriots came out (unfortunately our 10th had to work mandatory overtime) and we leapt right into instruction...and I mean leapt into instruction because the weather gremlins decided that pea-soup level fog was the name of the game until at least 10 am...like "can't even see the 200 yard target line" thick.  No matter, a 1st strike, some fundamentals and we were finally off and running.  Sighters and getting our rifles' dope was the order of business on Saturday, and after the first AQT, we already minted our first KD Rifleman, Rick.   We squeezed another AQT in by the end of the day and minted another KDRM - Amy.

Congratulations to our Morgan's Riflemen, Earl, Erik, Scott and Rick, who successfully hit the 250 yard shingle with a cold bore rifle with a single shot!

The weather forecast for Sunday showed thunderstorms moving in around noon, so we pushed all of our shooting into the AM.  3 more AQTs showed that James, Erik and Matt knew what they were about.  Congrats!  Our instructor MrZeke, who had never shot a KD before, with a rifle he had never taken to distance, proved that the fundamentals work, and scored KDRM on his first attempt.

We retired to the clubhouse for lunch (thanks SKSC!) at the club picnic where we told the story of King's Mountain to not only our students, but also the club members at the lunch.  By now, the rain was coming down in sheets (couldn't see the 300 yard targets reliably) so we moved our our ever-popular ranging exercise.  Congrats to Matt and James for winning that event with the least amount of deviation in range against the 5 different objects.

By then the storms had subsided, so we finished the event by getting our dope out to 500 yards and then started WAHCKING the 500 yard steel...a good way to end the day.

Thanks again to the club, my fantastic instructor crew, Geek, JHB, MrZeke and Macula Mamma, and the club RSOs who helped.  See you all next year!

 

[AGT]

A big thanks to the range and all the instructors.
It was great seeing old faces and meeting new friends.
I had a great time and learned a lot.

The bad-
I relearned a valuable lesson, recheck your gear, early and often.
Especially if you're having issues.
Today I found my scope mounts were loose, 1 of 2 nuts for the base mount and 3/4 screws for the rear ring.
Not saying I could have done better Sunday, but it sure didn't help.
The scope will be properly mounted torqued and loctited down by tomorrow.
I still can't find my inch torque wrench, so the blue van is dropping one off in the morning.
And I have found a fresh bottle of loctite hanging on the wall.


The good-  too much to list or even take in for now.
I didn't score KD, but I learned more about my scope (sig lvpo 1-6) and I'm starting to get comfortable with it. The holdover at 4/500 will take more practice to get good at., but I'm comfortable with my 300 yd zero, and no knob twiddling.
I learned so much I came home and reset my equipment, moved my scope back, put a new butt stock on, built up my cheek riser.
It feels good, better than it was this weekend, which was already the best setup rifle I've had.
I'm sore, but more limber than I've been in a long time, I've done nothing but try to stretch out all day today.
For someone who hasn't put in much rifle work this year I was very glad I attended.

[AGT]

And two questions-
Do we have a resource for building up the cheek weld?

And sling mounting hardware installation?

I just spent a ton of time researching sling mounting options for my AR to use a GI style sling.
Too many options mount the sling too close to the receiver.
It just feels like a simple task, how to quick mount a sling to an magpul MOE buttstock, probably the most sold stock out there.
But I couldn't find any good info, I just ended up bolting a magpul MLOK push/pull QD through a sling slot.
Worked great btw.

And building up a cheek riser is so easy, but can feel daunting if you've never done it before.
I'm comfortable with it now, but I wasn't at first.
A quick instructional would be nice if we had one to reference.

[MI-copperhead]

I can't think of a better way to spend a weekend than testing our equipment and ourselves by shooting at full distance. Appleseed instructors and participants are the greatest people in the world.
I was disappointed that I fell short of achieving my overall goal of shooting a KDRM score but I did achieve 3 of 6 goals I set for myself for this year's KD event.
I greatly appreciated the coaching that Geek and Mr Zeke offered. It definitely helps to have someone watching your form and be able to offer corrective advice.
It was satisfying to punch the hole in the Morgan's Shingle on Sunday morning, so now I need to start practicing to do it from the standing position.
After my dismal performance at last year's KD event here I felt like I was  at least able to get back to where I was in 2022. Now if my cancer will stay away maybe I can earn that KD tab in 2025 
Thank so much to SteelThunder,Geek,
JHB, Mr.Zeke and Macula Momma for your instruction, history telling, hard work and time traveling to make this event possible. Thank you  Fidget and K for your work in keeping up SKSCgood relationship woth Project Appleseed.
Thank you SKSC for the great facility and hosting our KD here.

[La Victoire Ailee (Timothy_D)]

The bad-
I relearned a valuable lesson, recheck your gear, early and often.
Especially if you're having issues.
Today I found my scope mounts were loose, 1 of 2 nuts for the base mount and 3/4 screws for the rear ring.

I learned that lesson twice at Appleseed.
Apparently once wasn't enough.
Also, NEVER use polymer M-Lok rails. I snapped two of them in the middle of AQT's. One in Sacramento, one in Concord.
(Also, keep one of the leather sling adapters in your kit, just in case you snap a rail)

[Scotch]

 

Great weekend of shooting with old and new friends!

Thanks to our great instructors for getting us on paper and tightening our groups with the fundamentals. Shooting at distance, with all the variables, is a lot of science and some art thrown in! With scores consistently in the 30's, it was nice to break through and get a 43/50 by finally putting it all together on a single AQT! Congrats to the other KD Riflemen (women-Fidget) and to all the shooters that are knocking on the door.

It was a super fun event that I recommend to all, at least once. South Kent is a great range that I am privileged to be a member of and this is only the second time that I have taken advantage of the 500 meter range.

If you are a Rifleman at 25 meters (Congrats!), I recommend stretching your legs at a KD event in the near future! You will not be disappointed with the instruction and the challenge.

Scotch out!

[MrZeke]

What a great weekend with an incredible group. 
It is so rewarding to see shooters with solid fundamentals working to further their skillset.
Each of you showed such improvement while learning the finer points of your equipment and how best to employ it.

Can't wait to see you on the firing line again.

[Jayshoneybunny]

Great event!  It's always great to see old friends and make new friends.  Adapting to our weather went seamlessly as rifleman adapt and persist.