News:

We need volunteers in sales, marketing, PR, IT, and general "running of an organization." 
Maximize your Appleseed energy to make this program grow, and help fill the empty spots
on the firing line!  An hour of time spent at this level can have the impact of ten or a
hundred hours on the firing line.  Want to help? Send a PM to Monkey!

Main Menu

######Unknown Distance Course Sept 16-17, 2017 NRA Whittington Center####

Started by TaosGlock, September 18, 2017, 11:56:05 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

TaosGlock

Just rolling in from another fantastic 2 Day Unknown Distance Course at the prestigious NRA Whittington Center!
This is our third year for this special stand alone Unknown Distance course.

A Rifleman is a man/woman who can make first round hits at unknown distances, under unknown conditions, on demand and against the clock.-Jeff Cooper.



A huge thanks to the shooters whose teachable attitude enabled us to teach the fundamentals of
traditional combat/field expedient riflery using the essence of simplicity and precision to get great results! :---

Thanks to the WC staff for making this event a success and for letting us use the Coors Range.

Find it, range it and shoot it. The raison d'être of a Rifleman.


This is as real world as it gets and done only at the Rifleman's paradise, The National Rifle Association Whittington Center. 33,000 acres of land perfect for teaching.

If you want to know what makes America great, come to an Appleseed.
If you want to know how to build a strong community and a thus a strong Nation, come to an Appleseed.
If you want to know the kind of shooting that birthed a new Nation, come to our Unknown Distance course.

We had fathers and sons, husbands and wives, young and old from 12 to 71.
Half of the shooters were Appleseed instructors and a half were students form our standard 2 day course (a requirement to attend).

....all these men and women are dedicated patriots.


Men and women who if were transported back in time would strike fear in Lord Percy and King George III such that they would reconsider even letting their "Regulars" leave the safety of Boston.

Or as the Bradford Brothers warned King George III in the London Chronicle in 1775, "This colony has raised over a
thousand Riflemen, the worst who can put a ball in a man's head at 200 yards. Tell your officers to have their affairs settled before departing England."





Folks traveled from Colorado, Oklahoma, Wyoming and various parts of New Mexico.
What an incredible group of shooters!

A telephoto of the 300 yard Battle Sight Zero target line, note that pesky Redcoat!


We shot long range distances from 300 yards to 1125 yards with every odd 100 yard interval in between. There was an incredible amount of data collected and recorded!

Lady Liberty is in good hands!

Here are the links to the previous years UD course.

http://appleseedinfo.org/smf/index.php?topic=46934.0
http://appleseedinfo.org/smf/index.php?topic=49618.0


Father and son:



The next 2 pics below show shooters checking the accuracy of their scopes internal come ups. From their Near Zero, they dial up 10 MOA and then shoot a group. Then they dial back down 10 MOA, shoot another group and see if the Near Zero has changed.  Valuable information about your scope is thus obtained.

Husband and wife:





Check out that group at 300 yards! WoW!


With a special guest appearance, a "Regular" at our events, our 300 yard Battle Sight Zero target of AR-500 steel.




....more later.
89 fantastic Appleseeds since 2008/24 Libertyseeds!
Adventure Camp Director/Current Lead Rifle Instructor: NRA WC Raton,NM
New Mexico's first Rifleman: Sept. 2008 NRAWC
Their walls are filled with cannonballs, their motto is don't tread on me-Grateful Dead
Liberty is not a cruise ship full of pampered passengers. It is a man of war and we are all crew-Boston T. Party
"Make no mistake, when you cheer for the people of the American Revolution, you are cheering for traitors and criminals.
They broke the law, because liberty is always illegal"- Larken Rose

Mrs. Smith

Dan,  you write the BEST AARs!!!! I look forward to every one of them.  :F :F :F :F :F
"Being powerful is like being a lady. If you have to tell people you are, you aren't." - Margaret Thatcher

You can have peace, or you can have freedom. Don't ever count on having both at once. - Robert A. Heinlein

"A generation which ignores history has no past, and no future." - Lazarus Long

"What we do now echoes in eternity." Marcus Aurelius

Waco 1-17       Waco 1-19     El Paso 7-19       Alamogordo 5-20     Albuquerque 7-21       Houston 8-21 (SBC)    Colorado Springs  2-22 (SBC)    Midland 8-22 (KDIBC)     Albuquerque 2-23      Harvard 5-23      El Paso 12-23 (PIBC)     Phoenix 2-24    El Paso 3-24

zuke

This was a great class.  Top notch instructors and a wonderful venue to shoot.  If you ever get the chance to attend I highly recommend it.

Thanks to Dan, Gill, Alan and Dave for the great instruction.

Cheers,
Zuke

scuzzy

Quote from: Mrs. Smith on September 19, 2017, 08:07:52 AM
Dan,  you write the BEST AARs!!!! I look forward to every one of them.  :F :F :F :F :F

I'll 2nd that. Jeez - I'd just love to get out to one of his events. Maybe next year time permitting.

An Armed Society is a polite society. Heinlein.

bri

Wow, what a great weekend.   We had a great time, learned a TON, and ended up doing way better than we thought we would due to all the great instruction.  Thanks so much to all the instructors who did an amazing job.   Going over and shooting the 1,123 yard steel buffalo at the end of the weekend was awesome, and this class is something we will never forget.   Thanks again!  PS - Dan, I realized when we got home that I had forgotten to take off that rubber stock extender you let me borrow.   If you send me a PM with your address I will get it mailed it back to you. 

Jeepster

It was an awesome event with some great instructors and instruction. We all learned a lot about our equipment, especially our optics and being able to return them to zero. We had to deal with some very interesting wind on the Coors range (basically out to 940 yards). Shooting the white Buffalo at 1123 was a treat; and a learning experience. My first shot went just over the top, as did the second. It seems that my ballistic computer was calling for 1 mil too much elevation and after dialing down 1 mil I got consistent hits. It is unusual to be able to get good dope at such distances.

I would suggest that all who are able take the course; you will not regret it. It is a great confidence builder and you start thinking of shots in the 400 to 700 yard range as easy.

TaosGlock

They're out there. They're everywhere. Can you spot them?  Most of our steel targets are well hidden but in plain view.
Ranges are 325-940 yards.

Fred sez..."Your job as a Rifleman involves target detection, range estimation and firing an accurate shot-in that order of difficulty. If you can't see the target, you as a Rifleman can still hit it, but if you don't detect it, you never fire the shot."

As Master Gunnery Sgt. of the 1st Marine Div., Guadacanal 1942 said "Teach them to look in the air and trees and to learn where the enemy likely will be."


Present day doufous americana has little experience looking for anything except a remote.  It is no wonder many of the best shots in the military came from folks who grew up hunting and exploring the woods...vs today's cyberspace warriors.  Our rural life of field and woods experience as handed down from father to son peaked by the Viet Nam war.

Col. Merrit A. Edison, C.O. 5th Marines and Metal of Honor winner said, "There must be training in difficult observation which is needed for the offense. Only 5% of men can see while observing.

So get to it! Find it range it and shoot it. Which they did, and very successfully!

Shooters below are shown spotting targets. Later they will range them and finally shoot them.
The light will change over the course of an hour or so and many have to be re-found.





And we had some targets hid so well we had to touch them up a bit just so they were not to difficult to see!

Tools of a Rifleman:

308, 6.5 Creedemore and 223 were the popular choices.

89 fantastic Appleseeds since 2008/24 Libertyseeds!
Adventure Camp Director/Current Lead Rifle Instructor: NRA WC Raton,NM
New Mexico's first Rifleman: Sept. 2008 NRAWC
Their walls are filled with cannonballs, their motto is don't tread on me-Grateful Dead
Liberty is not a cruise ship full of pampered passengers. It is a man of war and we are all crew-Boston T. Party
"Make no mistake, when you cheer for the people of the American Revolution, you are cheering for traitors and criminals.
They broke the law, because liberty is always illegal"- Larken Rose

TaosGlock

"The most deadly weapon on any battlefield is the single well-aimed shot."-Cpt. Jim Land, USMC Sniper School Instructor, Vietnam 1966


Hold overs/hold unders for a 1000 yard zero with a in 308, using a 175 grain Hornady A-Max load with a mil-dot scope.
Rifle: Savage Model 12 F/TR w. 30" barrel.




A strong team:


A Nation of Rifleman:

89 fantastic Appleseeds since 2008/24 Libertyseeds!
Adventure Camp Director/Current Lead Rifle Instructor: NRA WC Raton,NM
New Mexico's first Rifleman: Sept. 2008 NRAWC
Their walls are filled with cannonballs, their motto is don't tread on me-Grateful Dead
Liberty is not a cruise ship full of pampered passengers. It is a man of war and we are all crew-Boston T. Party
"Make no mistake, when you cheer for the people of the American Revolution, you are cheering for traitors and criminals.
They broke the law, because liberty is always illegal"- Larken Rose

TaosGlock

History is replete with examples to prove that:
Mountainous terrain held by Riflemen who know what they are about
cannot be militarily defeated-Buppert's Law of Military Topography
.





Some targets are easy to find, some are difficult.
As the light changes, targets may become easier or more difficult to see.







Many of our AR 500 steel targets are man size and placed at various distances:


This target is placed at 710 yards. It is 7 1/2"x 15".
Inches divided by yards tells you how big it is in minutes of angle
.

Dave has painted it and added a bit of humor. Shooters named it the white smiley target.
Thanks for all your hard work David and bringing lunch both days and dinner Saturday! :bow:


89 fantastic Appleseeds since 2008/24 Libertyseeds!
Adventure Camp Director/Current Lead Rifle Instructor: NRA WC Raton,NM
New Mexico's first Rifleman: Sept. 2008 NRAWC
Their walls are filled with cannonballs, their motto is don't tread on me-Grateful Dead
Liberty is not a cruise ship full of pampered passengers. It is a man of war and we are all crew-Boston T. Party
"Make no mistake, when you cheer for the people of the American Revolution, you are cheering for traitors and criminals.
They broke the law, because liberty is always illegal"- Larken Rose

Long Rifle

Homework Answers

1.   4 MOA
2.   1 MOA
3.   4 MOA
4.   4 MOA
5.   1.5 MOA
6.   26 in.
7.   6 in.
8.   44 in.
9.   47.5 in.
10.   38 in.
11.   move my sights 3 MOA up and 5 MOA left
12.   move my sights 2.5 down and 1 MOA left
13.   move my sights .4 MOA up and .8 MOA right, 2 clicks up & 3 click right (my sights are .25 MOA / click)
14.   approximately 7 MOA, move my sights 28 clicks up (my sights are .25 MOA / click)

How did you do? Get in touch if you've got questions!

Cheers,
Long Rifle
Those that can, DO. Those that can DO MORE, teach.
Practice doesn't make perfect. Perfect practice makes perfect.

TaosGlock

A Rifleman is a man/woman skilled with their rifle.

Once targets are spotted, the shooters mark the location using a standard grid map for this purpose.
Then the shooters use the reticle in their scope to measure the size.
Then it is a matter of a simple formula to determine the distance.
They can use mils or moa based on the scope reticle.

Husband and wife team:






Our "fuzzy man" range indicator.


I once saw the these three tiny elephants and asked, "are you guys really that small?"  They replied, "no, we are really that far away".

89 fantastic Appleseeds since 2008/24 Libertyseeds!
Adventure Camp Director/Current Lead Rifle Instructor: NRA WC Raton,NM
New Mexico's first Rifleman: Sept. 2008 NRAWC
Their walls are filled with cannonballs, their motto is don't tread on me-Grateful Dead
Liberty is not a cruise ship full of pampered passengers. It is a man of war and we are all crew-Boston T. Party
"Make no mistake, when you cheer for the people of the American Revolution, you are cheering for traitors and criminals.
They broke the law, because liberty is always illegal"- Larken Rose

TaosGlock

Inches, minutes, mils and clicks, meters and yards. The language of a Rifleman.


Note taking and data recording is an essential part of a rifleman's skill set.



Meters to yards and yards to meters. Know the difference.  


Yes, we give out homework.

89 fantastic Appleseeds since 2008/24 Libertyseeds!
Adventure Camp Director/Current Lead Rifle Instructor: NRA WC Raton,NM
New Mexico's first Rifleman: Sept. 2008 NRAWC
Their walls are filled with cannonballs, their motto is don't tread on me-Grateful Dead
Liberty is not a cruise ship full of pampered passengers. It is a man of war and we are all crew-Boston T. Party
"Make no mistake, when you cheer for the people of the American Revolution, you are cheering for traitors and criminals.
They broke the law, because liberty is always illegal"- Larken Rose

TaosGlock

One of our weakest points, our deplorable marksmanship, poor fire discipline, failure to zero rifles periodically and insufficient time on ranges.-Cpt. Michael Ekman, Company Commander, 173rd Airborne Brigade, Vietnam 1967


Instruction on the target line:


We use 1" squares at 25 yards for initial sight in. We post 12" squares at 300 yards.
Note they look the same sized when viewed from the firing line. That is because they are both 4 MOA.



Once the target is ranged, the shooter checks his range card and then dials up the correct amount of MOA's or Mils.
This 12 year old shooter pretty much has it down pat!




As does this woman:


As did everyone!


Or you can use your Mil-Dot as a ballistic drop type reticle on man size targets:
89 fantastic Appleseeds since 2008/24 Libertyseeds!
Adventure Camp Director/Current Lead Rifle Instructor: NRA WC Raton,NM
New Mexico's first Rifleman: Sept. 2008 NRAWC
Their walls are filled with cannonballs, their motto is don't tread on me-Grateful Dead
Liberty is not a cruise ship full of pampered passengers. It is a man of war and we are all crew-Boston T. Party
"Make no mistake, when you cheer for the people of the American Revolution, you are cheering for traitors and criminals.
They broke the law, because liberty is always illegal"- Larken Rose

TaosGlock

Instruction on the line.


At the 300 yard berm: 4 MOA at 25 yards is 1". At 300 yards 4MOA is 12".
Shooters use the ghost 1" squares to record data from the 12" squares.
Long Rifle instructs on the line.



No touchie the rifles when the shooters are downrange!


Rifleman accessories....


89 fantastic Appleseeds since 2008/24 Libertyseeds!
Adventure Camp Director/Current Lead Rifle Instructor: NRA WC Raton,NM
New Mexico's first Rifleman: Sept. 2008 NRAWC
Their walls are filled with cannonballs, their motto is don't tread on me-Grateful Dead
Liberty is not a cruise ship full of pampered passengers. It is a man of war and we are all crew-Boston T. Party
"Make no mistake, when you cheer for the people of the American Revolution, you are cheering for traitors and criminals.
They broke the law, because liberty is always illegal"- Larken Rose

TaosGlock

Getting the 2 teams staged up and ready to engage steel behind the 300 yard berm.
The targets are behind the berm and among the 33,000 acres of hi country wilderness located at the NRA Whittington Center.



In an age of space guns, race guns and every kind of traced guns,
this old warhorse 1903A3 Springfield in 30-06 is still a formidable rifle.
A 200 grain Sierra Match King at 2700 fps can get the job done to 1200 yards on 3-4 MOA targets.
A set of Lyman match sights and a modern stock really help.




The Big 3 of 30 caliber traditional battle rifles. And still quite potent to 1200 yards on man size targets.



The Redcoat took a beating twice a day. Warren gives it some bailing wire CPR.


The entrance to the range is guarded by the Betsy Ross flag and Gadsen flags.
89 fantastic Appleseeds since 2008/24 Libertyseeds!
Adventure Camp Director/Current Lead Rifle Instructor: NRA WC Raton,NM
New Mexico's first Rifleman: Sept. 2008 NRAWC
Their walls are filled with cannonballs, their motto is don't tread on me-Grateful Dead
Liberty is not a cruise ship full of pampered passengers. It is a man of war and we are all crew-Boston T. Party
"Make no mistake, when you cheer for the people of the American Revolution, you are cheering for traitors and criminals.
They broke the law, because liberty is always illegal"- Larken Rose

TaosGlock

Off to the famous 1123 yard White Buffalo, which took a beating...more later. ^-^

89 fantastic Appleseeds since 2008/24 Libertyseeds!
Adventure Camp Director/Current Lead Rifle Instructor: NRA WC Raton,NM
New Mexico's first Rifleman: Sept. 2008 NRAWC
Their walls are filled with cannonballs, their motto is don't tread on me-Grateful Dead
Liberty is not a cruise ship full of pampered passengers. It is a man of war and we are all crew-Boston T. Party
"Make no mistake, when you cheer for the people of the American Revolution, you are cheering for traitors and criminals.
They broke the law, because liberty is always illegal"- Larken Rose

TaosGlock


The famous 1123 yard/1025 meter White Buffalo may well be the final exam for the shooters.
If you trim off a bit of the extraneous body parts of the buffalo, you still have a very generous 5x8 MOA target.
But that is not the end of the story.
At this distance, gravity is working overtime and any wind can make hitting this target difficult.
In fact, most long range events here at the WC, like other ranges, are won or lost on wind calls.
Then there is the issue of spin drift of the bullet. An M1 Garand with ball ammo has 1 MOA of spindrift at 1000 yards.
This range is in meters. So you must take that into consideration when using a range card in yards or
if your service rifle sights are in yards. We hand out yards/meters quickie conversion cards to demonstrate this difference.

Most of the shooters shot the same rifle however some used different rifles for the 1123 yard buffalo.

The challenge of an open sighted service rifle is almost to great for most rifleman.
We have seen immediate and effective hits from AK's, SKS's, Mosin Nagant's, Ishapore's, British Enfield's,
8mm mausers of all flavors, FAL's, Swedish Mauser's, Swiss K31's, Japanese Arisaka's and 30-06 service rifles of all models.
Garand's and M1A's are very popular among the Appleseed cadre.


Remember, a Rifleman should be able to pick up any rifle, fire a shot and hit the target!

Jon uses a World WarII era .303 British Enfield with WWII era ammo that was perfectly stored and shoots very accurate.
A WWII Enfield such as this is what the Afghanistan fighters used for years to effectively repel the Russians and their modern firearms. This serves as an example for all of us who are confronted with oppressive governments that seek to limit our ability to own current issue military style firearms.



Philip uses his 6.5 Creedemore to nail it! After the bullet was recorded as an "impact" he
turned his head to tell the shooter to his side, where he held.



A 6.5 Swedish mauser has more than enough power and accuracy to get the job done.  Note the sight setting!


Capt. John Trull on April 19th, 1775 said, "Stand trim boys, or the rascals will shoot your elbows off!"
I try a a few standing shots with my Ted Brown built M1A at the buffalo using a field style "trim" elbow
with my support arm on my shooting pack.  With this "Rifleman's" pack, hits are easy this way.
This pack support method works well with a Garand too. 



All in all this was a great event! Stay tuned for our next one!
We are doing 2 of these next year. Tentative dates are mid May and mid September.
Check the schedule. All of our shoots will be posted in the NRA WC national brochure and listed on their online schedule.

Thanks to all my instructors who helped teach, run and organize this event! :bow:


Happy trails and see you all later!
Dan, Gill, Alan and David, your friendly instructor crew.




...and remember:





89 fantastic Appleseeds since 2008/24 Libertyseeds!
Adventure Camp Director/Current Lead Rifle Instructor: NRA WC Raton,NM
New Mexico's first Rifleman: Sept. 2008 NRAWC
Their walls are filled with cannonballs, their motto is don't tread on me-Grateful Dead
Liberty is not a cruise ship full of pampered passengers. It is a man of war and we are all crew-Boston T. Party
"Make no mistake, when you cheer for the people of the American Revolution, you are cheering for traitors and criminals.
They broke the law, because liberty is always illegal"- Larken Rose

sleepy

Nothing against the shoots that came before, but this one was incredible. So much that before was theory and laboratory practice became something just shy of real world application.

The beautiful northern NM scenery (and dining in Raton, mmmmm!), the range resources, the killer hotdogs at lunch, the opportunity to learn as you play, and the quality of instruction was off the chart. And as always, the quality of the people one meets at Appleseeds; the best.

The skills taught, and practiced, are things I will work with, build on, and provided I can truly internalize it, pass along.

Thank you.

Nashville Stage

Quote from: TaosGlock on October 04, 2017, 07:58:00 PM
I try a a few standing shots with my Ted Brown built M1A at the buffalo using a field style "trim" elbow
with my support arm on my shooting pack.  With this "Rifleman's" pack, hits are easy this way.



That's an interesting idea! I'll have to try that out sometime.
I struggle to get enough elevation when in the standing position, even when leaning back.
"There are 10 types of people in the world. Those who understand binary, and those who don't."

Long Rifle

I had a blast working with everyone. It was incredibly satisfying to see the improvements made in the 2 days we were together. These are perishable skills. Keep practicing and teach someone else what you learned.

If anyone wants more homework let us know. We've got a couple more 'assignments' we can send you to work on. We can either post the answers here or send them to you directly after you've completed them and request the answers.

Stay in touch,
Long Rifle / Alan
Those that can, DO. Those that can DO MORE, teach.
Practice doesn't make perfect. Perfect practice makes perfect.

TaosGlock


Just confirmed!
These are the dates for the 2018 NRAWC shoots we will be hosting in Raton, New Mexico.

Feb. 24 & 25 Jeff Cooper Range. Standard 2 day Appleseed event.
April 21 & 22 Jeff Cooper Range. Standard 2 day Appleseed event.

May 12 & 13 Coors Range. Unknown Distance event. Centerfire rifles only.
July 28 & 29 Jeff Cooper range. Standard 2 day Appleseed event.
Sept. 15 & 16 Coors Range. Unknown Distance event. Centerfire rifles only.
89 fantastic Appleseeds since 2008/24 Libertyseeds!
Adventure Camp Director/Current Lead Rifle Instructor: NRA WC Raton,NM
New Mexico's first Rifleman: Sept. 2008 NRAWC
Their walls are filled with cannonballs, their motto is don't tread on me-Grateful Dead
Liberty is not a cruise ship full of pampered passengers. It is a man of war and we are all crew-Boston T. Party
"Make no mistake, when you cheer for the people of the American Revolution, you are cheering for traitors and criminals.
They broke the law, because liberty is always illegal"- Larken Rose