AAR: KD Dorr, MI October 17-18, 2020

[SteelThunder]

First, the complaining...cold and windy on Saturday, cold (-er) windy and rainy on Sunday.  OK, got that out of my system.

The good stuff?  LOTS.  A truly great group of American's that I'm now proud to call friends and patriots.  Everyone showed up squared away as we registered and then reviewed KD fundamentals.  We told stories of the Overmountain Men and King's Mountain and Ethan Allen and the Green Mountain Boys.  With sighters and 2 AQTs in the books, we produced 3 KD Riflemen -- 3 repeat and 1 new.  Congrats to Rob, Craig, Mike and Pete (first time shooting KD and a KD Rifleman now)!  We closed down on Saturday with a single shot each at the steel 3 x 4 MOA "Morgan's Shingle" set out at the 300 yard line.

Saturday was special as it was the anniversary of Cornwallis' surrender.

Sunday came back and everyone took a cold bore shot at the steel shingle, then we reconfirmed our 100 yard zeros.  Heavy rain kept us from doing the 25 yard zero and Boxing drill (remember, you can do those at home!) and we started cracking out AQTs.  Our Saturday riflemen proved "it weren't no fluke" by repeating multiple times.  We added Scott and Tim to the KD Riflemen ranks (first time Rifleman ever for Tim!) and then Mike amazed us all by scoring Optics Distinguished.  Huzzah!    We spent some time refreshing our NPOA skills using laser rifles and Carding the Sights drill.  All reported better understanding of NPOA with this.  Sunday afternoon we had a Ranging Exercise.  We had 4 teams who found the subtensions of a feature in their sighting systems and then ranged scaled objects that we had set at 25 and 50 yards.  The objects were a soldier, a semi truck trailer, a door, a Yield sign and a Speed Limit sign.  This is the first time where I've ever run this drill and everyone has got the answers within 20%.  I had to narrow the acceptable answer to 10% error to identify a winner.  Some EXCELLENT ranging work going on!!      We finished Sunday by banging away at a full-sized steel D-Target at 500 and then had some good hits on a 10" steel circle gong at 500.     Final shots at Morgan's Steel Shingle and we said our goodbyes.  60% Riflemen and a Distinguished...WOW!

Weather aside, it warmed me to share in fellowship of such great people.  See you all next year.  And thanks to the South Kent Sportsman's Club for hosting on their beautiful range.

SteelThunder

[CheckPoint]

Great Event,  Big thanks to Steel Thunder and the Cadre for guiding us to Rifleman success safely and efficiently.  Your efforts are valued and appreciated.

[MI-copperhead]

Despite my failure to shoot a Rifleman score this weekend I got in a lot of mat time with my M1A, something I have not been able to do in quite a while. I did make some real improvement in my standing form and score thanks to Steel's pro tip which greatly improved my ability to stabilize the rifle. I also made improvement in my prone slow fire getting up to 8 hits on the 400 target before the end of the day Sunday. My two transition stages still need work as the m1a mag change is a lot clunkier than the AR platform. After the sighters I felt like I have a better understanding of the comeups on my scope. I definitely need to work on NPOA more. I felt great satisfaction in hitting Morgan's shingle with 2 of my 3 single shot efforts, especially the Sunday morning coldbore shot and also being able to hit the 500 yard redcoat and the smaller 500 yard gong belonging to Sout Kent Sportmans Club. I like filling the role as Designated Marksman  Instruction was excellent as always and any weekend you can spend on the line with like-minded citizens honing your rifleman skills is a great one. It was great seeing old friends and making new ones. Thanks to SKSC for an excellent range and facilities. A very big thanks to all the cadre that sacrificed their weekend for us.

[IRONSIDES]

It was a great weekend at SKSC despite mother nature's efforts.

A big thanks to the Instructors and Blue hats: SteelThunder, Fidget, Grindstone, number6, merlin33, Sir Kay and Lancelot. For running a well organized event, they kept things moving and interesting. Thanks to the South Kent Sportsmans Club for hosting the event.
I really appreciate that the Instructors took the time to make sure we had good zeroes at all the ranges we were shooting. It's awesome that I now have come ups out to 500 yds.
It was great seeing old friends and meeting new ones. Appleseeders are the best people in the world.
I'll see you all on the trail, stay safe.

[SP1]

Wow, what a great weekend it turned out to be.

Being my first KD shoot, I have to admit, I was a bit intimidated.   The weather didnt look promising and I have never even attempted going beyond 100 yards.  When we fired our first string, and I wasn't even on paper, I thought, "oh brother, is this how this weekend is gonna go?"  After figuring that my 25 meter zero is 9 inches high at 100, I started to settle in.

I appreciate all of the help the instructors were able to give in establishing zeros out to 400.  I think I learned more about my rifle in 2 days than I have in the previous 2 years. 

Ended pulling off a 42 on the second AQT for my first KD rifleman score.  What a great feeling!

Weather aside, sunday was a ton of fun!  Got a 2nd rifleman score, (barely, but 40 still counts) The ranging excercise was pretty neat.  I think steel thunder should make a game of ID'ing the soldier.  (Maybe with a prize of some sort for fellow history buffs?)  Of course, that means you would have to continue to test your artistic prowess.

Thanks to grindstone for hooking me up with the chrono.  That info is nice to have.

And thanks to number 6 for walking me in at 500 on the spotting scope.  It was cool to be able to hit the steel at such a distance.  Even managed to hit the 10 inch target once with my little
.223.  (By the way,I did the math, my bullet drop was like 100 inches or so)  I'm thinking next time I need to bring the .308 or 06 so i can actually get a bit of feedback from the steel.

Finally, thanks to mike, down on the end for letting me try out that rifle.  That thing was sweet...  I went 3/5 on the 10 incher with that thing.  Also, congrats on the distinguished, that is a hell of an achievement.

Thanks again to steel thunder and all the other red and blue hats, you guys did a great job, and the time you give is greatly appreciated!

All in all, I had a great weekend.  Hopefully we can all do this again soon.  (Maybe with better weather)

[SP1]

Oh, I almost forgot, I finally came up with a name for the forum.

It seemed appropriate.

Scott
Aka neumann

[Fidget]

Great event, thank you!

Link to images:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/m2Nn92P4Vq4Q2tFx7

50 Events Worked!


10 Events Worked!


Checking targets




Morgan's Shingle


The Wind!


Chronograph




History


On the line
































The range


Movement




Shoot Boss showing us how it is done!

[SP1]

Thanks for the photo link Fidgit

Merry Christmas to all!!