Denver, CO AAR - May 3rd, 2025 RKD

[Lead Sled]

We kicked off the 2025 Appleseed season at Skyline Hunting and Fishing Club in Denver, Colorado with a rimfire KD! Rimfire KDs are becoming a staple at SHFC and we greatly appreciate Skyline Hunting and Fishing Club supporting our events at their range.

After a late spring snowstorm caused us to reschedule this event, the weather turned out to be almost perfect for shooting, with mild temperatures, and enough wind to really make the KD interesting. 7 shooters joined us to master the three challenges of a rifleman.

We kicked off our one-day rimfire KD with an introduction to the three challenges of a rifleman, some positional review and 25m sight in along with a review of sight adjustments. Since time was of the essence, after everyone felt like they had a solid 25m zero, we headed right into academics about managing trajectory and building come ups. After learning the theory, we decided to put it to practice and began the process of collecting data for come ups. Everyone started with some standard come ups to get on paper at each distance, then refined for their specific rifles. As we got out to 75 and 100 yards, we talked about how to correct for wind, since the wind was starting to blow enough to effect impacts. Just before lunch, the group had good data out to 100 yards, and everyone was shooting well.

At lunch we heard some special history about William Heath in honor of the 250th anniversary of the Battles of Lexington and Concord, and how marksmanship played a huge role in the American Revolution with the stories of Timothy Murphy, Patrick Ferguson and the Battle of Alamance.

After lunch, with data collected and wind calls being refined, we jumped right into AQT prep. We reviewed the standing and sitting/kneeling positions along with transitions and shot our first AQT of the day. As we collected scores from the first AQT, FOUR rifleman emerged! Gregg, Brian, Chris and Bevan all demonstrated their understanding of the three challenges of a rifleman by qualifying on the first AQT of the day! Gregg also shot a distinguished score!

We took a break for everyone to catch their breath and talked about other environmental conditions to keep in mind for shooting at distance. Everyone was feeling excited about shooting another AQT and getting more practice shooting at distance, so we jumped right into it. We shot several more AQTs, before we decided to break up the grind with a game, Parker's Revenge! After the dust settled, the self-declared "Dangerous Old Men" came out victorious. We took a quick break, heard the stories of the Battle of Trenton and King's Mountain and talked about range estimation.

We shot one more AQT, and had another rifleman emerge! Craig showed his persistence by qualifying on the last AQT of the day! Chris also managed to shoot a distinguished score! What a great way to wrap up the day.

I can't thank our group of shooters enough for making this rimfire KD at SHFC a rousing success. I think everyone came away with a wealth of knowledge about addressing the three challenges of a rifleman, about their equipment and about the importance of marksmanship during the American Revolution! Your shooting certainly showed it. I speak for all the instructors when I say it was a blast spending the day with you all!

Many thanks to our team of instructors: codefogey, Zuke, flux and Amp for making this event possible!

Pictures to follow!

[JustKim]

This sounds like a great event!  Congrats to all shooters.  What a great way to spend the weekend.  For those who have not participated in a rimfire KD - now is the time.  They are very challenging and tons of fun along with some new amazing American history!!

[Lead Sled]

Action shots from that very challenging 100 yard slow fire prone stage. The wind was blowing!

[Lead Sled]

Some riflemen!