May 16th Berdan's 1st USSS

[wildman]

That's right this coming Saturday is the Col. Berdan and 1st USSS shoot. What is the 1st USSS? The 1st USSS refers to a regiment formed by Col. Berdan, inventor of the Berdan primer, that served the Union in the 1860s during the unpleasentness some refer to as the Civil War which of course was anything but civil. The 1st United States Sharp Shooters as the name implies was made up by men that could shoot straight and often. We will commemorate these marksmen on Saturday.

This shoot be on the Saturday before the start of boot camp. Come early and shoot. Be advised you'll need some skill to be able to hit your targets this is not a beginners event. We will be shooting the Morgan's Crew COF tuffff! Boot Camp Instructors can shoot free, I know who you are, another reason to be an Appleseed instructor. The rest will have to pay the range fee. We are limited to 18 shooters, so if you plan to attend the event speak up.

It maybe that BC attendees that aren't up to or don't want to shoot the scheduled COF will get a crack at some pop ups when the scheduled event is completed. If you want to shoot and aren't sure about your skill level see me Saturday.

You'll need a centerfire rifle and ammo. Range of targets is 200 to 400+ yards.

Muster on Saturday is 09:00.

[FourIze]

I'm planning on coming.  I'll have to bring my Bushmaster since I haven't gotten my CMP ammo yet.

See you Saturday!

[hawkeye]

I'll be there with my best shoot'en iron. Lawson and Keaton will be there as well. Can't wait, I've loaded up some match grade ammo for the COF,  that I hope shoots well in the 1917.

[Koma]

Count me in. Unsupported and glass less

[ar15]

count me in

[Koma]

 Many thank to Wildman and an extraspecial thanks to Hawkeye for saving my day. I neglected to take into account the first prinicipal of a rifleman and that is to have a rifle that shoots. I could have used it like a blackpowder rifle except that instead of ramming a bullet down the barrel I would be ramming out my spent case. My ejector broke and I did not even own a spare. My trust in the fates to take care of me was not the reality of the day. Hawkeye was the true rifleman as he had spare parts that he could keep his own and completly unprepared me running in case of normal breakage. Thank YOU for the part and an extra Thank YOU for the lesson. Rifleman be prepared. Having a better day than this is hard to imagine.

[wildman]

Here's the results Koma and Wildman tied for 1st hit probability at 71 %. Both would have probably scored a little higher but for a malfunction on a 300 yard target, no matter how many times you hit the target it wouldn't go down. Third place was Jason M whom I think is ar15 followed by Jim H, Hawkeye, and Phil H. in that order.

Ammo is certainly a problem for those of us that enjoy and look forward to field shoots. The Morgan Crew COF is a reasonable answer to the shortage and high cost of ammo. The entire COF can be shot with only 28 rounds an if you can do that we want to meet you! Actually the top two shooters used 34 and 36 rounds.

Thank for a great spring season the next event is the WW2 Sniper Course on 26 Sept. 

[FourIze]

WOW!!  That was FUN!! 

I want to do that AGAIN!!

Can't wait till September!

Phil H.

[hawkeye]

It was a lot of fun, folks don't know what they are missing. I wish we had done counter attack one more time.

[FourIze]

Yeah, we finished that and I thought of what my daughters used to say when they were little and we did something fun:

"Again, Daddy, Again!!"

One of the things I thought was cool was pulling the trigger and then having to wait to see if the target was going to drop.  I had never considered the time it takes a bullet to travel those distances.  I had always thought of it as "instantaneous" because the bullet's moving so fast - SCREAMING - coming out of the muzzle, but it still takes a fraction of a second, or two, to cover a few hundred yards.  It's a part of physics I had never really thought about...

[wildman]

You bet!! It is addictive.

Here's another thing to consider and why it is so important to hold the rifle the same way every time. When the bullet jumps the case and starts down the barrel the first of two recoil impulses occurs. It is a smaller event than the one that occurs when the bullet leaves the muzzle but is there none the less. Your rifle starts to move before the bullet leaves the barrel. If you are really interested in learning more about the science of ballistics and how firearms work you can do no better than to get a copy of Gen. Hatcher's book, "Hatchers Notebook," which is still available at Amazon and other places.

[hawkeye]

I got my copy for free. www.mediafire.com/?sharekey=a16576be687a6f628066db0503cf4f2ce02c9ce8eb76851a There are some other good items in this site.

[FourIze]

Thanks, Wildman.  I saw a copy at Barnes & Noble in Greensboro a while back, but I didn't have the money for it at the time.  I've been meaning to get a copy.  I downloaded the version Hawkeye mentioned, but I'm more of a BOOK guy - I like to be able to read even if the power is off.   

The recoil impulses would explain why follow through is so important, wouldn't it?  I've always been sort of fascinated by projectile motion (what we used to call ballistics in physics).  I was thinking about it some more today and realized that if the bullet leaves the muzzle at 2,640 fps (just to pick a semi-round number that's close - but slightly slow for an M1 and an AR-15), it would take the bullet two seconds to travel a mile (5280 feet).  That means it would take half a second to travel a quarter mile (the actual time is slightly faster because the bullet is traveling a little faster, but close enough), so no wonder there's a noticeable delay between squeezing the trigger and impact.  Even understanding the physics, I still think it's pretty cool.   

It also explains what I've been doing wrong all these years until I came to Appleseed in April...