DarthRevan
NES Member
I am a paper pusher engineer with no military or LEO experience. I am 30 years old, fat, and out of shape. Civilian as f***.
I have done two Appleseed shoots (both winterseeds) and have earned a patch at the second one.
Overall I found this to be a very informative and helpful course even if you're not all that experienced with long range shooting but have decent to good fundamentals already established. I missed some parts here and there but I am aiming to go over everything from memory before I forget any more than I already have.
Rifle Gear:
FNH 16" 1/7 twist barrel
77gr .223 rounds with Sierra Matchking projectiles
Trijicon x3-18 TenMile FFP scope on a American Defense Mfg QD Mount
Trijicon SRO on Arisaka 45 degree mount
Harris 9-13" tilting bipod
OneTigris rear bag, multicam
Day One:
Class started at 0900, 9 students and 3 instructors, an insanely good ratio imo. Some cops, some veterans, couple of pure civies.
The southern boys taking the class with us didn't like the mid/high 50's and overcast saturday and high 40's into rain showers sunday. I thought it was f***ing perfect weather and @jhagberg88 and I only wore a flannel or sweater and jokingly gave them shit the whole time. "Welcome to summer in New England!"
We discussed the usual safety briefings, overall course goals, and covered some scoped rifle shooting fundamentals.
There they discussed using a rear bag, and how to "fall" in to prone...
(I'm kidding...)
It was similar to this position, keeping your body square to the target and the line between your body and the target going right between your legs and falling into this position from standing.
(found this online but picture 4 corners and a center target on an 8x11, also here is a link to a good article by one of the instructors where this picture came from Understanding Cold Bore)
While firing, they discussed the different ways to measure muzzle velocity, they used magnetos (sp?) that were able to magnetically determine our rounds leaving our rifles.
That number was entered in to an app they recommended (BallisticsARC)
This set our zero, and from here the took us to the back edge of the range where the first photo was located. There was a berm of dirt built up they had us lay on in prone and from here they had us use our data from the app and we adjusted elevation on our scopes for targets at 200, 250, 300, 350, 400, 450, 500, 550, & 600 yards up a hill on their "Charlie" hill. In the app it gives you the ability to calibrate your holds with a truing value that uses the elevation and the distance you placed your shot. We went by the app on these shots and the adjustment for 600 from what the app told us was used at the truing shot and once entered to the app, changed all the hold/elevation adjustments.
Then we went back to the classroom to discuss windage holds briefly and then we ended the day.
I went to Littleton for dinner at the Freehouse Taproom. Great food, would go again.
(First game of the BOS-NYI 2nd Round series, BOS won 5-2, sweet game!)
Day Two:
We covered a review of the previous day and went in to CQB shooting.
Taking what we learned from the previous day they had us run a course where there was an orange steel target somewhere on the range that we had to locate as we ran to the "shooters box" on the same berm as before, estimate the range to target then hit it in two attempts, while timed and missed rounds would add 5 sec/shot. I only managed one hit on the second attempt. But finished 3rd out of the 9 of us. (#humblebrag)
We covered standing and kneeling techniques on the 50 yard course, shot those positions, covered shooting on the move and how footfalls, width of stride and length of stride effects aiming, then moved to a MSOC qualifier(? I'm sure some current or former marine will correct me on the right name) course of fire in the same range. At fifty, take two shots from standing, then kneeling, then prone in less than 10 seconds, reset to standing then while on the move to 25 yards wait for the signal to engage two shots in the A zone, and I don't remember the rest of the drill but you move up in segments to 3 yards, reload a second mag then start over and do it a gain for a total of 50 rounds, then score based on all the hits on the A zone and head shots for a score based on 100 possible points.
I only scored a 70, again, being fat and out of shape I'm sure played a part in keeping the rifle steady through the course of fire.
From there we moved back the Range 1 (the 100 yard range), and then did some kneeling and standing work on VTACS and what positions were good and why they were, based on skeletal structure. Then from there we moved back to the dirt berm, and shot 200, 250, 300, 350, & 400 from our different positions on the VTACS.
Then to wrap up the day we loaded a five round mag and had two VTACS 25 meters apart, starting on the first, a meter behind it, get in to a standing position on the vtac and shoot a target 200 yards away, then once the shot was fired, run to the right side VTAC and shoot the next target at 200 from the kneeling position . We ran back and forth between the two vtacs completing our shots at five targets in a row.
Summary: This class was f***ing awesome
This facility is f***ing beautiful....
I was in awe of the surrounding landscape which made my misses all the more bearable, like how can you be mad looking at a valley like that behind you? The drive to get there through Franconia Notch was awesome too. I've been up Rt 16 many times to Conway and points north, but never up the 93 corridor and I strongly recommend going that way if you ever feel the need to wander.
While the class might be on the expensive side for some newer shooters looking to take it, the instructors and their willingness to share insight and perspective was well worth the cost to me. Alex, Rudy and Brett/Blake (? I feel awful for forgetting his name) were incredibly approachable and offered what they could to help with whatever question you had. These guys really impressed me with how well they handled student questions. I really can't emphasize it enough...
They were able to help me, a complete distance shooting noob, make hits on steel out to 600 in a day, which blew my mind.
I want to take this course again or perhaps their CQB class. I can not recommend this class enough if you want to get serious about shooting past 100.
That said, make sure you find an optic you know how to read, determine what ammo shoots the best out of your rifle, even if you only have a short range to try it out on, and that you have a quality free floating rail section for your hand guard.
I have done two Appleseed shoots (both winterseeds) and have earned a patch at the second one.
Overall I found this to be a very informative and helpful course even if you're not all that experienced with long range shooting but have decent to good fundamentals already established. I missed some parts here and there but I am aiming to go over everything from memory before I forget any more than I already have.
Rifle Gear:
FNH 16" 1/7 twist barrel
77gr .223 rounds with Sierra Matchking projectiles
Trijicon x3-18 TenMile FFP scope on a American Defense Mfg QD Mount
Trijicon SRO on Arisaka 45 degree mount
Harris 9-13" tilting bipod
OneTigris rear bag, multicam
Day One:
Class started at 0900, 9 students and 3 instructors, an insanely good ratio imo. Some cops, some veterans, couple of pure civies.
The southern boys taking the class with us didn't like the mid/high 50's and overcast saturday and high 40's into rain showers sunday. I thought it was f***ing perfect weather and @jhagberg88 and I only wore a flannel or sweater and jokingly gave them shit the whole time. "Welcome to summer in New England!"
We discussed the usual safety briefings, overall course goals, and covered some scoped rifle shooting fundamentals.
- Essential components on/used by the rifle
- Scope
- Get one that you know how to use, be it SFP or FFP, and preferably in MRAD/MILS. But if you bring one in MOA, they will know how to translate for your optic.
- If needed get a cantilevered mount if you need to move the optic far enough forward with your current stock
- Stock
- You need to spend time prior to the class learning where your face lies on the stock in relation to your optic. For me, I have a low scope compared to the other shooters in the class, but I need to build up some on the stock so that when I'm relaxed on my rifle, my sight into the scope doesn't have that blackout effect you see when you are not centered on it.
- Ammo types
- Get one that matches your barrel spin rate. I have a 1/7 FNH barrel so I went with 77gr Sierra Matchking reloads with the help of @jhagberg88 who also took the course with me.
- Scope
- Discussed the placement of bipods and sling mount points on the rifle.
- They like having the sling mount all the way out on the end of the rail and the bipod within arms reach of your support hand while prone and squared to the rifle
There they discussed using a rear bag, and how to "fall" in to prone...
(I'm kidding...)
It was similar to this position, keeping your body square to the target and the line between your body and the target going right between your legs and falling into this position from standing.
- Keep eyes on target
- Place support hand in front of you on the ground
- I liked to keep the rear bag in the palm of my support hand to drop onto... rocks on palms suck
- Kick your feet out behind you, while keeping a triangle of your ass in the air, feet on the ground spread behind you, bipod on the ground already digging into the earth, then slamming you dick in the earth to load the bipod while getting behind it. (My words not theirs)
- Just think about it for a minute... you'll get it
- How to position the rear bag under your stock
- To me this was a very helpful point as I've never really used one prior to this weekend.
(found this online but picture 4 corners and a center target on an 8x11, also here is a link to a good article by one of the instructors where this picture came from Understanding Cold Bore)
While firing, they discussed the different ways to measure muzzle velocity, they used magnetos (sp?) that were able to magnetically determine our rounds leaving our rifles.
That number was entered in to an app they recommended (BallisticsARC)
This set our zero, and from here the took us to the back edge of the range where the first photo was located. There was a berm of dirt built up they had us lay on in prone and from here they had us use our data from the app and we adjusted elevation on our scopes for targets at 200, 250, 300, 350, 400, 450, 500, 550, & 600 yards up a hill on their "Charlie" hill. In the app it gives you the ability to calibrate your holds with a truing value that uses the elevation and the distance you placed your shot. We went by the app on these shots and the adjustment for 600 from what the app told us was used at the truing shot and once entered to the app, changed all the hold/elevation adjustments.
Then we went back to the classroom to discuss windage holds briefly and then we ended the day.
I went to Littleton for dinner at the Freehouse Taproom. Great food, would go again.
(First game of the BOS-NYI 2nd Round series, BOS won 5-2, sweet game!)
Day Two:
We covered a review of the previous day and went in to CQB shooting.
Taking what we learned from the previous day they had us run a course where there was an orange steel target somewhere on the range that we had to locate as we ran to the "shooters box" on the same berm as before, estimate the range to target then hit it in two attempts, while timed and missed rounds would add 5 sec/shot. I only managed one hit on the second attempt. But finished 3rd out of the 9 of us. (#humblebrag)
We covered standing and kneeling techniques on the 50 yard course, shot those positions, covered shooting on the move and how footfalls, width of stride and length of stride effects aiming, then moved to a MSOC qualifier(? I'm sure some current or former marine will correct me on the right name) course of fire in the same range. At fifty, take two shots from standing, then kneeling, then prone in less than 10 seconds, reset to standing then while on the move to 25 yards wait for the signal to engage two shots in the A zone, and I don't remember the rest of the drill but you move up in segments to 3 yards, reload a second mag then start over and do it a gain for a total of 50 rounds, then score based on all the hits on the A zone and head shots for a score based on 100 possible points.
I only scored a 70, again, being fat and out of shape I'm sure played a part in keeping the rifle steady through the course of fire.
From there we moved back the Range 1 (the 100 yard range), and then did some kneeling and standing work on VTACS and what positions were good and why they were, based on skeletal structure. Then from there we moved back to the dirt berm, and shot 200, 250, 300, 350, & 400 from our different positions on the VTACS.
Then to wrap up the day we loaded a five round mag and had two VTACS 25 meters apart, starting on the first, a meter behind it, get in to a standing position on the vtac and shoot a target 200 yards away, then once the shot was fired, run to the right side VTAC and shoot the next target at 200 from the kneeling position . We ran back and forth between the two vtacs completing our shots at five targets in a row.
Summary: This class was f***ing awesome
This facility is f***ing beautiful....
I was in awe of the surrounding landscape which made my misses all the more bearable, like how can you be mad looking at a valley like that behind you? The drive to get there through Franconia Notch was awesome too. I've been up Rt 16 many times to Conway and points north, but never up the 93 corridor and I strongly recommend going that way if you ever feel the need to wander.
While the class might be on the expensive side for some newer shooters looking to take it, the instructors and their willingness to share insight and perspective was well worth the cost to me. Alex, Rudy and Brett/Blake (? I feel awful for forgetting his name) were incredibly approachable and offered what they could to help with whatever question you had. These guys really impressed me with how well they handled student questions. I really can't emphasize it enough...
They were able to help me, a complete distance shooting noob, make hits on steel out to 600 in a day, which blew my mind.
I want to take this course again or perhaps their CQB class. I can not recommend this class enough if you want to get serious about shooting past 100.
That said, make sure you find an optic you know how to read, determine what ammo shoots the best out of your rifle, even if you only have a short range to try it out on, and that you have a quality free floating rail section for your hand guard.
