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Fred's
Articles
Range Report - Memorial Weekend, 2005
Another first amongst many for the RWVA: This time, our first three-day marksmanship event, and already evolution is gently changing the very substance of our events to orient them even more to producing riflemen, citizens of skill with arms and hard love of the Constitution...
RWVA is becoming the place to learn to shoot a rifle.
You could title this report “Connecticut, meet Florida!” or even “Ohio, meet Florida!” as our folks came from those states, along with Kentucky, West Virginia, South Carolina, Virginia, and the mountains of western North Carolina.
The Long Range Marksmanship Clinic on Saturday started with the Army Qualification Test to allow shooters to evaluate their current rifle skills. Those making ‘rifleman’ (210 points or more) went straight up to Range 1 and, after zeroing at 300 yards on paper, zeroed at 500 on paper, and then started working on the popups at 300-500 yards.
Those not making the grade were treated to some concentrated marksmanship instruction, including “Ball & dummy”, then refired the AQT, and another batch of new rifleman went to Range 1.
Those half-dozen remaining were given a serious talking to by Fred where he explained that it would make him feel good to see them improve their skills, and that he’d learned long ago in life that it was better to feel good than not. And that he knew they’d feel good, to see themselves shooting better...
Maybe the little talking-to helped, because after some more concentrated instruction, there was a remarkable improvement in skills as shown on downrange target performance, the only place it counts, and the rest of the participants were released to Range 1. Let’s be clear: not all of them qualified, that day, as riflemen. But all of them showed marked improvement, and the formerly-elusive ‘riflemen’ status is within reach for every one of ‘em, with a little more practice.
At the end of the day, it was ‘recess’ wherein we formed 3-man teams for some ‘shoot and scoot’ on the popups. It’s always fun, always challenging, always demanding of good marksmanship, and was a good way to end the day.
Sunday was something completely different. Our first, but hopefully not the last, Revolutionary War School of the Rifleman, billed as “the kind of school Gen Washington would’ve loved to have for his riflemen”.
A ‘round table’ about target detection in general went into a ‘how do we get more riflemen’ discussion, and so many people said “Well, I started reading the columns in 1999, or 2003, or...” that Fred mentally started saying to himself “Ah, Class of ‘03’ “ or “yep, Class of ‘99”.
The two most important tasks facing any rifleman are target detection and range estimation. So these two topics, along with counter-target-detection, were good choices for our first school.
We learned an alert target is not likely to be spotted, and that the first indication of a target could be a round heading in your direction (since opfor marksmanship is likely to be execrable, losing the battle of target detection does not necessarily mean it’s all over for ya).
A round fired at you, assuming it misses, gives you a direction and range on the target, by the ‘crack and thump’ method of starting a rapid count the minute you hear the ‘crack’ and stopping the instant you hear the ‘thump’ of the muzzle (it really does sound like a ‘thump’ - not a sharp report at all), and converting time to distance.
For practical purposes, if the ‘thump’ arrives on top of the ‘crack’ your opponent is within battlesight range - 300 yards or less. If there is a distinct, albeit short, interval between the ‘crack’ and the arrival of the ‘thump’ your guy is 500 or more yards away, the ‘more’ being established by the rapid count.
We know this because we - all of us - went downrange, first behind the 300 meter berm, then out to 500 yards, and listened as first a .308 and then a .223 were successively fired (next time we’ll add a 7.62 X 39 to the mix, and some tracers). There was a real difference in the interval made by the two hundred extra yards, along with a distinct lessening of the ‘crack’ at the longer distance.
We continued the school back on the firing line, orange tape in every rifle’s open action, as we first marked front sight/target comparisons at 300 and 500 yards on paper silhouettes to enable using front sight or reticule for range estimation, and then on live camouflaged targets, including two people in ghillie suits.
It was an eye-opener. Generally the iron-sight/naked eyeball crowd (the one Fred is in) had little chance against a skilled (in camo) opponent, even with a simple camo outfit, and no chance against the ghillie suit, unless the opponent totally mucks up...
Even the scope crowd, generally able to find the camo guy, could occasionally spot the ghillie suit, but not reliably, and bear in mind our observers knew some one was downrange, and knew to look from 300 to 500 yards.
Lesson: Scope sights, and binocs (wider field of view for scanning) are gonna be reccoed for the modern riflemen. Iron sights will still work fine, IF YOU CAN ID THE TARGET. But if you can’t find and ID the target, you’re gonna have trouble hitting it.
Lesson: With proper attention to camo, you WILL win the battle for counter-target-detection, and be unseen until your first round.
We were lucky to have “Bub”, an Apache driver, give us the scoop on target ID from the air.
We finished the day with an AQT, totally voluntary. People LIKE shooting it, the challenge of it, for riflemen and non-riflemen alike (the ‘nons’ shoot it with fear and trembling, hoping ‘this is the time...’ - wish we could get ‘em to relax, and enjoy it more, ‘cause if they PERSIST, they will make it. No question.)
Sunday night was a great cookout provided by a couple of our western NC riflemen (one officially still a ‘cook’, but that’s scheduled to change before the summer is out - and much to his relief, I bet. He’s tired of being a cook...).
Monday, Memorial Day, dawned on another perfect day. Slightly cool, somewhat moist, but mighty comfortable for this time of year.
The clan begin gathering early for the traditional Memorial Day shoot. Some new riflemen and wannabees showed to join the proud new ones from Saturday and Sunday.
To put everyone in the proper mood, we started with a story of April 19: How Capt Parker of the Lexington militia, mustering on short notice only half his strength, and with the British in sight, coming down the road in the early morning light, asked two passing men, en route to their own muster, if they would stay for a one-day enlistment to bolster his little band.
They could’ve said “Can’t, Cap’t - gotta get to my unit” or “Can’t, gotta run home and see if the family is alright.”
They didn’t. Right there, on the spot, in the face of the on-coming enemy, they enrolled.
Courage like that should not be forgotten.
To forget it, to forget the tradition, is to forget the heritage, is to forget the country, and what makes it special.
It’s a real lesson.
We respect it. But life is not all memorializing. Life is also fun. So, bingo, we started with the AQT. If you fired rifleman, you went directly afterwards up to Range 1, and started on the popups. A real incentive to do it. And nearly half of ‘em did it.
The rest, with the rifle fire on Range 1 as background music, were treated to another Memorial Day treat: A reading of ‘The Muster Drum’ - a stirring call to arms, a plea not to forget the duty to defend liberty. (It’s on the weblog at www.rwva.org - when you read it, read it out loud, in a stirring fashion, to get the full impact. Then go out and become a rifleman - you’ll want to!)
The second AQT produced another round of happy campers proceeding to Range 1 while Fred and the others shot another AQT just for fun and practice.
Once everyone was on Range 1, and the speed shoot on the 200 & 300 popups was won by L. Potts, we did the ‘sniper’ event - a target each at 200, 300, 400, and 500 yards, and two minutes total to nail ALL of ‘em - an easy and fun challenge. Then we again went into the ‘shoot and scoot’ of ‘Counterattack’.
New riflemen Wes and Jeff joined Fred to turn in a time that broke the two-minute barrier, pretty tough to do, now that the 400-yard popups come up with the twos and threes. It was the best time of the day. Even those three couldn’t beat themselves in a later run.
Later, Fred was asked “which day was best?” and I answered “Each of ‘em - and all of ‘em.”
Any day that produces a rifleman is by definition a good day.
A day proud in the tradition.
A day that strengthens the heritage.
How can Fred have answered any other way?
Now, it's up to the people who were there. Some made rifleman this weekend, some were riflemen when they arrived, and some left with the knowledge and gentle push they needed to become riflemen, if only they persist.
It's up to them to go back home, and get some more riflemen started on the path, to plant some more apple seeds for the future.
And to come back some day in the future, and re-immerse themselves in the RWVA rifleman pool. It's a refreshing experience... |
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