What another awesome weekend of shooting with the Revere’s Riders crew. These events are so much fun and useful it’s hard to know where to even start when describing the experience.
First, thank you to Alan and his family to opening up his home, shop and land to us for the weekend. He and his wife, kids (and dogs) were fantastic hosts.
I feel blessed that Revere’s Riders events have provided me with the opportunity to meet some of the most amazing, welcoming, down to earth and civic minded amazing people across the state. This goes for both the people that help put on the events, as well as the participants. It was good to see some familiar faces and meet some new people. Everyone was friendly, helpful and most importantly, safe on the line.
As for ammo, I was shooting bulk Remington Golden bullets. This was not the best choice of ammo and I doubt I would use it again if I had thought things through. For whatever reason the Remington runs well in my gun. I did not have a single misfire, but it’s just not that consistent accuracy wise. I won’t blame the ammo for loose groups, a lot of that is my issue to work through, but I probably would have been better set up for success with better ammo. I did shoot well enough to earn a Marksman patch (34/50), but my qualifier scores weren’t very consistent.
Also not helping in the accuracy department was the condition of the gun. I never had any serious malfunctions, but it was dirty enough that it was gritty and sticky throughout, which slowed me down in certain areas. I had issues engaging the safety and releasing the bolt catch all weekend. I also had some stickiness and resistance when inserting and changing the Ruger box mags. Again, this was all because I put no effort into getting the gun ready before the event. Had I given it a proper cleaning I think my accuracy and mechanics would have been much better. In fact, I broke down the rifle after I got home and spent a good hour cleaning it. There was a lot of fouling in the breech, on the bolt and in the trigger assembly. After a thorough cleaning it’s running slick again.
- I need to dry fire a whole lot more. Even when using my natural point on aim and firing on the exhale, I was still pulling and pushing shots. Using a scope really lets you see the how much movement there is at the point of the trigger squeeeeeeeeeeeeeze. (13 “e”s for the 13 colonies.)
- The Ruger stock is too short. I prefer a longer length of pull. When getting on target everything feels great. When I move my finger to the trigger, my wrist is in an awkward position and I don’t feel like there is a natural spot for the pad of my finger. I wish the stock was an inch or two longer.
- I’m getting better at “calling my shots.” I’ve traditionally struggled at seeing the point of impact on the target with each shot. This is because I generally run iron sights on most of my rifles. Having the scope makes it much easier to call my shots and see flyers in real time, which does help assess what I’m doing wrong or right from shot to shot.
In conclusion, thanks to everyone involved in putting on another fantastic event. Overall it was a great weekend. If you haven’t done a Revere’s Riders event you should.
https://i.imgur.com/PmEFNXf.jpg
I'm on the left, my brother is on the right. We both showed significant improvement from the initial sight-in, but his improvement was massive for somebody with basically zero centerfire rifle experience. He was also shooting with an unmagnified HS510c, while I had the crutch of a LPVO.
This was my first meeting with any of the Riders crew. You guys could not have been more professional or welcoming. It goes without saying that Alan went above and beyond in hosting us and sponsoring the event, as well as letting us pet his dogs.
My brother and I were both running AR-pattern 5.56 rifles with foregrips, 30 round magazines, and VTAC-style slings. We had to do some improvising in technique, as the guns weren't fully compatible with the very old school, service rifle-y techniques being taught. Shorter mags might have helped. My prone groups tightened up when I eventually found a sweet spot just in front of the magazine well to jam my support hand and get my elbow closer to the centerline of the rifle. We both managed to find some compromises that brought improvement.
Learning about NPOA was my big revelation of the weekend, along with proper prone technique. I could watch the reticle movement through the scope and see when I was in NPOA position and when I wasn't. The tip about closing your eyes, settling into natural position, and then opening them was great. I had several occasions where I did that and discovered that I had settled several feet off the paper. Once hip-wiggled back into place, I could feel the tension melt out of my shoulders and back, and the jittering of the reticle was replaced by a steady up-and-down movement with my breathing. Releasing all that tension from fighting NPOA also made holding position much less fatiguing, as I was no longer twisting my back and holding muscles taut to stay on target. Every time I got NPOA properly sorted, it was very easy to fire with a steady breathing cadence and not get tired or run out of breath.
A bargain at twice the price.
Had an amazing weekend & am very grateful for the volunteers of Revere's Riders, especially our hosts for the weekend, A&A Optics!
As always, was a pleasure to hang out with a like minded group of responsible shooters. Great learning experience and conversations alike.
This class really got my fundamentals cleaned up & I saw a tremendous improvement in my grouping in 2 quick days of instruction.
I really appreciated how the drills centered on natural point of aim and actively shifting body position to accommodate, definitely need to move my hips more!
I've neglected shooting seated + prone and also really taking advantage of a sling, this class was a great way to get acquainted.
Biggest personal takeaway I got from Slim was using a 6' hold, made a drastic difference in my hits on target & was shooting marksman for most of day 2 qualifiers.
I shot the course using my WASR, both with iron sights half of day 1 and also with a red dot the remainder, both covered the small targets we were shooting prone.
It never occurred to me how my groups were totally crap because I couldn't see the targets lol, Slim walked me through zero adjustments & helped retrain my shooting.
Will definitely take this class again, definitely tons I need to improve on my fundamentals! Thanks again Revere's Riders!!
Had an amazing weekend & am very grateful for the volunteers of Revere's Riders, especially our hosts for the weekend, A&A Optics!
As always, was a pleasure to hang out with a like minded group of responsible shooters. Great learning experience and conversations alike.
This class really got my fundamentals cleaned up & I saw a tremendous improvement in my grouping in 2 quick days of instruction.
I really appreciated how the drills centered on natural point of aim and actively shifting body position to accommodate, definitely need to move my hips more!
I've neglected shooting seated + prone and also really taking advantage of a sling, this class was a great way to get acquainted.
Biggest personal takeaway I got from Slim was using a 6' hold, made a drastic difference in my hits on target & was shooting marksman for most of day 2 qualifiers.
I shot the course using my WASR, both with iron sights half of day 1 and also with a red dot the remainder, both covered the small targets we were shooting prone.
It never occurred to me how my groups were totally crap because I couldn't see the targets lol, Slim walked me through zero adjustments & helped retrain my shooting.
Will definitely take this class again, definitely tons I need to improve on my fundamentals! Thanks again Revere's Riders!!
If you decide to ‘upgrade’ to an AR15 I’ll up my offer to $10 for your AK!
Just kidding brchixwing.
All the positions we hate are typically the ones we suck at and try to avoid.
At these events you have no choice.
This is one of those events you can take over and over again and always come away wanting more.
See you on the line.
Nigel
Happy to hear that the class was a success for you, brchixwing! Sometimes it's the little things (like switching from "center of mass" to "6 o'clock" hold on your sights) that make all the difference. We look forward to seeing you again at one of our upcoming classes!