FREE 2 Day Basic Rifle Course Sponsored by A&A Optics

[markiemark]

Thanks again to Alan for putting together such a great shoot. I personally learned alot not only about shooting but history as well. That moment with his daughter really made the history come to life. Its a great event to attend if you havent been to one yet.

 

[nad63]

Thanks for sharing the video. Some great story telling for sure and that young lady sure was the icing on the cake.
Public speaking makes a lot of people nervous and for the record there were about 45 people in the audience for this young lady.
I’d be Proud too. Congrats Team Alcorn

 

[MCgrease08]

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 the shooting itself. I won’t get to much into the mechanics of the event. If you’ve done a Basic Rifle event before you know how it goes. If you haven’t, well then you need to get out and do one for yourself to get the experience. I will talk a little bit about some of the takeaways I had, both with the mechanics of shooting and the gear I ran.

I was shooting a rimfire Ruger 10/22 with wood stock and Vortex Crossfire 2-7 x 32 that I got a few years back from none other than our host, A&A Optics. My biggest take away from the optic was how well it holds a zero. I did not sight it in prior to the event, and in fact I haven’t sighted it in since the last Basic Rifle class I shot with it at least three years ago. It was dialed in right out of the case, and I literally didn’t have to touch elevation or windage the entire weekend.

I shot almost exclusively at the 2x magnification. I did crank it up to 3x for one full qualifier just to get a comparison, and I did I shoot one stage of one qualifier on 4x. But overall I find I get distracted by the sway and muzzle movement when magnified too much.

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 used a GI sling, which I would recommend for anyone doing a basic rifle event. It’s by far the most versatile and secure sling for shooting in the various positions required. About halfway through day one I realized one piece of hardware on the sling was actually upside down, making it hard to adjust the length quickly. Once I fixed that the sling didn’t give me too many problems and I was able to shorten and lengthen as needed depending on whether we were shooting while standing, prone, or seated. A takeaway for me is to find the right length for each position, and mark the sling so I know where the buckle needs to be for each. That would make life much easier during prep time, which generally isn’t very long.

But that’s the great thing about these events. They provide a chance to run your gear, see what works and what doesn’t. Every body is a minute man in their own mind, but if the “S” were to actually “HTF” you better be squared away before you're in the field trying to run your gun.

As for major takeaways related to shooting, I had a few.

- 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.

 

[Ark]

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.

 

[gopher]

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.

McG, thanks for your kind words regarding the event and the Revere's Riders organization. Much appreciated and we all hope to see you at some of upcoming events (everyone should subscribe to the Revere's Riders email newsletter via the form in the footer of the Revere's Riders website).

 

[brchixwing]

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!!

 

[gopher]

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.

My experience is that Remington "Golden Bullets" are CRAP (at least in my rifles). I've settled on using either Fiocchi High Velocity (22FHVCRN to be specific) or CCI Mini-Mags; both are reliable and accurate in my rifles. Fiocchi ammunition doesn't get the respect that it deserves given it's affordable pricing, IMHO. That said, every rifle has slightly different ammunition preferences for both accuracy and reliability.

Get a few boxes of different .22LR ammo and go to the range with your rifle and shoot a couple of groups with each load. You should be able to identify what shoots well in your rifle and what doesn't in short order.

 

[gopher]

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.

Regular cleaning is a good idea. Many people think a .22LR firearm doesn't need cleaning; I don't think those folks ever look at the internals of their rimfire firearms. Then again, I tend to be a little OCD on cleaning my firearms...

 

[gopher]

- 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.

Some comments here:

• to clarify, you do NOT want to break your shot DURING your exhale but during the respiratory PAUSE between inhale/exhale. I'm guessing this is what you meant, but I wanted to clarify this for folks that might have misunderstood your phrasing.
• when getting your NPOA, you should have your finger on the trigger (your sights are on target, right?). The idea here is that once you get your NPOA you don't want to adjust ANYTHING before you actually pull the trigger and break the shot. ANY adjustment to your position will affect shot placement.
• I prefer the "Deluxe Sporter" 10/22 stock (now called just the "Sporter"). I'm not sure if it has a longer LOP than the standard 10/22 stock, but it gets rid of that god-awful barrel band and gives you some checkering for grip. There are definitely other replacement stocks that would give you a longer LOP (check out Stocky's, Ruger and Boyd's for replacement stocks).

 

[gopher]

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.

Ark, nice work on those Morgan's 13 targets!

NPOA is definitely the "secret sauce" to 3-position rifle shooting. I'm no "high speed, low drag" operator, but I'm pretty confident that the underlying mechanics of NPOA will help you in ANY style of shooting (reduce muscle input and rely on a natural body position to keep rounds impacting in the same spot).

Thanks for your kind words regarding the event as a whole as well. Hope to see you at another one of our events in the future!

 

[gopher]

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!!

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!

 

[MinuteManMike]

Another great shoot.

I found that my 10/22's scope was loose Friday night. Tightened it down, sighted in the first day. Did not check it again until the 2nd day. And..... I noticed at the first qualifier I shot that it was loose again. I just decided to relax and deal and shot like garbage all day Sunday. No worries. I qualified before and I know I can do it again with sorted-out gear. Lock-Tite is in my future, for sure.

I had a GREAT time blasting the steel at the end of the day with my AR and iron sights. Not sure if I want to add a red dot or some other sight or not. I kind of like shooting iron sights.

RR rocks. Great group of people. I look forward to shooting more events.

 

[nad63]

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

 

[Butch627]

What a great event. I want to thank Alan and Mrs. Alan for the great hospitality, the generous rebate offer, and use of their grounds. The entire RR staff were all so knowledgeable, friendly, and professional. They had great attitudes and enthusiasm which made for a fun relaxed environment. If they could work on moderating the weather for future events they will have all the bases covered.

 

[brchixwing]

Almost spit out my coffee reading that LOL! I am a huge fan, would you consider autographing that $10?

"All the positions we hate are typically the ones we suck at and try to avoid.
At these events you have no choice."
That is spot on with my experience over the weekend shooting seated, took me a few rounds to get my bony elbows and legs steady but by day 2 it really wasn't that awkward.

Looking forward to my next course with you & the RR crew, took my confidence behind the trigger up exponentially since the start of the year!

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

 

[brchixwing]

Thank you Bruce, really appreciate all the coaching I've gotten from the Revere's Riders team, looking forward to many more classes! All those minor tweaks add up quick. On sights, getting a crash course on the history, math and meaning of MOA was also enlightening this weekend!

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!

 

[draftsman]

Thank you to all the Revere's Riders volunteers, Alan and his wife for hosting us! This was my first RR experience and it was awesome. With no previous formal rifle training I learned a lot of fundamentals, sling use, natural point of aim and (safely) transitioning into position on the line. I'm looking forward to the carbine class.