AAR - Buckeye, AZ - October 17-18, 2009

[MOGromit]

After living in AZ for a while, you start to think that maybe planning an Appleseed in the Phoenix valley for July isn't a good idea but that one in October would be perfect.

Alas, we forgot to tell the weatherman!    However, it was a great weekend despite the weather.

20 shooters showed up Saturday morning at the Joe Foss Shooting Complex in Buckeye in the West Valley to start drinking from the firehose of Appleseed information.  With highs predicted to be at or near 100, everyone came prepared with plenty of water.  After walking through the intro and welcome, the safety information and the line commands we proceeded to start putting rounds down range and working through the points of instruction.  Mostly .22s on the line with one M1A and a few 223s of various configurations.  Quite a few repeat Appleseeders but many new to the experience as well.  Major kudos to Buck for bringing along 5 new folks to the line!!!

History was covered over lunch and at the end of the day by Lysander6 and AZG.  The 7th step and benediction wrapped us up around 5:30 just in time for the sun to actually set behind the hill that rests behind the berm.  Water and pain killers were highly recommended to all in order to get everyone back on the line on Sunday.

We had 16 folks return to start the fine tuning process of an Appleseed Sunday and congratulations go out to Mark and Andy, the next two Riflemen in AZ!

Lysander completed his Instructor PC and demonstrated all of the instruction points along with an excellent 2nd strike and was promoted to full instructor status!  Congratulations all around!

Everyone left tired but stuffed full with new information about shooting and our heritage.

Yet another fine Appleseed weekend.

Now if we can just turn the thermostat down a bit.  99 and 95 degrees in October?!?!  I guess we'll just have to persist a little bit harder!

AZG

[lysander6]

I wanted to thank every student who persisted and AZRon & AZRyan for the IIT work they did on the line.  More instructors always turn these events into training and coaching seminars when the personnel are available to see to the safety of everyone.

It was bloody hot and the orientation of the range made the hours of 1100-1700 particularly oven-like.  We referred to AZGromit as Lawrence of Buckeye with his AZ variant of the Nefud Desert.  While it is difficult at times for us on the line, the Appleseeder students showed plenty of resolve toughing out what is ordinarily a rough slog paying attention and learning the rifle techniques and persisted through the heat in addition.  We had ages ranging from 10 to...older.

I am so proud of the resolve I saw on the line.

[AZRyan]

First off, I want to give a big thanks to AZRon, Lysander and Gromit for coaching and mentoring me through my first AS as an IIT. The shooters deserve credit for hanging in there over the weekend and continuing to improve (checking targets after each COF and seeing the groups get smaller was great). Some of them definitely demonstrated that "a rifleman persists".

I can't wait to work more AS and move along the trail.

[AZStu]

Well, I think there needs to be some feedback from the non-instructor ranks from this weekend's event. 

This was my 2nd Appleseed and I enjoyed it as much, if not more so, than my 1st.  The instructors (and the shoot boss) were great.  They did their best but I missed qualifying by a couple of points.  Next time.....next time.....next time.  I guess I better get started on making a stack of AQTs from the practice sessions.   

One of the best things about Appleseed is the new friends you make at the shoot.  On our 2nd day, I overheard one of the shooters (maybe it was Andy?) mention wanting to convert a Saiga .223 back to its original AK form.  I told him it was worth doing, IMHO, and that I had done mine and was very satisfied with the results.  He had found a good conversion write-up on the web but had lost the link to it.  I told him I had mine on my site.....and sure enough, that was the write-up he had read but lost track of.  Small word it is!  I got a case of Wolf ammo....maybe I should bring it next time.

Anyway, many thanks to the volunteers who so graciously donated their weekend to help us all get a little better at the firing line and learn a little more about those who sacrificed so much so many years ago. 

I look forward to the next opportunity to try again.

Stu
aka arizona98tj
www. stu-offroad.com

[1911Ron]

Welcome Azstu hope to see more of you around here (i know where you work   I have to agree it was a great weekend and congrats to Lysander6 (hmmm no Az in front wonder why?)  AzRon