Colebrook, CT December 12-13 2009

crak · December 14, 2009, 12:37:04 PM

No summer soldiers here!

It was about 22 degrees on Saturday with a solid ground cover of snow. Sunday turned into a snow globe before an unrelenting freezing rain brought the real suck. Out of 9 shooters Saturday and 5 sunday, we had 2 Riflemen and 4 others shooting ~200's in the cold, but the scores took a nose dive after Sunday lunch when the weather got silly.

Kool Aid and Hollywood failed to bring California sunshine with them, but VT wedding cake was a pretty good substitute. The thing weighed 5 pounds per square inch. I hope their story makes it on to the board somewhere. Fred: Kool Aid beat your bloody angle pebbles by carrying out a 6 foot bloody angle log. I think it's big enough to get turned into several clown bats when he somehow gets it back home.

A pair of Marines doing a Toys for Tots shoot on the other side of the range came by in dress uniform (definitely not cold weather gear) and got a kick out of our heaping spoonful of heritage at Sunday lunch.

Jason from the range was made our stay as comfortable as possible inside the sweet shoothouse when we were eating and talking. Thanks!

Congrats to everybody out there. There should be some sort of "frozen" patch for instructors and shooters for these kinds of events. Hope you all made it home safely past all those patches of black ice on the way out.

CortJestir · December 14, 2009, 01:37:51 PM

You gotta give it up to the shooters for sticking it out this weekend. Sunday was tropical with a high of around 34 compared to the teens and twenties on Saturday, but as you'll soon see in some choice photos, we had a lot of white stuff and wet stuff.

kool aid, I now feel complete learning the "The Secret Rifleman Handshake" - to be performed only with a proper cheek weld, of course. Nice to meet you, Hollywood, and your buddy Bruce. You all are fine gentlemen and are welcome back anytime. Hope your travels were uneventful and you made it back safe and sound.

And yes, Jason from the NWCSA went above and beyond - hot soup and burgers, hot dogs and freshly made sausage patties grilled to extreme tastiness do wonders to warm the soul on days like these. Hot coffee and donuts to keep us refueled throughout the day. A propane heater and a sweet shooting shed for cover when we needed it. He also gets this program and what we are trying to do. I'm looking forward to working with him on future Appleseeds and other partnerships we talked about briefly. He also took some nice photos. I'll post those as well. So a big Thank You to the NWCSA and Jason for all you have done for Project Appleseed. We owe you for allowing us to leave the brass in the snow and saving our already frost-bitten trigger fingers. We'll make it up at our next AS in Colebrook.

Congratulations to all you shooters out there. It was nice to see a few familiar faces on the line - Dave, Lilorfnannie, 2paranoid, glad to see you again this weekend. Great improvement in all of your marksmanship skills!

Thanks also to crak for "commuting" from parts north. vernic82 and TOMINCT make running the line easy as pie. Good job, guys!

And now, presenting our newly minted Riflemen. The first one is of Dan who made Rifleman on Saturday just as we were finishing up the day. He was getting pretty close at Hartford, so I would have been surprised if he didn't get over the top this weekend. The second one is of John, a first-time Appleseeder, who blew the AQT out of the water on Sunday.

That's kool aid in the background with a well-timed and well-placed thumbs up. Congrats guys!

More photos soon...

CortJestir · December 14, 2009, 01:52:39 PM

More photos from the weekend...

vernic82 · December 14, 2009, 02:31:20 PM

What a GREAT weekend! Cold, snow, freezing rain, etc aside the shooters that attended never complained, never backed down, never gave up. It was amazing to hear crak, courtjestir, TOMINCT as well as Hollywoodmarine and KoolAid saying, "normally we tell shooters on the line to change this or that but.....you guys are going like a well oiled machine!" A testament to their combined training efforts, and probably a greater # of Instructors

I've added some additional pictures below, see the Frozen Water Cooler if you have any questions on how cold it was!

CortJestir · December 14, 2009, 05:38:35 PM

And some more photos. These are courtesy of Jason from the Northwest CT Sportsmen's Association.

The Log · December 14, 2009, 10:37:49 PM

No pun intended, but that was a blast! There's just something about spending a day or two with patriots, hearing history told with passion and respect, and shooting and getting better every time that just makes you forget about the fact that you're slipping into mild hypothermia. Same thing with the November shoot in East Granby, although substitute "drowning" for "hypothermia". I don't care what the weather is like, I'll shoot Appleseed anytime and anywhere I can! Although what the stalwart Sunday shooters went through is a little above and beyond - Huzzah! Huzzah! Huzzah! You have my respect and sympathy, and congratulations John for qualifying - it's amazing that anyone even got close under those conditions. Makes me feel like a lightweight having done it on Saturday.

Funny story - I almost rejoined the line on Sunday. When I got home and went over my AQTs. I kept coming up with 203 when I scored it, despite Chris telling me it was 218 on the line. All I could picture was the shame of having to turn in my patch and do it again, and I looked through all my other targets, but nothing came closer than 192. So I did the first one again and finally found my mistake, and scored a 217 - close enough!! Next step - a perfect Redcoat...

Not to get all mushy, and I'm not trying for a sad-sob tear-jerker or anything, but this means a lot to me. I've never actually been good at anything physical - never made a team, despite trying baseball; couldn't shoot hoops or throw a football. Never even any good at bowling. It's a joy to have finally found something that I can do well - only took me 45 years of trying! And when you get down to it, what I've discovered I'm good at is a whole heck of a lot more useful than being able to throw a ball. I owe Appleseed a lot for uncovering this skill an awakening the Rifleman within. Thanks you one and all.

And now - step 7. Time to pass it on. I'll start with the kids in April, then my wife in the summer. Think I'll break 'em in with the Crosman pellet rifle I got them for Christmas. "You'll shoot yer eye out, kid!"

CortJestir · December 15, 2009, 03:35:41 PM

QuoteNot to get all mushy, and I'm not trying for a sad-sob tear-jerker or anything, but this means a lot to me. I've never actually been good at anything physical - never made a team, despite trying baseball; couldn't shoot hoops or throw a football. Never even any good at bowling. It's a joy to have finally found something that I can do well - only took me 45 years of trying! And when you get down to it, what I've discovered I'm good at is a whole heck of a lot more useful than being able to throw a ball. I owe Appleseed a lot for uncovering this skill an awakening the Rifleman within. Thanks you one and all.

It means a lot to me too, Dan. As a matter of fact, it means a whole lot to all the instructors at Colebrook and nationwide. Thanks for sharing this.

I'll be in touch about other 7th Stepping efforts that you and I talked about. In the meantime, I know you asked about the source material for the Three Strikes. So for your benefit and that of others reading this AAR: A lot of the material we use comes from David Hackett Fischer's Paul Revere's Ride. You can pick up your own copy right here at the Appleseed Store. 'Course, you can get it locally or from Amazon, but why not support the RWVA and get it here instead?

johnny mac · December 15, 2009, 06:33:01 PM

Fantastic time with a fantastic group of Americans. I was blown away with time and effort that was put in over the weekend and I am sure it continues beyond Appleseed events. The history was amazing!!! The weather was was great!

Sunny and high in the twenties on Saturday, muggy and damp on Sunday. It was both a physical and mental challenge for all of us "way to stick it out". Cant wait to get out there again in February in Chaplin, Ct. See you then, Happy shooting..............

kool aid · December 20, 2009, 02:50:03 AM

a couple of pics

LayloPro · December 20, 2009, 03:26:27 AM

Ahhh, Bro Kool.....

Now I see you're letting Crak in on the "secret Rifleman's handshake" (w/ proper cheek weld......)

Cross-pollination....it's a beautiful thing, isn't it?

LLP

crak · December 20, 2009, 11:50:26 AM

That guy needs to fix his elbow next time.

kool aid · December 20, 2009, 04:25:09 PM

Hence.....

COWBELL.

Garand69 · December 20, 2009, 04:29:24 PM

Excellent work Crak, Wisconsin starts seeing this stuff and they may just go year round

TOMINCT · December 21, 2009, 02:53:09 PM

It's been already said that the shooters dealt with very cold on saturday and came back for cold wet stuff on sunday. My hat is off to you as you are the very best. There were no gripes even with shooters fumbling prepping mags and dealing with cold wet rifles that would act up at times. A couple of newbies made some good progress in the time they were there and one pushed RM a couple times with a great first and second stage to having a great 3rd and 4th stage on the next. Be patient, it will come together. A Rifleman persists, a Rifleman perserveres.
Many thanks to kool aid and Hollywood Marine for showing up on the warm day. For the time they were there I learned something from both of them and will use it on the trail
A great crew to work with and I'm looking forward to doing so again in the future. Belated regards, TOMINCT

vernic82 · December 21, 2009, 05:31:41 PM

Tom - Great to work with a cadre of you and Cortjestr. Not to mention the things I too learned from KoolAid & HollywoodMarine.

But the thing I'm most greatful for being after this shoot is a crak-baby!

Quote from: TOMINCT on December 21, 2009, 02:53:09 PM
It's been already said that the shooters dealt with very cold on saturday and came back for cold wet stuff on sunday. My hat is off to you as you are the very best. There were no gripes even with shooters fumbling prepping mags and dealing with cold wet rifles that would act up at times. A couple of newbies made some good progress in the time they were there and one pushed RM a couple times with a great first and second stage to having a great 3rd and 4th stage on the next. Be patient, it will come together. A Rifleman persists, a Rifleman perserveres.
Many thanks to kool aid and Hollywood Marine for showing up on the warm day. For the time they were there I learned something from both of them and will use it on the trail
A great crew to work with and I'm looking forward to doing so again in the future. Belated regards, TOMINCT

Buzzworth · December 22, 2009, 04:06:20 PM

Quote from: vernic82 on December 21, 2009, 05:31:41 PM
But the thing I'm most greatful for being after this shoot is a crak-baby!

Crak-Baby!? I like that

that could catch on
come to think of it I too am a Crak-Baby fist Appleseed instructing ever was Jericho and then Hartford

This shoot looked every bit as epic (weather wise) as Jericho

crak · December 22, 2009, 04:18:20 PM

Nahhh, worst weather still goes to that downpour at the end of Jericho a couple years ago. That was so bad it was funny.

kool aid · December 23, 2009, 01:26:58 AM

Quote from: TOMINCT on December 21, 2009, 02:53:09 PM
It's been already said that the shooters dealt with very cold on saturday and came back for cold wet stuff on sunday. My hat is off to you as you are the very best. There were no gripes even with shooters fumbling prepping mags and dealing with cold wet rifles that would act up at times. A couple of newbies made some good progress in the time they were there and one pushed RM a couple times with a great first and second stage to having a great 3rd and 4th stage on the next. Be patient, it will come together. A Rifleman persists, a Rifleman perserveres.
Many thanks to kool aid and Hollywood Marine for showing up on the warm day. For the time they were there I learned something from both of them and will use it on the trail
A great crew to work with and I'm looking forward to doing so again in the future. Belated regards, TOMINCT

Yeah- and I hope one of the things learned was 'don't shave your head right before you go back east in December!"

Y'all have your own way of doing things. I was expecting to see stuff not often found on the trail.
All I saw was appleseed, taught with some funny accents (we are going to get you a regional 'rolling R's ' rocker), with a fine dose of heritage and history. Fine fellowship and camaraderie, the usual suspects when two or more gather to remember and honor the sacrifices made so we can have this pretty cool life we get to lead.

More of THAT, less of the other.

SOMSOM SOMSOM SOMSOM SOMSOM SOMSOM!

vernic82 · December 23, 2009, 11:52:55 PM

Quote from: Buzzworth on December 22, 2009, 04:06:20 PM

Crak-Baby!? I like that

that could catch on

[/quote]

It must catch on!

crak · December 24, 2009, 12:03:00 AM

Quote from: kool aid on December 23, 2009, 01:26:58 AM
taught with some funny accents (we are going to get you a regional 'rolling R's ' rocker)

Hah, you must be confusing us somehow with the chicks in Woosta. There were no funny accents at this Appleseed!

(I only have a funny accent around JonJ... and that was only one "Taahgets" that immediately made me want to stop talking for the rest of the weekend)

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Colebrook, CT December 12-13 2009