AAR: Buckeye, AZ - February 20-21, 2010

[MOGromit]

Slightly late start to this...

2nd Appleseed at Buckeye's Joe Foss range for 2010 had almost an entirely new-to-Appleseed firing line.  We originally wanted to make the line forward of the covering since the benches on the line weigh roughly a metric ton each, making use of the 50 yard line to hold the backers and having the shooters back 82 feet.  Alas, the weather gods didn't conspire with us and the rain and wind (yes, rain in Arizona) led us to retreat to the covered firing line.  The public range actually shut down completely by around 10 am, so by 11 when the rain cleared out we periodically spread the word to folks who showed up to use the public range and wandered over to our small training bay when no one was present to check in with.

Instruction commenced, rounds went down range, red coats and squares were challenged.

History over the lunch break was Staplegund on the 1st strike, AZRedhawk44 on the 2nd and AZGromit on the 3rd.  

One AQT before the end of the day produced two riflemen.

Sunday we had only 7 shooters return (Saturday had about 14 or so).  The weather again wasn't terribly nice by AZ standards, but such is Appleseed.

By 2 in the afternoon we were ready to transition over to the main range (which shut down to the public at 2) and set up some semi-known distance targets at 100 and 200 yards for the center fire rifles and out to 100 for the .22s.  After spending some time explain bullet drop and trajectory, the shooters got some practice in to see what their rifle+ammunition combination would do for them at the longer distances.  Then a full AQT with as much distance as we had available.

All in all, yet another great Appleseed at the Buckeye range.

And not even a full month until the next one out there.

Persist!

AZGromit

[sixgunstosunday]

OK, I'm going to put my After Shoot Quality Survey here, then I'll give a rant and my critique.
1=poor   3=Satisfactory   5=Excellent
1. Overall how would you rate this event? 5
2. How would you rate the quality of marksmanship instruction? 5
3. How would you rate the presentation of American history/heritage? 4 There was a map there that wasn't used much, if at all, to go with the stories being told.
4. How would you rate the ease of directions to this event? 5
5. How would you rate the toilet facilities? 3 Motion sensor sinks and hand dryers are frustrating and aren't really for the kind of people who go shooting...
6. What is the likelihood that you will attend another Appleseed event? 5 making plans for Payson!
7. How likely would it be for you to join us in the "Rifleman's 7th step?" 3 Not for lack of enthusiasm, though!
8. How would you rate our instructors in professionalism? 5
9. How would you rate our instructors in courtesy? 5
10. How would you rate our instructors in helpfulness? 5
11. How motivated are you to share with others what you have learned? 5
12. Do you feel your personal abilities improved this weekend? 4 practice, practice, practice

I almost didn't make it to this event because, well, I procrastinated the task of using the checklist provided to make sure I had everything.  The week of the event, I was emailing back and forth trying to reschedule for another show.  Fortunately, I happened to mention the reason why, which was because I was short on supplies. Laurie connected me to AZGromit, who assured me I would make it with what I had, and volunteered to lend me whatever I needed to fill in the blanks.

The first day was great--we were motivated by the fact that we were the only ones willing to brave the cold, wind, and rain.  I had a lot of information crammed into my head, but not so much that anything was lost or wasted.  Thank goodness for the paperwork provided to refresh my memory!  During breaks we heard from the instructors about Revolutionary War history, and I must say, these guys are very passionate about it.  They whole day was good for me because I learned things about my hardware that I wouldn't have learned (got the Tech Sights, Gromit!) and basically pulled my grouping from a huge scatter to a few inches.  With practice, I can be much better.

The second day was even better, because the half of us that did return came back with the knowledge from the previous day, and we were rewarded with (somewhat) better weather.  I believe the ratio of instructors to staff was 4/7.  Yes, every little nuance in our shooting could be noticed and adjusted with those numbers!  After shooting in the morning, we moved over to the long range for some "Known Distance" shooting.  This was also valuable for me because I learned how to record the trajectory of my bullet and adjust my shot accordingly.

As a critic, I would only change two things: The checklist provided says that some things are necessary and some things aren't.  However it doesn't say which things are necessary, so I was scrambling to get everything.  I would volunteer to go back through that list and re-type it to make that clear, so that people aren't sweating over getting a bunch of high-capacity mags like I was.  There were a couple other things on the list; I don't remember what they were.  The second thing is the time frame.  It went over a couple hours late both days, which is fine if you got no plans and nobody to report to, but I had a busy weekend carved around this event and those couple hours meant I had to cancel other things.  The information was too good to just walk away, especially since I paid for it, but it put me in a bad place both days as far as sleep and getting back to work.

Now, I've gotta say that the passion you guys and gals have for all of the subject matter is awesome.  The stories of the oldest and youngest men were so moving that I'd damn near name my own sons after them, if the names weren't so bad!  All of the guys knew their stuff and spoke very fervently about it.  Of course, I'm guessing it was no coincidence that after each of these moving stories we would "avenge" them by shooting at the red coats!

I am definitely coming back for more, bringing as many people as I can.  The marksmanship is a great reason to come out, the enlightenment is an even better side effect that I hope will take place in everyone that I bring.  Preaching to the choir is cool because it's easy, but if it's not making a difference in the world, it doesn't really matter.

I can't think of anything else to cover, except that AZGromit was extremely helpful, letting me use his rifle for the entire event (sights on mine were messed up), letting me use his magazines (I ended up not even using my high-capacity ones) and in the end he even let me use most of a box of his good ammo, which I meant to give him some money for but I forgot as I was rushing off to work.  Staplegund was cool, as was Hoss and Redhawk-something or other (all the handles!)  If it were not for the patience and caring of these men, that we get things right instead of just faking it to the end of the day, I would have gone out there and muscled through a brick of ammo without learning a thing.  Thanks everyone!

[MOGromit]

Hey Six Guns,

Welcome to the Appleseed trail! 

Since we're all volunteers here, your idea of revamping the checklist to be more indicative of what's required vs. what's merely recommended has put you in charge of the updates 

Put a first re-draft together, post it here and we'll get it sorted out so that it can benefit future participants.

The time goblins are always something that we have to watch out for.  Each day the instructor crew wanted to get so much info out there for the shooters that we went longer than we anticipated.  No regrets on getting the info out, but we need to be more efficient at it, which we are always working on.

Bring all that you can.  Our next event in Arizona is again at Buckeye on March 27-28.

Persist!

AZG

[sixgunstosunday]

I know I've been absent lately, and I really wish I could be out there for THIS weekend's Appleseed event.  Gosh, I bet it's huge and awesome and revolutionary!

Ah, but my job constrains me.

I've looked over the list and I can't quite put my finger on it, like what can we afford to take off or what needs to be added on?  The mags, for sure, can be clarified (only one high-capacity mag will be used, if at all.)  Everything else, I think, needs to be listed in order of "must have" and "should have" and "optional for comfort."