AAR: Nashville, IN - April 17-18, 2010

[techres]

AAR: Nashville Appleseed, April 17-18  2010.

Weather: Great Both Days Chilly in the AM, Sunny all day. Never Hot.
Number of Shooters: 25 Saturday, 13 Sunday.
Length of Event: 8:30 am - 7:00 pm Saturday, 8:30 am - 5:00 pm Sunday[/b]

Day One:

Lars, PT6 and I rolled in at 7:00am and got the line setup and were done just as shooters rolled in.  We had just the right number and filled the line nicely with shooting mats.

After registration, paperwork and a safety briefing we took the rifles to the line and shot our first targets (the redcoat):





The morning was full of fundamentals and history.  Prone position was used as each portion of the training was added to the last.  Young, older, man, woman all did well keeping up with pace of the morning training of slings, steps of the shot, NPOA and more:





INGO (an Indiana Gun forum we partner with) was very well represented, visible presence:





We had some issues with hot brass and put up a "Iron Curtain" between the lefties and the others:





We ate on site so we could stay on time track and those who had planned to eat elsewhere were fed by those that had extra on hand.  During lunch we continued history from Lexington on into Concord.   Then it was time for more, faster, and continued training including sitting and standing positions:





Ball and dummy put shooters in the position of trainers looking for problems to be fixed:







At 2:30pm we broke to finish our histories and make ready for the national volley.  At 3:00 pm we called the names of the April 19 dead and fired volley in their memory along with shooters at 100 other events, along with thousands of other shooters doing the exact same thing at the same time in 40+ states.  It was awesome.

[NOTE: Video will be posted once processed]

Then it was back to learning transitions, and before we knew it we were racing the sun setting.  There was just enough time to do two AQT's:





We were running so late that we quickly cleared the gear, stowed rifles and moved out for the night after a final talk about the debt our ancestors left to each of us and the lives we can live out in payment of that debt.

At home, I collapsed from drain and slept until 5:30 am, got up and headed back out again.

Sunday:

Sunday morning we found that some of the posts from the previous day had not done so well:



So we repaired the line and went back to work.  But first there was an AQT from the end of Saturday that had not been scored, and we had a bit of a happy surprise, our first Rifleman!  Now, at this Appleseed we were also remembering our first instructor who has passed beyond this life and into the next.  In her memory, every shoot had three purple riflemen patches and this AQT took the first.  (NOTE: IIT Lars has pictures of all the riflemen and those will post them asap).

With that superb start, we were back to work:









More Ball & Dummy:



Then we had lunch and did more history (Dangerous Old Men).  Afterwards we had fun hitting some varied targets and steel further out in our Known Distance exercise.   At the very end someone nailed the most challenging target and the steel dropped from the sky straight down.  It was perplexing until later when we found that shooter hit perfectly in windage just a bit high in elevation and made a direct hit on the mounting bracket and severing the chains, mounting bracket in one hit, dropping the target from the sky:



The hit was done from an unfamiliar Daewoo with irons and yet could not have been done better.  I will send him a bill.  Oh, wait, the guy was wearing a green hat!  

Then it was back to the AQT grind broken by a team match of Parker's Revenge.  Our Husband/Wife team beat out all other contenders for the win!

Soon there were four more riflemen including one who I asked to come back on Sunday and who proved his hard work had succeeded!  Each of these earned their patch.  

Two others were a mere few points off, one who came with no training at all.

We had run out of time again and ended all the bits of training and goodbye's for all but 4 shooters who stayed for one last AQT.  



I want to thank each and every one of you who came and devoted their time to heritage and skill.  It was a hard two days and even those who only were able to do one day should be very proud of their successes.  Each and every student did very well, was very safe, and of good cheer even when aching and tired.

You all did yourselves and your ancestors proud.

Thank you and I hope to see you again soon!

Techres