AAR: Manheim, PA April 17 & 18, 2010

[Chainsaw]

I Love April, when as irresistible as the change of seasons, the new leaves on the Liberty Tree burst forth with the supreme confidence that they will soon be joined by exuberant Life from a Hundred newly planted Appleseeds.

I Love the smell of gun smoke, especially after The Volley. It was a good weekend in Manheim Pennsylvania.

Two Riflemen - brothers, one a previous Appleseeder who took his knowledge home and taught his little brother to shoot.  Daryl was 7th stepping even before he took the Orange hat this weekend.  Well done Daryl and thank you for taking the big step forward. Congrats to Dave on the Patch.  Outstanding.

Six families gave us a tangible example of, "Improve yourself - Improve your family - Improve your community."

The youngsters in attendance, Daniel, AJ, Marie, Matt(2), Michael, and Joseph all deserve commendation.  We were all impressed with their patience and discipline.  Many would have fallen in the perfect storm of bolt guns, lever actions, tube magazines, and single actions!

Total attendance was 22 with 100% returning on Sunday.  Five had attended an Appleseed previously.

The weather gave us nothing to complain about.  The constant wind did become bone chilling at times, but it dashed itself on our Firing Line like waves on a rocky shore.

I was ably assisted by Diesel, Franklinfarmer, Frontsight, Machine Mac, & Sie.  Thanks guys.

Rock on,   

- Chainsaw

PS   BIG thanks to the Elstonville Sportmans Association for their work on improving the berms.

Thanks too, to Jerry (who gave us an artillery demonstration when he shot an AQT with his .300 WinMag) for the pocket copies of our founding documents.

[West]

Congrats Chainsaw!  I know you had a terrific weekend.

Happy Patriots day!

West 

[mooney]

THANKS FOR MAKING THIS A GREAT WEEKEND CHAINSAW!!!!!

I wish I could have been there. Good to hear the berms were up to snuff as well.

Mooney
PA SC

[BD]

Thanks to all the instructors, it was a good time for all.
It's great to see an entire family take up a big chunk of the line.
The facility was outstanding.
We had some shooters who had just purchased their first rifle and wanted to learn the right way to use it.
All in all, a great shoot on a beautiful spring weekend in America.

[PaMinuteman]

Thank you to all of the instructors for their time and effort to make a really excellent shoot. I had a great time competing with my little brother to see who could put up the highest score (which I won luckily 233 to 227). I look forward to contributing to the cause in the future.

PaMinuteman

[franklinfarmer]

It was a great opportunity to become a better American through learning humility, attention to detail, perseverance, and the like, and hopefully helping others to do the same.  Thank you shooters (100 % on the second day) and fellow instructors (another great crew) for that opportunity to learn in this context!  Since it was my first shoot during which I spent a significant amount of time talking about history and philosophy, I can look back now and see all kinds of, shall we say, opportunities for improvement---a.k.a. screw-ups.  But here's to the next steps for all on their road to rifleman, red hat, or whatever.

One of the shooters told me it was good to focus for a whole weekend on one thing (without giving attention to a dozen distractions) and learn a lot about that one thing.  Amen to that too.

[Machine Mac]

This was truly the most family oriented AS I've had the pleasure to attend. Matt brought his entire crew of 4, brothers Dave and Daryl dominated the left side of the line, Daniel brought his parents to support his efforts, Jerry was accompanied by his wife and daughter, Jim and Maria with their son AJ, and Rob and Deb rounded out the family affairs at Manhiem this past weekend.

The wind was a little chilly at times, but everyone persisted and all returned on Sunday. It was truly a pleasure to meet such a great group of folks that all seem to know what they are about. John, Scott, and Brian were knocking on the door on Sunday and I'm sure they will be back next month, and as soon a Ken can break away again he'll be back too.

As always it was a pleasure to work with Chainsaw, Frontsight, and to meet Frankinfarmer.

A big thank you to Elstonville Sportsmans Association for their support for Appleseed. 

[Sie]

Here are a few photos from the event (I had the resolution set too high on my camera, so I may need to split my post of the photos):

[Sie]

A few more photos.  I am still kicking myself for not getting photos of our zombie attack!  Next time.

[Machine Mac]

As always it was a pleasure to work with Chainsaw, Frontsight, and to meet Frankinfarmer.

Sie,  I just realized that I omitted you in my previous post, my bad it was not intentional. I did omit Diesel on purpose though as he can drive me crazy at times