New Bremen, NY June 12-13 AAR

[boltgun71]

We had a great weekend on the line with 11 shooters for both Saturday and Sunday, a mix of new Appleseeders and returning Appleseeders.  Most drove at least an hour to be there.  Saturday brought rain showers pretty much all day long, but all in attendance true to the Rifleman spirit, persevered and stuck it out!  Speaking of perseverance, two of our shooters were parents of one of our instructors.  The father has been diagnosed with cancer and is undergoing radiation treatment for it and the mother of our instructor hasn't fired a firearm in 52 years.  Both despite their health or lack of experience stuck with it ALL weekend, laying in the sand and getting rained on.  They were the epitome of perseverance and I was honored to have them shoot this weekend.  We had a great instructor crew consisting of a few seasoned Instructors/IIT's and two brand new IIT's that helped work the line all day.  After a long day of instruction Saturday ended with no new Rifleman but with several knocking so I knew Sunday wouldn't be the same.

Sunday brought us nicer weather but more bugs.    After a quick refresher of the previous days lessons the AQT grind was on. By the first or second AQT we already had two new Riflemen!  Congratulations to Bob (214) and his daughter Sheryl (225) on scoring Rifleman!  After about 2 hours of the grind we broke for lunch and during lunch, I gave a class on Target Detection, Range Estimation, and Ballistics, in preparation for the Full Distance portion of the afternoon for those that wanted to shoot out to distance.  New Bremen is a great range that provides the opportunity to confirm BSZ and shoot all the way out to 400yds.  After lunch and the class was over the range split into two lines, one for 25m and then the line for full distance, and we were back to putting rounds down range.  The 25m line brought us one new Rifleman, congratulations goes out to Ryan for his 217!  Over on the full distance line the shooters and even one new IIT were enjoying shooting out to 400yds and confirming zeros and BSZ.  All saw that group size in MOA was the exact same at full distance as it was at 25m.  Appleseed works!  The day ended with no more new Rifleman but some so close they could taste it, shooting in the 190's-low 200's, ugh.  At the end of the day though we gained one new IIT, Bob one of our new Rifleman, also known as Vibbit on the forum, stepped up to the task.  Thank you Bob.

I don't have the Red Coat data to show the improvement made by the shooters but it was tremendous throughout the weekend.  We will try to get that posted later along with some pictures.

That's about it for now.  I look forward to reading others comments on the shoot, both shooters and instructors!

Thanks again goes out to all the shooters and instructors who made this Appleseed a success.

[B9]

Great News!!

Congrats to Bob and Sheryl and Ryan.

[Spartan]

Boltgun,
It was a great experiance thank you. The Class on Sunday afternoon on Target Detection and Ballistics was enlightening and given by a real expert.  The steady hold tips with the M1A are much more noticable than with the 22. Great Training at 400 Yds.  Ya know, it doesnt hurt that everyone there, instructors and shooters were so friendly.
With your shield or on it.
Spartan

[Another D.O.M.]

Sat. AM Redcoat:  100yd - 6; 200yd - 4; 300yd - 0; 400yd - 1; 250yd - 2; Cleaned Redcoat - 0

Sat. PM Redcoat:  100yd - 10; 200yd - 5; 300yd - 4; 400yd - 0; 250yd - 2; Cleaned Redcoat - 0

Sun. AM Redcoat:  100yd - 8; 200yd - 7; 300yd - 1; 400yd - 8; 250yd - 4; Cleaned Redcoat - 0

Sun PM Redcoat:  At this point most shooters were either on the KD range or were finished shooting for the weekend.  There were three who competed to see who could clean the target and Sheryl won.

The improvements shown above speak for themselves.

This was really a great weekend.  When I arrived at the range Saturday morning the clouds were thick and ominous.  It began to rain shortly thereafter fairly steadilly but not heavilly.  We had the use of one 10' x 10' pop-up canopy with the promise that a 20-footer would arrive between 8:30 and 9:00.  Sure enough it arrived right on time - and just in time as well, as while we were erecting this one it began to rain much more heavilly.

We had some luck on our side Saturday.  It seemed that each time it began to rain, it was time for a teaching session under cover or lunch, so for the most part no one got really soaked (although two or three shooters on the ends of the coverings did receive some collateral damage from runoff).

Sunday morning looked nearly the same, although the clouds were not quite as dark.  It didn't rain to speak of Sunday morning, but the deer flies and horse flies showed up for the party, considerably testing many 'shooters' bubbles' during the day.  We broke for lunch around 11 and by 12:15 the sun was shining brightly and the rain was gone.

Tremendous improvement during the course of the weekend, and everyone indicated they had a great time.  This is the first time I've been to a range with up to 400yd KD - when I looked at the picture I took of this range it struck me - all of the targets look like they're right next to each other, but they're each a hundred yards apart!


KD range, taken from the firing line.

Here are pics of our new riflemen:

Sheryl


Ryan


Bob (not yet sporting his bright new Orange Hat)

It was indeed a pleasure working with everyone on the range, from the instructors to the shooters to the range President; and I look forward to meeting and working with many of them again.  In fact, I can already envision the new Orange Hats sitting atop Ryan's and Sheryl's heads...
MJA

[sgtrock]

Boltgun71 and Crew

Nice job on a safe shoot,,,
   Congratulations to the New Riflemen and to Bob for accepting an honored position within the Instructor Corps,,, your help will be greatly appreciated thru out NY State and the Nation,,,I am sure our paths will cross in the near future,,,
   And a Father and Daughter Rifleman team under one roof that is so impressive,,,      They, I am sure, had a most enjoyable ride home,,,
To the Proud and Honorable Parents who stuck with,, My hat is off to you folks,, A very fine example of True American Spirit,, Thank You for being who you are!!!!

Again,,, Job Well Done

sgtrock

[Another D.O.M.]

One other thing I nearly forgot that shouldn't be forgotten.  This is a testament to dedication.

U.S.Cavalryman was in the field at Ft. Drum when the rest of us woke up on Saturday morning and crawled out of our warm cozy beds.  When he returned to his base he went home, took a quick shower & changed clothes, then drove the 40 minutes to New Bremen to work the rest of the day along side us.  I want to thank him for this, and I think his dedication deserves recognition.
MJA

[R1SGx2]

HOOAH - It's an Army thing.

Eyes of the Warrior
Alway open.

KD-400, nice, sounds like a nice shoot,
another example of:
WHAT"S THE WEATHER GOT TO DO WITH IT?
LETS GO....

U.S.Cavalryman was in the field at his BASE

changed
Thank you for serving twice...  

[Rattlehead]

Boltgun, thanks for running this.  I'm very glad I went, as it definitely improved my shooting.

I look forward to continuing particpation with this program.

[gunville]

Boltgun - great job, pleasure to work with you.

[U.S.Cavalryman]

It was a good weekend. Watching people improve is always worth the trip. We had good weather and good discussions. It was a very diverse group of shooters but everything flowed well.
Thanks to Gunville and Another D.O.M for calling the line and letting me do my thing. 

My Parents both worked hard all weekend and improved drastically. Thanks to Boltguns Mentor for working with my Mom. They are already planning on attending the next AS back home in Missoura. RifleWahine was the only Centerfire shooter on Saturday and in the morning on Sunday. She spent the weekend working on steady hold factors with the increased recoil. Good Job Wahine, your groups were excellent. Now refill that ammo can........ 

[RifleWahine74]

This weekend was great!  Always a joy to shoot some rounds off   Especially when they are my Hubby's 
Thank you to all that make the Appleseed a success.  I have completed part of my 7Th step  and I already have someone else lined up for the next Appleseed.
To U.S.Cavalryman Ammo Box will be full on Saturday 

[vibbit]

What a great weekend , no matter what the weather was. It can always be worse.
Finally made rifleman  Now I need to do it with a centerfire.
I would like to give thanks to Boltgun and crew for a great shoot.
A special thanks to Boltgun for the class on sunday,and thanks for the help sighting in. Great help !

Now that I got 3 of my kids to go I still have 2 more to work on along with the wife.
I will be working on them for sure.

Thanks to all who have made a Great program like this available 
Will see you all again soon keep up the good

[ammodillo]

fun working with all the instructors kinda hard to watch every one else shoot for a change  but all in all it was a great weekend and the fact i get to help some great shooters and people fine tune their skills is enough to make up for not shooting  boltgun pleasure working with you and thanks for making my first shoot as an IIT a great one

[U.S.Cavalryman]

 Dillo, we will have to link up some time and Shoot. I gotta keep my Skills up.

[Another D.O.M.]

Dillo, we will have to link up some time and Shoot. I gotta keep my Skills up.

Yeah, but I heard your ammo is all shot up...

[vibbit]

He only ran out because thats all I gave him.lol

[U.S.Cavalryman]

Supposedly my can will be full again soon lol.