Elk River, MN 7/31,8/1, 2010

[colycat]

Place holder for Sven's AAR.

[Sven]

The third Elk River Sportsman's Club Appleseed Event took place in near perfect conditions this weekend.  A special thanks to Dean C for setting this up.  Because of club rules it is always a challenge for him to determine whether or not he is actually going to get to shoot, I appreciate his efforts a lot.  It got kind of warm on Saturday but a tremendous amount of improvement was shown by the shooters despite the inevitable issues with equipment while trying to learn a ton of information about how to accurately shoot a rifle.  We had 28 people show up on Saturday, a large contingent from the Fargo-Moorhead area came down with three campers!  Thanks Matt for arranging that caravan.    I am looking forward to setting up an Appleseed closer to your home so your other friends can attend.    A lot of families attended this weekend with eleven youngsters present, I believe we had seven or eight kids under 10 years of age, and it worked out well.  Saturday afternoon's  Redcoat targets showed a lot of learning going on. 

Sunday dawned a little cloudier than Saturday but that was just fine, and it stayed fairly cloudy for the rest of the day with only one very brief period where we had some sprinkles but nothing to get anyone drenched.  Four people who shot on Saturday were unable to return Sunday, but hopefully we'll see Denny and his grandkids at another soon.  The rest of the crew saddled up quickly Sunday morning and we had rounds down range in short order.  However, it seems that they forgot everything they learned the previous day with Redcoat results reflecting Saturday's AM performance. So reviews were in order,  the learning curve was less steep on Sunday.  Before Lunch we were able to produce two Riflemen  Congratulation Steve and Matt!  After lunch and some well instructed history courtesy Colycat, along with some KD instruction again Mr CC we returned to the line and proceeded to shoot a Rapid Fire AQT and produced two more riflemen, this time Dana (234!) and Patrick (our former Marine, was there ever a question) had their turn to receive the coveted patch!    This weekend produced four new riflemen, none of whom, I believe had attended an Appleseed before so I was rather pleased with the results.  We have several more knocking on the door.  Practice your dry fire guys and the next time I see you, Fargo perhaps, we'll be passing out some more patches I am sure. 

We also had a team shoot where the old guy on the end with the Garand and the young girl with the BB gun, along with two others, wiped out the star, props to you guys!   (where are the pictures of the winning team?)  Team six on the other end were in contention, but they didn't have the BB gun going for them. 

It helped a lot that we had an instructor contingent escape the cheddar curtain to help us out, thanks to Colycat, Old Glory, Martin and his wife Jo we had a wealth of knowledge and experience to augment our Minnesota staff of Aftermath, Sparks, Joel, and AdamT, you guys did a great job!  Now you Minnesota instructors onward and upward 

[Johnnyappleseed]

Way to go Minnesoto
Nice to have the cross polination with other states
JA

[sparks1]

 Dana, Steve, Patrick, Matt......Well Done , Well done indeed. Good hard work. It's always an honor to teach and attend an Appleseed with the great Americans that roll out in the morning and attend one. Hot and humid, needed lots of water to finish the day. Wish I could have been there Sunday. It is always a thrill for instructors to see the patch earned and awarded.

I told the Fargo crowd that Fergus Falls had been contacted for an AS. They liked the idea of not driving so far. Perhaps we can mention this to FF to bump them a bit.

Thanks to all students and instructors>>>>>>I always learn alot from everyone when I attend an Appleseed.

[colycat]

This was a really good weekend.  A great bunch of Americans once again on the firing line. 

This is my third trip this range, ideally located next to the Twin Cities.  With over 300 acres, its like you are really up north, ( which of corse you are ) but there is so much urban sprawl, when you leave the range.  For me this range is like a little piece of heaven.

We had 12 kids on the line, which was a challenge for the instructors, but I wouldn't change a thing. I really liked the little girl who brought her pink BB gun.  She would fire a couple of shots, and then go back and stand by Martin. 

Martin you have a new groupie, to go along with the rest, you have been collecting.

I think OG will be posting some pics soon.

Well done, MN crew.

[DeanC]

My pictures from Saturday:

[AFTERMATH]

It was most assuredly an excellent weekend!
I was eager to get back down to Elk River, after missing it last April! <as hard as I tried, I could not be in three places at once!>
I can't think of a better way to get down from the crows nest, to a point where you're no longer worried about icebergs.
To see that what may be happening in magazines doesn't really matter.  What matters is that we are out there, beyond sight and sound of pitiful distractions, doing what Americans do best.  Being American.
All the shooters were great!  Despite he heavy weight on their shoulders; curtesy of previous generations; I believe they even had fun.
Thanks to all of you who cared to be a part of this couchless weekend.
We've given you the tools, now go plant some seeds!

I'll see you on the Appleseed Trail

Aftermath

P.S.  Extra thanks to the WI folks for coming out!  I suppose none of the shooters even realized they had the opportunity of learning under a Senior Instructor.

[martin]

    What a fine weekend! We had allot of students that worked very hard this weekend. Those that received the Rifleman Patch certainly earned it! Many of the students were definitely getting closer, they persevered even the heat.
    I have to give a special thanks to Brian and Maria for letting Alexandra assist me behind the line.I tried to talk her into a orange hat but I think she wanted mine.

[Old Glory!]

MN Appleseed is coming on STRONG!    Sven, Joel, Sparks, Adam, Aftermath, Martin, Coly    

It is good to hear talk of more potential Appleseed ranges in the future, and some students who are willing to help make that happen.  

This was truly a family Appleseed and it was great to see the kids (and all) progress.  

Was it the heat, or what?  Seems like everyone was happy to break to hear some more history.   Course, Sven does have a way with words!  They seem to come straight out from the heart.  Made me proud to be a citizen of the United States of America!
















The Wedding Portrait that never Was


The TRUE COST of the Revolutionary War.   Lydia Mulliken lost her home on April 19, her brother,  her future brother in law, and she waited 8 long years for her fiance who never returned to her, she never knew his fate, he died a horrible death on a prison ship.  She bore the heavy price that so many were willing to pay for Liberty  






Frank and his dad


Alexandra proved to be a safe and enthusiastic student


She went on to prove she was accurate shooting a 10 round/6 minute group, mostly in the black


Allaura hung in there through allergies and hot brass and returned on Sunday


Nate becomes the teacher


DEAN - THanks for the hospitality




Team building exercises (ya, IL, you'd be proud of MN and their team building exercises!)


Riflemen - CONGRATULATIONS

[dragonfly]

Well done   

dragonfly

[DeanC]

DEAN - THanks for the hospitality

Always a pleasure. Thank you guys for all you do.

That picture tells me a lot

My nose is almost on the stock and my head is too far back. New rings are in order for sure. Compare it to my avatar when I had the open sights on that same rifle.

Next step is to see if the short mags for that rifle have started shipping yet so I can get my elbow under the gun.

[thrash]

DEAN - THanks for the hospitality

Always a pleasure. Thank you guys for all you do.

That picture tells me a lot

My nose is almost on the stock and my head is too far back. New rings are in order for sure. Compare it to my avatar when I had the open sights on that same rifle.

Next step is to see if the short mags for that rifle have started shipping yet so I can get my elbow under the gun.

Dean -

This is Matt,  your shooting partner in that photo.  One thing I've always heard is that on an AR, you want your nose on the charging handle.  Since you have the M4-pattern collapsible stock, you might actually try shortening the stock or otherwise modifying your cheek position, to see if that helps.  Naturally I didn't mention this at the time, when I was supposed to be giving you helpful advice on your shooting   Sorry about that..

I know that I struggled with cheek position and scope eye releif all weekend.


I have a cheap 4x scope on my AR, and I'm toying with the idea of replacing it with a EOTech or other parallax-free sighting system, as it would seem to lessen the impact of non-repeatable cheek welds when taking aim.

[AFTERMATH]

Welcome to the forum, Matt!

Don't worry about not mentioning it to Dean....  I tried.
He couldn't get enough eye-relief with that scope set up...

Any word on a Fargo area shoot, yet?

[DeanC]

Don't worry about not mentioning it to Dean....  I tried.
He couldn't get enough eye-relief with that scope set up...

Yeah, I waited too long to get it set up and had to do it at an indoor range off a bench so I didn't realize what a mess I would have once I got prone. I also didn't realize how much the sling tension would shift my POI.

[DeanC]

A couple more pictures from Steve.

[Old Glory!]

Nice pics Dean/Steve! 

[russellmn]

Next step is to see if the short mags for that rifle have started shipping yet so I can get my elbow under the gun.

You can get your elbow under the rifle with the long mags...  Guy taught us a method at the Rolla RBC that works GREAT!!!  He called it an "offset hold".  If I can think of a way to explain it I'll kick you a pm...