Coeur d'Alene, ID Jan 8-9 AAR

[actineon]

I have to admit, I was wondering about the sanity of a January shoot in Coeur d'Alene, especially since I'm at the tail end of a cold. Since there were no other Red Hats coming, I was the only instructor that actually had to come. Now that day one is over, I realize I was completely mistaken. It was great fun! Best Appleseed for me so far. The weather was perfect, although fairly cold. People from this area tend to know how to dress so below freezing temperatures didn't really bother us. The lure of the Winterseed patch was calling us all. Six instructors and two shooters made for a great opportunity for instructors to hone up on our skills, myself included. I hadn't shot at an Appleseed since I got Rifleman. I forgot how fun it can be to actually shoot at an Appleseed.

Frank already shot a Rifleman score at his first Appleseed, but he wanted to come again so he could become an Orange Hat. Frank showed his Rifleman score was no fluke, he shot two Winterseed Rifleman scores. Good job.

Amy drove all the way from Yakima to attend for a day. Welcome to the instructors corps. It's a great group of patriots.

All the instructors got to shoot except Dirk, he'll shoot tomorrow. We're going to try a known distance Winterseed AQT tomorrow. We're looking forward to it.

[SavageShootr]

Congratulations to all who earned the Winterseed patch.

You know, even those wearing Orange hats can hand out a patch, unless that fellow only wanted it from the SB.

Sounds like a great day!

AMY!! Welcome to the Instructor Corps! Glad to have you onboard. 

[hawkhavn]

Looks like the start of a great shoot!
Congrats to the new IITs!
Hope to see you all at the IBC in March.

HH

[Evenstar]

I MISS CdA!!!!

Looks like an awesome event! Well done to all the instructors (what? Ya'll got Winterseed patches too?! ), and all the attendees who braved the weather to come learn about their Heritage. Special congratulations to Amy for taking up the orange hat and Frank as well!

Thanks for the pictures, Rich.

Can't wait to make it back up there...

[Western Rose]

Congrats on all of those Winterseed patches!
Amy, see you in two weeks!
Frank, I've heard quite a bit about you. Looking forward to meeting you in person. Welcome to the Idaho Crew!

Wish I could have been there in person. CdA is calling my name........

Oh, and Rich, that picture of you getting your Winterseed patch is a one of a kind... yes sir... one of a kind....

[Earl]

Ah, nice to see so much room on the line for hot brass to fly. And I have noticed that certain colors do bring normally sad gray people to bloom against the snow white beauty. Nice work CdA, well done! Hope the KD goes well, snow shoes or skis?

[Reformed Redneck]

Congratulations to all of you! Great job. Glad Amy has her own orange hat now. Way to go Frank.

While our winter shoots may not draw a lot of people to the event, we certainly can't complain about the quality and determination of those who show up.

I'll be interested in the comments regarding the KD experience.

Hope to see more photos up tonight or tomorrow.

Best regards,
Reformed Redneck

[Cedarpole]

What a great shoot!  All were dressed appropriately, so the cold was tolerable.  I wasn't sure how my KD would go since I hadn't shot my M1 since I'd put on a new scout scope mount and scope, but it went super.  And yes, we used snowshoes to get out to the targets.  Reformed Redneck, as you know that last hill at the 400 yard mark is steep in boots.  But in snowshoes, it's really steep!  Congratulations to all who shot riflemen and got that great winter patch!

[Earl]

Ah, the 400 yard targets in snow shoes! No one was saying Quickly, quickly, quickly! I bet. Good job, your rifle is always up to the target, just have to get the shooter adjusted properly.

[Western Rose]

Snowshoes!?!?! I REALLY missed something this time!!!
Sounds like you guys had a GREAT day.
Wish I could have been there.
Looking forward to the pictures.

[hawkhavn]

Same here, really missed out by not being at this one.
First time I have heard of snowshoes being used at an Appleseed!

HH

[Evenstar]

Snowshoes, huh? I hope you guys got pictures of THAT! Sounds like an awesome event all 'round.

[Reformed Redneck]

Cedarpole, thanks for the info on the KD. Last night I was trying to remember where I have my snowshoes stored and whether they need a little maintenance. I've heard rumors about a Red Hat for you, but no confirmation or photos. I look forward to checking out your scope setup on the M1.

Earl, right on about the adjustments to the shooter.

Hawkhavn, I'm sure we can rendezvous here sometime soon, like March, but if we had all been at this shoot we would have outnumbered the students by a significant ratio. We are always up for Appleseed 'firsts' up here.

Best regards,
RR

[letmebefrank]

Kels and I had a blast at our second Appleseed, despite the bitter cold weather (we are Oregon folk, and not used to this frozen rain). Kelsey definitely had more fun once we traded her Tech Sights for a scope. It was really cool to see her get a Rifleman patch. The known-distance shooting was humbling. I look forward to practicing this more.

Thank you everyone for taking the time to teach us how to shoot, and thank you for allowing me to begin the IIT process. I'm looking forward to being involved in something outside of work.

Congrats to Ron for earning a red hat, and kudos to everyone who earned a Winterseed patch at the risk of losing fingers to frostbite.

Frank

[actineon]

Sorry for the delay in reporting. I had to drive Becky back to college after the shoot.

Also apologies for not taking pictures of snowshoeing for the KD. Maybe Carlene took pictures of the snowshoeing. I guess I didn't think anything special about it as it just seemed natural. Ron, Pat, and Dirk brought snowshoes after they realized I was still planning on doing KD even after they warned me there was too much snow. Unfortunately for them, I'm the kind of guy who thinks post holing tracks up Tower Mountain is great exercise, so they came prepared.

Great job shooting a Rifleman score Kelsey. It took me 3 shoots and I was shooting in the summer.

I perfected my technique at Winterman's cadence. Breathe in, breathe out, take three shots during the same respiratory pause, at that time I need to use my gloves to wipe off the fogged glasses and I can catch up on the breathing again. Lesson learned for me: I need to bring stuff to keep my glasses from fogging up.

For the KD, to avoid using too much time, we posted the first set of targets before the first shooters arrived. It wasn't snowing so the targets could stay there until the time to shoot them. We posted the targets sideways at 200 yards and beyond so we'd have more paper for determining proper zeros. We shot them before lunch so we could repost targets during lunchtime. These were posted normally for an AQT. I retrieved the final targets during a speech of the Dangerous Old Men.

It wasn't the best KD experience. We were running out of backers so we posted on dead trees at 400 yards. Big mistake. Back on the line it was very difficult to see the targets without magnification. Black targets on dark tree trunks with only a little white was beyond my visual ability. Also, at 400 yards, we really need bigger targets for zeroing. Maybe shooting out to 300 yards without checking and then retrieving the targets so we could roughly guess a better position for the 400 zeroing shoot would work better. The two shooters who tried at 400 yards only got one shot each on paper during the zeroing. I didn't even try because my eyesight wasn't good enough. It would have been a waste of ammo for me.

I used an AR15 with Eotech sights. Learned my lesson there. Normally when I shoot AQTs I use a Ruger 1022 with a scope set at a power of 8. I don't have the eyes for an unmagnified Eotech at even 300 yards. Eotech's great for 100 yards and less, but I need magnification for an AQT. Of course, that's why we do KD, to learn.

We didn't actually do a full distance AQT. Ron with his scoped Garand didn't have enough ammo for the AQT. Frank used iron sights on his AR and decided to call it quits after the zeroing. I shot an AQT for 100, 200, and 300, but didn't even try at 400. Without magnification, my 300 was terrible. We still all were happy we tried. I'm coming back in February with a scoped AR. We might have more snow then. I'm looking forward to it.

Seven people shot Winterseed scores. We photographed the group. Good idea whoever thought up the Winterseed patches. It motivated a lot of instructors to get down on the concrete to get one of those prized awards.

Of course, we instructors didn't need a lot of motivation to shoot. Some of us hadn't shot at an Appleseed since we became instructors. That's the great aspect of winter shoots. They're so lightly attended the instructors can shoot with them. It sure is a different atmosphere with 6 instructors and 2 shooters than with 10 instructors and 65 shooters.

For January, we only had one couple show up. I had posted a query before on what to do if no shooters showed up. We were almost there. We'll see if any shooters show up in February. We already have 5 instructors saying they're going to show up.

Ron has been promoted to Red Hat. He knows his history extremely well and is a great instructor as well. Congratulations Ron.

By the way, all the pictures inside are fogged up since my camera always fogged up when brought inside from the cold temperatures.

Becky forgot a hat so she stole my shoot boss's hat. Boy did she have fun trying to boss me around.

[Cedarpole]

Here a some pictures of the "snowshoe crew" putting up targets for KD.  As Actineon mentioned, the targets were turned sideways so we could shoot the largest paper possible for "come ups."  They were turned correctly later on.  The hikes were great for warming us up!

Lesson's Learned?
1.  Don't post the 400 yard targets on snags.  Can you see them?  We couldn't either once we got back to the line, and we put them up.
2.  If the snows deep enough, you don't need target bases.  The snow keeps them up just fine.  Just don't push them in too deep.
3.  Count your ammo to ensure you bring enough.  That big bag of 30-06 looked like plenty.  After all, it was way bigger than a bunch of bricks of .22s.  But it wasn't near enough to shoot sighter squares,  determine "come up", and then shoot AQTs.  Bummer!  At least I got to shoot Stage 1 of the AQT.

[Roland]

I MISS CdA!!!!
! and all the attendees who braved the weather to come learn about their Heritage.

All TWO of the attendees, haha. Not that we were complaining, because we got to shoot .

I believe all that were there the entire weekend received Winterseed Rifleman patches.

Congratulations to all, well done.

Dirk?/Roland

[eert]

Greetings All,

Looks like most have posted already, so I don't have much to add.
-Amy, thanks for coming all the way to CDA for the Orange Hat!
-Kelsey, way to go, I knew there was a RM in you! And at a Winterseed no less.
-Cedarpole, Congrats on the RED HAT, I really am not looking forward to my next promotion, it'll be like annual Performance Eval's time all over again. 
Roland and I are thinking about developing a snowshoe course that you have to traverse before shooting, how about that for CADENCE!

See you all in February for more fun in the cold and snow. 

EERT

[TruTenacity]

Great shoot!  Superb attitudes.  Ya' gotta love the CdA crew!

[OnlyHitsCount]

Very disappointed that I couldn't stick around for the second day of shooting.  I love the C d'A range, and the people are great!  Looking forward to the Lewiston shoot later this month where I can take in a full day of shooting and a day of instructing. 

I must say that every time I hear the history told I am in awe of our Founding Fathers.  While I am not a public speaker, I think I am the most intrigued about this aspect of the instructor duties.  Thanks to all the instructors for doing such a fantastic job at this.

OnlyHitsCount

[Betsy]

Looks like I'm the last one to post comments on the Coeur d'Alene event.  Some people take longer to thaw out than others.  I think it should be noted that a hardy group of volunteers from the local gun club (including eert, Roland, Cedarpole, & Betsy) spent at least 3 hours on New Year's Day (in near-zero temperatures) scooping snow, chinking ice, and plowing snow from the road and parking area.  Without that effort, conditions at the range would have been much different last weekend.  Ice was our biggest safety concern, but everyone was careful, and there were no mishaps. 

We all learned firsthand how bulky clothing and heavy boots can affect shooting positions (especially sitting) and sling adjustments.  Snowshoes are fun, but frostbite is real, and very painful, so when your fingers are too numb to feel the rounds you are loading into your magazine, it's time....

Also, those orange chamber flags don't bend much in the bitter cold, so when you try to shove one through the magazine well, you'll likely end up with the end broken off in your barrel.

Just because I don't repeat all the congrats voiced by the previous posts doesn't mean I don't appreciate everyone's accomplishments---each and every rifleman that earned the Winterseed patch definitely deserved it!  And Kelsey, I sincerely admire your fortitude!

Betsy

[letmebefrank]

I think it should be noted that a hardy group of volunteers from the local gun club (including eert, Roland, Cedarpole, & Betsy) spent at least 3 hours on New Year's Day (in near-zero temperatures) scooping snow, chinking ice, and plowing snow from the road and parking area. 

Thank you!!!