AAR: Waterman, IL June 4 - June 5

[Gumballhead]

Hi All,

I want to again thank the Aurora Sportsman Club in Waterman for their excellent hospitality,  use of their facilities.  Without their support, we would not have been able to have such a great weekend.  I also want to thank the guys at Pub West for providing their lunch service again.  We most certainly appreciated lunch...delivered!

This was our first "warm"  weekend of the season here in IL Appleseed.  We had 17 shooters join us on the line bright and early Saturday Morning.  The forecast called for hot, humid, and a chance for thunderstorms.  No sweat!  Yah right.  Lots of sweat!!!    The weather introduced a new level of stress to everyone, but we all made it through. 

Saturday Morning began with our safety briefing, and a little music lesson on how to make a safe rifle.  Soon we were engaging our red coats, and learning our effective range.  By lunch, we started to see some real solid groups going down range.  We paused many times to make sure everyone was staying hydrated, and getting some rest under the shade.  A HUUUGGGEEE Thank you to those of you wonderful shooters who had the pop-ups.  Without them, I'm certian we would have had a much more challenging weekend.  Anyway, we began to tell the story over lunch.  we told the tale of Paul Revere's ride, and what led up to the events of April 19th.  We left the crowd with a cliffhanger, as 800 red Coats stopped to load with ball, and marched towards an alarmed town of colonists.  Boy was it getting hot out there...  

After lunch, we added IMC into the mix, made some sight adjustments, and then it happened!  RAIN!    .  Now, usually I do not enjoy rain...but THIS day, THIS time, I was hoping for it.  The rain was quick, and did the job of lowering the temps, and cooling everyone off a bit.  During the rain, we picked up the tale again, sharing the events at Lexington, and the names and people affected by the events of that fateful morning.  Right as the story was wrapping up, and Col Smith allowed the victory volley, the rain stopped.  Almost as if someone wanted us to get back to the waiting green coats, as revenge for the atrocities at Lexington.  So, we learned the seated positions, and got the firehose going again .  As the day was wrapping up, we were quite beaten by the heat, so we opted to have a little team building exercise, and the group broke off into 4 groups of 4, and determined their strategy for engaging their targets.  When everyone was ready, we had 90 seconds to pump as many rounds as possible into our targets.  Team 1 did the most damage, and with a score over 14,000 (nice number eh?  ), they won!  Great job guys.  This shows the effectiveness of a team, and I'm glad you guys came as a group too!

We were delighted to see almost everyone return to shoot with us on Sunday.  Sunday was much nicer.  Our order for nice Appleseed weather was simply delayed.  We quickly got things rolling, and up went the red coats.  A SIGNIFICANT improvement by all from the previous morning.  After a quick re verification of our zeros, we deputized everyone as an instructor, and we practiced some ball and dummy, and carding the sights.  Once we all were satisfied with our achievements, up went the AQT's.  Then another...and another...and another...well, you get the idea .  We stopped a couple of times to hear about the battle at the North Bridge in Concord, and later in the afternoon, the arduous trek back to Boston.  By the end of the day Sunday, we had 3 new riflemen in Illinois  .  Kudos to Kenneth, David, and Marcia!  Right behind these three, we had so many others almost beating the door down!  Kristian and Greg, you guys were doing great a little more dry firing guys ,and you'll be there.

Sadly, the weekend did have to come to an end.  We had several folks take advantage of the Rifleman Opportunity Card, and almost everyone promised they would come back again (Most certainly for our WATERMAN 300, Part II).

Thank you to all the instructors who came to help.  Without your help, we would have not had a successful event.

Until next time, I hope to see you on the trail!

Gumballhead

P.S.
Thank you to George for rebuilding our target line, and mowing the lawn  .  No really, bringing your own lawnmower to cut the grass was most appreciated.  The grass was so high, we could not have shot prone!

[BigMike]

As one of the total newbs on the line this weekend, I'd like to say thanks to all of our instructor volunteers for their hard work and dedication.  My previous experience with a rifle was 40 rounds of wasted 8mm in a Yugo M48, and a target that left the range in the same condition it came out in....  I sold that rifle, and decided to leave it be, until I heard about Appleseed earlier this year.

I read up on it, decided to acquire a 10/22, the basic bottom of the line model, add sling mounts and sling, swap out the sights for Tech Sights, and went to the range to make sure I was at least on paper before this weekend.  I felt like my offhand, unslung, groupings were ok (about 5 inches for 10 rounds at 50 ft) for my experience level, and they were all reasonably near my point of aim (like I had *any* idea what that meant at the time....).

By the end of the day Sunday, I'd drunk deeply from the firehose, and had AQT scores ranging from 140 to 181, with several really nice, tight groupings to show good NPOA had been acquired, I just had it in the wrong spot.  One of my squares from Sunday morning had 5 rounds in 1/2", which is the picture I'm showing all my friends...   

Got my ROC, gonna be going back, gonna make my Rifleman score, gonna be a man who knows what he's about.  And, I'm bringing friends....

[Ewald]

What a great group of students. They stuck through the heat and the rain. For me showing up at this shoot turned what had been a pretty bad week into a great one. I had to leave early on Sunday. Sounds like we added two more Riflemen after I left. Congrats to all!


Way to go Kenneth!

[M1D]

What a great bunch of students; and yes, sometimes I love the rain.  Hope to see you all on the line again.  It was a pleasure.

[Stonn]

Photos of the shoot.
1 and 2 - Saturday's students ready to drink from the fire hose.
3. Working on prone.
4. Gumballhead using the downpour to give us the first strike.
5 and 6 - Working on sitting.

[Stonn]

7. Fire-team 1 demonstrating the power of accurate rifle fire.
8 and 9 - Carding the sights.
Illinois newest riflemen and riflewoman;
10. Kenneth
11. Dave
12. Marcia