AAR Grand Blanc, MI Ladyseed August 20 - 21, 2011

[Miki]

It all started at the Deer / Turkey Expo back in February. The Appleseed folks met Lisa, the publisher of "Woman Hunter" magazine. We soon decided we needed to have a Ladyseed in Michigan. Lisa took the reins and made it happen. She secured us the use of the Grand Blanc Huntsman's Club range, recruited shooters and took care of all the tasks our LBOTG (local boots on the ground) handle. Oh, and she also assigned Jennifer to write an article about Appleseed for her magazine. Jennifer wrote a very profession and positive article. You'll get to see it for yourselves soon as Lisa has given us permission to post it and Burbs will take care of that soon. (Burbs, you got that?)

The range is amazing. The folks there were very friendly and helpful. Thanks for having us!

Saturday morning we were waiting for our last shooter to show up and shortly after we got started without her, in she walked! Yup, you heard that right. Her car broke down about a mile from the range so she got out and WALKED the rest of the way. Are you figuring out that this is a determined group of women? 

Soon we were flinging lead downrange...and not hitting much of anything. We had an experienced group of shooters...just not with rifles. They came with positive teachable attitudes to learn that skill so we were off and running.

We were making good progress. Then the skies started to look threatening. I had the shooters pack up and just as I was starting the 3rd strike...the temperature dropped 20 degrees in 15 seconds, the wind kicked up and the skies opened up. We were prepared in case that happened and we called it a day and got outta there. 

Sunday morning dawned gloomy. I got to the range and the first order of business was moving a tree that had blown down during the storm and was blocking part of the narrow one lane road. Luckily, is was a pretty small tree and I was able to get it off the road.

We got set up and every one of our shooters returned for day two. One shooter who was a Sunday only wasn't there when we got started but she soon showed up. Guess what? She had car trouble. (At this point I'm thinking we need a 'mechanic on call' for our next Michigan Ladyseed.) We finished up what we didn't get to on our shortened day one and moved on to our first AQT.

All the shooters demonstrated amazing persistence and great improvement. Remember that part at the beginning about not hitting much paper Saturday morning? Sunday's final red coat had FIVE shooters get the 100-yard target, 1 get the 200 and 2 get the 300!   

This group wasn't concerned with their 'score', they wanted to learn and practice. On the last red coat one shooter selected to shoot from the seated position. Her reason, "I need more practice on this position".

This was really a fun group of ladies to work with! I hope to see you all again soon.

Now for some specifics:

Lori, thank you so much for all your help getting everything set up and taken down both days. We need you on the line more often. Hold that trigger back!

Jennifer, you showed remarkable progress and asked very thoughtful questions. Keep practicing. When seated get those elbows resting on your legs.

Ruby, it was a pleasure to see you again. Don't make me get out the clown bat.  You proved with that little laser demo you have it...now you have to learn to trust it.

Joann, despite struggling with sight issues you stuck with it and did amazingly well. Sorry your daughter couldn't join us Sunday. I hope she's feeling better. Next shoot bring the whole family.

Norene, You learned a lot about shooting and a bit about gunsmithing. Get a small flat-headed screwdriver and needle nose pliers for your range bag.

Lisa, this would not have happened without you. Thank you so much for getting this set up. And huge thanks for lunch Saturday. (Lisa had her personal man slave [aka husband] deliver pizza and salad to the range for all of us Saturday for lunch.) You demonstrated remarkable improvement. Remember what you learned about that trigger finger.

Madhatter, you were amazing. You did everything I asked with a smile on your face and a twinkle in your eye. You did a great job of presenting the position review Sunday morning. You are my very favorite junior IIT in the whole state of Michigan!

Please feel free to post your thoughts and pictures. If you have any questions, you all have my email address, ask away! And just so you know, I did manage to get through the weekend without breaking a nail. 

Lastly some links that I think you'll find helpful.
Civilian Marksmanship Program: http://www.odcmp.com/
Midway (go here and search for 'shooting mat') http://www.midwayusa.com/

Respectfully,

Miki

[Superheat]

My offer to be the "manslave" was not accepted but I did somehow find some photos....

ShootBoss doing everything.


Listening to history.




Spending some time on the mat.


Madhatter doing history.






A wonderful group of Ladyseeders.


Instructors

[mac66]

Very cool.

Nice job Mikki and Madhatter!