Buckeye, AZ Nov 5-6 2011

[AZRedhawk44]

I love the Buckeye range.

They're one of the most welcoming and accomodating ranges I've been lucky enough to work with at Appleseed.  We've had a mutually beneficial relationship with them, helping the range stay operational through our well-documented uses of the range... and they've helped us establish a positive reputation in the AZ shooting community during the early infancy of the Appleseed program.  They bend over backwards to welcome us and provide us whatever we need, and we reciprocate by always striving to leave the range in better condition than we borrowed it.  They always help publicize our events and we had a great turn-out.

18 shooters arrived Saturday morning.  There were some familiar faces greeting us from previous events, as well as many new faces.  Spirits and volunteerism were high and shooters helped with some of the final steps of getting the range ready for our 2 day experiment in heritage and marksmanship.

Morning redcoats served as a measuring stick to gauge our progress for the rest of the weekend.  We saw 2 shooters show proficiency to 400 yards, 2 to 300, none to 200 and 8 to 100.  6 shooters did wind up getting "bayoneted" by the charging redcoats, but fortunately for us they were merely paper.

We set into the Appleseed machine.  Squares were the target as we worked sling technique, steady hold factors, six steps, natural point of aim and adjusted sights with IMC.  We then moved on to green Hessian targets, working seated and standing steady hold factors, mag changes, NPOA shifts and the rifleman's nest.

We broke for lunch and talked about April 19th.  Obligation, debt, courage in the face of uncertainty.  Revere's amazing communication machine that made the New England response even possible.  After lunch we finished some fundamentals up and put in a couple AQT's.  One Rifleman emerged, and he even elected to become an Instructor in our program:  AZ_Varian.  Welcome aboard, sir.

We closed out a late day with 17 shooters (one gentleman with a sore back left a bit earlier) and our "bayoneted" count from the AM Redcoat fell from 6 to 2, and several "100" shooters progressed up to 200.

15 shooters returned on Sunday.  AZMule has the notes for Sunday Redcoats and I'll let him chime in with those once he checks in. 

However, during our AQT "grind" on Sunday, we uncovered 5 more Riflemen.  That makes for 6 total!  Well done, attendees!  One also took the Blue Hat to assist us at events in the future:  mgodzilla, who has posted on our little forum before.  The persistence of this guy is impressive.  This was his 6th Appleseed!

In between the AQT's, we broke for lunch and discussed the legacy of Dangerous Old Men, and also went greater into detail about the value of 25 meter shooting.  We had about a half hour discussion of known distance shooting concepts that needed to be taken into account AFTER mastery of the fundamentals: target detection, range estimation, bullet drop and wind compensation. 

We had a LOT of centerfire "thunder" on the line at this event.  I saw an M14 and a FAL, an AR-pattern in 7.62x39 and an SKS, as well as 3 M4-style carbines.  It was good to see, and a positive indicator that ammunition prices are falling and making folks more comfortable with the practice of marksmanship.

[colycat]

"I love the Buckeye range."

Its been a year since I have been there, and I have still never been at a nicer range.

Sounds like a great AS and I heard there was a promo in the instructor ranks that bods well for the area.  Not that this AAR should be about the instructors, sorry for bringing it up.

Lets hear from the students.  How was the weekend for you?

[lysander6]

AZRedhawk always runs a superlative shoot and he was able to step up and sub for me for this weekend.  He rolls hard like that.

All those new Riflemen!  Huzzah!  I expect no less.

[PaxxAZ]

Excellent event!!!
My Critique is kind of blunt and raw. I will preface this by saying, This was a very good event, can't say better or worse as I really enjoyed myself, felt secure at all times, learned quite a bit...and am now seriously musing the idea of a silly hat once I gain the patch, something I was not after my first Appleseed. My critique is only in hopes of improving, and hope not to offend. I need to improve my mastery of the use of words to convey things. 

All the instructors, AZREDHAWK44, AZMULE and AZbinary all acted with grace, humor and patience. AZ_Varian seemed a bit preoccupied on Sunday, but that was probably because he was on to a new Fire hose of knowledge and the seventh step..

This Event was 3 hours closer than my first event. This being my second, I can only compare and contrast.
Fewer shooters, fewer instructors, shorter range, more modern facility...I can go on, but that is not the point. Short to say, Saturday morning was a bit chilly for many of us in The Valley of the Sun, and much damper then we are used to. That however did not damper our spirits.
The tone and tempo of this Appleseed was a bit different, with less people and since I went alone, it seemed much more intimate to me. Seemed less Militant...but Sierra Vista is a Base Town, and it was the common experience of most there, not just the instructors.


At this Appleseed I did not properly secure my rifle 3 times as opposed to countless times in my other Appleseed. I am a slow learner, but I learn.
I became acquainted with great people, some that live within a few miles of me. At the very least once time becomes available and the Silly Season (the holidays) is past, I am pretty sure I will have an additional set of Range buddies.
Enough about me for now, I'll get to that later.


Instruction quality.

Group:
Very good, even with less instructors per shooter. Models and examples where well conducted and explained.
The Packet was not introduced and or even mentioned other than in passing it out to my recollection.
There is some great information there, especially for novice shooters. 
Less inspection of shooting groups and examination of possible causes. While I am not 100% as I did run off to the rest room a couple of times, in this situation, I am thinking that informing all of the "Yellow" sheet, and informing others how to grade themselves as to how they are shooting, might have been a force multiplier.
That being said, I did not get the perspective that there where many "novice" shooters, so it might have been a moot point.

Individual:
Good.
Not as good as it could have been, however, with a 5.5 to one instructor ratio, and as those instructors pulling double duty as primary Range Safety officers, it is understandable and in fact expected.

Safety:
I did not properly secure my rifle 3 times.
Once, safety was off, twice the magazine was in the rifle. I did not do these purposely, however, only once this was not caught until I went to load my rifle and could not manage to load. There are reasons, which I totally understand as to why it happened, however it should not have happened. I should not have left it in, the safety officer should have noticed, was notified and it did not happen again.

Other than that, I know of no other incidents that where not noticed or noted by the instructors/ safety officers.

Message and Story:
Well told, very different emphasis than I had heard before, also informing on where the information comes from for those interested in verification and such. 

Also, some emphasis seemed to be made on taking funny hats, or being involved with the community. With the number of instructors I can see why the switch, but I welcomed it as more was explained on the trainer side of things and how it is done.

A bit too much was said on the (we where once where you are right now...) of course you where, if you where not, then this institution would be an elitist freak show, and would not have a chance of surviving it's creator. It is not that, so you move up the same as everyone else.

Reason I did not get Rifleman???
I can not remember to focus on the front sight, or I can not remember to shoot at the 6, where I spotted it, as opposed to center of mass, where I am more used to.

After lunch I forget how to keep track of the number of hits per target needed to move on.

Lessons for next time:
Don't get any sling, get one that everyone recommends...like a GI sling. As opposed to just getting one and it not working comfortably for you.

Light breakfast, snack throughout, light lunch.

Never respond to people helping you with "I know", and rolling your eyes. Although you are admonishing yourself, it appears as if you are admonishing the person who is pointing out something you appeared to not consider.  "I did this to AZREDHAWK44 when he mentioned to me that I was shooting a bit faster then rifleman's cadence."
  I am totally Sorry...it was totally my being angry with myself.

Practice, Practice, Practice...make it normal to do a controlled drop on your posterior. Focus your Eye on the Front sight!!!!!

Things I Learned (or am thinking differently about).

Hmmm... so there is a reason for shooting gloves (still not too interested, but there is a use...) Ok, so some Tachticool stuff has value, I think I will still prefer to be comfortable.

Funny hat program, it seems like it needs people, perhaps I can share some of my hard fought corrections to my idiocy with others...but Rifleman first. 

Clean the Car, before loading more things into it for an Appleseed. 

Shooting to the right of center fire Rifles can be pleasant, or at least not too bad. I had the pleasure of shooting next to a beautiful  M14 and on Sunday next to a Fun looking SKS,in reality, they where both fine. The M14 threw some brass at my shoulder, and the SKS hit me once in the temple, but all in all not much of an issue.
My history with a certain Pink AR15 hitting me in the side of the face, has really improved my rifleman's bubble.

All in all a very well spent weekend. I will do it again soon. See if I drag others with me...While I like going with others, going by yourself is very fun. It almost forces you to hang out with others and get to know them.


Thank you very much all who where involved in setting up this Appleseed.


PaxxAZ

P.S.
I am in Awe of the dedication and organization of AZMULE's packing skills, there are odd videos and or lessons I always wish there where...but packing an appleseed onto a motorcycle is one of the things that should be made into a lesson for anyone organizing any kind of event. 

[mariesnakewoman]

This was my first Appleseed and I really enjoyed it. There was lots of instruction and my score improved quite a bit over the two days. I was shocked at how physical it is, getting up and down and into different positions - I was in pain at the end of the first day and felt pretty beat up. The second day was a little better as I started to get the prone position - need to practice lots. My partner and I are looking forward to doing another one. We are both determined to make rifleman, eventually. I did get some 1-1 coaching in spite of the instructors being spread thin. We plan to encourage some friends to come along next time.