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Noblesville, IN 6-7 October

Started by SPQR, October 08, 2012, 12:40:04 PM

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SPQR

The war room was a whirlwind of activity at the Appleseed Home Office.  Volunteers ran back and forth in near desperation.  The rustle of paper alone gave the scene a drowning noise akin to dangerous wind running through overladen trees.  Fred and his staffers maintained a heated conversation over a lit situation table.  Small green, red, orange and blue hats were being moved across it as reports came in.  A harried Hawkhavn stood behind his desk, a phone tucked between his ear and shoulder.  An orderly came through the open door and laid a folder down on the old steel. 

"EIP for Noblesville, Indiana," he said before turning and leaving.  The wizened coordinator ran his eyes across the top sheet. 

"Rooster, I'm gonna have to put you on hold for a minute," he said.  Not waiting for a reply he punched a button on his phone.  Hitting another he said, "Margaret, I need you to get me Rimshot in the Great Lakes Region."  He hung the phone up and read the rest of the EIP, scanning it, more soaking it up than reading.  In no time at all the phone rang and he picked it up, tucking it back into a shoulder and moving some pages around looking for a personnel list.  Not wasting time on pleasantries he barked, "Rob I need a Shoot Boss for Noblesville, can we count on Yellowhousejake again?"  There was a brief silence.  "What's the problem?"

"Well, chief, I think that guy needs a break.  He has been going flat out for months.  He needs to get away from the green hat," the Stoic regional man responded, more verbose than usual highlighting his urgency.  Hawkhavn gave himself a moment to process.  They were drawn thin, real thin.  How long could the center hold?  Rimshot let out an exhausted sigh on the other end of the line.  "What about Huff?"  Hawkhavn was shocked out of the maw of his distraction.

"Are things really that bad?" he said to no one in particular.  He shifted over to an ancient file cabinet.  The din of the Home Office now a thousand miles away, he opened a drawer and pulled out a file, dust covered and brittle.  It was labelled "SPQR" on the tab.  Good God, had things really descended that far?  Who was this fabled enigma?  The folder had been stamped on the outside and read,


       
FOR EMERGENCY USE ONLY

SPQRIn hushed conversation Hawkhavn had heard the whisperings but, despite his many names, the aura surrounding him was cryptic at best.  Talented marksman?  Of course.  Life-changing instructor?  So it was said.  Gifted storyteller?  An understatement.  But to deploy such a creature, a wild man, a loose cannon, on an unsuspecting populace was.... reckless?  For Emergency Use Only.  These were, he conceded, desperate times.  Hawkhavn lifted his head, his gaze a thousand yards away.  He closed his eyes tightly and said, "Make the call."

Here we are again at the lovely Hamilton County Fish and Game!  Testing, once again, whether or not this country, this culture, these citizens have the wherewithal to discomfort themselves enough to save this great Nation.  The end result?  A clarion call of "YES!"

Nearly thirty driven Americans choked the pits to hear the tale of April 19th 1775 and of Morgan's Riflemen to determine if they measured up.  What did we find?  We have work to do and ne'er so diligently was a group as willing and happy to do it.  With unseasonably frigid temperatures and the wash of icy water and mud with hardly any sunshine at all we pressed to the limits of our focus and found out, yet again, that hope lingers still to set the Sinking Ship a'sail.

I want to thank each and every shooter and instructor who persevered and overcame these conditions and I hope to see you again on the Appleseed Trail.

Picture and RIFLEMEN to come!



   
"It is amazing to watch the intricate dance of the Indiana instructors playing off each other's strengths. No ego involved. Just doing what needs to be done by the person best suited to do it to give the shooters what they need." - Miki

"Indiana rules!" - Nero

"We all need Bedford." - brianheeter

spitfire51

 ::)  Yes Huff, whatever you say Huff.

This was a great weekend.  I think this event may have had the most variety of rifle-types we've had this year.  Sure there were a good number of semi-autos, but I loved seeing the bolt-actions, the lever actions, and the too-rare pump action rifle!  Anyone who says you need to have one type of rifle to come to an Appleseed needs to meet our group of shooters, because they will be proven flat-out wrong!  So glad we ran that last AQT and hammered out two additional riflemen before we left.  I'm always happy to see the kids come out, even happier to see how much they improved over a couple quick days.  Never heard a single bad word about the cold or the mud out of any of them either!  Persistence was the name of the game for this whole group.

Thanks to everyone who joined us this weekend, keep practicing what you learned this weekend, and join us again soon.
"A vote is like a rifle, its usefulness depends on the character of the user" -Theodore Roosevelt

yellowhousejake

I think someone needs to hydrate more...

Isn't it funny how sometimes the oddest things conspire to create great moments.

We listened to the weather go back and forth all week, rain, cold, sunny, partly crummy, and so on. We arrived to find the bays we intended to use filled with water and mud everywhere. As we setup the line in the smaller bay thinking a lot of folks are gonna stay home, we waited and watched, as the people just kept coming to the sign up table. 27 hearty souls. We run to setup another line in the dryest bay and Ole Huff calls out for volunteers to move to Mudville, and a second line was created. Saturday started with a rush.

We were worried about the condition of the bays,
We were worried about so many new shooters,
We were worried about folks not hydrating because of the cold,
We were worried about the bridge being an obstacle to safety,
We were worried about Kate eating too many doughnuts,

We didn't need to worry about anything. After it was all over, I had worked both bays and met everyone, great scores, attentive students to the history, and everyone helping each other. Only Americans can make a cold, muddy, and blustery weekend become a memorable event for instructors.

Thank you all for braving the weekend to spend it with us. I hope to see you all again, with a friend in tow.

Yellowhousejake

I have removed my email from my profile to stop the mod reports. If you need a Libertyseed scheduled you will now have to contact me on the Libertyseed forum.

YHJ

skywired

My First...but not last Appleseed. What an experience.

It was cold....could have been colder.
It was wet...it could have been raining.
It was windy...it could have been really windy.

Life is only as enjoyable as you make it to be. We learned. We shot. We talked. We learned. And we shot. A lot.

Thanks to every one of you that devoted your time and effort to putting on this Noblesville Appleseed. I, for one, really appreciate your dedication.

Thanks Yellowhousejake, Ol Huff, Stagehand Steve, Spitfire51. Those are the only INGO names I know so let me repeat the 'street' names:

Thanks Dave, Huff, Niecie, Matt, Steve, Kate, and Diane.

Know This: What You Do.... It Works.

Niecie

A GREAT event in spite of the weather - at least it was sunny on Saturday! And the shooters could not have been more receptive. Great to see some familiar faces and welcome new ones. Congratulations to all our Riflemen and to everyone else who stuck out the nasty weather and embraced the instruction!

Thanks to all the staff who worked really hard this weekend! We had many challenges, and as you will see in the pics, we all wore many hats for this event. Speaking of pics...

Here are they are....

It looked beautiful!


SPQR showing how it's done...


The Muddy 9 checking out their 5 square.


The Yellowhouse & Kate show exclusively for the Muddy 9...


Learning trigger control.




Spitfire gives the Second Strike beautifully!


Stagehand Steve instructs while the SBIT Spitfire demos.


Getting ready for some one-on-one work with our amazing instructors.












Yellowhouse Jake chooses one of the Muddy 9 as a model student. ;D


Meanwhile on the other line, Kate shows us how to position the dummy...um..rifle.  >:D


These two lovely ladies, neither of which had any rifle experience, were gently guided by Stagehand and Spitfire.


Learning the Rifleman lesson: Slow is smooth - smooth is fast...


Acutee taking over and doing a great job!


Yellowhouse gives Third Strike.

Niecie

On to Sunday! Not as cold, but certainly not short sleeve weather! We had a great day - five Rifleman scores and a lot of camaraderie  O0

Student helping student - Ball & Dummy...








Stagehand's 10 shot diagnosis! Great idea, Steve!


On to the AQTs...










The Shoot Boss giving some advanced instruction...


"I really do want to be a Shoot Boss...I really do want to be a Shoot Boss...I really do want to be a Shoot Boss..."

The end of the day and SPQR has the floor...


Our first Rifleman of the weekend...


Second Appleseed, second patch!


Patch number three...


Number four...


And number five!


BUG

Thanks to all the instructors for a great weekend!  I had a great time.  Sadly I had to leave a few times for my 2 son's football games.  I ended up missing some instruction but more importantly, the history.  Guess I'll have to attend another weekend!  :cool2:  I was grateful to get my second chance at the AQT on Sunday afternoon where I was able to barely squeak in at 210 and be #5 on the Rifleman list for the weekend.  O0  I am also going to get a 10-22 just for target practice.  I loved using my grandfather's old pump .22, but it obviously introduces some variability.  I am a fully convinced "slingman" now and have ordered a kit for my Remington 7600 in .30-06.

Hope to see you all soon again!

BUG

Oh, and HUFF, you might be too young to know this guy, but you remind me a little of him...

http://www.lightviews.com/images/stripes.JPG

SPQR

Not too young at all, and I strive to be more like him at all times!  Best compliment I have received in years.

" It's Czechoslovakia. It's like going into Wisconsin. "
"It is amazing to watch the intricate dance of the Indiana instructors playing off each other's strengths. No ego involved. Just doing what needs to be done by the person best suited to do it to give the shooters what they need." - Miki

"Indiana rules!" - Nero

"We all need Bedford." - brianheeter