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Amarillo, TX October 27-28, 2012 AAR

Started by ashrn03, October 29, 2012, 12:16:10 AM

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ashrn03

After two weeks of perfect weather an early season cold snap arrived just in time for the last Amarillo Appleseed of the year.  While Appleseed doctrine requires that the shoot be held regardless of weather (unless there are safety concerns like lightning, etc.) it doesn't actually require us to be out in the weather.  Through an unforeseen, but welcome, schedule change the Indoor Range at host Amarillo Rifle and Pistol Club became available and the Shoot Boss, who has been really, really, cold before (and expects to be again, but doesn't particularly like it) snatched the range before someone else reserved it for some less-important function.  So instead of dutifully freezing together in shared misery, two new and two returning Appleseeders began or continued their Rifleman journey in relative comfort. 

Here's the Saturday morning group photo:



All made good progress through the day and the first AQT late Saturday afternoon revealed two new Riflemen.  Returning Appleseeder Barbara  and new Appleseeder Shawn demonstrated their skills and received their patches. 

Barbara's persistence was rewarded with a purple patch after several Appleseeds and a lot of practice.   ^:)^  She'd never shot a rifle before she'd started the program and it's been a real pleasure to watch her succeed.   She's also been a real help in spreading the word about Appleseed to other ladies through her involvement with a local ladies pistol shooting group.



Shawn's skills were evident from the first Redcoat.  Appleseed for him was polish on his considerable abilities.  I think he found the NPOA interesting and I know he learned a lot about the sitting position.




Returning Appleseeder Megan used her new Marlin to good effect in her second Appleseed.  She's got Stage one down cold and has completed the other Stages to Rifleman standards but unfortunately not all on the one target at the same time.  Getting closer though.  I'm looking forward to seeing her again.

Shawn's wife Kim is a new shooter and did very well in her first Appleseed.  It's fun to watch new shooters "put it all together" and see their groups get smaller.  She also executed one of the smoothest clearance drills I've ever seen after her 10/22 failed to eject properly.  She dropped the mag, cleared the jam, reloaded and continued the stage with no lost motion.  Great focus.  She said she never did a clearance drill before - must be a natural - we don't teach drills other than the Six Steps to a Safe Rifle. 

We moved outside to the 100 yard range late Sunday afternoon to do the longer-distance instruction.  The first thing we did was check scope reticule spacing with a 5 and 10 MOA barber-pole at 100 yards.  Shawn and Kim's scope has a complex reticule so Shawn is figuring out the spacing between the various reticule thingies (a technical term for complicated reticules  ::)) while Kim writes down the information in a notebook.  Barbara and Megan have simpler scopes and only need one or two values. 



We then fired several groups at Stage One targets set at 100 yards (and yes they do look just like Stage Four targets, don't they?).  The 5 and 10 MOA barber-pole is the red and white stick to the right of the targets.  The famous questions "How big is my group", "Where is my group", and "How much does 1 MOA cover at this distance" that have undoubtedly haunted the dreams (and nightmares) of Amarillo Appleseeders for  years allow them to determine how well they were shooting (usually less than four MOA) and what correction they need to apply to move their groups to hit their target.  Long distance is a hoot, even if you do have to walk 200 yards round trip to check your targets.



     

   



   
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