Celina, OH 12 & 13 January 2013 AAR

[DGMilty]

Celina, OH 12 & 13 January 2013

SB Ratchett
RH / SBIT-1  DGMilty
IIT  Coyote217, Corvette

A big THANK YOU to Terry and Cody and the rest of the gang at the Mercer County Sportsman's range for being the BOTG and getting an event arranged.

Wet and muddy!!!  Unusually warm weekend in Ohio with Saturday highs near 50,  Sunday the temperature fell throughout the day reaching 41 with rain all day.

A GREAT weekend with "OFFICIAL" hoopla and fanfare of carrot top (Dyllan), Rondeau (Reid), and Freedom (Bryan) being presented the Orange hat, and myself,DGMilty,  the Red hat.  I was also asked to help out with the shoot, so it became SBIT for me!       We also had 2 more people stepping up to accept the Orange hat,  thank you  Cody and Michael!  And even more good news, we had Coyote217  being promoted to Red hat, as well as FingerTip being promoted from AC-2 status to Orange hat.

New Riflemen Vince and Dan with scores of 221 and 230 respectively, then Vince backed it up with a 218.  Cody and Michael also backed up their Rifleman scores with a 213 and 221/ 222 respectively...Congratulations!

A couple minor safety issues, chamber flags and safeties, plus a shooter who started to cross the firing line after the line was cleared but before given instruction to do so.  Other than that...   

The rain and local flood alert issued by the National Weather Service prevented a local shooter from coming back on Sunday morning to participate, yet did return to observe. 

One family who were signed up for Saturday only, but 2/3 of them returned, and they were glad they did!

Although KD was taught, the actual shooting of KD wasn't done due to the need to tear down the ready and firing line and move, shooters more interested in the AQT and mad minute. The mud played a role in this too.  Maybe next time!

It is ALWAYS rewarding to me to see the groups get smaller and smaller (step 4a: focus your eye on the front sight) as I work with new shooters, and to see the smiles and enthusiasm to stick it out for the entire weekend!  It makes me feel that I did my job right, and the shooters did their job and came to Appleseed with a TEACHABLE attitude, listened to instructions and put in to use the new skills they have learned.

To all the new IIT's, welcome aboard!  Congrats again to those scoring Rifleman and those who were promoted.

See you down the trail!

[Corvette]

It was a great group this weekend.  Sorry the rains came on Saturday night and Sunday.  Just east of you in Marion we got nothing Sunday day.  Same in Columbus, nothing much at all.  I am glad that folks persevered even though the weather turned bad.  As always, its great to get back and see all our friends in Celina.  And wow, what a great group of new Orange Hats.  I look forward to working with all of you this year at the Seeds in the area (think Lima, Piqua, Gibsonburg, and hopefully Marion this year).   

Again, sorry I missed Sunday with everybody but the day was well spent 7th stepping for the cause.  See everybody soon and post pictures.

Corvette (Steve)

[Coyote217]

What a great weekend hanging out with Patriots.  I am truly amazed at the young shooters.  They all listen to instruction well and handle their rifles with great safety.  Congratulations to our newest Riflemen Dan and Vince.  After Vince scored rifleman with his .22 he brought out the .30 cal and shot some impressive groups.  If not for a loose rear sight screw he would have scored Rifleman with his .30 cal. It was neat seeing Nancy shooting with her daughter Rita and nephew Paul. You all improved with each shot.  Great seeing families learning and practicing our heritage.  Congrats to all the new orange hats.  I was very impressed with the belly slides in the 6 inch deep mud to the line and then winning the mad minute. Reid you are amazing, you showed confidence and maturity way beyond your age in helping other young shooters and your slide was most impressive.  Keep up the good work and continue being a better Rifleman.  As always it was great working with Ratchett and DG. Happy to meet you Corvette, your first strike was great.  See all of you down the road.  Keep the faith and pray for this country.    coyote217(rick)  @&)retired

[vino]

My first Appleseed.  It was a blast.  The instructors made it a bunch of fun which is the most effective teaching tool.  I haven't touched a rifle since 1992, so I'll explain what I did to prepare.  I went out and bought a Ruger 10/22, added a sling, tech sights, and the volquartsen hammer to lighten the trigger.  I then read about the six steps to firing a shot and Fred's handout about DO YOUR HOME WORK.  I placed a 1/4 inch square in the basement at 20 feet distance.  I then dry fired (I didn't even pull the bolt back most of the time) 10 shots standing, 10 shots siting, and 10 shots at prone every night for about 3 weeks before the shoot.  I showed up to the event in Celina having never fired my ruger 10/22, did what the instructors taught me and was able to shoot Rifleman on my 3rd and 4th attempts right before lunch on Sunday.  If I were to do it again, I would have tried to shoot my rifle at least once before the event in order to sight it in.  Desired, not required.  I highly recommend than anyone attending an Appleseed for the first time that you Do Your Home Work.  It will help out significantly.  It helped me out.

[Corvette]

Vino,
It was great to have you on the line last weekend.  No doubt that practice at home shows itself at the range.  Now you can add the steady hold factors, proper sling usage and the pride of being a Rifleman to your practice routines in the basement. This for sure is a good tip for all of us.  Marksmanship is a perishable skill.  To continue to be good at it, one must drill, drill, drill.  "Oh gosh, honey, guess I gotta go to the range again. I feel some rust forming on my Marksmanship." 

Look forward to seeing you again (Vince? Dan?) on the line next time we are at Celina.  Also, you should consider Marion, Lima or Piqua as alternatives.  Schedule will be up soon for 2013 so we all can start making plans. See you on the trail.

Corvette.

[vino]

     I thought I would write a follow up on my progression of learning to shoot a rifle so others could learn from my mistakes.  After attending Appleseed in January I started learning on my M1A.  The difference between the 10/22 at Appleseed and the M1A is RECOIL.  The rest of my discussion will be about shooting the M1A in the prone position.   The first time I shot my M1A after Appleseed my legs were 30 degrees off axis in the prone and the rifle butt kept sliding off of my shoulder, which messed up my NPOA and thus I had to reset it after every shot.  There was no way I could shoot the stage 3 of the ACQ like this.  I did some research and discovered that to absorb the recoil of an M1A, you need to have your legs at zero degrees in prone.  I also learned that your support hand should be right up against the front sling swivel, and that your support(left for right handed shooters) elbow should not be touching the ground, but you should stretch your support hand as far forward as you can so that basically your tricep near your elbow is touching the ground, not your elbow.  I tried this, but there was no way I could get my support hand near the front sling swivel.  I am relatively short at 5'7" and thus short arms. The rifle was still all over the place after each shot.  After much dry-firing (I dry-fire about 15 minutes each day) I discovered that if I place my legs at about 10 degrees in the prone position, I can place my support hand up against the front swivel and I am more directly behind the rifle to absorb the recoil.  I good compromise which seems to work well.
     I tighten the sling as tight as I can get it.  I tighten it so much that my arm starts to hurt.  Once I get it there, I ease off slightly by loosening it a little so my arm does not hurt anymore.  This helps reduce the recoil.
     I try to keep the butt of the rifle as high on my shoulder as possible to prevent it from slipping down after each shot.  This really forces me to get my hips back to be able to get the sights on target.  For Appleseed I used a standard exercise mat which works fine for a 10/22 with no recoil.  Not so good for an M1A.  Every time I fire my M1A on that mat, my right elbow moves.  I found that just placing my elbow in the dirt/grass will keep it stationary so I bought one of those mats with rubber on it to use in the future to keep from getting grass stains on all of my sweatshirts.  I am now able to control the recoil of the M1A.  Lastly, I downloaded the ACQ targets reduced to 25 feet.  I now practice the entire ACQ with my M1A almost every day in my basement at 25 feet.  Why did I go through the effort of writing all of this.  Well, Saturday I was able to keep an 8 shot group within 2 inches at 100 yards with iron sights in the prone position.  Now, that was the best grouping I had all day, but if my rifle and I can do this once, I can do it again.  Remember, I am very new to this whole rifle shooting business.  I hope you can learn from my mistakes.