Gaston, SC February 23-24, 2013

[TheIronMantis]

It was a cold and rainy day in Gaston this past Saturday, but seven folks proved that they are not summer soldiers nor sunshine patriots by showing up to learn about their heritage and begin/continue their path towards becoming Rifleman.  One young patriot was even out with us to shoot on her 10th birthday, she may not be related to Hezekiah Wyman, but she definitely had his spirit that morning.

After the morning redcoat we learned that we had a pretty good baseline to work with, but there were still lots of improvements to make if we wanted to shoot to Rifleman standards.  While taking some precautions to save some of that precious ammo, the three pillars of rifle marksmanship were introduced including Steady Hold Factors, Six Steps of Firing the Shot (What, we don't just hold our breath and pull the trigger???), and Natural Point of Aim.  Throughout the morning we saw groups shrinking in size while concepts of Rifleman's Cadence and Talking Targets were conveyed.  After the best math class ever taught, aka Inches Minutes and Clicks ,we moved those groups over to those tiny black squares.

At Lunch, dreamerofdreams treated us to a story called the First Strike of the Match.  It got us thinking about how much we value liberty today compared to our ancestors and we were left feeling somewhat inadequate in comparison to the patriots of old.  Afterwards, we had a living history presentation.  We learned about a group of Scots-Irish patriots called the Overmountain Men and the battle of Kings Mountain.  Several examples of late 18th century weaponry were on hand a well including a Brown Bess (the bayonet on the end of it definitely gave you the feeling that you wouldn't want to be on the wrong end of it), a Kentucky Rifle, and a Virgina Fowler.  Being in South Carolina, we like to tell the stories of how Patriots in the Palmetto State and the surrounding frontier valued their liberty as much as the Patriots in Massachusetts did. 

After lunch the seated and standing positions were introduced and it was emphasized that just because you change positions doesn't mean you can forget about those Six Steps or Natural Point of Aim.  During the afternoon break we heard the story of the Second Strike from Leadfarmer.  Himself, being a father, the sacrifice made by Isaac Davis especially rang deep.  We learned what caused the most feared military force in the world at the time to break and run after a few short minutes, and figured out who fired the first shots on the Green in Lexington earlier that morning on April 19, 1775.  Afterwards, Guardian told us about where the Revolutionary War actually started and where it was won. 

After the break it was back out to the line to try our hands at an AQT.  Although this AQT did not produce any new Rifleman we learned what we need to work on to be able to attain that Rifleman Score, PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE, DRYFIRE, DRYFIRE, DRYFIRE!

After the AQT we learned about the 7th step of firing the shot, and what our responsibilities are to maintain the liberty that was fought so hard for over 200 years ago.  pavelft, a 2nd time 'seeder from just across the border in Georgia decided he wanted to do his 7th step, by taking an orange hat and joining us on the mission to save the sinking ship.  Welcome aboard pavelft!  We were told to take care of ourselves and our rifles and were dismissed for the day.

Sunday, only one brave shooter was able to join us.  In the morning, we heard stories about several dangerous old men, brave women and gallant children.  Afterwards, dreamerofdreams was presented her Red Hat that she worked very hard to earn.  So a big Huzzah to her! The first course of fire for the morning was retiring her orange hat. 

Afterwards all the instructors dogpiled onto poor Andrew, and he was more than happy to take the help.  After some coaching the steady hold factors and the six steps were looking great, but that NPOA was giving him some grief as was apparent in the results at the first attempt at the AQT.  Meanwhile, the other instructors were getting it done on the firing line as well.  I will tell you, that you do not want to be the shoot boss that puts 4 rounds touching in the center of a black square with one "flier" that was still in the black square.  You will catch grief for it!

At lunch TazDevil led some instruction on applying what we learned at 25 yards and stretching it on out to that full Rifleman's 1/4 mile.  Concepts such as target detection, wind and range estimation and come-ups were discussed.  After lunch it was back to the firing line.  Since our brave young soul was having issues with NPOA I ran him through an NPOA drill while carding the sights.  We realized he may be having some equipment issues as well.  So after a quick sighter group with a borrowed rifle we let him have another go at the anvil of the AQT to see if we could forge him into the Rifleman we knew he was capable of being. 

Stage one went great, he took his breaks, embraced the wobble and shot a respectable standing score.  Stage two was short a round due to that time monkey, but the 9 that hit the paper were good hits.  After some words of encouragement it was time for the dolphin dive into stage 3. Three three four and 10 good hits on stage 3.  Will he be able to hold it for stage 4?  Will the NPOA drills pay off?  Yes they will, with a score of 47 on those 4 little target!  As the shots were totaled up while Taz took us through a discussion on the philosophy of libery we learned that we had a new young man with us that new very much what he was about.  With a commanding 221 he finally earned that patch, and the instructors were just as happy as he was.

Afterwards, we shot another red coat for fun.  Then we shot a 100 yard AQT target before moving the firing line back to 100 yards.  After firing a sighter we learned that if you can shoot a 4 minute group at 25 yards, then you can do the same at 100.  With a little inches minutes clicks, we got those groups on target and recorded our 100 yard comeups for our .22s.  Afterwards we closed the day out, cleaned up the range and said our goodbyes.

Thanks to all the instructors that came to help from three different states.  Thanks to the Mid-Carolina Rifle Club for continuing to be a gracious host.  Thanks most of all to the attendees that came out to make this a great event!

I have some pictures that I will upload shortly.  If you have any pictures, stories, suggestions or other thoughts on the weekend please add them.

[Guardian]

CONGRATS to Andrew for achieving his Rifleman patch with what had to be a lot of pressure!!! I can't imagine having had that many eyes on me when I shot my first Rifleman score. Well done, sir!

En-say and Tami, excellent improvement throughout the day Saturday. You were both dealing with some frustrating issues and continued to persevere.

To all the participants, good on ya for braving the weather. I hope to see each of you and your friends at future events.

Thanks to Mid-Carolina Rifle Club for allowing us to use your facilities. This was a great venue.

[TheIronMantis]

Here are a few pics that were sent to me:

[pavelft]

IronMantis, et al, thanks for a great Appleseed! I'm excited to be a new IIT, and look forward to being able to help others along the way!