Corona CA, March 16-17 2013 AAR

[V]

Thanks to everyone for another great Appleseed weekend.

We had 20 shooters signed up for a weekend of marksmanship, history, and camaraderie.

All were new to Appleseed except for Dennis and Christian returning from last months shoot and Brandon from a previous shoot bringing his son Austin for the first time.

Greg was bringing six of his family for the first time but unfortunately the ladies and one of the boys  got away from him so it was just Greg and Connor for the weekend. 

We had one other no show for the weekend so 15 shooters took to the line for our first Redcoat on Saturday,  father and sons, David and Brian, Greg and Connor,  Dennis and Christian and Edward, Matt and Eric, Brandon and Austin, one couple John and Mimi, and the lone guys Ray and Brian.

Then it was off to the firehose, ball and dummy, lunch to meet up with some of our friends from April 19th, more firehose, an AQT and the final Redcoat which showed much improvement.

Sunday we lost none of our shooters, truly the whipped cream of the cream of the crop. Into our review and then onto the AQT grind, a break for lunch to have a more personal introductions to some individual men, women and children from April 19th and thenr an afternoon of AQT fine tuning. We had a bevy of shooters achingly close to the magic 210, stalled out on the 190 plateau.

But Dennis our returning Dad came through with a very conservatively scored 215, with 30 cal rule I would have been able to find a 219 but he didn't need it.

A quick tour of the Flags, more AQTs and the final Redcoat rounded out our Sunday shoot. Lets just say for some reason the Redcoat officers seemed to pay especially dearly on that final Redcoat - maybe it was something we'd said this weekend. Congratulations to David on clearing the final Redcoat after getting so close to the 210 all afternoon.

I'm sure well see more of Dennis with some new headgear in the future and all of our so close shooters I'm sure will be back to earn the patch. Many fought through equipment problems but now have the knowledge of what they need to do to fix them, what to do to dry-practice in the mean time and will surely earn success in their next shoots.

Lots of tri-folds given out to arm them for their Seventh Stepping together with some "No More Redcoat" stickers to start the conversations.

Many thanks to the instructors who turned out on Saturday, you were missed on Sunday. Thanks to UpChuck for staying as long as possible on Sunday. Special thanks to Elfstone who gave sterling service way beyond his grade all weekend and to Greg who made up for his poor hearding skills (just kidding) by RSO'ing our left line Sunday afternoon. I'm sure he's hooked on wanting to get back, get the patch and join the ranks :-)

As always a pleasure and a privilige to share this weekend with you all. See you all on the Appleseed trail again. And don't forget, make a special effort to get yourselves and your friends out to the April shoots at a range near you for a truly special celebration of thanks for the folks of 1775.

Cheers
V

[Elfstone]

Pic #1
Prone under the direction of V.  L-R: Austin, Matt, Eric Connor, John, Mimi, Brian, Ray

Pic # 3
L-R: David, Brian, DJ teaching and passing on the heritage to his two sons.

Pic #6
Congrats to your earned Rifleman Dennis 'DJ'!!!.  Thanks Greg for stepping in helping keep the line safe Sun.

[UpChuck]

There were several close shooters.  Congratulations DJ; you persevered, gave it your best, and succeeded.  Great Job!  I Hope to work with you more in the future. 
UpChuck