Crawfordsville, IN April 20-21, 2013

[ATM]

Awesome! More later... 

OK, it's later...

Many thanks to our host range, Crawfordsville Gun Club, and to those who came out to spend a weekend of heritage and marksmanship with us. We had another safe, fun shoot, sharing the traditions and honoring the tough choices and sacrifices which secured these freedoms we enjoy.

Lots of improvement, lots of smiles throughout the weekend, but also many solemn moments of reflection and self-examination as we each contemplated our role as Americans.

My favorite course of fire was the Patriots Day Memorial Volley on Saturday afternoon. 5 instructors joined the line of 17 shooters adding 22 unique rifle salutes to the simultaneous volley of every participant at every Appleseed event nationwide. Inspiring!

We lost a couple shooters Sunday but gained a couple more and continued on with refresher instruction, fine-tuning and more AQTs.

Congratulations to Cindy and Jacob for achieving Rifleman scores, earning the patch and the bacon! 

Others were very close and you all have everything it takes to get there. Practice these fundamentals, by the numbers, and I'm confident you will succeed. Bring others back with you, I mean, you had a great time, right? (...so will they.)

I saw the American spirit awakened this weekend... hearts and minds... brushfires... you know. Again, I thank you.

I do have some pictures to post for Mark, so check back for more updates and please, add your own comments and pics!


Now go make your rifle safe. 

[The Nailer]

What a great weekend, we spent the weekend with some old friends and several new friends. I know it has been said before but Appleseed brings out some of the best Americans that can be found and I really think, after a weekend of marksmanship and history, they all went home even better Americans, I know I did.  I would like to thank Crawfordsville Gun Club for the use of thier range and also Mark for making KD an extra special KD.

[The Nailer]

I forgot to mention that there was also bacon involved!!

[grunt soldier]

It was an awesome weekend. I had a great time. So did the folks I brought!  I can't wait to do it again

[Richard1580]

This was the first Appleseed for my wife and myself, and it was a wonderful experience.  We were originally scheduled to go to the Atlanta, IN Appleseed, but since it was flooded, we went to Crawfordsville instead.  This was one of those fortuitous events where a negative gets transformed into a positive, since we otherwise would probably never have made it out to Crawfordsville for an Appleseed.  Now I think we will have to split our time between the two venues.

So what made it so much fun?  The primary reason was the people.  Alan (ATM) is a great speaker, full of energy, very enthusiastic and quite the singer.  If he does not have a performing arts background, then I think he may have missed his true calling.     The rest of the crew were also excellent - very helpful and friendly, but with a keen eye to range discipline and keeping everyone safe.

I am a new shooter, having only taken up the sport in the last six months, and I was able to learn a great deal over the weekend.  I know that I have a lot to learn and improve upon, but this was an excellent start, and I hope to build upon what I learned last weekend over the coming months. 

The history that is intersped throughout the weekend was interesting and actually revived my interest in that period.  Sunday night, I pulled out my copy of Jeff Shaara's "Rise to Rebellion" and began rereading the section on Lexington and Concord.  While it is a fictional work, it is generally historically correct, and a more interesting read than most academic accounts.  I would highly recommend his trilogy that covers the American Revolution to anyone interested in that period.  (As a side note, if you enjoyed the movie "Gettysburg", it was based on his father's book "The Killer Angels."  Jeff Shaara later used that work as a centerpiece to form a Civil War trilogy.  Well worth reading).

Anyway, we both had an excellent time at the Appleseed and look forward to attending another one later in the year.  It also convinced me to join the RWVA.  Thanks again to everyone who made last weekend possible.

[JV]

I had a blast this weekend . Great bunch I shooters. Congrats to our two new riflemen/women. A few more knocking on the door. Great to meet some new students, always great to see familiar faces. Thank you mark for letting me shoot the enfield.

[Bryant]

Congratulations to the new Rifleman.  Sounds like a great weekend. 

[grunt soldier]

It was a awesome weekend with one new rifleman and one new rifle woman!  I forgot to say congrats to them!!  And they definitely got bacon!!!

[ATM]

A few pics as promised:

[grunt soldier]

That last picture of the orange hat giving the first strike.  man he is a good looking guy if I do say so myself

good pictures.  thanks again to all who braved the water and stuck it out.  it was a pleasure meeting all of you

[RBKL]

Another great weekend.  It was good to see so many people out on a nice spring weekend. Glad to see familiar faces as well as new. 

The KD was great.  I was nice to see such a variety of rifles available for people to see and try. 

Congrats to Cindy and Jake for earning the patch.   Others were close and everyone seemed to make improvements.    Remember to practice finding your NPOA and dry fire whenever possible. 

Hope to see everyone back again - and bring a friend or two.

[grunt soldier]

Do what June says!  We don't want to have to see her other personality again

[OneBadV8]

Thanks to everyone that came out! It was my first April 19th weekend shoot. The Volley was really cool, glad to be part of it! 

Special Thanks to Mark for letting everyone shoot everything he brought for the KD at the end, very cool stuff 


Hope to see everyone again on the line sometime!

[Fritzenator]

It was a fantastic weekend.   Thanks to all the instructors you guys/gals did a wonderful job working with the Kids and new shooters. The stories of our history were great as usual.  A special thanks to Alan for his enthusiasm and the entertainment.  Richard is right about Alan,  and I had a thought that maybe we should get some guitars and a drum set to accompany him during the course of the day.  "Appleseed Rocks" !!!
http://appleseedinfo.org/smf/Smileys/newsmileys/jig.gif         
Okay,  that's probably going a little too far.   

Congrat's to the new Rifleman and Riflewoman!