Columbia Falls, MT June 15-16

[Kaiser Leib]

This is essentially a glorified placeholder. The SB and his son are hiking through Glacier as we speak and will post a more complete AAR and IAAR upon their return.

Another great but sparsely attended shoot at the Columbia Falls range. This time, our week-later date saved us from the forty days' flood at the 2012 June shoot. And our enthusiastic shooters got rather a lot of individual instruction. And our instructor corps got to shoot!

[Necee]

Glad to hear it wasn't pouring on you!!  I was worried because it rained here

Glad to hear the Eert and Roland got the chance to do some hiking and exploring in Glacier while they were over the border this time!! 

[peterlandsiedel]

Another safe and successful Appleseed in Montana. We had some very green shooters on the line (including a woman who had held a gun for the first time the night before) and I must say that I saw significant improvement with those shooters. All in all, a great weekend where I walked away feeling like I had learned as much as the shooters. Thanks to Eert and Roland for stepping up to shoot boss and instruct.

[eert]

Sorry for the delay, but Shoot Bosses need a bit of fun every now and again to keep the attitude up!

There wasn't even a hint of last year's Aquaseed at this year's June event.  Weather was absolutely perfect.  The rain held off until Roland and I were about 6 miles from the vehicle Monday afternoon as we were headed back along Bowman Lake up the Polebridge side of Glacier National Park.

We had a couple of no-shows, but those were balanced by having two walk-ons.  Unfortunately, Michelle had to leave early, but promises to return!   

Robin, you got close Saturday, and I have no doubt you would have made Rifleman Sunday if you would have been able to attend.  Congrats on having your daughter home from the USAF, and please thank her for service.  Maybe we'll see you both at an upcoming shoot? 

Amber, you came a long way from the initial Red Coat on Saturday morning to the closing RC on Saturday.  You took instruction well and your shooting showed dramatic improvement throughout the day.  Keep up the new learned skills with dry-fire practice, and you'll be shooting Rifleman scores in no time. 

Mark, you were doing everything right.  You just have to do it at the right time, every time.  Dry fire practice will help you with your consistency.  A Rifleman patch awaits you once you master consistent six steps of firing the shot and the position steady hold factors. There are a lot of pieces to coalesce to gain RM, and you have all the pieces, you just need to focus and put them together.   

Jaz was our youthful trooper.  Great job on rifle handling safety!  Starting at the young age of 9, it's easy to see a Rifleman patch in your future.

We had one returning RM, Christy, who had a fatal AR-10 malfunction which resulted in having to shoot a loaner most of Saturday afternoon.  You got close with the loaner!  We're sorry you couldn't come back on Sunday, but thrilled that your hubby brought out his SCAR .308 and let two lucky instructions shoot qualifying AQT's with it on Sunday!  What a treat for Peter and Roland! 

The Montana Instructor Corp consisting of Kaiser, Lumberjack 55, Poison Ivy, Macgyver, and Peter was as solid as always.  Lumberjack55 led off with the pre-history, Peter (IIT1!) bravely did the First Strike without notes, I handled Second and Roland took Third and the Aftermath.  Interestingly, the Aftermath spurred some additional questions and further historical discussions segueing nicely into the Saturday benediction. 

I'm sure Roland will post a pic or two of the hiking we did at Glacier after the shoot.  So, if you are looking to attend a shoot and get get a little vacation in afterwards, I can highly recommend the Columbia Falls/Glacier National Park venue!   Where else can you get top-notch rifle marksmanship instruction, and be only minutes from the most beautiful place in the continental United States!

Thanks again to my fellow instructors and also to my newest Appleseed friends for making the weekend a truly enjoyable one.  I hope to see all of you along the Appleseed trail.

EERT

[peterlandsiedel]

Hope Glacier was fantastic Eert and Roland!

Man. That SCAR 17 was something else. With that ACOG on top, I honestly felt like I was cheating at the AQT!

[Roland]

Well, we're back for all of 36 hours before we head out to Colorado to visit family.

So, I thought I'd get some "long-awaited" pictures up.



It is indeed a beautiful place to have a shoot... Can't get much better then this!



You know, this is something we didn't even SEE last year at this range.



Lumberjack55 (heretofore referred to as LJ55) running the morning breifing and preliminary history



Checking targets downrange



Robin, or mvtrnty, came very close to shooting rifleman once again, but narrowly missed it. We hope to see you in CDA in July!



Amber made fantastic progress for never having handled a rifle before!



Mark, as previously mentioned, you're doing everything right... just not at the same time! Practice, that's the only way to make it work.



Christy was a returnee, and the only reason she didn't make Rifleman was equipment issues. (let us know how that turns out, if you would? Never seen that particular issue on an AR platform before)



Kaiser and Kaiser's swagger stick surveying the line as Jasmine looks questioningly at aforementioned swagger stick.



Ivy helping Jasmine, our youth shooter. Jaz, you did a fantastic job with safety, and not once were any of the instructors concerned. Kudos!

On Sunday, we only had one shooter, so every instructor got to shoot...



LJ55/Jared. Many thanks for offering us a place to crash. The offer is open for return anytime youre over this way!



Kaiser, who also told one of the best pieces of history I've yet heard when he did an impromptu brief on Tadeusz Kościuszko that left few dry eyes in the audience. Without planning, by the way. We really need to get that worked up into an official story...



Peter, also note the puff of dust on the right...



Poison Ivy and mcgyver, father-daughter team of instructors



And yes, even the shoot boss eert put a few rounds downrange. A shoot boss shooting? Sacrilege!



Peter decided that none of the previous pictures taken of him as line boss were manly or intimidating enough... Yeah, I think we solved that particular problem.

And, I was offered the chance to run an AQT with an SCAR 17s, which I of course jumped at... 218, I think I'm okay with that for sure! Peter also shot the SCAR, and edged me out by a few points... What a beautiful rifle!



And, our repeat riflemen for the weekend: From L-R, Macgyver, peter, LJ55, Yours Truly (my red hat was AWOL at this point, and because Stetson), and Kaiser (just ignore him... it's what I was doing!



And lastly for the shoot, our instructor crew for the weekend: Poison Ivy, macgyver, peterlandsiedel, Roland, Kaiser Leib, eert, and LumberJack55



A wider shot, displaying well the beauty of the North Valley Sportsman's Club:




And, lastly, a picture or two of why it took us so long to get back here...






Alright, I have to go pack. Again.

Keep your eyes open, your ear to the ground, your blades sharp, and your powder dry.

Roland, over and out.