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Young, AZ June 22-23 ----- Fire-Seed

Started by slinged_in, June 26, 2013, 02:42:07 AM

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slinged_in

The lovely weather and hospitality of beautiful Young, AZ set the scene for a weekend of heritage, history and marksmanship.

The shoot got off to a fine start with the groups tightening up by lunch and everyone ready for their first AQT of the day.  The strikes seemed to be enjoyed by all, and it appeared that the 'seed was going to be smooth and routine.... Right up until the first brush fire lit up about 500 yards from the line! (Not caused by us, by the way!!!)   O0

Luckily, half of the Young volunteer fire department was on the line, with brush trucks and water tankers on hand.  A plan was quickly formulated on what to do.  The seeder's very calmly shut the line down and packed up under instructor Joe's watchful eye, while the Young Volunteer FD and shootboss saw what to do about the fire.

After a few hours on three separate blazes, the fires were finally put out by the Young volunteer fire department with help from a local Forest Service hot shot crew.

To say the least, the shoot was over for the day.  Even though the fire shut us down for the remainder of the day, it provided all of us an excellent example of how a community can come together for the common good when threatened by great danger, much like the colonies came together during the revolution some 239 years ago.

Fires or not, a riflemyn persists - the shooters got back down to business Sunday morning with greatly improved Redcoat scores.  One of the fire-fighters even earned a rifleman patch before lunch.  Huzzah!

In the afternoon, shooters with center-fire rifles were able to test and tune their abilities on our improvised 400 meter KD range, while other shooters continued to work on their fundamentals on the 25 meter range.

Everyone agreed - this was an Appleseed shoot that they would never forget!   ;D



arpjoe

It was my first time to Young, AZ and a little cooler than Safford, AZ.  The Pleasant Valley Rifle Range is a great Appleseed Shoot location with good facilities.  Thank you Colton for subbing at the last minute as Shoot Boss and managing the shoot so well,  Shawn did a great job as a new IIT and also putting out the brush fire Saturday afternoon, and the shooters came with great attitudes and learned rifle marksmanship and the history of April 19, 1775.

The bad news is that the pictures I took did not get saved on my cell phone.  I was going to post a picture of our new rifleman and a picture of the some of the fire crew with our ITT/fireman.  Sorry, I will have to practice and make sure I save the pictures I take with the picture save function on the phone.

Oh, the weekend was also when the "Super Moon" occurred.  The closest, biggest view of a full moon for the year.  We camped at the range and had a clear magnificent view of the moon at night during our stay.
Starve the collective (Ref: Starving the Monkeys, Tom Baugh) and
restore the Constitution.

He is a fool who knows not that swords were given to men, that none might be slave, but such as know not how to use them..
Algernon Sidney
Discourses Concerning Government
Ch. 2, sect. 4, p.343