Buckeye, AZ April 18/19, 2015

[AZRedhawk44]

15 intrepid souls committed to a weekend of marksmanship and history in the Arizona desert, and were rewarded with blissfully pleasant weather.

High temperatures did not breach 90 degrees, which greatly aided afternoon stamina.

We were heavy on repeat shooters.  Lots of dedication on the line.  Saturday saw frustration, education, persistence and improvement, along with one Rifleman at the end of the day (Andrew).  Redcoat scores increased, and awareness of the Freedom of choice exercised by previous generations was shared.

Sunday gave more opportunity to refine skills and learn about individual contributions to the American Revolution and its fight for independence.  Two more men demonstrated they knew very well what they were about, Bryan and George, earning Rifleman scores through diligent practice.  They are now both pursuing the IIT path to contribute further to the cause of Appleseed and Liberty.

Only one bayonetted victim by the end of Sunday's RedCoat, explained away by a limitation on sight adjustment on a stock Marlin 795 (whack-n-check, whack-n-check, so on and so forth).  Dramatic improvement by all.

My first time to work with arpjoe, and it was a smooth event and quite enjoyable.  Tom's assistance (ATOMB) was also quite noticeable.  Shoot wouldn't have been nearly as smooth without the contributions of these gentlemen.

[GoodGunner]

I believe it was George who earned his patch on Saturday afternoon. Bryan and I (Andrew) got our patches on Sunday.

[GoodGunner]

I didn't take very many photos while I was there. Most of my effort went into absorbing the information as it was thrown at us.

[AZRedhawk44]

Apologies, Andrew!  You're right of course.

[ItsanSKS]

Congratulations Riflemen!

[GoodGunner]

It's time to write up our experiences.

PREPARATION BEFOREHAND

My 15 year old daughter and I signed up for the Appleseed event a good two months in advance, and we began preparing. The articles outlining what to bring helped dramatically. I wouldn't have been half as prepared without that advice.

Following the recommendations of others, I decided to upgrade the sights on our Ruger 10/22's. We already needed slings, so I bought and installed a sets of tech sights as well. Once they were installed, we spent time at the range getting familiar with these new fangled peep sights and zeroed them in. Everything seemed ready to go. We just didn't have enough ammo.

I'd never ordered ammo from the Internet before, but I didn't see any alternative. We needed a 1000 rounds. A decent price on some Federal high velocity 22lr caught my eye, I ordered it, and it arrived. My daughter and I went back out to the range to test the Federal ammo in our rifles. Thank goodness we did. Her rifle CHOKED on it. It constantly failed to extract over and over again. In the end, we had to replace the extractor on her 10/22. After the new one was installed, we tested it again, and her rifle ate everything we threw in it.

We also did a lot of dry fire work in the months leading up to the Appleseed. We setup some appleseed targets scaled for 10ft in our living room and began practicing. As we got better with the positions, we timed each other on AQT stages, worked on form, trigger control, etc, and had to assure the rest of the family we were still sane.

Through all of this, I also discovered that my rifle shoots tighter groups with CCI standard velocity 22lr. I decided to bring some of the CCI and use that on my aqt. Every little bit helps, right?

Advice:

Read the list of things to bring
Test your rifle and ammo before you go
Dry fire practice works wonders
Learn what ammo your rifle likes best


SATURDAY

The range is about an hour drive from our home. We arrived Saturday morning, got signed in, and were excited to get going. After the usual safety discussion, we brought the rifles to the line and the real fun started. Information was thrown at us fast. Before I could even get my mind wrapped around the last thing I was having to absorb the next one.

Did you ever play that multicolored electronic game 'Simon' when you were a kid? The game would flash and beep a color at you. You had one chance to repeat that color before it added the next one. Then you had to remember the order and repeat back all of them. The game relentlessly tacked on more and more colors while you desparately tried to keep up and remember every move. That's what the training felt like.

At lunch we got a cool history lesson and then back onto more training. My head was spinning. The dry fire practice we had done in preparation was a huge help, and now I felt like we were refining things as we went along. I felt pretty good about it, but I could tell my daughter was frustrated. The instructors worked with her, she stared seeing some improvement, and her spirits lifted.

The partners exercise we did was great. Teaming up and having someone block your sights view so you could relax and see where you drifted away from natural point of aim was awesome. I also found out that I wasn't getting my support arm up underneath the rifle like I should. I got better with using the strap and getting into a proper sitting position.

At the end of the day we shot one AQT. By the end of the second stage, I knew I was doing well. I managed to get all 10 rounds off in the time allotted. I managed all 10 rounds again in stage 3 and I knew I was having a good showing. Would I get the patch on my very first day of my very first Appleseed!? I forced myself to calm down and carefully shot the 4th stage. My end score was a 207.

I went home confident that I would pull it off the next day. My daughter and I drove back into civilization, got dinner, and talked at length about our day. We were sore, but ready for more.


SUNDAY

We returned the next morning to find everybody came back for day 2. We started in on review and more shooting. By mid morning we did our first AQT. That's when it happened. I scored a 219!

The rest of the day was an exhausing buz of more shooting, more targets, more history, and more fun. The repetition was helping to reinforce the concepts we were getting in the training. The memorial shots we fired in rememberance of those who fell on April 19th was beautifully done. All the more reason why this was the right weekend for us to experience our first Appleseed.

My daughter was seeing steady improvements in her groupings. She did a lot of work on her sight picture, alignment, and natural point of aim. In the end she didn't earn her patch, but she said "I feel like I know my rifle a lot better now."

By the end of the day our elbows and knees were bruised. Fatigue was setting in, and I totally screwed up shooting the final redcoat of the day. Yeah. We were tired, sore, and done.


CONCLUSION

It was worth it. Period.

My daughter wants to practice more, attend another Appleseed, and try for her patch again.

Earning my rifleman patch felt like an honor.

Thank you to all the volunteers who have put this amazing program together.

[GoodGunner]

One of our attendees from the weekend, Tony, did a podcast about his Appleseed experience.

Jump to the 33min if you want to get straight to his Appleseed experience.

http://firearmscafe.com/2015/04/26/show-129-ar-15s-and-appleseeds/