Nampa, ID April 25-26, 2015 AAR

[Nero]

Mostly a placeholder.

7 shooters on the line on day one, joined for part of the day by a range officer.

One AQT, no qualifiers but plenty of potential showing on the targets.

High winds by end of day blowing sand in the faces of the shooters and putting up clouds of dust every time the centerfires took a shoot.  More of same forecast for tomorrow, it will be challenging!

[Nero]

The story of this shoot really starts on Friday evening.  Previous shooter Gary came out to help scoob set up the range, after which they 'tried out' the target line by shooting a few AQTs.  Gary posted up a 229, showing he had learned the lessons from his previous shoots well.  On Saturday morning he took a blue hat and joined us for the weekend as RSO and photographer-in-chief.  Look for some of his work on this thread soon.

Saturday AM was clear and chill, and after a warm-up to the 'safe rifle dance' seven shooters got down to the work of instruction and practice.  We had a mixed line of rifles, with 10/22s, a Marlin, ARs, a Mini-14 and a dressed-up AK-74.  The time monkey climbed onto the shoot boss' back as we spent a fair amount of time setting up slings and tinkering with stock configurations, but we made the delay back during the rest of the day.

We welcomed Debbie and Shanti from the local 'Well Armed Woman' group, out to add rifle skills to their handgun proficiency (instructor American Amazon is also a member of the local group).  Tim was up from the Air Force base at Mountain Home (thank you for your service).  Carl had attended a shoot in Oklahoma the weekend before - he's a travelin' man! - and brought his son Erik along to this one.  Jason and Rick rounded out our firing line.

As mentioned above, the wind increased through the day, up to the point of throwing blasts of sand and dust into the faces of the shooters, who nonetheless persevered.  We got in one AQT, made more challenging by occasional moving targets!  Tim was showing great promise with his groups, but unfortunately his 22-adapted AR decided to pack it in on the last few strings.  We finished the day with the telling of the 3d strike of the match, and departed to take our 'Vitamin A'.

The weather forecasters had promised more and bigger wind for Sunday, and sure enough it started up again right at dawn.  Since the velocity was supposed to increase during the day, we abbreviated much of the Sunday AM instruction, firing a few sighter/practice strings and then going straight to the AQTs.  We had several at 150+ to start.  Tim was back with his backup gun - a boltie in 17HMR - and quickly showed that he knew what to do with it, posting a 185 to start the day.

We alternated AQTs with rest breaks and storytelling.  After lunch we took time for 1-shot sitting transition drills and 1/1 mag swap practice, which helped speed up stage 2 for the rest of the day.  The high score of the weekend went to Tim, who posted a 208 with that bolt gun; he would have probably made his score, as everything was obviously coming together, when he ran out of ammo.  None of had spare 17HMR around, so he finished the day on a loaner AR. 

In the end the winds never increased to the threatened velocity, but they were with us all day and everyone got some extra grit and minerals in their diets.  The dust was not kind to rifle actions, and several needed work during the day.  By mid-afternoon people was running out of ammo and energy and scores were falling, so we shot our final redcoat - showing much improvement from Saturday AM - and called it a day.  Everyone left with some windburn, but increased skills and knowledge.

Tim - the instructors were all frustrated when your ammo gave out, as we could tell you had it all coming together.  Come on back and you'll get it for sure!

Debbie - thanks for coming out, and glad the loaner worked out for you.  You were putting up some good groups with that - time to tune up one of those 10/22s of yours for a return visit.

Shanti - you worked all weekend on variations of sitting, since prone wouldn't work, and posted some nice groups.  The full cross-legged seemed to work the best.  Sorry that your new 10/22 50th edition was being cranky.  Get some sand paper or emery cloth and work on that mag well.

Rick - sorry you couldn't make it back for day two.  Practice on what you learned and we'll see you back another time.

Jason - you were making good progress with that AR, get in some dry practice and come on back.  We'll think about giving you bonus points for landing your ejected brass right in the box!

Carl - you hung in there right to the last string and were still ready to go.  And you were a good sport about working up that Mini under time pressure.

Erik - I think you were the only one who actually paid attention to resting in standing!  When I saw you taking a break after each shot with that AK, your stage 1 score about doubled!  But, take a look at your targets and tell me if you weren't doing better in prone with the sling than using the magazine as a support!

Special thanks to:

Jeff - local range officer who helped out with slings and other things during the weekend, shot with us for a while on Saturday, and generously loaned out his AR when Tim's ammo supply went black.

Gary - thanks for taking the hat and giving us your time and skills this weekend.  Looking forward to seeing what's on that memory card!

[Manly Man]

Thank you Appleseeders for coming out and sharing a blustery April weekend in Idaho.  Although it was mostly sunny during the shoot, it was cold to cool, and the heavy winds made for tough conditions.  The swirling dust and round count proved difficult for some firearms.  The shooters persevered even when the wind was causing the target backers to bounce around.  Shooting the AQT is difficult enough without dust blowing in your face, and the target backer dancing randomly.

Three shooters with centerfire rifles, and the others with an assortment of rimfires kept the line banging away.

Okay, enough preamble, let's get to the pics.

Link to Saturday's pictures.

Link to Sunday's pictures.

I'm still working on the video.  It was a new-ish camera, and I'm learning its quirks.

-Gary

[scoob]

Previous shooter Gary came out to help scoob set up the range, after which they 'tried out' the target line by shooting a few AQTs.  Gary posted up a 229, showing he had learned the lessons from his previous shoots well.

...with a boltie!



More later when I find my notes...

[Ramblin' Wreck]

Looks like a good event. Looks like you're shooting on the moon. Y'all should plant some grass. 

Wreck

Thank you Appleseeders for coming out and sharing a blustery April weekend in Idaho.  Although it was mostly sunny during the shoot, it was cold to cool, and the heavy winds made for tough conditions.  The swirling dust and round count proved difficult for some firearms.  The shooters persevered even when the wind was causing the target backers to bounce around.  Shooting the AQT is difficult enough without dust blowing in your face, and the target backer dancing randomly.

Three shooters with centerfire rifles, and the others with an assortment of rimfires kept the line banging away.

Okay, enough preamble, let's get to the pics.

Link to Saturday's pictures.

Link to Sunday's pictures.

I'm still working on the video.  It was a new-ish camera, and I'm learning its quirks.

-Gary

[scoob]

Looks like a good event. Looks like you're shooting on the moon. Y'all should plant some grass. 

Haha, no doubt!  The club finally got a well drilled last summer, so maybe they'll allocate some of that water for irrigation to get the weeds going and cover up some of that moonscape.   

[Manly Man]

The story of this shoot really starts on Friday evening.  Previous shooter Gary came out to help scoob set up the range, after which they 'tried out' the target line by shooting a few AQTs.  Gary posted up a 229, showing he had learned the lessons from his previous shoots well.  On Saturday morning he took a blue hat and joined us for the weekend as RSO and photographer-in-chief.  Look for some of his work on this thread soon.

I shot my first Appleseed last June.  At that shoot, I topped out at 208, but mostly shot in the 180s.  I was disappointed at the time I didn't earn the patch, but in hindsight realize it was for the best.  Back then my fundamentals were...lacking.  After 30+ years of discharging firearms, I decided to take some training, and Appleseed taught me there was a much better way.  I've done a lot of dry firing with my rifle.  One nice thing about using a bolt rifle is that you can train like you shoot.  During practice I've found improved ways of doing some things, and rejected some of the things that weren't working.  I've still got a ways to go, but my fundamentals are coming together, and I'm definitely a much better shot today than I was a year ago.

Thanks again to Scoob for providing me the opportunity to shoot the AQT after we setup the line Friday.  Conditions that day were vastly better than the other shooters experienced over the next few days (especially Sunday.)  I used my Ruger American Rimfire compact to shoot a 229, and accomplished a personal goal.





I've uploaded a few videos of the shooters from Sunday.  Unfortunately, not many turned out well.  Even these videos don't give a good idea of how hard the wind was blowing.

Transition Standing to Prone.
Transition Standing to Prone (other side of the line.)

Transition Standing to Sitting/Kneeling.
Transition Standing to Sitting/Kneeling (other side of the line.)

Thanks again for showing up.  It was a pleasure to spend a cold, windy weekend with all of you.

-Gary