Sevierville, TN May 29-30 Wears Valley Ranch

[CokeGuy]

We offered 24 spots for the first time at this, our 6th, Appleseed at Sevierville, expecting to need to shoot in 2 relays. But, since we had only 16 of the 17 registered show, and only another 3 register on site, we were able to use one line. Having 2 Red Hats and 4 Orange Hats was a blessing. Although rain was in the forecast for both days, we only had a short sprinkle on Friday that was never disruptive. All participants had a great, teachable attitude.  Huzzah!

Participants shared in the enthusiasm of the first two Riflemen scores and the re-qualification at 210 (and dowsing with North Bridge water) on Day 1. Participants were very attentive for all Three Strikes, and for the wrap up at the end of Day 1. Sharing of DOMs and women of the Revolution were done with great energy and emotion by the instructors, and well-received by the shooters. Another Rifleman on Day 2 kept the enthusiasm up,and two of them asked for and received Orange Hats. We cycled all but one RH and one new OH through serving as Line Boss. At the end of the second day, the 2 new Riflemen also cleared the Red Coat target.

My sincere thanks to all the participants, and especially to the instructors, who made this another very successful Appleseed. We hope the flame of Liberty and Freedom now burns brighter in all, and you all are eager to attend another Appleseed!

[CokeGuy]

http://s1282.photobucket.com/user/cokeguy1/library/Wears%20Valley%20Ranch%20Applseed%2020150529-30?sort=3&page=1

[CokeGuy]

http://s1282.photobucket.com/user/cokeguy1/library/Wears%20Valley%20Ranch%20Applseed%2020150529-30?sort=3&page=1

[Zopheus]

Thanks very much to Everett and all of the instructors for another great weekend at WVR! You are all appreciated. Also, I would like to thank all of those at the ranch for allowing us to visit and use the awesome facilities. It is so nice to be able to stay onsite. It makes the whole event that much better (and more economical ).

The event went very smoothly other than the exception noted above. The pace was great (not too fast and not too slow). Reports from our group that attended their first Appleseed were very positive and they are ready for more!

[EddieB]

Thanks to Wears Valley Ranch for hosting a very successful Appleseed event at their wonderful facility.  I was happy to see the line filled with eager Americans wanting to learn the marksmanship skills of our forefathers and how our country was born.  I had a great time working with CokeGuy and the other instructors.  I hope to see them and all the shooters at another Appleseed event in the near future!

Here is a link to some photos I took:
http://s288.photobucket.com/user/EddieB_AS/library/Sevierville%20TN%20May%2029%202015?sort=3&page=1

[TN.Chaplain]

Mama-Bear and I had a great time at Wears Valley this past weekend.  A big thank you to Cokeguy for running a smooth shoot (as always).  A great group of shooters and probably the best group of under 18 year old shooters that I have every had the privilege of sharing the line with.  We made several new friends in liberty and look forward to seeing them again on the line again soon.  Dry fire, dry fire, and then dry fire some more.  It works - trust me!

[Ant]

I had a blast! It was my second event and I enjoyed it greatly. Big thanks to CokeGuy (ShootBoss) and all the Instructors, EddieB, Tn Chaplin, Mama Bear, Fabricator's Gal and the eccentric Fabricator. Little extra thank you to the later two, this was also second event with the Fab's and on the first event I was able to get a lot of 2 on1 time with them that I feel helped tremendously. 

I am also very thankful to the participants for their patients with me on the second day when I received my Orange Hat and instantly got tongue tied working as Line Boss. 

I can't wait for the next opportunity to help out again.

Ant

[jblank]

I'd very much like to set the record straight, as my son and I are the ones described as "quitting" and "not having teachable attitudes". Let me begin by saying that my son and I were very much interested in going, interested in shooting, and interested in the history. We fully support the mission of Appleseed and the ideals of freedom, firearm ownership, and continuing the legacy that our founders and patriots fought for. I'm 40 years old, my son is 14, and each of us have shooting experience. I began shooting at around 10 years of age and was trained by my father who was a competitive bullseye shooter and has over fifty years of shooting experience. I myself have shot competitive IDPA and always practice safe and responsible gun handling, as this was stressed to me, first and foremost, by my father. My father and I have passed this knowledge to my son and he too is a very responsible, safe, shooter.

I'd like to start at the approach to the shooting area, where we were met by one of the instructors, who I believe was "Chaplain". He was courteous and greeted us and I explained that we had made a family vacation of the event and as we only had the one vehicle, my wife was dropping my oldest son and I off, with our gear, and would be picking us up at the end of the day. He explained we could NOT be with our rifles as we had to wait until after orientation to retrieve them. This instantly created a problem seeing as though my wife wasn't prepared to wait for an indeterminate amount of time, just so we could leave our rifles in the vehicle. After some discussion about our dilemma, the gentleman conversed with another instructor, who I believe was named "Eddie", or "Ed" (more on him later) and after talking for a moment, "Chaplain" came back and said we could in fact keep our gear with us. We thanked him, pulled forward, unloaded, and my wife left. My son and I begin carrying all of our gear down to the registration area, when we are abruptly stopped by Eddie, the person who has seen us and cleared us to have our gear with us, just literally two minutes ago. He quite strongly informs us we have to leave our rifles in our vehicle and I explain to him that he had just given us the ok to do just the opposite, as my wife has now left. He says again, we cannot have our rifles with us until after orientation, and this creates a bit of tension. Chaplain hears this and comes over and has to explain to him that he had just cleared us to keep our gear with us. The two men talk and Chaplain is kind enough to allow us to place our rifles in the bed of his pickup. We continue on, confusion mounting a bit, and finish registering, without incident and proceed to the range. Everything at this point is back to normal, the orientation ends and we move back to Chaplain's vehicle, to retrieve our rifles. Eddie follows us, I can literally feel him watching me, stops about six feet behind my son and I and glares at us while we unzip our rifle cases, remove the magazines and insert the chamber plugs. As I am inserting the plug into my rifle chamber, Eddie, who is still behind me and who I can feel is just watching me like a hawk, sternly says, "watch your muzzle" to me. I'm confused as my rifle is pointing towards what would be the drivers side corner of the pickup, and the nearest person to me is parallel to my position and never once did my rifle even come CLOSE to reaching even a 45 degree angle, let alone a 90 degree angle (which would be pointing the rifle directly at someone standing beside you). I say back that "my rifle is pointed straight ahead" and he says he is "concerned for the person beside me". I say nothing back, but I am agitated as this is the first time in my entire life that a person has warned me or commented to me, about my handling of a firearm. Needless to say, I am pretty miffed about that. We grab our gear and he literally watches us, again, like we're criminals or something. We get to the range and I tell my son I'm not that happy with how things are handled so far.

Some more time passes and we're allowed to shoot, we do so, I put my over the ear protection around my neck, but put my earplugs (military style rubber) back in their little matchbook sized case and leave them beside my rifle, which is safe and plugged. Upon returning back, Eddie scolds me, pretty harshly, saying that no gear can be left on the mat. I say to him, it's just my ear plugs, and he again, harshly repeats what he said. That's it for me, I'm not going to be talked to like a child, these are beyond "rules" and it's gotten to the point where I literally feel picked on, and I'm really steamed. I can't shoot angry, especially when you're wanting accuracy, so yes, I did cease active participation and decided I'd just help out Nathan, by loading magazines.

During that day I had several altercations with Eddie, he, for whatever reason, just either didn't like my looks, didn't like the fact we were dropped off, what have you, at this point, I don't really care, but regardless of the range boss's defense of him, it was our perception that he was in fact, singling me out, and I didn't travel there for that. Silly thing like fussing at me for not putting on my ears, BEFORE even giving the ok for everyone to begin firing, complaining about me leaving my ear plugs next to my rifle, giving us grief over keeping our rifles with us, questioning my gun safety proficiency, it all added up to a miserable time, which was extremely disappointing. The most egregious thing though, was that Eddie put his hands on my son, after I instructed Nathan, as the final history lesson was beginning, to go ahead and pack up, that we were leaving (my wife was due to arrive any moment to pick us up). Nathan was gathering his gear, got his case, knelt beside his rifle and was putting his rifle in the case. Eddie runs over to him and in a harsh tone says, "You can't do that, you can't touch your rifle until we tell you to and it's not time to do that" then puts his hand on my sons shoulder, like you would do if you wanted to get someones attention and make them stop. My son, who is very quiet and had held it all in all day, told him off and said something to the effect of, "I think it is time" and continued doing what I asked him to do. I confronted Eddie about this, I was very upset (for about the 4th time) and said, we were going and not coming back. The Range Boss said "we don't need any disruptions" and I said to him that in that case he should call off his dog (Eddie). We left and enjoyed the rest of the weekend as a family.

I do want to acknowledge Fabricator. He was very kind and came and talked to us about what was going on. I told him point blank that I felt I was being picked on, that my safety was being questioned and I felt the rules were needlessly harsh. He was respectful to us and said that he thought that "yes, perhaps some instructors could do a better job of seeing who has experience and knowledge, versus who doesn't." He said as far as the rules go, they set them up because some people are really inexperienced and might just "work at a bank" and not know a lot about shooting. This was a pleasant conversation and I have a lot of respect for this man.

I spoke online with some people in my local firearms message boards and local Facebook firearm rights groups, about my experience. A few were very surprised we'd had a bad time (we were surprised too, we'd looked forward to this), but surprisingly, others came forward and said they too had a bad time at past Sevierville events and felt the attitudes of the instructors were hostile. They also said they didn't go back on Day 2 and wouldn't recommend the Sevierville location, if someone was interested in Appleseed. Then, most surprisingly, I find out that my son's best friend, and his father, ALSO had a bad time at the Sevierville event which took place earlier in 2015. They too, did not return for Day 2.

I'm over the anger at the gentleman that gave us a hard time, I just feel like I was cheated out of what was supposed to be a special life moment for my son and I. I regret not ignoring this Eddie person, burying the anger, and just doing my best to put a smile onto the day, but I think I was just so surprised at how I was talked to and treated, that it hit me wrong and made me mad. I just wanted to set the record straight and explain that this had NOTHING to do with not wanting to listen and get advice from the instructors. We're both very good shots but always want to learn and improve where possible, rather it had more to do with just an overall negative experience, literally from the time we pulled in and were dropped off.

I wish things could have been better, I wish this would have been a positive for us, and I'm glad others had a good time, and I harbor no ill will towards anyone affiliated with Appleseed, but it certainly wasn't the experience we hoped it was going to be.

[Guardian]

jblank,

I apologize that the experience was not what you had hoped for. I was not there, but several of the items you raise cause me serious concern. I appreciate your candor and willingness to post this on our forum, affording us the opportunity to address your concerns. If my attempts to contact you fail, please contact me via private message so that we can get this resolved.

[jblank]

Greetings. I'm unable to send you a private message, probably because I'm a new member, but you're more than welcome to send me one, or contact me via email, at planetsguy@gmail.com, should you wish to speak about the day in question.

Thank you for your interest in talking.

[Maximum Ordinate]

Jblank,

I'm the State Coordinator for the instructor you had a concern about.  He is one of the most even-tempered instructors I've had the pleasure to work with.

It's obvious that you're unhappy with your experience in Sevierville and I'd like to reimburse you for your tickets and fuel costs to the event. 

I'll send you an email momentarily.  I hope you'll reply with your mailing address so I can get a check in the mail by the end of the week.

kind regards,
Rusty
Alabama State Coordinator
Senior Instructor

[jblank]

Well sir, even tempered or not, I have given a truthful account of my experience and my son's experience, on that day in Sevierville, to you, and also to Marcus Fountain, who contacted me first, and who seems much more able to understand that regardless of the past experiences you've had with "Eddie", he behaved extremely unprofessionally to me that day. I understand the willingness of the Range Boss and yourself, to defend the character of "Eddie", but let me assure you, everything I have described that took place that day, actually took place, precisely as I described it. I have no reason to lie, I am not seeking to get anyone in trouble, and as I said in the forum post, I only registered and posted, to defend myself and my son, from being characterized as "quitters" with "bad attitudes". I have no doubt that if you speak with the Range Boss and Eddie, that they will do their best to take up for one another, and to further disparage me, making me look at bad as possible, but to imply that he is "even-tempered", seems to be another attempt to paint me as the bad guy in all of this, when as I said, I literally never even had the chance to get comfortable at the event, for him criticizing me and singling me out, literally from the moment my wife and I dropped us off.

[Maximum Ordinate]

Safety is non-negotiable at a Project Appleseed event.  That includes not bringing rifles to the line before the safety brief (but all other gear is welcome), avoiding muzzle sweeps, and removing rifles from the line before the Line Boss has cleared it.  I'm sorry you felt that our diligence in keeping attendees and fellow instructors safe was specifically directed at you or your son.

My offer (here and via email) was genuine and heartfelt.  I'd like to reimburse your costs attending this event.  Please reply to my email with your mailing address and I'll get a check out soonest.  In fact, you're welcome to attend any event in my home state of Alabama as my personal guests.  Let me know in advance and I'll be sure I have space for you and your son.   

[jblank]

Sir, again, I didn't sweep the muzzle, I didn't fight to bring our cased rifles to the line, and I didn't leave an unsafe rifle on the line, after firing my initial round. I made those things crystal clear, in my initial post. As I expressed to Mr. Fountain, the issue was the constant leering at me, the constant singling me out for things that he felt were "unsafe", but which I never did, and him placing his hands, on my child, when my son was only doing as I had asked him to do, since we were leaving the event. I made all of this very clear and it seemed to be taken to heart and understood by Mr. Fountain, who I again believe has been great to speak with.

After speaking with him, my opinion of the organization had been redeemed and I had in fact spoke with him about attending another event, later in the year and giving it another go, with an open mind, but here we are again with an unnecessary lecture and sir, while I appreciate the invitation, after speaking with you, I will decline both his invitation, and yours, and we will not attend another one of your organizations events.

[Guardian]

All, this situation is being resolved.

Thanks,

Marcus