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Glen Helen, CA 6/27 & 6/28

Started by rrhartley, June 29, 2015, 11:42:32 PM

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rrhartley

The morning, Saturday, June 27th, started out with a little cloud cover but it was hot and humid. The group was small, but ready to get started. I talked a little about Appleseed and its mission and ask them to introduce themselves and how they heard about Appleseed. The consensus was I heard about Appleseed from a friend. We drilled on the safety rules, malfunctions, and the safe rifle. With the rifles on the line and the red coat course of fire explained, it was time to shoot. It was pretty impressive, Alex 200 yards, Kim 200 yards, Barry 100 yards, and Mike a head shot. We start shooting squares and working on the long time proven techniques that we have all tried to master. After a few sight adjustments the groups start to gather at the elusive 1" square. We post a green target and go through a mock AQT and practice the transitions. Due to health issues we abandoned the transition for some. After safety is the most important issue we need to address. We break for lunch and the three strikes. With a small adult group I find the attention and interest level is higher. One of the comments at the end was "Why does our education system do such a poor job of teaching our heritage?" I really do not have an answer for that. A couple of AQTs and it is time to wrap up with the red coat. At the end of the day Kim was still at 200 yards, Alex 200 yards, Mike 100 yards and a head shot again, sorry to say I lost Barry to the bayonet. After a shot talk about our heritage and the events of the day the four went home with a "see you tomorrow."

Sunday morning was a bit hotter than yesterday but the four were back and ready to get to it. The first red coat was interesting. Barry redeemed himself after being bayonetted yesterday posting a nice 200 yard effective range, Alex 100 yards and a head shot. Mike and Kim didn't do so well. In Kim's defense she shot the red coat standing because she was too sore to get on the mat. We reviewed the lessons from the day before and worked on improving the groups. Several took to the practice mat to try their hand at perfecting the NPOA. Oh, so that is what you mean! We do another practice AQT and then it is time for the AQT grind. Alex is doing the best with a little better score each time until the scores begin to decline. I watch his technique and spotted a couple of minor errors but it didn't seem to help but the problem was soon discovered when his rear sights landed on his mat. That will really mess up your accuracy! With the day getting late I decided to give them a little challenge. I placed a little bobble head doll at the 25 meter line and let them shoot one at a time in the standing position. After two rounds and no hits I moved them to the seated position. That proved to be a good position for the shooters but not for bobble head. He did not last long against my new marksmen. After a couple more AQTs it was time for the final red coat. Kim redeemed herself with her favorite score of 200 yards, and Barry at 100 yards, I think Alex sights are to blame for his demise to the red coats. I think Mike was just plain exhausted. After the benediction all said they had a good time and wanted to know when the next Appleseed was. I don't think they got enough, I think they will be back. In fact two were talking about having a private group Appleseed. Sounds good to me.
Rick Hartley (rrhartley) Shoot Boss