Piqua OH. 08-09 August 2015

[DGMilty]

Let's try this again!

Beautiful August weekend for an Appleseed.  Saturday was sunny with temps in the mid 80's, Sunday about the same but with lots of cloud cover and no breeze.

A great group of shooters, all familiar with their equipment!  Lots of cracking the whip  and marksmanship drills!   Listening and having a Teachable Attitude really paid off well for one shooter, Paula.  She is a new shooter, and kept pushing herself more than we did.  Very PERSISTANT indeed because that paid off well as her AQT scores continued to raise.

160's, 185, near that 200 "hump" and finally a 225 and a 206.  Not bad all for a new shooter.  Congrats, Paula!

One of the many things I get out of Appleseed is seeing the spark in the eyes of those we have touched through telling of The Three Strikes and the other history.  Another thing is a THANK YOU from the shooters.  That means a LOT to me, especially with a thankless paid job that I have.  The people showing up, even if its only to hear the history...the reason I do what I do.

What can I tall you for your next Appleseed?  Practice!  Steady Hold Factors, 6 Steps, NPOA and lots and lots of dry practice.  You now have the skills and knowledge to be an instructor at your range.  Help a buddy out...hunting season is around the corner.  How many times to we see people shoot lead downrange, go look at target, come back, fiddle with their sights or scope, shoot some more lead downrange, wasting all that ammo.  Remember IMC.  Help them out, save them some ammo.  They might even offer to buy you a beverage.   

Pictures hopefully to follow; and for what it's worth, we are indeed working on the administrative SNAFU, and I am pleased to announce publicly that Shep is now a Shoot Boss!  Congrats!  And to Rick and Blair,   again, gentlemen, always a pleasure to work with you.  If we don't see each other soon, we'll see you in October.

Huzzah!!!



DGMilty

[Shep]

What a great group of Americans we had at the Piqua, Ohio shoot; it was truly an honor to meet and work with such wonderful people.

Sunday afternoon, following some KD instruction, we moved the line out to 100 yards, and then after resetting the 25-meter line, we had some fun with teams of three shooting a star target. Buckeye Trapper called the line using the words of Major Buttrick at the North Bridge, "Fire men! For Gods sake, fire as fast as you can!"

After the star target, we went back to work on our AQT targets. While others were "knocking on the door", it was Paula who earned the rifleman patch. I should mention she had never shot a rifle until Tuesday before the shoot!

While joining the line Sunday afternoon, Instructor Coyote 217 did us proud by clearing the Redcoat with his M1A.

Tremendous improvement was seen over the weekend in both marksmanship and efficiency. Also, there seemed to be great interest in "The Message of Appleseed".  I believe I can see an orange hat in the future of a few of our shooters.