Azusa CA 14-15 Nov 2015

[Rocket Man]

Last weekend was our ninth and final Appleseed at Burro Canyon, and we sent the year off with a BANG!

We had ten fine folks join us on the line for a gorgeous morning in the hills, eager to set foot on the path of the Rifleman.  As usual we had a great mix of people -- a pastor, an NRA Women On Target grad...  a big kid in a Dan'l Boone hat!     We got through safety brief and made some introductions between new rifles and their owners, and then went to work...   

Our opening Redcoat showed some signs of life, but also a great deal of room for improvement.  But it came, first with proper use of slings, position, technique...  one MOA at a time, until pretty soon groups appeared from patterns, and targets started saying "ouch!" with regularity.   

One of the fun things about Appleseed is the opportunity for audience participation, and we had plenty of it, even one youngster who if we let him probably would have taught the whole class.  He knows his stuff, though -- might be a Hat in his future, maybe.

But any good shoot will have an element of surprise, and this one followed in that tradition.  Off-script and nine hours early, we got clobbered by a nice brisk thunderstorm, right about the time we got to talking about Cantankerous Olde Patriots.     What had been nice and cool weather and cute shady clouds suddenly became a downpour, and right on cue came a roar of thunder that would have gotten Paul Revere out of a tight spot.     But that only meant more time for stories.  After an hour, the rain was coming in drips and drabs and we left the safety of our lone shelter to head back to the line, and despite being a little cold and wet got in the best shooting of the day.   

No new Riflemen this time.  Even our returning Rifleman was off a little with the chill and damp.  But I saw lots of promise, and with a couple of hours and some sunlight I'm sure we'd have gotten some outstanding results. 

So...  on to next year.  Calendar's filling up, nine more events, maybe ten, including two Rimfire KD / Advanced Appleseeds.  We've also got our shoots nicely dovetailed with the 35+ other Calguns Shooting Sports Association events, so 2016 is looking mighty fine indeed.  Come on back!  I'll see you there.