Castro Valley, CA. April 16-17, 2016

[700x32]

Thanks for a great weekend everyone! We had close to 40 shooters on Saturday and about 30 on Sunday. Weather was hot but not unbearably so. Hans, our Shoot Boss in Training, ran a fantastic, smooth, and safe shoot. The shooters seemed to grasp the marksmanship concepts very well, and everybody improved on their skills over the weekend.

We had 5 new Riflemen plus one requalify- Sam, who's taken an orange hat!

Here are my photos on Google Drive (this forum's photo sharing never works right for me)
https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B5vwJAARuB9fVjc2eWZjUjh0T2c&usp=sharing

I hope to see you all again at our next Castro Valley Appleseed in June!
-Andy

[Libertarian777]

What a great shoot! Beautiful sunshine at the Chabot Range all weekend. Lots of young people - our posterity - a few grizzled old timers, and everyone in between spent the weekend doing Appleseed yoga sharpening their marksmanship skills, and finding their place in the American tradition.

I've included an image showing how the shooters effective range improved over the weekend. We started out with about 1/3 at 100 yards and dropping from there. By the end of the weekend we had a solid peak at the 200 yards, and more at 300-400 yards as well.

Everyone worked hard on Saturday, and we even had 1 NEW RIFLEMAN on our only AQT for the day! Congratulations to Joaquin who shot a 212!

Sunday saw more review, more stories, more AQT's, and even a couple of rapid fire AQT's that seemed to bring smiles to most peoples faces. Sweaty, sunburned, sore faces, but smiles nonetheless. And rifleman's persistence paid off with 4 more NEW RIFLEMEN: Nathan shot a 210, Alden shot a 214, Scott shot a 217, and G shot a 215, a 217, a 224, and a 236! G has come to a number of shoots, been gradually improving, working very hard at it, and it sure paid off on Sunday. Solid. We tried to pin an orange hat on G, but he had some lame excuse about a new baby. G, when you finally need that weekend off, and you will, we'll be here for you!

We had better luck with Sam, a ridiculously solid shooter who has been routinely turning in 240's over the last few shoots. Sam managed another 242 on Saturday, pulled off a couple of 231's, a 238 and a 239 on Sunday, and even a 228 on the Sunday RFAQT. We expect a little better from you Sam, but we gave you an orange hat anyhow.

These Riflemen knew very well what they were about.

Thank you all for coming out and making it a fantastic shoot, and we hope to see many of you on the line again. Thank you too to the instructor crew:

Chris - Freeman on the forum (Shoot Boss)
Hans - Libertarian777 (Shoot Boss in Training)
Ron - The Horse (Instructor)
Andy - 700x32 (Instructor in Training)
Matt - Just.A.Guy (Instructor in Training)
Marta - 22CaliBear (Instructor in Training)
Lauri - Rifles-n-Reeds (Instructor in Training)
Bob - BobS (Instructor in Training)
Ron F. - Gecko (Instructor in Training)

[nate6158]

Thank you to all of the instructors for such a great weekend. I had a blast and came home sore, sunburned and smiling!

Looking forward to attending another event and bringing my wife next time!

Nathan

[bullpuppy]

Thanks to all the red and orange hats for another great event!

If I could change anything I'd skip Sunday's reiteration of sight adjustment calcs and just have one sighting-in round Sunday morning. That would make more time for peer coaching which is one of the most valuable parts of the event and which doesn't get enough time allocated to it.

Also I really wanted to get in more AQTs Sunday - it's my fault for trying to fit in both Appleseed and a hockey game on Sunday but lunch really took too long. After the thing with the big Red Coats I think most folks were ready to get back to the line, instead of having more lunch break. And then at the end of lunch all the folks with equipment issues added another 10 minute delay which should have been addressed at the start of the break. Then, when we finally got back to the AQT we stopped after every round to look at the targets because two guys out of thirty couldn't wait until the AQT was finished to see where their holes went. Then to top things off my neighbor shot up my second AQT line for me (not too well either) and I had been on track for the Patch  . Then I had to leave before I could get another bite at the apple.

At previous events Sunday afternoon moved along much better.

[Camljr]

While we appreciate constructive criticism....

Sometimes things just work out how they are supposed to!

Remember, That which we obtain too easily, we esteem too lightly.....

(quote from some founder type guy).... I dare you to find out who said it.....

[Freeman]

Bullpuppy,
Thanks for the feedback. Your points are well taken. The reiteration of the IMC is important for the newer shooters, so that is likely to stay, however, we will definitely make some adjustments to the lunch/large redcoats for next years April 19th shoot. Until then, we will back to the normal Sunday schedule and you should see things move more expeditiously next time out.

[Freeman]

Again, thank you all for coming out and making it a great weekend to remember Patriots Day.

[sammy]

 I have to give a huge thanks to all the great instructors that gave their unpaid time away from family to come out and give us a great day. Congrats to all the new riflemen, especially J. He got over the plateau in a huge way. Great job.

I don't have any constructive criticism as I see no way to improve the class. It was an honor to take the orange hat. The instructors skill level is intimating and I will do my best to keep up and give assistance.

Sammy

[CC]

Hey all.  This last shoot was my first as well as my son's. We had a great time and learned a lot. There is nothing I would do to change the program. Thank you to all the instructors for their time and help. My son and I cannot wait to come back and do the shoot again. Thanks again for abgreat weekend

Cole

[Eljay]

[...] Then to top things off my neighbor shot up my second AQT line for me (not too well either) and I had been on track for the Patch  . Then I had to leave before I could get another bite at the apple.

I was surprised to read that, since at Castro Valley they had switched to red white and blue colored backers that made it nearly impossible for that to happen.  It's pretty easy to remember you're shooting at blue or whatever and you usually have some color in your field of view.

Looking at the pictures they've gone to a different kind of backer.  Shame.  The same thing happened to me when I was trying to make Rifleman (before the colored backers were in place) and it was very frustrating and the guy who did it to me was of course mortified.  I did end up getting there later in the day luckily, but still.