SACRAMENTO MAY 14-15, 2016

[NorCal22Gal]

What an absolutely wonderful weekend!

The weather was warm and breezy.

We started out Saturday with 16 students all eager to learn.  Several were new to shooting or new to rifles and soaked up the information we gave out like sponges.

To me, seeing folks who have never shot before or haven't shot rifles before come out and learn to shoot the way we teach, and putting it to use is a wonderful sight.

The fire hose of knowledge turned on right after the safety briefing and it stayed on all day.

We stopped for lunch and some history, all well done.  Then back to the line for more.

Colin cleared the evening Red Coat!  Way to go Colin!!

I had the honor of promoting Hans to Shoot Boss.  He's done a wonderful job of working with the Castro Valley shoots and the Sacramento shoots and this promotion was well deserved.

Sunday brought back 12 people, ready and willing to go through it again and refine what they learned on Saturday.

There was a lot of improvement showing as folks got started in the review.  I noticed positions improved, and that makes a big difference. 

No rifleman scores posted, but Steve posted a 207 (and we looked hard for 3 more points!)!  Colin cleared the afternoon Red Coat again!

We also retired Andy's orange hat in proper style...the students shot it full of holes!!  Matt added a few holes and shot the brim off of it! 

Andy has been promoted to Red Hat!  Congrats Andy!!

Matt is now an IIT3 ready to work his way up!

Congrats to all!

Thank you very much to all the students who came out and made this a wonderful weekend.  Hope to see you at future events!

Thank you very much also to the instructors who came out and helped.  Without your help, I couldn't do this.  You were awesome as always!

Here is a list of your instructors from the weekend:

Laurie         NorCal22Gal   Shoot Boss
Hans         Libertarian777 promoted to Shoot Boss
Joe         eaglescouter
Vinnie         Vinnie
Linda         Ducky
Matt         Just.A.Guy
Andy         700x32
Bob         BobS

[marksmandowntown]

Mike here. I wanted to say thank you to everyone for a very good course in shooting. I was surprised how much I enjoyed the stories as well. I don't do very well in the heat, so I won't be going to the next shoot, but once its cools off a bit I will be back, hopefully with some friends. Thanks Hans for lending me a sling, twice. Thanks Joe for telling me exactly how to fix my 10/22s stuck bolt release (the info was right where you said it would be on rimfirecentral). Thanks to Vinny for bringing a musket for us to see. Thanks to Ducky for helping me with my booger flicking trigger pull.


If anybody is interested in buying an M1 Garand from the Civilian Marksmanship Program, you can contact me with any questions or if you just want to know what the deal is. They sell Garands for about 60% of their retail value.

[700x32]

Thank you all for having me out this weekend! I had a great time, and I plan to be back... and maybe out to other shoots even farther from home! (This was my first time at an Appleseed other than Chabot.)

The students were fantastic- several of them were first time rifle shooters, and they are to be commended for hitting the ground running by coming to Appleseed! I enjoyed the smaller group size, it was a nice change from the 30-40+ we usually get at Chabot, and it made it easier to connect with individual students.

I had fun meeting Ducky and Vinnie and watching them teach. It was cool to see their different instructional styles. Excellent of course, as I've come to expect of every Instructor.
Joe had lots of fantastically detailed feedback on my instruction, which I'll do my best to incorporate into future events.
Laurie was a great instructor and leader for all parties involved.
And Hans, who I've worked with at Chabot many times before, finally got his much deserved Shoot Boss hat!

Thank you Laurie for the promotion to Instructor! I have a long way to go before I'm anywhere near as good as the other red hats, but I plan to perform my role as well as I can.

Here's a link to my photos:
https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B5vwJAARuB9fZ3lCeEs1LTVSUU0&usp=sharing

[Lab-Kid]

I want to thank all the AS volunteers for them giving up their weekend to come out and put on this wonderful event!  I'm sorry I didn't get to thank you all in person before I left.  I know that several of you traveled a long way to put on this event and it was obvious that there was a great deal of effort expended before and after the event too.  THANK YOU!

Ironically, my home club hosted an AS event this weekend too, but it was worth flying halfway across the country to attend this event with family.  It gave me an opportunity to leave that old mis-feeding Winchester Model 72 behind for Reed.  It seemed appropriate since this was his first time shooting a rifle and that rifle was his Grandfather's first gun.  Now it is his first gun.  I hope he puts it to good use.  Thanks again for getting him started with strong fundamentals!

Steve

[Libertarian777]

Thanks to all the dedicated shooters who showed up with teachable attitudes to pursue rifle marksmanship, and to all the instructors who together with the shooters made this an informative and fun weekend, once again! Here's a pretty picture of what the redcoats showed for the shooters effective range. We started Saturday morning with about 1/3 of the shooters effective only at 100 yards, and another 1/6 effective at 200 yards. By Saturday evening we had a new set of 1/3 that had become effective at 100 yards, and the original 1/3 had moved up to the 200-300 yard range. Sunday showed similar results, although we had fewer people, and the heat took it's toll.

It generally takes shooters multiple Appleseeds to reach rifleman. We had lots of new shooters, and we hope to see you on the line again! A rifleman persists.

[shortwing]

I just want to give a heartfelt thanks to all the instructors who participated in the event last weekend.  I've had a fair amount of experience as a professional instructor, and I was amazed at the level of knowledge, enthusiasm, attention to detail, and adherence to safety practices.  The individual instruction was fantastic.  Your course syllabus is excellent.  To transform a student who has never shot a rifle before into someone able to achieve decent scores is an exceptional feat, especially given the myriad of potential individual issues. 

I really enjoyed the history stories and perspective that I never have been exposed to during my formal education.

I'll certainly be back.  I will spread the word to my friends about the course. 

Thanks again, and I can't imagine spending a weekend with a better group of people.

Colin

[polygunner]

Congratulations on the green hat Hans!
I'm sorry I missed the changing of the hats.

You will make a great shoot boss!

PG

[NorCal22Gal]

Thank you all for you wonderful comments.  I hope to see you out again. 

Steve, I'm sure Reed will make good use of that rifle, and I hope you come back again to shoot with your family.

Colin, look forward to seeing you out there again.  This time I'm sure you'll be getting that rifleman patch.

Mike, glad to know that we'll be seeing you when the weather cools off. 

Polygunner...we missed you out there too.

Andy,  congrats...keep learning..


Laurie