Piru CA, Appleseed Dec 13th/14th

[videobrat]

  We wrapped up an excellent weekend, with 3 shooters qualifying with a rifleman score.
  The fewer daylight hours in December makes the pace of the summer 'seeds seem lazy in comparison.

  Heavy overcast Saturday.  In the morning, a guy at the hotel told me the weather report predicted an inch and a half of rain.  We got a light spritz, but the rain never came.  Sunday, the weather was ideal, sunny and cool (no shade required).

  Scout Troop 775 showed up with 24 people.
  With the Piru range layout, and a high scout turnout, the scouts had to take the main range.  On Saturday, Don was our only centerfire shooter, so he took a spot at the end of the line with the scouts.  The remaining shooters ( took the lower (rimfire) range.  "V", and "Camljr" were able to help the first of three riflemen over the hump on Saturday.  Sunday "V" and "Camljr" pulled two more riflemen through, for an amazing 3 out of 8 on their line to accomplish a rifleman score.

  Initially I had some concern about completing the transition stages with the scouts, but the scouts were safe, and competent, and proved themselves worthy of trust so received the full Appleseed program.   Sophia was a first time shooter and quickly digested the 6 steps.  On her first black squares target, all 5 shots were inside the square!  Too bad she didn't return Sunday.

  During lunch Saturday, after the telling of the Second strike, Mike Thompson stopped by and explained the significance of learning to shoot, and the importance of sharing it with kids - as they are our future, and will be tomorrows shooters.

  Before we knew it we'd shot our final red coats, cease fire was called, and the range was cold.

  rock-chucker was presented a well earned red hat, having attained full instructor status.    I hope all present enjoyed the weekend as much as I did. 

[Old Glory!]

Congratulations to all in CA.    Sounds like a busy AS.

Hey fstop, is there any chance you could get some film of an AS PRONTO! to use for April 19, 2009 promotions.  So close to Hollywood, just had to ask.   Send me a PM, please.

Old Glory!

[Camljr]

I must admit, it was another beautiful day at Mt. Appleseed, Piru, CA...Although I had my doubts about the weather holding when it started to sprinkle about 9am Saturday. But it broke, and we were able to concentrate on creating riflemen, which was accomplished.

Mucho rain was forecast for Sunday, but lucky for us, the weathermen were BAD guessers... It was beautiful but chilly for California, It was actually 34 degrees Sunday morning here in Sunny California. Probably warmed up to 60 degrees in the afternoon. The rain never came, and hardly a cloud in the sky to boot. Now I know some of you back east would kill for a 60 degree day right now, and that is "convertible weather" for you, but for us spoiled CA appleseeders, it was just a bit nippy.

On Saturday, Tony made rifleman with a 224, I believe... I could tell he had some experience already, but it took a couple AQT's to correct some minor issues and was able to get his rifleman's cadence down pat. excellent job, Tony.

We had a few others knocking on the door of rifleman Saturday, too. Paul, an experienced shooter, shot a 209!  soooo close, but if it wasn't for his magazine malfunction that left him three shots short in the sitting position, he OBVIOUSLY would have made it. Even so, there was one shot that was on the line that was grouped with another shot that would have counted by .30 cal rule, but Paul would have none of that score!!! He shot rifleman score TWICE on Sunday by lunchtime with a score of 217 & 228. Awesome!  Then he just HAD to go shoot his Garand on the upper Highpower range! Can't say I blame him, they are a blast to shoot!  Oh, by the way, Paul shot those scores using a CMP Mossberg 44US BOLT ACTION, with 7 round mags and peep sights!!
Truly amazing! Excellent job, Paul...

And last, but certainly not least, Mark made rifleman Sunday also with a Score in the 220's. Third appleseed, always been knocking on the door, right there, finally got it. he credited it to dry firing at home and stretching/exercise. This guy is persistent. Total rifleman, for sure. We need you Mark...

It was truly a pleasure to work with each and every one of the shooters on the line this weekend... Gerardo, told me at the end that this was his first time behind a rifle... He did darn good for his first time with 160-170 scores. He came up and thanked me for all the instruction and help, and said he had a great time. That Right there, makes it all worthwhile,  like I may have had an impact by just doing what I love to do. I am sure he will return to Appleseed and will bring a friend...

Congrats to F-stop for making a double jump.., red and green hat in one fell swoop. Way to go Grant. You work hard, are dedicated to the cause, and I look forward to working your shoot again in the future. Congrats also go out to rock-chucker for making red hat. You are also dedicated, and will be an asset to all future Appleseeders...

Well, That is way more than I usually write in an After Action Report post, so I am out of here.   For now....

[Junior Birdman]

  Congrats to the CA team for another great shoot!  Congrats to the Riflemen! And congrats to F for stepping up and taking on the job of Shoot Boss!

  Good things happening all over the country in December? Who'd a thought? December used to be our "down time" and now it's just another month for Appleseeding!!!!  JB

[V]

Here are some photos which Mark, a persistent AS who shot Rifleman on Sunday with a 215 quickly followed with a 222, asked to take "because a whole group of people had helped him along the road".

Well, organizing a group instructor photo meant a slight pause in proceedings so we had to have a whole group photo as well.

Thanks for the excellent photos Mark and congratulations on your Rifleman score. Look forward to seeing you under an orange hat sometime in the future.

Cheers
Phil

[LayloPro]

Well, YEAH!!

There's some familiar faces there....Mark, knew you were gonna get it done! Congratulations!! And to the other shooters who qualified as well, Congratulations!! It sounds easier to do than it is, doesn't it?

Yeah, Cali having TWO concurrent shoots on the same weekend, in the same part of the state. Outstanding!!

F-stop, you guys did good!! You have some great instructors there......

We'll see you guys Saturday......

TTYT
Laylopro


R-C......"rise?"  

[POP]

WOW!
You boys from California should be right proud.  Tony's and Mark's shooting in the 220s is definitely Rifleman quality (none of that 210 stuff).

And, I read with interest about Paul's 217 and 228, both on Sunday morning. AWESOME!  But, when I read he did them with a CMP Mossberg 44US BOLT ACTION, with 7 round mags and peep sights!! ... well come to Texas, Paul, and show us how you did it.  Amazing.  No Excuse for other shooters with bolt action rifles. Absolutely NONE.

Just another day at AS!

POP

[7x57]

Well, I certainly had a good time at my first Appleseed.  I'm sort of backwards: I didn't come to be taught to shoot better, exactly.  I became committed to the Second Amendment some time ago, and when I heard about Appleseed I came to see if Appleseed was an effective way to get more people to exercise the most American of rights.  Certainly the marksmanship training was very helpful to me personally, but it wasn't my biggest reason for attending.  I'd rather have the right to shoot badly than not have the right to shoot well. :-)

That said, it was a wonderful chance to get used to the 1968 Marlin 39A that I bought recently.  Tube-fed lever-action .22's are not really want Appleseed wants to see (and in fact I didn't have the knowledge to understand why until I attended), but I like them.  I am not sure I'd wish such a think on a beginning shooter, however, which will be a consideration if I ever get my wife to attend.  She won't need the extra trouble.  I definitely need to find some ammo it likes better as well.

I'm sure beginners benefit from the excellent training much quicker than us self-taught shooters who have lifelong bad habits.  I think I improved very quickly Saturday morning simply from learning the right biomechanical positions.  I also think looking for the NPOA was a big help, even though I don't think I was very good at finding it.  At the breakneck pace the class had to go, I think that's about all I had the time to apply, as my habits are too ingrained to change very many without going very slowly.  Actually altering my trigger squeeze is going to have to be a solo endeavor, for example, but I think that's fine.  Appleseed was showing me how it should be altered, and that's as much as can be accomplished in a short time.  I think I shot in the 170s that afternoon, and I'd guess that it would have been more like 120 before Appleseed (I don't quite know because I didn't have the ammo my rifle was sighted in for, so I had to sight while I learned).

The second day my best score was 186, which doesn't seem like much improvement, but that's not really true.  I knew quite well that I was really learning what I needed to practice on my own later, and I guess that I will benefit much more from a future Appleseed after having practiced on my own.  In particular I spent most of Sunday becoming aware of some things that I never paid conscious attention to.  I haven't used iron sights since I was a kid, and I discovered that I have some slight vision issue, perhaps astigmatism.  I need to figure out what my best sight picture really is to cope with that, and that will take time.  At the moment I'm not entirely consistent, which means I can't fine-tune the sights.  Solving just that one problem should get me at least into the 190's, I'd guess perhaps even the low 200's.  Probably *not* quite to rifleman, however, I think that will require addressing some other issues like bad trigger control that comes from being a born fusser (when I was a kid I thought "squeeze the trigger" meant something much slower than it should be) and probably a little flinch or pre-flinch blink that probably comes from having jumped from an air rifle (too bad nobody showed me how to use that properly, huh?) to the mauser I've always hunted with.  On the whole I thought I had nothing to complain about, 186 may be better than I deserve considering my bad habits.  Probably I've gotten good at compensating for bad habits instead of eliminating them.

What about my original interest?  I was very happy with the Appleseed program.  The political content was mostly just that implicit in the simple act of shooting (which in California is a political act even if you don't mean it to be), which means I would not have to worry too much who I might bring in the future.  Focusing on Revolutionary War history is, I think, basically genius, because it is not divisive or controversial as most other approaches would be.  I'm personally much more hard-core than that, but I think it is the correct approach for Appleseed's goals.

My only regret is that I forgot to get the signature so I can order my garand from the CMP!  I'm going to have to fix that ASAP, before someone decides to shut the CMP down.

7x57

[7x57]

Here's a couple of other things I should have said.  The first is that the crude quickloaders I soldered together out of brass tubing and copper alligator clips actually worked very well; I'd recommend something similar for anyone who is handy and brings a tube-magazine rifle.  I made my own because the commercial unit Cabella's (I think it was) sells won't fully load my 19-round magazine, and I've always followed Teddy Roosevelt in making up for not shooting well by shooting often. :-)  That said, we never needed more than 13 rounds at a time, so in fact the Cabella's unit would be a better option for most people (assuming it works as advertised).  It still isn't as fast as a magazine, however, because removing and replacing the bayonet in the tube basically triples the load time.  I hadn't thought about that before the shoot.  I could just about keep up if I was working very sharp, but it was much better when the instructors started giving me extra time to load.  Especially after lunch, when I definitely wasn't working very sharp.

Perhaps I should make a personal tradition of bringing inappropriate rifles just to continue to give the instructors fits, but I don't know how I'll top the Marlin.  A .45-70 trapdoor with blackpowder cartridges, maybe.  The instructors should *really* love that, as well as whoever is just downwind of me. :-)

About the instructors; the staff I interacted with were all outstanding.  Given the happy faces of the scouts on the upper range, the same must be true for the other participants.  The etymological meaning of 'Amateur' is 'lover,' i.e. one who does something for love instead of money.  In that sense, it was a great pleasure to work with so many amateur instructors.  It is my observation that volunteer organizations do not succeed unless they meet the personal goals and passions of their volunteers alongside the organization's corporate goals.  Appleseed clearly does that for its volunteers.

I enjoyed teasing Phil about being a Redcoat himself, but the truth is that he is closer in outlook to the Revolutionary generation that rebelled against their own government than any of us who neither made a choice nor paid a price to be American.  I enjoyed his personal remarks all the more for that.  I don't know if anyone else quite realized he is in a better position to understand *why* the founders did what they did and what it meant to them, but I did.  I didn't think to actually say thanks for that, so I am saying thanks here instead.

7x57

[Junior Birdman]

  7, I hope you didn't get the idea that tube loaders are "inappropriate" for an Appleseed. We welcome any and all and have nearly always had at least one on the line at any Appleseed I've been to.
  They are different, and do require different things to operate at an event, but they are completely welcome and do extremely well in the hands of anyone willing to simply try what we teach. 

  About the trap door though..........

[7x57]

  7, I hope you didn't get the idea that tube loaders are "inappropriate" for an Appleseed. We welcome any and all and have nearly always had at least one on the line at any Appleseed I've been to.
  They are different, and do require different things to operate at an event, but they are completely welcome and do extremely well in the hands of anyone willing to simply try what we teach. 

No one there complained about it; "inappropriate" is my judgement.  *I* was having fun driving stick, but suspect that beginning shooters don't need the extra trouble.  There is always a benefit in actually having the recommended equipment so you don't have to work around your kit and can follow directions exactly as given.  The only problem is I never learned to play well with others, and thus am uncomfortable if I'm actually with the program.

The benefit of bringing a levergun is that I started to become very aware of marksmanship issues that I'd never thought about before.  I wouldn't actually know why an autoloader is easier to shoot the course with if I hadn't done without one.  I have an SKS in purgatory getting the evil demons exorcised, i.e. it is still in the mandatory California waiting period.  That might be fun but I am a bit skeptical about whether it will shoot better than minute-of-capitalist-oppressor.  I saw the "SKS appleseed rifle" document, but it's a nice Yugo with matching parts so frankly I am not going to change a thing.

It does have the benefit that I'd be coping with stripper clips vice magazines, which means I'd still be ignoring directions and screwing up the system and thus would still feel comfortable about my place in the world. :-)

  About the trap door though..........

Are you suggesting that there is anything less than perfect about a trapdoor Springfield? :-)

OK, ok, I don't want to be unreasonable.  Break-open double express rifle it is, chambered in some gawdawful cordite round if I can find it.  9.3x74, anyone? :-)  (OK, shooting that would carry it's own richly-deserved punishment.)

7x57

[rock-chucker]

Well, I figured I'd put my two cents worth in regarding our Piru shoot.  Yup, we sure had a good one all around.  I liked having enough people to have both lines running.  The more the merrier, eh?

I enjoyed working with the scouts, too.  I like how Mike showed up and gave a little talk reminding us how these young un's are the future of our nation and of our gun-owner rights.  I always knew that, but it never hurts to hear it again.  I think the scouts had a good time and learned a lot.  If there is a spoiler in it for them, it might be how enthusiastic some of their mother's were on the line and how well they shot!

Linda put all five rounds INTO THE BLACK on her first black square target! 

F-stop ran a first class show, and the rest of the team made me proud, as they always do.

The dirt road I live on was a muddy river in the rain this morning going to work.  We sure did luck out on the weather, on top of everything else.

Thanks to all you shooters for coming out, and for being so much fun to have.  Hope to see you all again real soon.

Keep shooting strait,

R-C

PS:  7x57, bring your trapdoor, and I'll bring my Sharps Borchardt!  Let's have a "dangerous old men" shootoff!

[videobrat]

A full line of shooters (I count 25)

[videobrat]

A happy rifleman

[videobrat]

rock-chucker retires his orange hat

[videobrat]

two for one special on hats for me

[7x57]

BTW, who should I talk to about getting whatever slip of paper the CMP wannts to see?  I think Mike wanted to get his as well, but we talked (i.e. I talked, while Mike waited somewhat patiently) so long afterwards that I didn't remember that I had to actually ask for the paper!

7x57

[7x57]

BTW, who should I talk to about getting whatever slip of paper the CMP wannts to see?

Wow, I think I have four PMs already with three offers to mail the form now from Bob, Cameron, and Cindy.  Thanks so much.  Who can do it with the least amount of bother?

7x57

[LavaTech]

... well come to Texas, Paul, and show us how you did it.

Well 76, you can take the boy out of Texas but you just can't take the Texas out of the boy (or man), so that would actually be "...well return to Texas, Paul, and show us how you did it"

It's truly a shame that my younger brother was allergic to Texas or I'd have completed my Appleseed there instead! Seeing all those Scouts on the firing line gave me the warm-fuzzies all over and it was truly awesome, the entire experience from beginning to end.

If any of you really would like to see how I did it - look into a mirror - it's the people under the hats that are getting all of this done! It is the success of the Appleseed Project and the dedicated men and women that wear those hats that make my personal accomplishment possible at all, let there be absolutely no doubt at all about that!

Thanks to everyone on the line and behind it for making this rewarding opportunity possible at all, let's all keep it up and get the good work done! I'm looking forward to the day that the Garandkids are due to go prone, I'll be able then to babysit them on weekends with the wife at Appleseeds, and I'll need an Orange Hat to keep the sun out of my eyes.

Until that time arrives I'll just beat the RWVA drum and get as many as possible to "toe the line" for our common cause, and step up to be counted among a Nation of Riflemen.

Sure feels good not having to cook anymore.