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AAR: Castro Valley, CA June 18-19, 2016

Started by Libertarian777, June 20, 2016, 04:01:07 PM

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Libertarian777

We had a beautiful weekend at the Chabot Gun club. We are enjoying this treasure of the San Francisco Bay Area while we still have it now that the board has decided to shut it down. It was already sunny and warm when 44 Americans came together Saturday morning to learn rifle marksmanship, our American heritage and where it came from, and the role of rifle marksmanship in that heritage.

We had all sorts of different skill levels, and were particularly pleased to have so many new shooters. They soaked up the steady stream of instruction like sponges, and other more experienced shooters worked all weekend on refinements and finer points. We had all the standard instruction, as well as quite a few drills (Ball & Dummy+, seated and prone single shot speed transition drills, cadence & trigger reset drills), a couple rounds of standing instruction, and 8-9 AQT's.

The entertainment portion of our program started in the year 1100 in Britain (thanks Griff!), but moved quickly up to 1632 (thanks Joe!) and then on to the events of April 19th 1775. Do any of you remember the answers to the pop quiz questions? Sunday gave us stories of Dangerous Old Men and Determined Dangerous Dames, showing that if liberty is in the hearts and minds of anyone, they too can make a difference.

I've attached a chart that shows how everyone did on the red coats from Saturday morning till Sunday afternoon. As a group, the curve moved steadily and dramatically out towards longer ranges. Remember, this chart shows your effective range - to be effective at 300, you also had to be effective at the shorter distances but are not counted there.

We have a couple of new Riflemen! Drake shot a 212 on the only AQT on Saturday! Congratulations Drake! Drake was back on Sunday to confirm his score with a solid 227, and an even better 233 for high score for the weekend among the students! But on Sunday Patrick had the skill, and good fortune to shoot exactly a 210 for his first ever Rifleman score. It was a nice hot day as he was christened in the waters of Boston Bay, or whatever you want to call the water from the bottle we dumped on his head, to big smiles everywhere. If only he had reversed the order and shot his solid 223 first, he would have missed that pleasure. Congratulations Patrick! These men know very well what they are about. But I can't stop without mentioned that Ron, everyone's favorite instructor, shot a personal best of 243!

It was Father's day weekend, and we had 5 youth come out with their dads. Anastasia, Penny, Cuauhtemoc, Pascal, and Jesse - You are our posterity! Luther Blanchard would be proud. We had a number of other young adults come out with their dads too, and it made for a very nice weekend.

We would love to get your feedback on the program - what you liked and what you didn't like. Were the speed transition drills too much, or did they get your mind and skills right about how to do those stages? Did you finally stop bouncing off the trigger after the cadence/trigger drill? Take a look at the best handout we give you (Shot Group Analysis) and let your best friend (your targets) tell you what you still need to work on. Practice at home, then come back out to the next Appleseed in August, or visit Sacramento or Hat Creek if you can't wait that long.

And tell a friend and bring them with you next time, and spread the word on Groupon, Yelp, Reddit, Calguns and anywhere else you can think of.

Finally I have thank our dedicated, all volunteer instructor crew for loving this as much as we all do. If you want to contact any of us, you can using our forum handles given below:

Hans (Libertarian777, Shoot Boss)
Ron (The Horse, Instructor)
Lauri (Rifles-n-reeds, IIT)
Marta (22calibear, IIT)
Bob (BobS, IIT)
Keith (chewcoco, IIT)
Mike (polygunner, IIT - a gracious stealth instructor who came to shoot but helped anyhow)

Packrat

Thanks to all the red and orange hats for another great Appleseed at Chabot.  You kept us safe, trained us well, and taught us some inspirational (and relevant) history.  I'll admit that my first reaction to the rapid fire AQT was not positive, but after I shot my second highest score of the weekend on the first one I changed my mind.  It makes the regular AQT seem a bit easier and keeps on your toes with all the transitions, mag changes, and counting shots on target without any commands or reminders.  The one shot transition drills were also helpful in getting into position faster.  One modification that might be interesting would be to run them all for 20 seconds with a count over the PA.  That way everyone gets an idea how long they are spending doing each action (drop to position, load, obtain NPOA, make first shot) and not get cut short at 8 or 12 seconds.  This is definitely a useful drill.

Special thanks to Hans for keeping everything moving along and providing some more detailed position information.  Even with the extra drills we shot a lot of AQTs on Sunday thanks to the pace.  A big thanks also to Ron, Marta, Keith, and Lauri for helping me work out a couple of problems I had.  I'm looking forward to the next one!  Oh yeah, congrats to the new riflemen!

Packrat (Doug)

Libertarian777

Photos.

Libertarian777

More Photos.

Dipstick

I want to thank everyone involved in providing the instruction I received over the weekend.  I am amazed at how little I knew, and how much more confident I felt when I was done.  While I didn't come close to qualifying as a rifleman, I feel I have the tools to be ready  for the next event at Chabot in August. (Speaking of Chabot, does anyone know of any plans to hold future Appleseeds at another East Bay range? I expect Chabot will be closed down at the end of the year.)

The two days passed very quickly, with the instructors keeping things moving at a quick pace.  I found myself falling behind, barely managing to load my mags before the prep period ended.  I never did have time to become familiar with my NPOA, but that was mostly due to my having a new rifle that I had yet to become completely familiar with.  I also had some serious problems with my scope as I had not realized the need to modify the stock to raise my cheek weld high enough to compensate for the extra elevation of the rings.  The new comb is due in Thursday from Ruger. 

Rapid fire AQT was a blast! I thoroughly enjoyed the lunch time entertainment, and I really appreciated the coffee first thing.  All in all I had a great time and look forward to August (already have registered) and earning that Rifleman patch.

Thanks to everyone who spent their weekend with me at the range, both instructors and students.  Everyone was so mellow, it really was the best weekend of my year (so far).

Dipstick
   

Libertarian777

Dipstick - We'll look forward to seeing you in August! Thanks for coming out, and bring some friends!

We are actively looking for a new or additional venue for the Bay Area, but the fantastic Chabot range will be hard to replace. It's still hard to fathom how the board of the East Bay Regional Parks District could have made that choice.

We'll see you in August to work on NPOA and the 6 steps and everything else. You can practice most of that in your living room with dry fire.