North Berwick, Maine - Sept. 10/11, 2016

[The Old Guide]

Saturdy was hot and humid. We had 12 shooters on the line with a mix of experienced and novice shooters. The Redcoat targets showed the direction we needed to go. One target had no hits. (new scope). In order to take advantage of the weather we had Strike One done by North Country Lady and then the squares target. Groups tightened under the careful instruction and coaching by Devil_Dog95 and MattNH. The club provided lunch and right after lunch the AQT scores rose.

At her first Appleseed a while back, Maryanne asked how she could become an instructor in this great program. After lunch she fired a 212 at her second Appleseed and took an Orange Hat. She wants to tell the story. She is on the boards as Hawk Lady. Then Paul fired an honest 211 followed by a 224. Mike, the club president, fired a 222 and several others up into the 240s. Two shooters cleaned the Redcoat Saturday afternoon.

We got all three strikes done and adjourned until Sunday with an ominous weather forecast. The Sunday morning Redcoats were much improved. Spencer had a Mossberg Appleseed LTR, the first one I had seen. He was knocking on the door and finally fired a 217 for his Rifleman patch. The young shooters and brand new novices all improved. They will be back. Ryan fired a Rifleman score and his wife, Hawk Lady worked the line with her new Orange Hat.

We had a severe thunderstorm watch with 35 to 50 MPH winds forecast. We had a target line of steel posts and steel wires so at the first roll of thunder we went to the clubhouse where North Country Lady t0ld of The Women of 1775 and I went over more details of NPOA and the Six Steps. We got inside one minute before the skies opened up. What a downpour and southern Maine needed rain. It was over right after lunch, just 45 minutes of heavy rain and it was back out to the range which was now a lake on the left side. We fired right up to 5 PM and a couple of stage by stage AQTs afterward just in case.

All the shooters will be back, some in other states. Some will be at Monmouth in three weeks where Devil_Dog95 is club president. Appleseeders are leaders. Everybody is looking forward to earning a Winterseed patch in February.  Maine is on the move.

[The Old Guide]

I forgot to mention the turtles. There was a hatch of snapping turtles on the range during the shoot. The kids picked them up and walked them over to the woods. I cautioned them not to pet the turtles because even when they are that tiny they will not let go when they bite. We don't claim this as an Appleseed first because a turtle ambled across the range at Bennington about six years ago.

Two weeks to Monmouth and we have only two shooters signed up.