Piru, CA 11-12-16

[whangdoodle]

Day 1
   I arrived at the Piru Appleseed range at 7:30 and to my surprise, found someone waiting for me to open the gate. It was a sign of how the weekend would go. I greeted our early bird arrival, Erwin. He immediately asked if I needed help setting up and I gladly put him to work. By 8am, every apple seeder that was joining us had arrived and I put them all to work. My worries about running the shoot by myself evaporated.
   We had two returning apple seeders. Mark, a returning rifleman, and Dan who had attended two previous events. We also had two first timers, Ron and Kurt. Our morning started like all the other Apple seeds across our great nation and we quickly got through the instruction. It seemed like everything was going smoothly. Suspiciously smoothly. By the time we finished our ball and dummy drills, I looked at my watch and it was exactly 12pm. We were right on schedule. That never happens. Wait, did I miss something? I frantically went over my course of fire once, twice. I couldn't find anything missing. Whatever, I was hungry.
      Lunchtime!
   I provided the lunchtime entertainment while our shooters munched. We relaxed and enjoyed the good weather. Fall in the Southern California ain't half bad.
Instruction resumed with full bellies and I had difficulty demoing the seated position without loosening my belt. Once we were done with instruction, we put up an AQT.
     Erwin had brought his M1a and was learning to tame the 30 caliber beast. His groups shrunk dramatically as the day wore on and I believe he more than accomplished his goal of "just" getting his rifle zeroed.  Kurt was a few points from sharpshooter and Ron was just shy of qualifying. Our returning rifleman, Mark, was deep into sharpshooter territory and broke 201 on his 2nd AQT. When the dust cleared we had a new California Rifleman. Dan had scored a 213!

Day 2
     Everyone had gathered early again. This time I had two cars waiting for me to open the gate. I said 8:30, guys... This group made me feel like a slacker. They were ready to go! Dan had switched to center fire matching well with his shooting neighbor, Mark, who had been shooting his classic A1 all weekend. Ron, braving the harsh Piru roads in his car "not fit for such roads", had come back determined to zero his unused red dot and continue his improvement. Kurt made some adjustments to his rifle with lessons learned on Saturday to help with eye relief on his newly mounted scope. Our normal COF for day 2 was scrapped for this scrappy group of shooters. With sight and rifle changes galore, we focused on getting rifles dialed in along with the instructional review. Ron found out the hard way that R-> doesn't always mean R-> and some things move the opposite way that you'd think. The lesson of knowing your equipment will not be forgotten by this group. By lunchtime, however, everyone was shooting in the black.
     We had a surprise guest during our first AQT of the day. Instructor Boris and his friend Ivan had come to shoot. Boris and Ivan scrapped their plans and joined us on the line and we ground out  AQTs.
     Mark had originally earned his patch with a rim fire and was determined to shoot a score with his A1. On AQT #3, he showed what a rifleman can do and scored a 230!!  That 208 on the previous AQT must have gotten under his skin.
     Breaks were judiciously taken and ammo was running low. By now, everyone had qualified marksman and Ron was knocking on the door to sharpshooter. Ivan showed what he could do on AQT #5 and scored 211! We had another rifleman on the line! 
     Kurt was on the cusp of 200 all day. His sling was holding him back, though. After the last AQT, I had him try a standard GI sling and you could actually see the light bulb turn on in his head. But there is merit to running the equipment you'd have to use in the field. One more seed and I have no doubt he'd earn his patch.
     On the final AQT of the day, Ron steeled himself and put up a 171! While scores dropped across the line as eyes, muscles, and brains were getting tired and dehydrated, Ron continued to improve till the very end. Kudos. By the end of the day, everyone in the group had shot at least sharpshooter or better.
     Congratulations to all the rifleman and sharpshooters. You're improvement throughout the weekend was well earned. It was a pleasure to join you this weekend and I hope you had as much fun as I did.
     All three riflemen took home an orange hats today. I hope it doesn't stay on top of your safe too long, gentlemen.

and Bob, if you're reading this, I took your cart out for a joy ride again.






It's probably out of juice.








you should charge it.







No regrats.


   

[walt33]

Hi,  Thanks for putting on a great weekend by yourself.   My only complaint is I waited until November to come back to avoid the heat and it was still almost 90 degrees.  I'm looking forward to coming back and trying out my M1 and also helping out.   

Mark