Azusa CA, 12 Nov 2016

[Rocket Man]

Hard to believe it's here already, but here it is, the last shoot of the year at Burro Canyon.  Shoot #9.  This was a one-day class, where we do what we can to distill rifle marksmanship and appreciation of our heritage into a single day for patriots on the go.  And the adventure was made a little more challenging this time, since we had to drive up the back mountain roads, owing to the Canyon City Marathon!  But even though some of us arrived carsick, we still had seven eager students show up, ready to rock.   

This was an all-rimfire, mostly optics line, but as always we had lots of little surprises.     We also stress in class that wherever possible, shoot with a friend -- and this time everybody showed up with either friends or family, and that showed in our progress:

• Alex, fighting switch-dominance by shooting left handed, nonetheless putting down nice groups even in a modified kneeling position
• Lisa, feeling a little unsteady, but the target doesn't lie -- started at 5 MOA and shrank to 3 MOA
• Esther, fighting gremlins including an unusual 1 click = 1 MOA scope, but found her groove in a textbook-perfect seated position
• Grace, whose scope conked out and had trouble seeing the target with irons (don't we all...) but grouping beautifully on the larger targets
• Tony, locked in and focused once we worked out a sling that fit him properly
• Brett, showing excellent consistency and tenacity, only too excited!
• And Jack, fighting the stock Marlin minute-of-bison sights, but shooting well once we worked out a "custom" sight picture

It never fails to impress me just how fast a group goes from hesitant and a little uncomfortable to hungry, target-destroying sharpshooters, and this one was no exception.  This was no doubt helped by our little visit from the heroes of April 19th, talked through over lunch.  Our group knew more of the story than most, but there's always more there to be discovered.  By talking about it, and by living a piece of it, with our own muskets in hand, I think we grow a little closer to knowing folks like Joseph Warren, Sam Prescott, and Paul Revere for the fascinating and honorable folks they were.

Only time for one AQT in this one day class, but it turned out quite nice.  Lisa and Esther vied for top honors in the upper 180's, Tony close behind, and I didn't get to score Brett's target but it looked awfully promising.     There's only so much you can do in one day, but we did a lot, and the road of the Rifleman now lays open.

Thank you so much for putting the exclamation point on 2016!  We'll be back next year, with more challenges like the Rimfire KD class, and I still have a few Rifleman patches left.  It's up to y'all to step up and take them, and I know you can.

So... how was your weekend?