AAR - Payson, AZ, 18-19 Apr 09

[gasmitty]

The second Appleseed Event at the Jim Jones range kicked off Saturday morning with about 45 participants by my count.  We had no kids, but three husband-wife teams and overall maybe 10% of the group were women.  The weather was simply gorgeous, with typically dry AZ air and a temperature in the upper 60's, appropriate for the 5000-foot altitude, and a moderate breeze varying from uprange (northerly) to crossing (westerly). Clearly, more than half the groups were far from new shooters, with some obviously inveterate shooters, based on the number of folks with well-worn shooting jackets and shootin' irons.  Demographically speaking, our group was over-represented by shooters in the 50-plus age group.  Take note, this means we need to introduce more young folks to our sport.  For what it's worth, there was no difference in the level of motivation exhibited by the under- or over-50 age groups!

For shooting irons, my non-scientific observation showed about a 50-50 split between rimfire and centerfire shooters.  The ubiquitous Ruger 10/22 was the popular rimfire platform, and among the CF crowd there appeared to be an even split between the Garand/M14 (including SA M1A) and AR15 types.  I saw one AK47 type among the mix.  Possibly inspired by the current ammo pricing and shortage, a considerable number of shooters alternated weapons over the 2-day shoot.  We had one brave soul start the Saturday program with a Winchester M70, and in spite of a rite-of-passage scope cut (yes, it drew blood, and plenty of it) he soldiered on, but he showed up Sunday with an M-1 carbine which a number of us secretly admired.  Remarkably, and in sharp contrast to last September's Appleseed in Payson, most shooters showed up with iron sights rather than scopes.

With a large crowd on hand, progress was a bit slow on Day One, and we shot but one AQT which took place relatively early in the program.  But our cadre of instructors kept us on task with shooting the squares and positively emphasizing both the NPOA and making adjustments from each shooting position.  We had a number of 300- and 400-yard-capable shooters on Day One, with 2 or 3 taking the Morgan's Rifleman credit for the 250-yard head shot.  A high point - and incredibly meaningful for this American - was the 13 shots fired at 2 pm, with a single shot loosed on the "Fire!" command immediately following the reading of the names of each of 13 patriots who died on April 19, 1775.  This act was performed simultaneously at fifty Appleseed events across the United States, with over 1850 registered participants.  If that isn't moving and meaningful, I daresay I don't know what would be.  TD1 ended around 5 pm.

Day Two brought us another bright, sunny day, but... with a stiffer breeze, and about a 25% attrition rate among attendees.  We lost some competent shooters, but the remaining group was even more determined to shoot Rifleman.  "Riflemen are... PERSISTENT" became the watchword of the day.  With appropriate prompting, our group energetically recited both the Safety Rules as well as the Six Steps of shooting, showing good retention from TD1.  We moved quickly into a Redcoat target, with predictably improved performance over Saturday.  From there we checked zeroes and revisited the Inches-Minutes-Clicks from Saturday.  A personal observation was that my own 10/22 showed a 1/2-inch up and 1/4-inch over shift in POI resulting from changing ammo from Federal American Eagle 38 gr HP to Winchester 40 gr High Velocity solids... point being, know your gun!

TD2 became an exercise of fine-tuning the skills we learned on TD1, and there were ample opportunities to achieve Rifleman.  That distinction was earned first by Steve of Gilbert, AZ, who had shown early promise with tight groups shot with a basic scoped (but otherwise stock) 10/22, achieving a 212 in the first AQT of the day.  Confounding our efforts was a steadily increasing crosswind, and both targets and backers were doing their best kite imitations, aided by the occasional errant shots cutting support wires. 

Throughout both days, the attendees were treated to historical snippets from April 19th, 1775, regarding the "shot heard 'round the world" and the events immediately preceding and following it.  Our instructors clearly conveyed the significance of those memorable events.  Throughout both training days, we were reminded of the movements of the British regulars and the colonial militiamen who successfully harassed them.  At times the history served as needed injections of adrenaline as fatigue set in.  Here we were, on a bright, sunny, dry 2009 Arizona day, struggling with our personal shortcomings with shooting, but hearing about the colonial militia keeping pace with the redcoats and putting their lives on the line just made our struggles pale in comparison.

Ultimately, we gained two more Riflemen, Kate of Scottsdale and Gary of Gilbert, whose AQT scores steadily improved as the day wore on.  But no one was left out... the thirty cal shooters noted consistent gains in their scores, as well. 

Hats off to Kelly, Steve, Ron and Pat, our dedicated and friendly instructor corps... they kept us on task and remained unwavering in their encouragement for all shooters over two days.  Hope to see you all at future Appleseeds!

Smitty

[AZRedhawk44]

Smitty, thanks for chiming in and joining us here on the forum!

To all AZ shooters at Payson, it was an honor to spend the weekend with you and help you with your rifle skills as we celebrated 234 years of the tradition of the American Rifleman.

[1911Ron]

Thank you, smitty for the nice write up.  It was my pleasure to be there, on the historic day.  1911Ron

[flyfisher4x4]

Thanks to all who put on the event, it was very well run and with near military precision.  It was a great day to remember U.S. history, made even more poignant by the fact that we were participating on April 18th and 19th.

The first day started out with the shooters setting up on the line sans rifles.


After a brief introductory speech about safety and the background of appleseed we sent a few rounds down range and let the targets talk to us.  We found out we were all jerks.


Luckily, we had Keanu Reaves as an instructor and he used the power of the Matrix to help us out.


Here, Ron is telling one of Payson's finest that even he had to compete in order to get a Rifleman's patch.


In this picture , Grommet is using his Jedi mind powers on Kate to convince her to become an instructor (It worked).


And finally, our brave instructors, willing to put up with us all.


To view more pictures, click here.  This is best viewed with Microsoft Internet Explorer, otherwise you won't see the thumbnails and you'll have to click through each picture.

High resolution versions available upon request.  email me at stuff250@gmail.com

[1911Ron]

Beautiful range no doubt, it was rough let me tell you   1911Ron