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Riley, IN July 25-26 AAR

Started by techres, July 28, 2009, 08:58:05 AM

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techres

AAR: Riley Appleseed

Friday night:

I got to the range early on Friday to open the gate and spend some personal time "in the Rifleman's Bubble" getting my loaner rifles zero'ed and get my mind off of the mundane work week and into the serious business of Appleseed.



DaveD soon joined me and we shot until other instructors began to show up, including Ben1775 who was our leader for the weekend.  As many of you know, Appleseed is 100% volunteer and we come from far and near to help spread our vision of the past and future.  Ben1775 was asked to come and supervise me to see if I was ready to run a shoot on my own as a "green hat" Shoot Boss:




To give you an idea of dedication, Ben1775 drove from NW Missouri in a car with a broken head gasket.  Every 50 miles he had to stop and do maintenance to keep going.  In all he drove 9 hours to get to Riley and lend his hand.  Other instructors came from as far as NW Indiana and Evansville.

Soon we were setup and comfortable:




That night we dragged downed trees out of the woods and had a campfire going into the late hours of the night.  Off to bed we went until a nasty thunderstorm came through and played boxer with the tents.  At 2am I had to leave my tent due to the 1" swimming pool that ensued when my tent failed.  Nothing like sprinting in the dark with a sleeping bag over the shoulder and a pillow in the hand.  Luckily I got some sleep before it was time to get up and setup the line for our 20+ shooters.

Saturday

After a quick breakfast our non-camping shooters arrived, signed in, got their gear to the line and we began with the safety briefing and opening history of Captain Parker and the handful of men and sons of Lexington faced an army with stern bravery.  The following instruction was a bit extended beyond the usual as the skies had opened and a deluge hit the porch roofing so hard that it was hard to hear and we were forced inside the clubhouse.

As soon as the first history ended, the rain conveniently stopped and we were down on the line with shooters shooting from pools and mud, then running down range to check targets.  Some were lucky enough to start on the side of the field with early day sunlight:




Sitting, standing, kneeling and prone along with hasty and loop sling were all taught and practiced with:




And of course there was lunch break, during which Mudcat went over the story of the brave men and women of Concord:




After lunch we went over all the basics from the 6 steps to NPOA.  By the end of the day we were shooting & scoring AQT targets:




And we quickly had our first rifleman:




Every weekend is unique and memorable in some way.  This one was the "Weekend of Equipment Failure" and it made for slow going.  Before we knew it, the day had run from us and we were wilting.  As soon as we were done with our last target we saw the amazing improvement in every one of our shooters.  And to finish the story, we heard the crucial tales of Meriam's corner and the real beginning of the war.

Although we had worked all day on hydration, we had pushed everyone hard with 10 hours of shooting and nearly 200 carefully aimed shots per shooter.  Personally, I had a bit of heat exhaustion and crawled off to my tent to fall asleep in my boots before dinner, only to wake up at 2am in order to take off my boots.


Sunday

Sunday came and brought us one new shooter, a young man of 17 who had been practicing for weeks before attending the shoot.  After a brief safety briefing we moved back down to the target  line and got back to work:








We even worked on alternate positions for those whose yoga give them unspeakable limberness (my ankle still winces looking at this pic):




By lunchtime, we had another two other riflemen:






Soon it was time to eat and get back to more history, this time of the dangrous old men who were the most lethal elements of the first day of the revolution:




And the back to the grind of AQT's:








To break things up a bit, we teamed up our shooters and played a game called "Parker's Revenge" which remembers the fight on Battle Road when Captain Parker and the survivors of Lexington got their revenge on the Red Coats.  Shooting in "pairings" similar to the father and son pairs that fought that day, the teams worked hard to stop the column and take their toll.  And despite the fact that one team was made up of two riflemen, the winners were our actual Father & son team!  It was my great pleasure to hand this 11 year old boy a challenge coin and remark on how well he and his dad shot, especially since the boy had only observed the day before due to nausea.  Apparently, he had paid attention and also understood the meaning of persistance:






As always, the day ran away from us and soon it was time to run a final AQT and wrap things up.  Happily, Hawkhavn was down to join us having finished cycling his Instructor's In Training through our line in order to get them practice at training.

A final AQT followed with several shooters "knocking at the door" of a Rifleman score.  But we were all tired and it was time to pack up and go.

I want to personally thank all the shooters for coming, if they nothing more their act of coming to learn their heritage and get training proves them patriots.  But they did far more than that.  Many came with no experience at all, and others with no training and all walked away with the fundamentals and the ability to shoot safely and accurately.  With practice, each of them could make Rifleman/Riflewoman.

But moreso, these guys and gals sucked it up and worked hard without complaint.  Even as early as Saturday morning I was impressed when I watched them lay in mud, and some in puddles, to shoot and not a one complained!  We had some shooters who had very frustrating Saturdays and they toughed it through to get to a very good place by the end of the day.  One young lady is a great example of someone that had to search through many alternate positions before finding the right solution for her and she did so without whining or storming off, all while suffering greatly from heat, brass burns, and a nasty bug bite that knocked her off her feet for a half hour.

Our students, as always, prove that the modern American can be far more than the couch potato image the media wants us to believe.  And I was, as always, humbled to watch each one fight through their own learning curve and hurdles.  Our thanks goes out to each, and I fully expect each to practice their NPOA and return to the next Appleseed ready to go to the next level.

Thanks again to everyone, it was an honor, and I expect to see you again soon.

techres
Appleseed: Bringing the Past into the Present to save our Future.

colycat

Techres,

WOW, what a report :~ :~ :~ :~  Did you leave anything for anyone else?  Wish I could do that.  You will be a great Greenie,  you brought some really good insight to the R. IBC last October in KY.  It is some treat for me to see all of you stay with the program.  Great AS, BTW.

Colycat
"These are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives everything its value."   T Paine

100

ben1775

I agree with Coly that's some report!  :D And good pictures too! Especially the ones of me.  8)  ::) I for one had a great time and will now start planning when I can come back (November?). Techres is spot on this was an excellent group of shooters and I thank you all for coming out.

I look forward to seeing you all again soon.

Ben

Hooters Billy

Nice report. So hard to add anything other then I had a lot of fun, and chiggers suck! I just had to go in the woods to "look at a pretty flower". Little buggers chewed me up good, but I am good to go now.

HB
"There is no greater evil then willful ignorance," ~ Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Advice on life from Fred himself to me on 6-21-09:
"If you hope to be a good looking corps, you better hurry up and die soon!"

CQ CQ CQ de KC9MTP

mtforge

I had a great time. I brought my son-in-law with me and was very happy with the help he got and the progress he made. It was also interesting to see the instructor training.