Rochester, MN AAR - Apr 20-21, 2024

[ProudPapa14]

Five brave Patriots persevered the wind and cold on Saturday and enjoyed a beautiful day on Sunday to celebrate our Patriot's Day Weekend at Southern Minnesota Sportsman's Club in Rochester MN.  These patriots arrived eager to learn and proved capable students. 

The first hits count showed we had some work to do, nobody was effective beyond 200 yards.  So into the instruction we went.  By Saturday evening we had completed two AQTs and minted one new rifleman and one distinguished rifleman shooting a centerfire with iron sights.  On top of this, we had four out of five effective at 400 yards and two clears of the Saturday evening hits count target.  SB had to check the temperature as the day started at below freezing, but alas the riflemen scores weren't shot until our Minnesota weather had hit 39-40 degrees - way too nice here to award the icicle patch.

Sunday morning dawned bright and sunny compared to our Saturday snow flurries and frigid winds.  Our five patriots returned excited for another day and soon showed they retained the information taught - Sunday morning's hits count target showed they were still effective - with 3 effective at 400, 1 at 300, and 1 at 200 with one clearing the hits count again - (with a very pretty target).  Our patriots would spend the day working on one area and then another as they strove to earn their rifleman patches.  While we got closer, none of the remaining three were able to earn the coveted score.  Although based on their attitudes I'm sure one or more of them will persist and become a rifleman at their next event.

Thank you to the SMSC range for the use of the club.  It is greatly appreciated.

To our patriots that came out, thank you. 

Cam - shot distinguished with iron sights on a centerfire on Saturday's first AQT, then followed up Sunday with a scoped maximum score (at least reported to the SB) of 243.
Conner - well done young man - Conner's first AQT just missed the mark, but every remaining one for the weekend was a rifleman's score.  With the highest score being a 225.
Steve - both of you did awesome - toping out at 169 and 186 - with things you know that need to be worked on. 
Greg - well done with your 199 high - you're right there - a little practice and a fresh day should see you above the 210 mark.

Finally - TheDestoyer - thank you for all that you do to keep the SB on track and hanging out with me.  Well done son.

Pictures will be coming later (shooting for the last week of April to post them).

[Theokestral]

Hi neighbors! Well done on a successful weekend of marksmanship growth! Those are some very respectable AQT scores.

Across the Mississippi River from you, we had wind over 20 mph that gave us temps below freezing on Saturday. Sorry that we couldn't lend you some. Hah!

Looking forward to seeing y'all in the future.

[ProudPapa14]

Riflemen:



Saturday Group Photo:


Random Images: