Saturday morning in Sunny So. California with a temperature in the high 60s. Where else can you get such a gorgeous day at the end of December? Started with introductions and on to a little bit about Project Appleseed and how it relates to modern day. More to follow!
We proceeded with the safety, malfunctions, safe rifle, and line commands, off to the cars for the rifles. Glen Helen is not a large range for Appleseed so lucky thirteen on the line looked nice. I always wonder about having an event right after Christmas, but we seem to do OK. The first Redcoat told us we had a lot of teaching to do. We had one ringer in the ranks and he shot with a 300 yard effective range and a head shoot to go along with the 300. Unfortunately we lost 8 to the bayonet. After a little sling and steady hold factors prone the first square revealed four shooters off paper. Time to get out the large white sheets of paper, I'm glad I work with large drawings and have lots of old drawings that work great for finding those elusive holes that miss the 8-1/2x11 sheets. One more attempt and large adjustments we now have all on paper. More instruction and lead down range and by lunch all were 8 MOA or less, it was a fine morning. I started lunch with a bit of history to set the stage for the first strike of the match and Jester took over and did a great job with the first strike. I followed up with the second and third strike and a little review of the questions we had asked earlier. You know, the when and where question! I really enjoyed watching the young ones as they persevered throughout the day. Amber was impressive. Her and her brother had so much fun they said they were going to loin the Youth Program at our range. Lunch over it was time to step it up a notch with the magazine changes and the transitions. We got one AQT in, sorry no riflemen, before we moved on to the Redcoat. WOW! What an improvement, 8-100yrds, 2-200yrds, 2-300yrds, and 3 joining Morgan's rifle company. Sorry, we lost one to the Red Coats. We will work on that tomorrow.
Sunday, I showed up early to find the wind ripping through the canyon and all but one backed is strung about the range. I am in the car waiting for my assistance to show up when another strong wind gust takes down the last standing backer. We fix three of the backer and get them staked down. We have six returnees from the day before; wait here comes three more, just enough targets. After a quick review of the safety items and the line commands we bring rifles to the line and shoot the Red Coats. Sorry, I do not have the results they are airborne somewhere. Maybe they ended up downwind from us at Raahauge's. We continued with the review from the day before as we adjusted the sight for windage. That was a strange gust of wind, the backers are down again. It's time for another repair job and re-staking the backers. Everyone's targets looks good so we shoot the first AQT and then it is lunch time. Shoot Boss Rick told some stories as lunch was consumed. I am glad the wind has decided to slow down a bit. Time for the AQT grind. We are getting a lot of sharpshooters and two getting close to 210. Nice job Will, a 221 for the coveted Rifleman patch. Pavan Moody is struggling with his groups and we see his scope is about to fall off of his rifle. We tighten everything up for him but now we can't find any holes on paper. That was enough for him to call it a day. No worries, it was get late in the day anyway. For the final Red Coat we had six shooters left and they scored 1-400yrds, 1-300yrds, 1-200yrds, 3-100yrds, and three head shots. How sweet it is. Hope to see all of you again soon.
Great job Rick! Sounds like a fun weekend!