The Humphries County Sheriff's office was kind enough to allow Project Appleseed to host an event this past weekend at their range. Thanks in no small part to the efforts of IIT Sgt-at-Arms' efforts to promote this event in the area, it was sold out within days of it being posted on the schedule.
Saturday morning was pleasant and cool. The shooters began showing up early and were ready to get down to business. There were only a couple of shooters who had attended an Appleseed previously. The opening and First Strike (by Tennessee Beast) were warmly received.
Day one was filled with smiles from the shooters as they began to see their shooting improve. There were several young people attending and they all had great attitudes.
Saturday dawned with threats of rain. Despite this, every shooter returned and was enthusiastic about reviewing what they had learned the previous day. When we did move outside it was raining, but several pop-up canopies protected the line.
Scores on the AQT's improved throughout the day and Josh (who qualified on his first event) shot a Rifleman score 3 times during the day. We had a few knocking on the door and feel confident they will earn that badge on their next trip.
By mid-afternoon the sun was out and the day was quite beautiful.
As we centered up to score the final Hits Count target of the event, one of our young shooters was the only one to clear the Redcoat! There was applause and smiles all around.
We had a great cadre at this event and the shooters were very kind in their comments as we concluded. Thanks to Living Hand, RustyGun, Black Knight, Tennessee Beast, Sgt-at-Arms and ArmyVet1969 for working hard to make this a successful event.
This was my first Appleseed event, and I can say it was amazing! I really can't thank all of you for volunteering your time and energy to pass along such good values and techniques.
Hopefully, I will make rifleman at my next event. On two different AQT's, I was two shots away from passing the 210 threshold. As in, had two of my shots on either of the AQT's been perfect vs dropped or scoring minimum, I would have made Rifleman. Lesson learned.
However, I feel like I took away so much more from this event than just improving my marksmanship ability, which to me is invaluable.
Thank you all and see you next time!
Jeff
Thank you to everyone that turned out and everyone's support. Thank you... Friends, old and new, Community, Students, Volunteers, Cadre. It was was a wonderful event. Looking forward to the next!
Thanks to you all for taking time out of your busy schedules to come and spend so many hours teaching us to shoot. We're already excited to have another one in the area. I'm sure the next one in this area will sell out in short order as well. Lots of folks interested. It was my second Appleseed and I thought I was on my way to rifleman after day one. I flubbed my first two targets putting a couple of shots on the wrong target in stage four, and then had equipment failure, and then I think fatigue and frustration set in. Still, I'm a better shooter than when I came. Hopefully, I'll be able to practice before the next one as "playback" has set up a 25 yard range. I think I'm can speak for all of the folks from Hickman and Perry counties that we had a blast and learned a lot.
A great Appleseed with a really good group! So many knocking on the door of Rifleman. No doubt with some persistence there will be some new Riflemen soon. Thanks to Sgt At Arms for putting the event together. Great venue. Good to meet everyone and hope to see you all again at another event soon!
I enjoyed working with all of you. I want to thank Sgt-at-Arms and American Legion Post 34 for the hospitality and the Humphreys Co. Sheriff Department for letting us use their facilities. We left the facility cleaner than when we arrived, so hopefully they will invite us back. I also give props to all the shooters that braved the rain. There were no "sunshine patriots" to be found.
Here is some advice to those that want to improve their marksmanship before next time:
1. Dryfire practice
a. remember the steady hold factors for each position. They become more natural the more you do them.
b. practice finding and shifting your NPOA. The more you practice this, the quicker you can do it.
c. practice the 6 steps of firing the shot for EVERY shot. After a while this will become second nature.
2. Find ammo that works reliably in your firearm. Once you narrow that down, find the most accurate reliable ammo for your rifle. Accurate and reliable ammo doesn't have to be expensive. For my rifles, I expect to pay 5-8 cents per round. My preference is for ammo that comes in boxes of 50 or 100. Some people get good groups with bulk ammo, but I have seen too many misfires for me to trust it. YMMV
3. If you make any equipment changes, remember to zero your rifle "slung up". Many rifles have a different point of impact when shot from sandbags or a rest.
4. Try to avoid stimulants like nicotine and caffeine when you shoot.
5. Memorize the AQT course of fire (and maybe write it down on your mat)