Fenton, MI Sept 23-24, 2023

[ITB]

A beautiful fall weekend in Michigan with perfect weather was the backdrop for our most recent event at Fenton Lakes Sportsman's Club.

20 shooters attended, an even mix of Appleseed veterans and rookies.

Teachable attitudes were abundant and we quickly got down to business.  We ran through the standard course of fire, and were a little behind schedule, leading to a later-than-normal lunch.

We had some shooters that were only able to attend Saturday, so we made sure we squeezed in one AQT by the end of the day.  That one AQT yielded 5 Rifleman scores!  Huzzah!  Congratulations to Alex, Andrew, Jason, Mike, and Rob (Distinguished).

We also managed to squeeze in a Parker's Revenge fun shoot right after Wingwrench's excellent Third Strike. 

Sunday saw 13 shooters return for more punishment.   

The extra space afforded the opportunity for some instructors to get some trigger time as well.  Grindstone and Pocket Watch availed themselves of the opportunity and re-qualified.  We had a few more Riflemen on Sunday, with Ali and Jesus both earning their patch, and Jesus also earned the Distinguished patch. 

We brought out the dueling tree Sunday afternoon, and had a two-bracket fun shoot of two-man teams.  Congratulations to Silas (and Grindstone, though Silas carried the team) for emerging victorious.

Big thanks to everyone for coming out.  I hope you all had fun, and I look forward to seeing you all again.  Remember, a Rifleman persists.

And my extreme gratitude for the instructor team - BeeFree, Grindstone, Pocket Watch, Pookie and Wingwrench - you guys made my job easy. 

I only have pics from Saturday - hopefully others can post up pics of our Riflemen and Sunday's festivities.

BeeFree doing the Safety Briefing on Saturday morning


Posting targets


First rounds of the day shooting the Red Coat


Grindstone telling First Strike


Pocket Watch teaching steps 1-3


Grindstone teaching standing, BeeFree modeling


BeeFree teaching seated, Pocket Watch modeling


BeeFree telling Second Strike

[Zorak]

I warned ITB that I was a creature of the forums, and I'm here to prove him right. I'm Jason in real life, and getting the patch on Saturday was a big deal for me. This was my second Appleseed, and having narrowly missed getting the patch the first time, finally achieving that goal was a major rush. It was too much of a rush, really. I didn't get calmed down enough to sleep until after midnight, woke up a couple times in the middle of the night for whatever reason, and made it to Sunday's session running on fumes before we even started. Even though my shooting was deteriorating, by listening hard to the instructors and thinking hard about what I was doing, I set a couple consecutive personal bests in the offhand stage. Time at Appleseed is only wasted if you waste it. I almost cracked up when Pookie (at least I'm pretty sure it was Pookie) said, "If you aren't relaxing when you find your NPOA, relax harder," but I think in the long term that was the lesson of the day for me.

I also think that, to borrow Honda's old gimmick, you meet the nicest people at an Appleseed. That goes for all the instructors, of course, and I hope my admiration and appreciation for what you do came through loud and clear. Ironsides, it was a pleasure to meet you and to shoot next to you for a day. Silas, same goes to you, if you're old enough to be here. If I see you at an Appleseed again next year, I'd put money down that you'll outshoot me. Nyquist (I may be misremembering your name, but that's what you get when you mat says "Chip" but your name is not Chip), I enjoyed your enthusiasm and the way you encouraged the younger shooters to go for 240.

ITB and BeFree, I appreciate the way you pushed us to chorus back loudly. In the far-off days of my youth, I hated being asked to repeat back, and thought it was stupid. As a grown-up, I think it's a really good way to make something stick. I know I had to be corrected on one point of safety in my first Appleseed, but I was totally clean this weekend, and I think a lot of that was that the proper procedure had been burned into my memory. Mag out, lock the bolt back, weapon on safe, chamber flag inserted, rifle grounded, nobody touches the rifle... it's all still there!

I'm a fan of the Appleseed teaching method. My experience has been that there is too much to learn about being a good shooter to take it all in at once. However, all the aspects of it are important, and difficult to separate out. It's not like you can teach sight alignment on day one and save sight picture for day two, right? So each time I take this or any other class, it's the same content, but, as the ancient philosopher said, a shooter cannot take the same Appleseed twice, because it is not the same Appleseed, and they are not the same shooter. Yes, I know I have to squeeeeeeeeze the trigger (I shortened the spelling of the sque-word out of courtesy to mobile users), and I might even think I'm doing it, but am I really? The AQT says I wasn't! Hopefully by my next Appleseed, I'll have fixed that, and then I'll seize on some other detail to work on as I chase that next personal best.

My only suggestion is an old man's suggestion: I think a little directed stretching each morning might be a useful addition to the curriculum. At my age (and for my physique, which has been carefully honed by decades of spending 8+ hours a day slouching in an office chair), stretching out before attempting the cross-legged seating position makes a pretty big difference in how I feel at the end of the day.

Final note - I can't remember who was taking pictures, but if someone could share the picture of ITB awarding me the patch, I'd really like a copy!

[Zorak]

Wingwrench got me via PMs and asked me to share his pictures. Without further ado...

[IRONSIDES]

It was a beautiful weekend in Fenton. I brought my Grandson Silas (age 13) to his first Appleseed, I've been to a few. His best AQT for the weekend was 172, Which we both were happy with. He and Grindstone won the fun shoot on Sunday which he talked about non stop on the way home.
Most importantly he remembered to be safe.
I somehow retained enough to shoot Rifleman, Although the Redcoat target Whooped my butt. Three times my max effective range was 200 YDs. I finally achieved a 400 yd. effective range on the last Redcoat of the weekend.
The Instructors did a great job with the POI's and the History was awesome and told with great enthusiasm.
I saw a lot of old friends and met some new ones. Hopefully I'll see you all on down the trail.
Zorak, I expect you to shoot Distinguished soon.

Keep up the good work everyone and be well.

[wingwrench]

What a beautiful weekend to spend with friends at the range. Some friends I had not met till that shoot. How delightful to see the smiles light up with "getting it" about some point of instruction. Thank y'all for providing an enjoyable weekend for me.