Waco, GA April 27-28, 2019

[franklinfarmer]

It was a beautiful day for our memorial shoot at the West Georgia Youth Range, and our three hearty shooters rose to the occasion with great progress in marksmanship and evident interest in the value of the message of April 19, 1775. 

We saw great improvement on the redcoat diagnostic with two one hundred yard shooters on Saturday morning followed up with a cleaned redcoat (Huzzah Bob), a three hundred yard shooter, and a two hundred yard shooter at the end of the day on Saturday.  A technical note for instructors:  I had one shooter doing a 100/200 course with a "D" redcoat at 100, a "D" redcoat at 200, and scaled redcoats for 300, 400, and the shingle (6" by 8" actual dimensions) all at 200.  The instruction adapts well to 100/200 generally.  This was an exceptional case, however, with two shooters doing everything at 25 meters and one working at 100/200.  It went tolerably well, marksmanship wise, with one "practice" AQT by the end of the day on Saturday.

After facing the morning redcoats, we immediately discussed the events leading up to the powder raid on April 19, 1775 and followed the story through to the tragic events of Lexington early on that day. 

After instruction in marksmanship fundamentals, we broke for lunch and continued the history presentation through Francis Smith's misjudgment in staying for lunch in Concord.  With this historical background, we looked forward to the memorial volley commemorating Captain Isaac Davis and the other fallen of that day in April 1775.  This memorial volley came just after we covered standing position at 4 PM, joining all our Appleseed brothers and sisters shooting the volley across the country.  We didn't hear you, but we trust you were there. 

It will be a great day, when we can shoot the memorial volley and everyone hears others doing the same---Hey, something like that happens with fireworks on the fourth of July doesn't it?

I'll end this, and let others post...with a mention that we had a full day on Sunday with presentations on shooting at distance and an impromptu hybrid presentation of dangerous old men and the philosophy of liberty.  We also put our rifleman math to practice with Leah shooting a nice nearly 4 MOA group at 100 yards with her .22, and then making the calculation (5 MOA low with 5/8 MOA per click) and the adjustment to sink a sub 4 MOA group deep in the 4 and 5 ring of a 100 yard AQT target (!).  Not to be outdone, Bob put his .22 to work at 200 yards holding off to the top of the target numbers (according to the verification of worM2 from years past---passed on by a little birdy) and posting a sub 4 MOA group just north of a 4 MOA practice square---that would be an 8" square.  Before all this Bob posted a 217 AQT score for a requalification and earned a second patch. 

Special thanks are due to Mechanic, who brought his expertise (far in excess of his orange hat) in instruction, and battled through sickness to come and help out...as he seems to do every year for this memorial shoot.  This was, and is, much appreciated.  I hear tell Mechanic took some photos with his sail fawn, and he plans to post them here---so keep an eye out for that.

Okay shooters, please mention what you thought were highlights...and give us some feedback.

[Pbird67]

Hats off to John and Eric for creating a safe, fun and educational event in Waco, GA. The history lessons at the other Appleseed events have been great as was this one. I really enjoyed being able to fire at targets at distances which actually varied. (Yes, it is time for me to attend a KD.)

John and Eric did a great job preparing the range and accommodating those shooting at 25 yards and me at 100 and 200. I this worked fairly well and did my best to walk briskly when checking targets in an effort to not cause any delays for the other participants. Glad to read John felt this all went tolerably well.

For me a big highlight was when we stretched our 22's and could observe trajectory and point of impact. After this we then either made a sight adjustment. Leah was outstanding in calculating the MOS change she needed and dropped rounds in the target at 100 yards. John gave me great advice on the holdover needed for 200 yards. Ended up with a great grouping!

The memorial volley was truly something special! Again, the history presented at these events is outstanding and always causes me to think about the courage and sacrifices our founding fathers and mothers made for us.

Bob

[Roswell]

Awesome! Sounds like an excellent job of improvising, adapting and overcoming. Well done everyone. And good job Bob!