Beautiful range. 17 shooters, 4 riflemen (who all took fancy hats) and a whole bunch who are going to make it next time they go to the range or get to someone else's Appleseed. We left SeanO quite a bit of local help.
Instructors were SeanO and Firewall99 with help from IITs Redchrome and TOMINCT. Everybody was a lot smoother than the last time they instructed. What a cool thing to see.
Sadly we missed being the first snow Appleseed of the season by only a few hours. Sure made the sleepy ride home exciting, though.
I don't really have words to explain how we all felt about one of the shooters getting pulled out of the middle of the weekend. He'd just found out he was getting deployed the next day as infantry to the mountainous Hellhole everybody's been talking about. Hope he makes it a habit to follow through when he needs to.
What a ton of fun to work with the Pleasant River club and the local students who signed up. The welcome was warm and the enthusiasm of the shooters was really infectious, as they say in all the better novels. No one complained about all the work - Maggie even put up another AQT instead of just a Redcoat at the end. She's going to be a regular Annie Oakley one of these days.
Crak mentioned that we had all improved, but he perhaps more than anyone else. I attribute that to his bouncing around the country picking up experience at a number of wholly different shoots. He's got a great bag of teaching skills now that really should reach a wider audience. He even demonstrated riding the trigger using his earmuffs. Wickid neat, as we say in Maine. He'll get the chance to pass on some of this stuff in the coming weekend at the Lexington/Concord IBC.
I blubbered again doing the heritage. I've got an unbroken streak now for every shoot I've done. Hate doing it, but I'm not going to apologize - the story still gets to me. It's just as well that I didn't have to do Isaac Davis this time.
I really enjoyed the crew. We had some great conversations in the evening - TOMINCT and I gabbed until 2:30 am - and I'm really looking forward to working with the new IIT's, Mike, Thomas, Peter and Michael.
Best to all, Sean O'
It was indeed a great time. The drive to the end of the world was long; as was the drive back (made somewhat hairy by the inclement weather); but it was worth it to see the place and meet the shooters. We had a great reception by the club; the President was a real Mainer, with a big beard and a big heart. The shooters really seemed to have been looking forward to having an AS in Maine finally.
It was the easternmost AS. Can't get much further East in America; tho I heard there is a gun club in Calais, ME. If Nickle runs one in the Sandbox... will that be the furthest East or the furthest West? :D
It was the best line of shooters I ever worked with at an Appleseed; experienced shooters most of them, and even the newer ones did great. I have a hard time believing Maggie's daughters never did much shooting before, with the kind of groups they were making... some people have real talent. The teenager with the AK reminded me of what I was like at his age... gung-ho and into lots of loud bangs. After we kludged together a good sling for him, he actually turned in some really good groups with his tech-sighted AK. A little more practice getting NPOA and he would have cleaned that last Redcoat.
I'm really looking forward to going back.
oh yeah... I made Red Hat, much thanks to Crak. Now I wonder what I'll be in trouble for next?
Quote from: Redchrome on October 20, 2009, 08:06:24 PM
oh yeah... I made Red Hat, much thanks to Crak. Now I wonder what I'll be in trouble for next?
Congrats on the hat Redchrome! You're a fine instructor. O0
Congratulations, Redchrome. Good job!
Hey Redchrome ;) congratulations. You deserve it. I am happy for you.
Now think about green ;) :~