Here's the preliminary post. We have a sell-out according to Eventbrite - and a potential blizzard according to the weather channel
A hearty band of instructors are at the hotel around the corner from the range and are ready-willing and able to host this shoot!
Come one - come all - don't let a little snow dissuade you from the road to Rifleman!
13 hearty souls came out this morning in about 6" of snow (so far)
We started with about 2" of snow on the ground as we set up the line - as I write this - there is a solid foot of snow out there. We had wind gusts up to 30mph during the shoot.
Chainsaw, West, Sie and I were there instructing. The weather delayed 7 of the 13 folks and caused 2 folks to leave early due to the deteriorating road conditions.
We were able to award Sie his rifleman patch for shooting a 228 since he took up the Orange Hat. Congratulations and Thank You Sie!
Here are some photo's of the shoot - the rifle shot shows how much show accumulated in just 10 mins.
The last 2 photo's are our 2 young patriots who stuck it out for the day!
More details to follow tomorrow.
Now that is an Applejack Appleseed, freezing out all the water leaving only the good stuff behind! When are we getting a snow patch? Just kidding, have a great safe shoot, and isn't it interesting which grease on guns doesn't work in the cold?
It appears between 15" and 20" of snow fell today, and we are expecting at least 3-4" more tonight. Hopefully it will stop snowing by noon tomorrow, as forecasted. You have to admire the folks that turned out today, and especially those returning tomorrow. Pennsylvania Riflemen are special. Here a few more photos from this morning:
O0 O0 O0
7 hearty folks returned for a sunny and windy Sunday and Rundownfid was able to come out to help instruct. It is nice to shoot without an inch of snow falling per hour. :~
A couple folks are knocking on the Rifleman door. Current high score is 208 as we broke for lunch and the Third Strike.
A successful event in the Blizzard of 09!
Local weather said we got about 15" of snow
2 new Riflemen
Rob with a 215 and Lee on the last AQT of the day with a 212!
3 new IIT promotions
Rundownfid to IIT1
West to IIT2
Sie to IIT3
We all learned a lot about how our equipment and lubrication ideas work out in a driving snowstorm and in the cold!
Let's break it down.
- Firing a rifle makes it hot
Snow landing in the open ejection port of a rifle melts and makes water
Water is affected by gravity and seeps lower in rifles
With the temperature about 20 degrees and a 20-30MPH wind - water freezes into ice between strings or as we change targets
Ice in the mechanism of rifles causes failures to fire
It's hard to get ice out of a trigger group
It's hard to get ice out of a firing pin channel
.....and make the times on the AQT
proper lubrication with quality lubricant is essential
Some more photo's from today - note the flag shot - just to give you a sense of the wind velocity....
Policing up the brass was also a challenge as most of it (particularly the 5.56 and 7.62) was frozen into the ice (see above for what happens when hot things encounter snow) we'll need to wait for a thaw to get most of it up.
Quote from: lprgcfrank on December 20, 2009, 10:15:15 PM
A successful event in the Blizzard of 09!
Local weather said we got about 15" of snow
2 new Riflemen
Rob with a 215 and Lee on the last AQT of the day with a 212!
3 new IIT promotions
Rundownfid to IIT1
West to IIT2
Sie to IIT3
Huzzah! Persisting shooters and instructors in the Blizzard! You show the Spirit of Appleseed! O0
Quote from: lprgcfrank on December 19, 2009, 09:11:17 PM
We were able to award Sie his rifleman patch for shooting a 228 since he took up the Orange Hat. Congratulations and Thank You Sie!
Congratulations, Sie! I knew you would do it!
Shooters, take note- Sie had been knocking on the Rifleman door with a 208 at several Appleseeds. Then he takes up the Orange Hat, attends an Instructor Boot Camp, and immediately scores a 228. The best way to improve is to instruct. @@)
We had to post our targets a little higher on Sunday. Why? Because the snow drifts in front of the berm were so high that some of the shooters were clipping snow on the last stage of our first AQT. :o
Congratulations to our new riflemen, Rob and Lee. I apologize for the crummy photos taken at the benediction (see below). It appears I need to work on my iPhone steady hold factors. I think the lens was a little smudged from dropping it in the snow.
I took a handful of photos but cannot upload them all in a single post due to the file size, so below are the photos with the new riflemen in the foreground. I will upload a second group of photos in my next post.
Below is a second set of photos taken at the line on Sunday. Check out A.J., our 8-year old sniper! After the first stage of the first AQT, we proceeded down range to check the targets. I was puzzled by the fact that his AQT was still clean. Well, he was puzzled that we were puzzled. He advised that we had instructed him to shoot the "red No. 1" target, so he did. Sure enough, we looked up at the "red No. 1" stapled above his AQT and, sure enough, it had ten holes. :---
Nice....very nice!! O0
I -love- a good gear test, don't you?
Sure does let you know what to expect in the "real world"......
You guys did good.... O0
LLP
The true spirit of Appleseed was prevalent at this event. I am truly blessed to have been under the tutelage of Frank and Chainsaw at this event, and am more awed by the steadfast dedication to the shooters that came out (especially on Saturday) to the event and participated in the driving snow, and the instructors for making it happen.
A weekend like this is a definite showing for those who are summer soldiers and sunshine patriots, and those who are not.
Congratulations to our two new rifleman - continue to persist and pass on the heritage. Also congratulations to Maria, practice and patience and that 210 will be yours - most improved closing out the weekend with a 184.
It was definitely a gear check - for instructors also. Note for future snow shoots - more shovels, mittens, and snow pants. Coaching on the ground gets cold. I am going to declare victory - this was the best shoot I've been to yet, and shows that they are only going to get better with time. Aside from my mechanical failing (car died, turned out to be a corroded battery cable, now replaced and running fine), this was
TOTAL VICTORY
Pics from Sunday:
bump for winterseed