Six Riflemen in One Shoot!
A great day with great Americans who took the time out of their busy lives to see what they were about. We had everyone from cold novices to experienced competitors on the line and everyone learned something. They soaked up the history and none fell asleep in spite of the wicked pace we were driving them forward at.
Redcoat scores peaked on SAT PM. Only one AQT completed on SAT but we got three riflemen that day. Go figure. Big thanks to necede (that is Latin for never submit and the first two letters for Nebraska's postal abbreviation, almost as cool as mine) who came to assist in spite of just visiting from Nebraska. Age range from 10 to 75 but our oldest member started to Peter out halfway through Sunday but good on him for the effort. Big kudos to four (three on SUN) USAF active duty personnel who showed up to find their measure and one of whom made Rifleman. It made my heart sing.
Alan Korwin showed up as an observer on SAT morning. He is a local celebrity and nationally known as an authority on state and federal gun laws. He was very impressed with what he saw and we hope to hear from him again much like Chris Knox (yes, of Shotgun News) who has also attended our shoots.
The three RHs shared the Strikes and almost went to blows fighting over divvying of the DOM. We did agree that when the Sam Whittimore movie was finally made that Clint Eastwood would look up at his Redcoat adversaries after they had mauled him and whisper in a gravelly snarl: "Is that all you boys got?"
Perfect weather and only started to get hot after 1430 on the range.
Total of 9 AQTs fired produced six Riflemen and two consistent scorers between 190 and 210 knocking on the door.
We did a variety of drills to include B&D, carding, trigger command and NPOA on sighter squares with great results. Lots of light bulbs observed over the prone shooters.
Our youngest shooter improved his score from 26 to near 100. His father was one of our Riflemen from the occupied territory to our west no less.
The Godfather of AZ Appleseed, AZGromit, is leaving us for a move to Missouri where they will be lucky to have him. He will be sorely missed and we presented him with a plaque and heartfelt thanks for building the program here. I doubt if it would be here if he had not taken the ultimate seventh step.
Long days but maximum satisfaction.
I love having multiple Red Hats at a shoot, backing up multiple IIT's. Just makes me all warm and fuzzy with the results.
There were 38 shooters on the line, if memory serves, for Saturday.
I had some car troubles surface Friday evening that required resolution Saturday AM, so I didn't show up until about noon. Gromit and Bill had things 100% under control with the aid of Necede and AZRon. With the loss of Gromit to greener pastures back east, we will have 1 less Red Hat and 1 less redundancy if things go temporarily sour at a shoot. Just a lesson learned that I hope inspires more instructors to step forward and be counted from our mass of shooters at Buckeye this weekend.
So, I only saw and participated in 1.5 of the 2 days of 'Seeding.
That being said, I was quite impressed with this group of shooters. 6 Riflemen. Wow. That's an AZ record.
(I suspect that's what happens when you have 5 instructors on the line rather than merely a bare minimum of 3... it allows a lot more "nose in the dirt" time for the Red Hats to coach people and drag them, kicking and screaming, into Rifleman Territory.)
It's been an honor to hit the trail with Gromit and it has been a pleasure to work with Bill for the last year and I look forward to taking AZ forward with him and seeing new faces hit the trail.
This was my 3rd event. The first was exactly one year ago with Redhawk and Gromit. I think AZ overall has a phenominal team of instructors, they have taught me so much. My marksmanship has improved to a level I never thought possible. 1 year ago on my first redcoat I could not get 3 hits on any of the redcoat targets. By the end of the first event I could get the 200 consistantly. 1 year later I can clean the whole thing now consistantly. Earning that Rifleman patch was a major accomplishment for me.
The biggest thing I have learned from the program is "Persist" not just with marksmanship, but in everything I do. Gromit drilled that into my head.
Missouri is gaining a Top Notch Instructor.
Now does that mean AZGromit will become MO'Gromit?
and .... Redhawk and Lysander were not going to let me leave the range without the orange hat, Redhawk distracted me while Lysander slipped it into my range bag. Thats like being drafted.. no more like Shanghied.
Just kidding, I planned on stepping up anyway. Just wanted to talk about it a bit first.
I agree a very good Appleseed indeed!! Newguy you have a pm inbound let me know and i will give you my number or you can pm me with yours. AzRon
Thanks again to everyone for a awesome weekend! I learned a lot about shooting with sling, and great feedback on my old habbits ~~:)
The four of us are planning to be at the payson shoot- hopefully work will permit, we're all very looking forward to coming again.
thanks again to the instructors for putting this on for us :bow:
SEVEN!
SEVEN!
Seven Riflemen! Ah-ah-ah-ah-ah!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQC82okzTXI#t=55s
AZOpie just shot his Rifleman score today.
He was barking at it all Sunday afternoon at Buckeye, and we met up at Ben Avery today. His first fully scored AQT ended up netting a 206... with a 3-3-3-1 hit sequence on the bottom rather than the proper 2-2-3-3.
So, he ran it again and wound up with a 226. Excellent work. I "happened" to have a Rifleman patch back in my truck, so he earned that puppy.
Congrats, AZOpie!
Congratulations AZopie!