Well, all I can say is what a great venue, great weather and even greater Shooters......we will wait for ShootBoss Willorith to give all the details, but I will supply some pictures in the meantime....Hooozaaa!!!!!!
Willoworth? Report please ~~:)
Here we are folks. The pressures of life conspired to keep me off the computer until now. I apologize for the tardiness of this report. In the future I should have BB drive home and I'll write the AAR on the road.
Inaugural Appleseed Event at Gainesville Target Range
Gainesville, Florida
April 17 & 18, 2010
Shoot Boss: Willorith
RI: Brown Bess - elevated at this event
IIT: LibertysDaughter, EchoDog
Shooters: Day1- 27, Day 2- 19
Riflemen: 2, Alan Gray and Richard McNelis
Project Appleseed enjoyed a beautiful weekend at a beautiful range. The Gainesville Target Range is truly a first class facility. We were quite pleased to be a part of the first Appleseed event at this wonderful venue.
Because there are no intermediate berms on the 100 yard range, we chose to move our firing line to the 75 yard marker. This allowed our shots to be absorbed by the berm and prevented rounds from skipping off the very hard surface of the range and escaping over the berm. This decision meant that our shooters and instructors were afforded the full healthful benefits of the Florida sunshine. As a result, no cases of Rickets have been reported among our shooters. Can you say the same?
All shooters had to move back to the covered concrete shooting line when we went to the KD portion of our event, which was shot at 100 yards. Even the shooters who would not be encouraged to shoot KD at other Florida Appleseed ranges found benefit in shooting the KD. IMC seemed to become more easily understood as the cone of fire was seen to open up at the longer range. Scope shooters saw the MOA of their groups shrink when they stopped chasing their shots because they could no longer see their hits.
Willorith and BrownBess made fine presentations of the Three Strikes and Dangerous old Men and Brave Women. It's curious how a few months ago I was transfixed with terror at the prospect of giving a twenty minute speech in front of a group of strangers. Now, because of Fred's personal growth program, it doesn't bother me in the slightest.
With the special additions to the POI celebrating Patriot's Day and Madam Yotnottin, we were challenged to stay on time for this event. However, we were able to get the important elements in and at 4:00 Sunday afternoon the Volley for Liberty was called by BrownBess with a somber and commanding voice, and a lump formed in my throat and the reason I'm involved with Appleseed was refreshed in my heart.
Gainesville Target Range has an open house each Sunday at 4:30 so we were held to that time to close up shop.
A final FOD sweep down the line policed up the wayward brass and left a range cleaner than we found it.
A hearty thank you goes to Mark, Brian, and Holly, of GTR, for allowing us to use their wonderful facility. I understand that we now have an event penciled in for the last weekend in June at GTR. Fans and a generator to power them will be loaded aboard the Parramore Knot's F150 for that occasion.
As you see in the photos, we had two shooters with physical limitations. Anthony, the young man in the wheelchair, and Shally, the woman shooting off the improvised cardboard box rest. Shally is recovering from an auto accident and is still very weak and still has a tracheotomy. Both shooters showed the perseverance and courage so typical of Appleseeders.
Shally was a new shooter who happened to be at the range Saturday morning, more of a wander in than a walk in. She signed up for two days of Appleseed and stuck it out. She was barely able to cock the 10-22 LTR but she finished out both days. I am very impressed by that woman.
Anthony expressed a willingness to work with Adaptive Appleseed and is an experienced physically challenged shooter. He is a member of the Gainesville Target Range.
Well, as I have been to quite a few Appleseeds as an observer, this was a great show, the sun was not too bad, the earth made it a little more comfy on my old joints instead of the usual concrete.....good show to all who attended, I am looking forward to Gainesville again in the near future, Respectively Yours, Woody
As a result, no cases of Rickets have been reported among our shooters. Can you say the same?
Pictures are good -- very memorable, and the commentary is excellent!
My thanks,
Mogs
I was on the shooters line for this event, with my son Andres (just turned 17). When kids are that age, you only get a few opportunities to do something with them, their attention is outside, naturally. But he was everything you could want in a teenager: open, cooperative, interested, attentive, diligent. You know, you can tell that those line coaches aren't going to put up with any excuses, explanations, justifications -- forget it. That's OK, we were there to learn to shoot, that was the purpose, always clear. I never had any formal training in my life, and I'm 60. The closest I ever came was informal coaching over a sleeping bag rest, shooting prairie dogs in Wyoming in the '70s with a .30-06 -- not your typical varmint gun, but the only centerfire rifle I had, then or now. My shooting partner was an old man, who said, "Beware the man who owns one gun. He can probably use it." I still like that idea.
I had very little sense of other shooters, what they were doing right or wrong, or even whether they were shooting at all. Shooting a rifle involves a fair number of skill pieces, and getting them to integrate takes attention and concentration. Andres seemed to be doing well. He certainly wasn't putting out any distress signs, so all was going well from my perspective. Although I brought a camera, I didn't take one photo. Too busy.
When I was 7 or 8 years old, my folks gave me a book, titled Famous Heroes of the Old West. It probably had more influence on my life than any other book I've ever read. It was stories of Kit Carson, fighting a bully; John Colter's barefoot run from the Blackfeet; Hugh Glass, mauled by a bear and left for dead by his companions; the Wagon Box fight; Portugee Phillips' ride in a New Years blizzard; Quanah Parker, whose mother Cynthia Parker was lost to the Comanche as a child and recovered (recaptured) as an adult but hated life among the whites again. And Adobe Walls.
Adobe Walls captured my imagination, and I went there, to the actual place, on the north bank of the Canadian River, Texas Panhandle, in December 2000. It was the site of the longest recorded shot on the American frontier, 1538 yards, during a desultory siege of buffalo hunters by the Comanche and Kiowa. Seven-eighths of a mile. Leaving me with a lifelong interest in riflery, just now beginning to shape up.
Thanks, Shoot Boss and Instructors. This is a fine start! And none too early either.
Richard McNelis
adobewallsfl@yahoo.com
Richard, it was great helping you and your son....wish we had more instructors at the event, but next time you come, we will be much better staffed I promise, you are a Gentleman that knows what they are about when it comes to shooting and persevering. My hats off to you both. Best Regards, Paul
Hi,
I had a great time at this Appleseed and will probably attend the next one in June. I want to order a CMP M1 and one of the CMP requirements is marksmanship training, which is fulfilled by Appleseed. How do I prove to CMP that I attended and completed the training?
Thanks
PM Sent
Many thanks, Paul. A person can make new friends at an Appleseed Project shoot, even though it's pretty busy. Looks like Gainesville Target Range is on the schedule for June. I can feel the sweat running into my eyes already, must be a sign.
At the 100m line, both Andres and I decided, for no good reason, to use the 25rd mags we had brought with us, although we had both gotten perfect service from the 10rd mags for two days. Musta been the prospect of 20 rounds of truly slow fire. I immediately began having feedway jams, and so did Andres. As usual, the first and last few rounds in a large-cap magazine were the problem. Pretty soon I had a small pile of mangled .22LR cartridges. I didn't leave the line, though, because I was determined to shoot the course of fire, and didn't want to take a chance on disqualification for leaving the line. I worked through it. Andres, being younger and brighter, chose the opposite path, left the line for two good mags, simply shucked out his remaining rounds and reloaded, then was problem free. But not me. I worked with the same balky magazine, loading one and two rounds - a Ruger 10/22 is not set up for single feed, and the receiver and bolt are not designed for elegance, you could have 10 mangled rounds in the receiver all at once and the rifle wouldn't mind. While Andres was enjoying a cold Coke in the shade, the old man was sweating it out, loading and shooting, loading and shooting those ugly, chewed up cartridges. But I could tell I was getting good hits, which was remarkable, given the appearance of the bullet noses - cleaved, scraped, bashed flat. Probably a benefit of shooting a relatively low velocity cartridge. Best example: On the last shot, I reloaded and pressed the trigger on it three times before it finally ignited. Yet that course of fire was my highest score for the weekend. That kind of determination isn't elegant, but when skill is thin, it gets the job done.
Richard McNelis
Tallahassee FL
adobewallsfl@yahoo.com