Hernando County Sportsman's Club - Home to the largest cloud of no-see-ems ever recorded . We fooled them this time though. We published our event date in the No-See-Em calendar for another weekend. The bugs took the weekend off leaving the Appleseeders to concentrate on Riflery and history.
Instructors on Hand:
Shoot Boss: PHenry (Trey)
Shoot Boss in training: Willorith (Brian)
Red Hat Instructor: Brown Bess (Paul)
IIT: Sly223 (Rick)
IIT: Panhead (Joe)
Red Hat Instructor (observing) Thaifighter (Wiley)
I've heard that its not the temperature, it's the humiture that gets you. Well, we had both. Humiture and temperature . Four water coolers of iced Gatorade and water got us all to Sunday evening intact.
16 shooters and 1 spectator were on the line Saturday morning to start off a day of shooting, learning and camaraderie.
Bill quickly impressed all the instructors with his left handed operation of his .303 Enfield. He shot the old rifle throughout Saturday, bringing the thunderous note of yesteryear to the line filled with the sharp report of high pressure ARs and the pop pop of .22s.
Justin and Kristen performed quite well Saturday but were unable to return on Saturday because of church commitments. Justin is a youth pastor. I seventh stepped him to bring his flock to an Appleseed. Kristen handled her tube magazine Remington quite adeptly, Showing the benefit of rifle familiarization prior to coming to an Appleseed.
Angel and Vanessa arrived a little late on Saturday. The instructors integrated them into the line almost seamlessly. Two brand new shooters, neither one of them had even handled a firearm prior to this event. Loaner rifles were quickly made available to them, and they settled into the Appleseed curriculum. Brand new shooters are invigorating because they show such dramatic improvement. Vanessa and Angel didn't let us down in that department. They left Saturday evening with smiles on their faces and a new understanding of our nation. We are certain they will soon be familiar faces at our Florida events.
Phillip and his 10 year old son Aaron arrived ready to go. Aaron was only able to spend one day with us, but Phillip reports that the lad talked about Appleseed all the way home Saturday evening. An Appleseed veteran, Phillip's prior best score was less than 100 (my best score at my first event was 82) Phillip pleased all the instructors when he turned in a 196 at this event. The fire hose is becoming discernable information. Way to go Phillip.
Many thanks to Hernando Sportsman's Club, a wonderful venue made even better by Tammy in the lunch counter cooking up delicious chow for all comers.
More events at Hernando can only be a good thing.
And did Brian say it was Hotttt.......Thanks to all you shooters who braved the heat......BrownBess
Sure it was hot, but it was a dry heat right? :wb:
Small crowd, but they were all great to work with. How about that Ruth driving up before her shift just to get a couple hours of trigger time in! Erik did very well at 200 yards - I think he surprised himself, but not me - I knew he could do it. And then there was Phillip who brung his fine young son and shot a 196. He's got Rifleman written all over his booney hat for sure (would make a great instructor too, but don't tell him just yet).
Hernando was the first venue that I secured in FL and has always been my "baby". It felt most odd to turn over the reigns to sir Willorith, but I could not have done better myself. In fact, his First Strike is much superior to my own.
Thanks to all for braving the heat (We are working on some ideas that should mitigate the effects thereof for next year). I hope everyone learnt something and would love to see ya'll on the firing line agin soon. Please help us get the word out. We cannot do it without you! O0
For Liberty,
PHenry
Working with you guys at this event was an honor. I had a great time. I gave all I could and dragged in the door around 11p.m. had enogh energy to lock car and get to bed.
looking forward to IBC. Then to the more Familiar Myakka later this month.