What a weekend!!! If there was ever a shoot in California that Qualified as a winterseed, this was it!
I got to the range friday afternoon to get an early jump on setting up the range... good thing I did.
I found out that the range we were supposed to use was not available because they had set up a 3 gun match for Sunday.
OK.... We were offered the only spot available... So we set up in "the pit" which was a low lying area, with an access driveway to the 200 yd target line. We were barely able to fit the 25 shooters in the space available. I think the shooters only had just over 2 ft per person and the shooters on the right side of the line were in the Mud which used to be the driveway.
Thank God I had brought the silver tarps I used back in Piru Mudbowl, DEcember 2009, because with out them, we would have had to run relays. OK so far... O0
Temps were just above freezing Saturday morning with large looming black clouds all around threatening to wash us all away. Fortunately, it did not rain.... It was so cold, that the rain turned into hail on the way down... we were actually glad the rain had frozen into hail because the rifles didn't get wet. But it was a cold 34 degrees that morning!
I had the morning briefing up above the range under canopy to allow the range to dry a bit before we started tromping up all the mud from walking on it. It was very slick.
We started off the morning with the redcoat showing we had a LOT of work to do, as usual... but we progressed very nicely as they started putting it all together.
25 attendees on Saturday 22 on Sunday
Red Coats
Sat Sun
am pm am pm
400 0 1 3 4
300 2 2 4 9
200 5 5 3 4
100 4 7 11 4
0 14 9 1 1
HS 5 3 4 8
Cleared 0 0 0 1
History was well received, and saw a lot of heads nodding when comparisons made from then to now, and the choices they made and if they could make the same choices today... and that we don't have to make those choices because they DID!!!
Also stressed the duty we ALL have to pass down the history and heritage to OUR posterity... I think we touched them with the sacrifices our forefathers made for all of us.
No riflemen on Saturday, but some high scores for Saturday were:
Randy 189 Sat only
Frances 185 Sat only
Eric 188
Jim 186
Freeman 179
Jeff 179
Brock 176
Marty 174
Max 169
Tom 166
Robert 163
Bradshaw 162
Jenna 153
Alex 151
Sunday was clear blue skies, but COLLLDDD!!! BAck side of the Arctic blast saw temps below freezing, but warmed up fairly quickly. We also had to move all the target backers out of the Mudpit to the upper range that we were allowed to use because there were no matches on Sunday. Thanks to the attendees that helped us move the backers!!
Sunday everyone was in good spirits. We ended up with 4 RIFLEMEN!!! Congrats to:
Robert=212, O0
Freeman=212, O0
Jeff=216, O0 and
Pete Keeney shot an amazing 240. :~ :~ O0 ^:)^
Lots of others knocking on the door.... Marty shot a 207... Bradshaw shot a 192... Max shot a 190.
man, so close... another Appleseed and you will make it for sure!
Other scores Sunday PM
Eric=188
Nadia=187
Tom=185
Alex=181
Jonathan=179
Brock=176
Jim=174
Bob=174
Drew=167
Jenna=162
David=162
Anyways, it was a great shoot, I met a lot of nice people as I always do at an Appleseed.
I hope some of the attendees will post their thoughts and comments here...
I will post some pics of the shoot real soon....
Check back for them...
Very nice report, and the RedCoats show that steady progress to almost perfection. Nice work, crew and shooters! O0
Glad I could make it Saturday, it was a good shoot despite the weather.
Looks like the shooters made some real improvement on Sunday! O0 O0
I had a great time and very happy to have made rifleman the first time. I think i am going to focus on getting consecutive or multiple rifleman scores on the next outing, rather than switching up guns. A return to open sights might be a challenge as well. Things just started to come together and i was pretty much getting npoa right off the bat.
Here are a few pictures...
Cal 7.62 took the pics of the riflemen, hope he posts them up soon...
Sunday pictures.....
More sunday pictures....
figure it's time for me to chime in.. :)
it was a great shoot this weekend. seeing people you talk to at the gun show come out, fill up the line, have a great time and improve
makes all the work worthwhile.
i think all the youth that were out scored marksman or sharpshooter. It was great watching them improve, run down to the target, and yell back down
how well they did.
Saw alot of faces from the previous Bakersfield shoots too, and they brought new friends to boot.
4 riflemen this time around. congrats to freeman, who has persisted and achieved. hats off to robert and jeff as well, i think this was your first, but not sure.
and last but not least Keeney, with a 240!!!
great work to everyone. it's nice watching bakersfield grow
Thanks so much to the volunteers (Camljr, Cal 7.62, Moose, and the other instructors who were with us on Saturday) who made the Bakersfield event happen in spite of the cold, mud and crud! It was my first Appleseed but it won't be my last! What a fun and educational time, keep up the great work! One or two more of these and I hope to be able to offer competent volunteer assistance.
MolonLabe71 (aka Jeff)
Another great shoot in Bakersfield! I wanted to thank the instructors and let you know I look forward to the next shoot in bakersfield. Here is a great link to the Bakersfield college news paper article about the Appleseed and what our goals are http://media.www.therip.com/media/storage/paper443/news/2011/03/02/Features/Appleseed.Teaches.Heritage.Marksmanship-3982483.shtml
Thanks again
Tom
That's a nice article. Thanks for posting it here. (We collect them!)
Hope to see you and some friends at the next one!
Quote from: Camljr on February 28, 2011, 02:45:22 PM
Sunday everyone was in good spirits. We ended up with 4 RIFLEMEN!!! Congrats to:
...Freeman=212, O0
Wow, I didn't even have to show up this time! It's getting easier and easier :P
I have to echo Camljr's statement about this shoot qualifying as a winterseed. We got a little snow, a little hail, a lot (less) sun and a whole lotta mud and COLD.
I was glad I'd grabbed that extra tarp on my way out the door that Fri before the shoot.
Our Saturday shooters showed some true grit braving the mud and cold. O0 (After all this is Cali we're talkin about here!) ::)
The morning started out slow but this fine group of fellow Americans persisted and got up to speed after drinking from the firehose, and by the end of the day, we'd managed to get an AQT in. The targets WERE talking @@) and I liked what they were saying. :)
Sunday was crisp clear and COLD with a few scattered clouds. Later on it warmed up enough to be longsleeve shirt/sweater weather but, when a cloud passed in front of the sun, it was Jacket Time!
The other range we got to use on Sunday was nicer too.
One of our Sat. shooters, Ed, showed up wearing his mud covered jacket from the day before expecting more mud. :cool2:
With the better weather and sunny skies the shooters were progessing nicely. The young'ns were running down to the target line to check thier scores! :~
A photographer from Bakersfield College come over and talked to Camljr and ended up doing a story on our shoot. And we didn't even plan it!
The AQT grind was having the desired effect! ~~:)
By the end of the day we had a few shooters close to a rifleman score and four who "knew what they were about"
Huzzah, Huzzah, Huzzah to Robert, Freeman, Pete and Jeff our 4 Riflemen of the weekend! ^:)^ ^:)^ ^:)^ ^:)^
I think this ended up being a great shoot. :bow:
Free publicity, 7th stepping by some of our shooters brought other folks out to the shoot, a few folks from the gunshow came out, we ended up with 4 Riflemen and lots of improvement by all.
I can't wait for the next one.
Now to talk to the range owner. @@) April maybe?
Steve out
More pics.
008. That's not dandruff on those rifles! :o
009. " "
010. SleepsInProne (IIT)/ prone shooters
011. BP/Moose (IIT'S)/ prone shooters
012. Do not shoot the barricade in the middle of a shooting range! ::) Yeah Right! >:D :~ :--- :~ :---
014. Me/BP/Moose & prone shooters
015. Camljr 1st/2nd strike
016 ""
017. Camljr 1st/2nd strike
018. "
019. "
020. Me 3rd strike ::)
021. Don't shoot, I'll tell it better next time! ~~:) &) ;)
025. Natalie (?)
028. Ed and his muddy jacket
029. Sun AM redcoats
030. Cam- Dangerous Old Men
031. Sunday Lunch - Absorbing Heritage
032 " "
034. AQT grind ~~:) &) (isn't this why we became instructors in the 1st place?) >:D LOL J/K :D kind of.
035. Josh
036. David
037. Jeff/ Nadia
038. Prone shooters grinding away @ AQT's
039. Jenna & her brother (name?)
040. Do these toes look like they're digging in? Isn't that a variation of phone prone?
041. Rifleman Robert
042. Rifleman Freeman
043. Rifleman Jeff
045. Rifleman Pete
046. Instructors and Riflemen
048. Sundays Group