This past weekend found 11 Appleseeders on the the line at the Dewitt County Sportsman's Club, ready to shake the rust off after a long, cold Illinois winter. Amongst them were two fathers and sons, and a couple of husband-wife teams. Over half of them were registered as Saturday-only shooters.
Ewald, an IIT, signed up to work the event. Since he had not shot his Rifleman's score yet, I encouraged him to just plan on shooting, in order to get him over this hurdle. He shot well on Saturday, and got a 220 on the AQT that afternoon. Congratulations Ewald! With his patch in hand, he put on his orange hat and took on instructor's duties on Sunday. Good job.
Kendall, an Appleseed veteran, had not yet achieved the coveted 210+ score. He shot well all day Saturday and Sunday, with 4-8 MOA groups. On the last AQT of the day on Sunday, in spite of gusting 30 mph winds, his Point of Aim and Point of Impact finally coincided. The 218 score earned him a well deserved green patch.
A.R., the youngest member of Team Wurstmacher, accompanied dad and brother Oddball to the shoot. She stuck with it through all the courses of fire and achieved a 170 something, her highest AQT score yet. ^:)^ Way to go Abigail! She even volunteered to dummy for position demonstrations. We've got an orange hat, in your size, whenever you are ready. ~~:)
Thank you to our host Ed. It was nice to have a warm lunch available and a warm place to retreat from the howling wind.
We met up with the crew from the Danville Appleseed for supper on Saturday night. It was nice to see you guys.
Another excellent Report Team Illinois!!!
Kendall, welcome into the rank of Rifleman! I hope you consider passing on your Skills to others! O0
Ewald! I just gave you a Blue hat and now you want an Orange!!! CONGRATS ON RIFLEMAN PATCH You have been bustin' you tail to get it ! O0 ^:)^ ^:)^ ^:)^ ^:)^
AR!!!! Congrats on achieving your Highest score yet ^:)^ ^:)^ ^:)^
This year is really starting to shape up!! GO ILLINOIS!!
Yay Kendall! No longer a cook.
You guys don't know how tough it is for him to live with me and my green and blue rifleman patches.. hee hee hee. >:D
He said he really enjoyed it and you guys did a great job.
I'm sorry I missed it. I had signed up but decide to stay home and keep my cold virus to myself. :-\
It was a good weekend. It is nice area around Clinton with a lot of friendly people. Out_of_Ammo came to help us set up, tear down, in the morning and worked the line on both afternoons. He would of spent more time at the shoot but he was busy seventh stepping. Meeting up with the Danville crew for dinner put the bigger picture on the weekend. (George is a very good shot, especially when laughing with a mouth full of food. ;D)
The weather Saturday was nice enough to make me wish I had put on sun screen in the afternoon. The Saturday only shooters were engaged and seemed to have a good time. They had family and church commitments for Sunday. I think we will see them again. It is always good to see families.
Sunday morning was cold and damp, but the team soldiered on. The sun came out in the afternoon, but so did the wind. Kendall was knocking on the door, so we kept up the AQT grind in the afternoon. Great job Kendall!
I left the camera behind on Saturday, but here is a few pics from Sunday:
(http://i570.photobucket.com/albums/ss149/Ewald42/Cliton%20IL%20AS%203-20-11/th_P3200073.jpg) (http://s570.photobucket.com/albums/ss149/Ewald42/Cliton%20IL%20AS%203-20-11/?action=view¤t=P3200073.jpg)
Oddball presenting Kendall with his Rifleman patch.
(http://i570.photobucket.com/albums/ss149/Ewald42/Cliton%20IL%20AS%203-20-11/th_P3200070.jpg) (http://s570.photobucket.com/albums/ss149/Ewald42/Cliton%20IL%20AS%203-20-11/?action=view¤t=P3200070.jpg)
The Sunday team.
Now on to the personal. Garand, you do know that blue hat is suburban camouflage right? I PMed Wurstmacher before the shoot, and told him I was his newly minted Blue Hat. He replied, "What's a Blue Hat?" Seriously the last year and a half has been a rough one for me personally. Nothing wrong with being a clerk, but it was good to finally get that score out of the way. Now I'm a rifleman and a clerk. This was a great team to do it with.
Special thanks to the entire Wurstmacher clan for making me feel welcome, leaving me be, and letting me put it together on Saturday. Thank you to M1D and Gravy for covering things in N IL so I could come downstate this weekend. Finally a very big thank you to Pappy for encouraging me.
Congratulations, Ewald! My fancy blue hat just made ya' jealous, didn't it? ;) I've seen you in action - I know you're doing the work of a Blue Hat and doing it well. I look forward to seeing you again soon - whether you're wearing your blue hat or your orange one. O0
Josh and I had a BLAST at the Clinton shoot this past Saturday. Josh improved as a shooter at LEAST 200% He was really zinging them in there by the end of the day! I'm totally hooked on Appleseed! Wurstmacher did a fine job as shoot boss, and the one-on-one attention Oddball gave Josh was what helped him become a better shot! Thanks again guys! Keep up the GREAT work!
We're trying to figure out which Illinois shoot to go to in April. We're gonna bring the whole gang this time. I just bought 2 new rifles for the fam to shoot this Summer! I got one Marlin 795 and I got another 10/22 with an adjustable Car Stock for Josh. I think he'll REALLY improve with a rifle that's his size. I think even Big Momma's gonna shoot. She'll be the prettiest thing on the range I'm sure! :D It should be a real fun time!
Here's a pic of Josh from the Clinton shoot on April 18th:
(http://comstox.com/galleryfull/iszd/Josh_at_Appleseed_Shoot.jpg)
All for now!
Glen Comstock
Lincoln, IL
Congratulations Ewald. Great shooting.