AAR PHARR, TX April 16-17, 2011
We had a nice, safe shoot in Deep South Texas. The Pharr Gun Club range was perfect for this event and I thank BDG for his efforts in getting this shoot on the calendar. We had 10 shooters on Saturday. Every shooter was present and on the line by 8:32AM - very impressive to me. We had several shooters that had been at the first AS here in January as well as some that were new to shooting. EyeQ called the line on Saturday AM and BDG, EyeQ and myself took turns instructing.
Ashley, 10 years old, had never held a rifle before. Dad had bought Mossberg 702s for them the day before (Ashley had a pink one), but once the shooting started it was determined that the length of pull was a bit too long for Ashley (she'll grow into it).
I ended up having the fore end or her rifle on sandbags while she shot. I worked with her most of the day Saturday. The other challenge Ashley had was hearing protection. The ones she was wearing were not sealing properly. I didn't know this until the first shots were fired and she reacted covering her ears. Her first moments behind the rifle were not pleasant for her because her safety glasses prevented her hearing protection (earmuff style) from sealing and that exposed her to the bark of a nearby AR carbine and a M1A. "OW, OW, OW". Throughout the morning we kept searching for earplugs that would work for her and ultimately we found some that would allow her to participate and I convinced her the .22LR recoil would not hurt her. I also decided to move people around on the line. Normally I would have put centerfires together initially but with 3 children each in the 10 years old range I let experienced shooter fathers remain near their children in the morning and this worked well enough at first for the other children. After lunch I moved Ashley and her father to the far left of the line and adjusted all the other shooters to the right.
Despite our best effort we didn't get to an AQT on Saturday. :wall: We saved the reading of the fallen during "Hits Count" drill until the end of the day. 3 shooters did make the head shot, but no one cleaned it.
Sunday morning we had 8 shooters return. I offered my two Ruger LTRs to Ashley and Ruben and they accepted. I called the line while EyeQ took over working with Ashley and BDG floated on the line. We had a jackrabbit visit the line just prior to the first redcoat, but he wisely departed before the course of fire began. BDG discovered that Ashley was having an eye dominance issue, something I missed on Saturday. Once her dominant left eye was covered and she understood how to use the Tech sights she suddenly was on target. I don't think I've seen a bigger smile on a little girl recently. :~ She had gone from scared to fire her first shot on Saturday to shooting in the center of silhouettes. I was pleased that it only took one square target on Sunday for the shooters to verify zero prior to AQTs. In the end the shooters fired at 6 AQTs on Sunday. The high score was by Steve with his AR carbine at 184, but the stock wide front sight post (wider than the Stage 4 silhouettes) kept hindering his efforts on that stage. Greg and Steve definitely displayed the skill that day to become rifleman, but it didn't come together for them.
I gave a hardcover copy of Paul Revere's ride as a prize to Greg for having the best results on the final Sunday redcoat target.
The shooters really seemed to enjoy this event and were looking forward to future events here. Some are considering shooting at nearby Corpus Christi as well.
Next up - pics...
Pics...
The "P" in Pharr had a wardrobe malfunction.
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BDG tells the 1st Strike
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Sitting demo. BDG explains while EyeQ models.
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Sunday
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"It's just a cute lil' bunny, isn't it?"
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A pile of persistence.
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Good Shoot, Good Rabbit ... No place but, Pharr. ;D
Good job Instructors and Shooters alike. I like the pile of persistence.
There's a story there somewhere. It began April 19, 1775 O0
And, today, Americans all over are still making the choice to make a difference.
Thanks, Steve for the pics.
POP
got my pics uploaded at the usual location: http://kevinramsey.com/gallery/main.php?g2_itemId=25372
Here's a few. I didn't take as many as usual... :(
"Add album to cart" in top left then "Download as Zip" in top right if you wish to download the entire photoset.
(http://kevinramsey.com/gallery/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=25386) (http://kevinramsey.com/gallery/main.php?g2_itemId=25385)
(http://kevinramsey.com/gallery/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=25388) (http://kevinramsey.com/gallery/main.php?g2_itemId=25387)
(http://kevinramsey.com/gallery/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=25390) (http://kevinramsey.com/gallery/main.php?g2_itemId=25389)
good job instructors.