History was made for the Appleseed Project in Leadville, Colorado.
Denver, down on the plains is known as the "Mile High City". But Leadville is nearly 2 miles high!
Nestled among the high peaks, The Leadville Rod and Gun Club hosted their first Appleseed.
This is the highest elevation Appleseed shoot to date!
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The Leadville Rod and Gun Club shooting range is just under 10,200 feet!
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The 14,433' peak of Mt Elbert (in clouds), the highest peak in Colorado forms the back drop of the shooting range.
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Mt Elbert, left skyline and Mt Massive, 14,421' with Colorado Mountain College in the upper left background.
This range is literally at the edge of town!
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Leadville's colorful history began in 1860 with the discovery of gold south of town, which makes 2011 the 151st anniversary of the Gold Rush.
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Fortunes were made from the rich mineral deposits of the area, and legends were built from the colorful people who made Leadville their home.
But its last great resurgence came in 1918 with the opening of the massive Climax Molybdenum Mine north of Leadville. It employed more than 3,000 workers, and supplied half of the world's molybdenum.
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Today, Leadville has preserved an astounding amount of its history and a yearly Boom Days event in August to celebrate it all.
A big thanks to Colorado State Cooridinators Jim and Kim Heath (oneshot_onehole and Prone to Knit) who worked tirelessly with Ron Valentine of the Leadville Rod and Gun Club to make this fantastic shoot a reality.
more to come....
Shooters arrive on time and start the registration process. Kim (Prone to Knit) and Danny (Skinner) man the registration table.
High in the thin cold air, name tags and sun screen are applied.
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Shoot Boss (Alan-Long Rifle)with the initial meeting. Check out the scenery!
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Jim (oneshot_onehole) starts the Safety briefing.
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Before the first Redcoat target on Saturday was shot, the local fox checked it out.
The Redcoat target answers that eternal question: What is my effective range?
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So many wonderful shooters showed up for this historic event that we had to clear a swath for a few more shooting lanes.
Here Danny (Skinner) clears a swath colonial style. We ran 2 separate events but met for lunch as a group for the heritage portions.
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Shooters! Proceed downrange to check your targets! Peter (MtnManPrepper) watches the line.
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more to come....
Shooters in prone position while Skinner, Long Rifle and Crazy Tim instruct on the line.
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Shooters in sitting position. Skinner, Long Rifle Crazy Tim and MtnManPrepper instruct the line.
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Skinner giving Mike great tips for the kneeling position. Mike shot Rifleman later in the day!
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Shooters in the standing position.
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A huge tailings ridge made the backstop for this range.
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It started raining by afternoon.
Shooters shot the last Redcoat of the day in a cold hard rain.
Way to hang tough guys!
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That is very cool. I've been to Leadville among other places in CO on vacation. Next time I am in Colorado I will try and plan on being there for a shoot.
Wonderful pictures, TaosGlock! This was one of those special shoots and will long be remembered. We completely filled two lines with 30 people from this community of under 2700 people (Do you realize that about 1% of the population from Leadville was there?). Down on our range there was barely room between the 15 students (7 of them kids) to squeeze in between them to coach so we got cozy.
This shoot had a true partnership between the range and Appleseed. The range president, Ron, worked hard to get the word out and provided a table for us at the annual gun show three weeks prior to the shoot. He's already asked us to come back next June and August.
A big thank you goes out to Long Rifle, TaosGlock, Skinner, MtnManPrepper, CrazyTim, ColoradoPete and BulletEngineer for all your enthusiastic assistance on the line. We made a big impact on this community.
Our students were amazing in their stick-to-it attitudes. Families were having a lot of fun and the kids thought it was a blast! Our youngest shooter was 5.
We look forward to getting back to Leadville next year.
Kim
Jim and Kim Heath
CO State Coordinators
By Sunday we started making Riflemen!
Congrats to Ron, Erich, Derrick and Mike.
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And to Jake! These are men-Riflemen, who know what they are all about!
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Kids got Patriot Patches for hanging tough for 2 long days.
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Above, oneshot_onehole awards them with their patches.
These young shooters are shown below amid some of the Riflemen, L-R: Ella, Luke, Rohan, BO and Steven
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Good job guys!
Today, these young folks are our "posterity".
John Adams said about posterity, meaning at that time all of us, "and I paraphrase, "Posterity, if you ever forget the sacrifices we made to secure your liberties, we will repent in heaven that we ever made the effort".
We at the Appleseed Project, shooters and staff alike, will never "forget"!
Long Rifle amid the Flags of our Founders. They represent blood shed for our liberties. Do you know the story behind them? Come to an Appleseed and find out!
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Winners of our Star shoot get flags for a prize. A 3 man team shoots as many rounds as possible into a Star target for 60 seconds. Winner is the team that shoots out the most of their star. The main Star body is about 4 minutes of angle. Do you know how many inches that is at 500 yards? Or at 25 yards where it was shot? Come to an Appleseed to find out.
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more later....
Leadville's historical cast of colorful characters include such names as "Soapy Smith", "Chicken Bill" Lovell, "Buffalo Bill", "Broken Nose" Scotty, Doc Holliday, "Unsinkable" Molly Brown and "Baby Doe" Tabor.
Our "colorful cast" of instructors along with Ron Valentine are L-R top:
BulletEngineer, oneshot_onehole, Prone to Knit, Long Rifle (Shoot Boss), Ron Valentine (President, LRGC) , TaosGlock and MtnManPrepper.
L-R bottom:
Skinner, Crazy Tim, ColoradoPete.
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Long Rifle gives some final words at the Benediction.
The weekend was spent learning colonial names like Captain John Parker, Captain Isaac Davis, Sam Whittemore, Jason Russell, General William Heath, Paul Revere, John Adams and many others.
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Great pictures! Leadville has eye-popping scenery around it. We'll be back....
We've received some very nice emails from participants:
"Kim,
I have never seen such a group of humble and dedicated instructors. The personal commitment to teaching correctly and immediately reacting in a positive way to any criticism was impressive. I really appreciate the fact that they kept it a "family show". I can see why you and Jim are committed to this. Thanks for letting the Club have an opportunity to support the Appleseed Project. I will approach the club about two shoots next year, one in June and one in August.
Ron"
"Hi Jim and Kim,
I just wanted to say thank you both. Bo and I had a great time. We will definitely recommend this course to our family and friends. Please tell the rest of your team thank you also especially ColoradoPete and Danny as we appreciate the one on one teaching. I can not tell you how much Bo enjoyed the class and I am really pleased that he learned so much about the safety needed around guns. Hopefully the next email we send will be a picture of a rewarding hunting season. We even passed on some information to my husband Matt who has been hunting for over 30 years and learned from Appleseed. Thanks again and hope to see you in Leadville or hopefully in another Appleseed in Colorado. Bo has a goal to earn that Rifleman's badge. Kudos to all. Your friends in the High Mountians of Leadville, CO
Thanks,
Veronica"
Danny is Skinner on the forum - he's our newest red hat.
Instructors, we're making a difference in a very positive way. Keep up the good fight!
Kim
Jim and Kim Heath
CO State Coordinators
TG - GREAT pictures! BEAUTIFUL country!
Good lookin Appleseeders as well. ::)
Makes me want to plan a vacation around the next Appleseed at
"THE WORLD'S HIGHEST APPLESEED".
By the way - when is the next AS at Leadville?
OG stuck in WI
Old Glory!
The very tentative dates for Leadville, CO shoots next year are June 23-24 and August 25-26.
We and the president agreed on these dates but they still need to go before their board for final approval. Keep in mind it could change.
Kim
Jim and Kim Heath
CO State Coordinators