50-60% chance of rain both days with high winds, I am thinking instructor shoot. A Friday night call by Andrew indicating he was bringing 10 other fellow military and I was feeling better. Thank you sir for organizing this outing for them. I knew at least they would show up, but also 11 other non-military shooters were there. ^:)^
Adverse weather shoots are my favorite. I always remember them and attendees come because they WANT to be there.
Saturday weather was little rain, Sunday was muddy with intermittent showers. The line looked like a pig wallow at the end of the day and my boots felt like concrete blocks. Sunday evening I was smiling and would do it again next weekend.
Two Riflemen Saturday, Andrew and Daniel; one Sunday, Joe (came from Plano since Dallas area sold out. His sister Su is part of DIVA-WOW in DFW, and Joe better stay sharp because she is getting it). He can show the crew up there the AS challenge coin AC Rodger gives Fredericksburg Riflemen and Women. Hope it made the five hour trip worth it. I also awarded Joe a winterseed patch. 41.9 degrees in rainy conditions, wearing rubber boots in mud slick as snot, he deserved it.
Hector, you are close, another box of ammunition would have done it. Gabby, Andrew's sister, learned quickly and put together nice groups by the end of the weekend.
To Sergeant Phil and his crew, we hope to see you again. It was truly an honor to work with your crew and you can be proud of their progress, it was outstanding. Their rifle handling capabilities noticeably improved over the weekend.
Hope to see all of you on the trail. Dry Fire! :~
P.S. I met M1 Garand thumb's brother Sunday while doing ball n dummy, SKS thumb. Yes, it hurt.
I am sorry to have missed the second day but I got sick and was coughing my head off on Saturday night and still on Sunday when I got up. I'll be back though since I have a Rifleman Opportunity Card. I'll just keep my eyes open to see when the schedule is updated for Fredericksburg.
Stace
I'm sorry to have wimped out on Sunday. There must have been something going around because I also woke up Sunday with a sore throat and coughing. Being out in the wet, cold weather wouldn't have been good.
Plan to do lots of dry firing until the next one.
Also, congrats to Joe for making Rifleman with iron sights.
I really, REALLY needed this shoot... Something about being in the company of fellow Riflemen and making new ones just puts my soul on-center.
We had a great bunch of shooters, who stuck it out through nasty conditions and improved their skills a lot. Had a neat variety of rifles on the line, from the sweet FALs on the left, to the mud-encrusted M1, to the M1A that provided soothing muzzle blast during "ball & dummy", to the array of high-end target .22s the UT ROTC crew brought.
Thanks to all for making this a wonderful time, and the local Fredericksburg crew is always top-notch! And especially to Rodger for the warm lodging, the FBG challenge coin tradition, and the usual inter-service rivalry abuse. Hope your thumb is feeling better, Dragit... It's one thing to smash a thumb, but doing it in cold weather and still holding your tongue is superhuman.
My usual photo dump gallery (click on thumbnails to enlarge):
http://www.ebfulton.com/appleseed/FBG_12-3-11/ (http://www.ebfulton.com/appleseed/FBG_12-3-11/)
Gotta go now, and finish cleaning mud off stuff.
Fredericksburg's a very special place; sorry I had to miss this one--this work thing sure does get in the way of the important things $$-0
The weather conditions were miserable. :( Two wolves wanted to go lay by his warm and dry, ::) cozy fire he had abandoned on Saturday morning. But no, ~~:) instead I find myself standing in the cold, damp, windy mourning, (soon to be cold, wet, muddy and sloppy) wondering who, if anyone would show. Then the cars started coming. ^:)^ They came from all over the state of Texas. Plano, Comfort, Dripping Springs, San Antonio, Spring Branch, New Braunfels, Kerrville, and Austin are the cities I can recall. O0 If you're not from Texas you might not realize that these cities are up to 5 hours away.
Having said that,( now where ++) have I heard that phrase before?) Thank you to all for coming. Congratulations to our newest riflemen, Andrew, Daniel and Joe. O0 To A.J. and Nate, fix your equipment issues :wb: and there'll be an Appleseed coin in your pocket. Randy, what can I say---oops. ??? Hey Larry, is there an Appleseed friendly gun on that Christmas list? ;)
A warm welcome to the University of Texas (hook'em horns) :~ ROTC group. And a special thanks to :cool2: Sergeant Phil, U.S.M.C. for his leadership and dedication. You're going to make a great Officer.
Now, having said that, (have I heard this before?) lets get on to the pictures. It is going to take several uploads to get them all here. :pop:
Peace on Earth and Merry Christmas to all, Two Wolves.
More:
More;
More!!!!
Here is the group picture in full resolution if you want to print it. Thank you all for looking.
Till next time----------
Really cool pics!
What is that target rifle a couple of the people were using?
TxBob, hopefully Tommy or Evert will respond to your querry. What I can tell you is they are not what I call an Appleseed friendly rifle. They were bolt action single shot (load'em one at a time) rifles. Regards, Two Wolves
That mysterious man in the blue-hat sure is a ringer for another well known celebrity. :cool2:
I didn't catch the make/model on those rifles, but they're typical aperture-sighted .22 target types like you see in NRA smallbore shooting. In good condition, they should just about put every shot through the same hole at 25 yds off a rest. (Who shoots off a rest, anyway?!) They also had some high-end .177 pellet rifles, some made by Walther. They had enough .22s so they didn't have to mess with the airguns. Not really an AS rifle, but the fundamentals still apply. "Learn to shoot whatever rifle you brung!"
I liked how the UT crew would swap rifles to get exposure to several different types. It's one thing to learn to shoot a rifle, but far better to learn to shoot them all!
Perhaps the rifles were an Anschutz target rifle? Super accurate, smallbore, single shot rifles?