This wasn't your regular Appleseed!
Right off the bat, our range was only 52 feet long, we had the range for only 3-4 hours for each of the two days that we were there and everyone was limited to single shot bolt action rifles. But as we all know Riflemen adapt, improvise and overcome.
How we got invited to the BSA Winter Camp is a story best told by TnColonel, as he invested a great deal of work to get us there.
We knew that we had to make some changes to our normal COI, so we fashioned a introductory "mini-seed" spread over two days. We split the team in two with part giving the introductory and safety sessions at the lodge while the rest of us prepped the range. We were using the BSA single-shot bolt action Savage Mk1 that were still in the box. The Williams peep (circle in a circle) sights were still in bubble wrap and everything was covered in cosmoline. We assembled the rifles and sighted them in to save time.
Our first Redcoat targets showed us that we had our work cut out for us. Three or four seemed to have handled a rifle before, but the rest were a clean slate. Our focus the first day was prone steady hold factors, the 6 Steps and shooting "squares" to bring groups down to size. As the sun was setting that first day, we finished our second Redcoat. Twice as many now were at least scoring 100 yd with at least couple in each of the other distances. The scouts and the history part of the team went back to the lodge for the strikes and Scout badge work while the rest of us cleaned and secured the range.
The sun rose early the next morning, with cloudy skies, wind but a little warmer. Again, we divided and conquered with TnColonel, RamblinWreck and Big Gear giving the Three Strikes to a group of troop scoutmasters and the range crew reset the range and worked out the kinks in a few of the new rifles. Our AM Redcoat showed that the improvement was not a fluke and was actually better than the previous PM Redcoat.
We ran a few "squares" to get the scouts used to standing and sitting positions and then began running the scouts through the green AQT targets. We opted for these and not the full AQT since we were shooting closer than 25m and using single-shot bolt actions. We had one scout shoot a 212 and several others were above 190.
All in all, this was a great exposure to Appleseed for these scouts and gave them a great base of learning & experience that they will be able to use for their Rifle Merit Badge. We expect to see many of these scouts on AS lines soon.
Another happy happening was RamblinWreck passed his IPC this event and took his red hat. Congratulations Ben!
And now, the pictures. I'll include a few here, but all 250 pictures that BigGear took can be seen at http://photobucket.com/Nosbisch-BSA-Winter2011-Appleseed (http://photobucket.com/Nosbisch-BSA-Winter2011-Appleseed)
The 2011 BSA Winter Camp Appleseed Crew!
(http://i1202.photobucket.com/albums/bb366/Nosbisch/Appleseed/BSA%20Boxwell%20Winter%20Appleseed%202011/_BSA2895.jpg)
Instruction Begins!
(http://i1202.photobucket.com/albums/bb366/Nosbisch/Appleseed/BSA%20Boxwell%20Winter%20Appleseed%202011/_BSA2748.jpg)
Learning the Loop Sling
(http://i1202.photobucket.com/albums/bb366/Nosbisch/Appleseed/BSA%20Boxwell%20Winter%20Appleseed%202011/_BSA2802.jpg)
Attentive Scouts Learning the Sitting Position
(http://i1202.photobucket.com/albums/bb366/Nosbisch/Appleseed/BSA%20Boxwell%20Winter%20Appleseed%202011/_BSA2920.jpg)
And Doing
(http://i1202.photobucket.com/albums/bb366/Nosbisch/Appleseed/BSA%20Boxwell%20Winter%20Appleseed%202011/_BSA2931.jpg)
Red Looks Good on RamblinWreck
(http://i1202.photobucket.com/albums/bb366/Nosbisch/Appleseed/BSA%20Boxwell%20Winter%20Appleseed%202011/_BSA2973.jpg)
Pictures taken by BigGear of ScoutSeed at Boxwell Reservation. Thanks Big Gear.
http://s1202.photobucket.com/albums/bb366/Nosbisch/Appleseed/BSA%20Boxwell%20Winter%20Appleseed%202011/ (http://s1202.photobucket.com/albums/bb366/Nosbisch/Appleseed/BSA%20Boxwell%20Winter%20Appleseed%202011/)
Ramblinwreck
Congratulations, Ramblinweck.
That Red Hat sure looks good on you.
Keep up the good work.
Theophilus and Joni
Thanks Theophilus, I kind of like the look of it as well. :)
Ramblinwreck
Awesome Job Folks,
How did you(AS) meet the necessary pre-requisites, to be able to do this with BSA?
Here in Fl we can not seem to get around the red Tape, to get these boys on the line.
First We :)then ;) :bow: @@) :pop: ~~:)then it all seemed #) :wb: :wall: :slap: :DH: :bomb:so :sos:would be O0
Thanks,
Congratulations and Well Done! It is great to have another RH in GA. I hope to join your ranks soon.
Steve
SLY223,
You'd have to ask TnColonel how he got it approved. We actually only had about 8 hours total over 2 days but we got some enormous exposure and the scouts made some impressive progress. DM TnColonel and maybe he can fill you in.
Ramblinwreck
Congrats to RamblinWreck on that RH! Well done!!! O0 :bow:
Great job with the logistics of two, very short days to get so much accomplished. Congrats on that and to the scout who was able to shoot the 212 score! O0
PM inbound to TnColonel. ;)
Quote from: Sly223 on January 01, 2012, 10:30:15 AM
Awesome Job Folks,
How did you(AS) meet the necessary pre-requisites, to be able to do this with BSA?
Here in Fl we can not seem to get around the red Tape, to get these boys on the line.
First We :)then ;) :bow: @@) :pop: ~~:)then it all seemed #) :wb: :wall: :slap: :DH: :bomb:so :sos:would be O0
Thanks,
Shouldn't have been too difficult. Single shot .22s only and instructors need to BSA/NRA approved. Venture Crews have much more latitude in the shooting sports. We put on a Venturing shooting events several years ago and had all sorts of firearms on the line.
The instruction the boys received at the AS event was probably better than any they would have received thru BSA.
RR
One thing that might have helped the BSA agree (again you'll have to ask TnColonel) is that I am an NRA Certified Instructor and a BSA Certified Merit Badge Counselor for rifle shooting. We tried doing a couple of classroom requirements for the merit badge but it was short. I would not recommend trying to do that in the future. If nothing else promote the program as an intro to Appleseed (shooting and history) or to only those scouts that already have the rifle shooting merit badge. They said over 5 times as many scouts applied for the shoot as we had spaces to put them on the line. You will not get BSA to waive the bolt gun requirement to do a real Appleseed even if they have the range distance to do so.
Ramblinwreck