In glorious weather the Appleseed Project furthered the cause of liberty and marksmanship in an exemplary manner over the weekend. With a wide range of ages and experience on the line, the morning began with the usual confusion of checking in with liability waivers, range fees, tee shirts and chamber flags and all the usual hubbub of getting the train started. The safety briefing was first and before long we were testing our marksmanship on the Hits Count! or Redcoat target. With a chill in the air reminiscent of a certain April morning in New England over 237 years ago, we began the process of marksmanship improvement. The trinity of solid position, natural point of aim, and the six steps was explained and demonstrated and our students started down the road to becoming skilled with their rifles. Inches-minutes-clicks started making the business of sighting in a rifle a precision endeavor and not a guessing game. Our heritage as Americans was explored at lunch and individuals such as Captain John Parker and Jonathan Herrington were remembered. The afternoon flew by with the fire hose of information turned on full blast. As the first day wound down the fabled AQT was introduced and we actually had time to attempt that challenge twice before quitting for the day. While there were no new Riflemen revealed on Saturday, vast progress was made and the prospects for Sunday looked pretty good.
With a few less people on the line and with everyone fully up to speed on the basics, the morning was spent with lots of individual attention and the sounds of "you're dragging wood", "dancing trigger finger", "get your elbow under the rifle", "pull your knee up", etc. etc. etc. were heard--repeatedly and persistently. Perhaps not so remarkably our students with absolutely no rifle experience made amazing strides and by the end of the day showed outstanding scores on the AQT. What we teach works! In the afternoon we took a few students over to the 100 yard line and they were able to see that what we taught at 25 meters also worked at 100 yards. I will let the other instructors fill in the details of the known distance line. At the end of the day we had one new Rifleman who turned in a score of 210. Matt, I hope you didn't mind the baptism of cold water from under the North Bridge. Maybe that new Rifleman patch took some of the shock out of that dousing! You did good. Now we need a matching patch for your lovely bride Melony. To our two exchange students Dieneta and Johanne, teenagers from Latvia and Norway, you guys were truly a pleasure to teach and obviously the lessons were taken to heart as your 195 and 205 scores on the AQT, achieved at your very first Appleseed, were nothing less than remarkable. Ed, I am glad you finally got your rifle working and I look forward to awarding you a Riflemen patch in the future. By the way, we found a black bag of rifle cleaning supplies and .22 ammo that we think might belong to you. It was put away in the building on the action pistol range so it should be waiting for you. With the price of ammo being what it is, we briefly considered auctioning off the ammo and taking a cruise to the Caribbean but we did the right thing instead and saved your ammo for you to practice with. Martha, I will be glad to help you get your new rifle into shape for you. Stick with it and you will become a expert shot. Malcolm, that heavy green stocked rifle looked pretty good in your hands. I am a little bit sorry I had to take it back. And Aaron, I really want to thank you for bringing such a fine group of people with you to this Appleseed. George, you were inspirational as you kept on trucking with that bolt gun, open sights and all. Kerry, I look forward to seeing you again at the next shoot in Bunnell. Susan, you have the right attitude, just keep after it and you will earn the coveted Rifleman status. If anyone is missing a small black knitted glove, I know where it is and all you have to do is respond and I will get your glove back to you. To everybody, the key to improvement is not practice as practice simply makes for permanent; it is "perfect practice". Doing 10 minutes a day of perfect practice dry firing "by the numbers" and practicing your positions, transitions, reloads, and sling use will do wonders. I hope to see every one of you again soon.
This is the first of what will be several posts, but I wanted to get the group picture taken on Sunday afternoon up to show that there are still a number of people who would rather learn about shooting and heritage than the overhyped football game. Note the two young ladies in the front row who attended both days and were knocking on the door of shooting Riflewoman - even though they had never shot before the weekend. They were exchange students from Norway and Latvia. They will certainly have some stories about true Americans when they go back home...
More pictures from the shoot. If any of the shooters would like a higher quality version of the picture(s), just pm me and I will send you a link to the full size high resolution version.
Please feel free to add captions as appropriate.
If you were not at the shoot, do you know what the potato chip in some of the pictures is for?
More Pictures from Bunnell....
last group of my pictures from Bunnell...
What an amazing weekend. I just wanted to thank everyone for a wonderful time. It was such an eye opening experience. I can't wait to do this again.