The weather in Amarillo was perfect for an Appleseed. Sunny ( not too hot ), clear and calm. Sleepy Joe, Groundhog and I arrived at the range to find everything set up and ready.
Six shooters for Saturday, four shooters on Sunday. All shot very well, the four who shot both days shot Rifleman scores. Congratulations to Paul for shooting 246 on the first AQT!
I had a great time at Amarillo, and want to thank the Amarillo Rifle and Pistol Club, especially Paul and Jeff. This is a great facility.
I want to thank you and your crew Dad! Paul and I both had a great time, I know I learned alot and I think he did as well. We are looking forward to doing it again...soon and will probably attend a shoot someplace else as well.
At the end of the first day I missed Rifleman three times in a row, by a pretty slim margin for the most part. It was very disappointing. I felt though that it was mainly an issue of being tired after being in the sun all day---so I quit, not wanting to get disgusted with myself or my gear!
Came back Sunday morning and fired a 227 on the first target, shot 5 more and a 220 was the lowest, a 237 my best. It almost became easy....I had plenty of time on every stage, usually being empty and cleared well before the buzzer.
My next personal goal is to shoot a Rifleman score with the old H&R Trainer....It's a neat old rifle and certainly accurate enough.
We had a good group of shooters. I wish we had more and next time we will....I will be working with the Club on possibly designating our range as an Appleseed Range and also purchasing some LTR's. We are thinking that we can tap into the local JR. ROTC programs....those kids won't have rifles of their own for the most part but whatever we can do to get them going...we will. Have a few other ideas, we'll see.....
I still think you could have found a point to knock off of Groundhogs' score somewhere.....We don't have any water in the creek right now but we DO have a lovely crop of poison ivy there.... ;D
Will, we've seen than happen a lot. The first day is long and tough when you haven't been doing the position shooting and position changes already. Lot's of frustration during the last couple hours of day 1 followed by exhiliration the morning of day 2.
Now, have you considered helping others get to where you went this weekend? It's well worth the effort to see that smile you had on your face lighting up someone elses face when they shoot their way over that hump.
Dad,
Many thanks for you, Sleepy Joe and Groundhog for putting on the Appleseed. Will (Jeff) has been the prime mover in promoting the program and now that we've attended one we both see a lot of potential for it locally. As he mentioned I learned some very useful information that filled in some blanks in my (generally self-taught) education, and the format (total rounds expended >550!) gave plenty practice to apply the lessons. I also found out why asprin/ibuprofen is on the recommended list of things to bring.
I joined RWVA this morning and spent some spare time downloading Fred's Instructor's Guide, the Biz Cards, the LTR flyer (Will is pricing out rifles now), and a couple of advertising flyers. I'll be supporting Will's proposals at the next Club Exective Committee meeting (in two weeks) and once we get a plan firmed up we'll be working on becoming RWVA Instructors. I look forward to working with you again.
Paul (ashrn03)