The range at Marion faces directly east. Early Saturday morning, the sun rose clear and bright over the trees behind the 400 yd line and foreshadowed a great Appleseed weekend. This was our second visit to Meeker Sportsman Center in Marion this year and it looked to be a great weekend.
Our shooters arrived on time and all seemed excited to get started. Before we knew it, the welcome, the safety briefing and the Red Coat instructions were done and we were sending rounds down range. This was very much a family affair. We had Grandfather, Father and Grandson groups, father/son groups and moms watching son's learning rifle marksmanship.
After some struggles sorting out rifle, sling and sight issues, instructions commenced on steady hold factors, the six steps, NPOA and IMC. Lunch and the first strike were followed by seated, off-hand and transitions. The second strike was covered during the afternoon break and before the shooting was done for the day, we had completed a practice AQT and several live AQT's. Didn't make any Riflemen on Saturday but progress was evident.
The third strike and closing comments were shared and the day ended on a very high note.
We were a much smaller group on Sunday as most of our shooters had only signed up for one day. While smaller on Sunday, it was a dedicated group. There was no AQT grind since by lunch, everybody on the line had shot Rifleman. We moved on to the KD lecture at lunch and spent the rest of the day shooting at distance with centerfires and all of the instructors and orange hats got some rare trigger time.
RPD had the pleasure of presenting his son with his Rifleman patch and I had the honor to presenting him with his Orange Hat. He really didn't have any choice, his Dad and brother are Red Hats and his Mom has her patch (earned on her first Appleseed). Mom and sister were present when he received his patch from his father, it was a very special moment. I am glad I was there to share it with the family.
Many thanks to RPD and TRDFurgesson for helping out on the line. We could not have done it without your help. Pictures to follow in additional posts.
Corvette
Wait a sec, Blaster got his Patch?!?
Alright!!!!! Huzzah!!!!! ^:)^
Huzzah! Way to go, Blaster! O0 I look forward to working "for you" out on the line someday. Keep up the good work. Hope to run into the rest of the family again soon too.
Awesome that everyone had a great time and it was a wonderful event with families hearing (and passing on!) the heritage, practicing the marksmanship and lots of KD. :--- pew, pew, pew. Huzzah!
Some pics from the weekend.
Saturday pics
1. All setup and ready to go.
2. Line looking good
3. RPD instructing on Prone Steady Hold
4. Line goes to work
5. Family affair Grand father, father and son
Sunday pics
1. Daniel working on great offhand score
2. Geoff shoots Rifleman at first Appleseed Huzzah!
3. Daniel (Blaster) shoots Rifleman and backs it up twice. Gets patch from Dad
4. And a hug from a proud pappa
5. RPD helps Geoff get his Mosin sighted in (good luck with that ;D
6. TRDFurgesson works his first event as an Orange hat
7. Blaster takes his Orange hat (joining the rest of the family)
8. RPD fires M1 for first time (ever)
9. Blaster follows suit (eventually, took him a little tiime to get the nerve to let the first one go but when he finished and heard the "ping" of the enbloc clip ejecting, he looked up at me and said, "man, that was really fun, can I do it again?"
10. Father and son working together
11. RPD requalifies as a Rifleman with a 220
Other folks took pictures as well, lets get them posted so all can enjoy. Great weekend at Meeker, see all of you on the trail again soon.
Corvette
Slim/Meanstreaker, you would have been proud of Blaster this weekend. RPD told him that if he outshot him, he was walking home. Luckily mom also came up at lunch and was present for the award of the patch so he had a ride home.
RPD, let me tell you again what a pleasure it was to work with you again and to see the rest of the family on Sunday. I meant what I said at the end of the day, "you really did marry up dude, O0 good job!". Also, please thank your better half and daughter for helping with the tear-down yesterday. What a pleasure it is to have extra hands at the end of the weekend. :bow:
Thanks to one and all, get them pictures posted.
Corvette
What a wonderful weekend to celebrate liberty!
Having been "off the trail" for a while, it was good to be back.
Corvette, Thank you for welcoming me back and for making Sylvia and Grace feel so at home on Sunday.
You ran a fine shoot and I look forward to working with you again soon.
With 5 of 7 family members being Riflemen, I knew that it was Daniel's time.
I didn't think he'd shoot :--- 3 qualifying scores in one weekend though! ..:..
Makes his Poppa proud ^:)^ ^:)^ ^:)^
It was extra special because his Momma and little sister were able to make it for the presentation of the patch.
Daniel sends his thanks for all the nice comments and is looking forward to working his first line.
Dick, Eric and Ethan - it was good to get to know you and to have 3 generations represented. I pray that you all (and the rest of the family) will be able to make it back to another Appleseed soon.
Geoff, CONGRATULATIONS again! First Appleseed and shooting Rifleman. That is quite an accomplishment!
Next goal, Grace needs to shoot a rifle for the first time and follow that up by getting her patch . . .
(I left my SD card adapter at work :-[, so pics will follow tomorrow. )
Some (belated) pics from Marion . . .
RPD
Great pictures, thanks for posting them.
Corvette
Ps tell Blaster to get his login done on forum. C
Looks like a fantastic event! Congratulations Daniel, on earning the patch and thanks for taking the hat; I can't wait to work with soon, but now in a little different way. :cool2: Oh, and seeing that pic of you shooting that U.S. Rifle, Caliber .30 just makes me want to yell " 'Merica! "
Looks like another great event!!
We just yell (Wi)"sconsin" down here :cool2: