It was - (minus) -35 degrees windchill most all weekend!!!
The toilets froze up on Sunday! $$-0
The cold winds blew and the snow swirled throughout the weekend, turning Great Falls into a frosty frozen tundra!!
Good thing the Montana River Shooters Association range was indoors!!! The heater kept us warm and the homemade chili and pizza kept us sustained while 11 eager students learned rifle marksmanship skills and listened to the events of April 19, 1775 to learn of America's History and Heritage. **)
The weekend was fruitful for Riflemen and Appleseed alike. Six of the seven adults in attendance achieved "Expert" on the AQT and were awarded their Rifleman patch! The seventh adult attended Saturday only. Two of the four youth in attendance improved their scores on a cricket and a bolt gun to very commendable scores of 152 and 179 respectively!! O0 The other two were first time attendees and were Saturday only.
The range members, Paul, Dave and Tim were incredibly helpful, with the head RSO Dave stepping up to man the line to assist with the two young men he brought, Paul (Countree) is already an IIT so he was definitely put to work! Tim, was helper extraordinaire, so much so, that after a discussion about Appleseed and AppleCore, he stepped up to accept the blue hat of an AppleCore!!!
Patriot Gal and Castle Mountain shared the story of April 19th through the Three Strikes of the Match to the edification and enjoyment of all. (except the 7 year old who wanted to get back to shooting!) O0
Josh lead the Rifleman way with the first expert score of the day on Sunday with a 216 and requalified immediately following with a 221, 237 and 210.
Close behind, husband and wife team Tom and Barbie both scored expert together with a 226 and 212!
Following them, father and son team Scott and Sam both scored expert, also on the same AQT tria with a 212 and a 216l!!
And last, but never least Patrick pulled through with a huge expert score to achieve his Rifleman patch with an admirable 229!
Huzzah, huzzah, huzzah!!! to all!!! O0 ^:)^ O0 :bow:
In addition, three of our new Riflemen stepped up, making the decision to take the orange hat of an IIT and help Appleseed achieve its goal.
Congratulations and thanks to Josh, Tom and Barbie and welcome to the Instructor Corps of Appleseed!!
Once Patrick attends his second Appleseed, we may see an orange hat in his future too! Huzzah!!
So 6 Riflemen, 3 Orange Hats and one Blue Hat!! And a great time was had by all!!! O0
Can't wait to get the 2014 shoots on the schedule as the students were already looking ahead into next year to the shoots they will be attending.
Thanks to all the students who took time out of their weekend to attend the Appleseed! O0
Thanks to the Appleseed instructors who helped to make this all possible, Countree, Castle Mountain and Mark Davis who came up on Sunday to help out!!! Also great big thanks to Dave, Paul (Countree) and Tim at the range who helped make the shoot possible! You're all great examples of the American Spirit!!
Thank you for the opportunity to shoot boss this great group of Montanans!!
Patriot Gal
(Pictures will be forthcoming, most likely tomorrow)
Wow, it sounds like you had an excellent weekend. Huzzah!
ShadowMan
Sam the son as in Scott/Sam qualified with a solid marlin, tube feed, bolt gun. A soon as he got his badge of rifleman, he pulled out a 10-22 and kept shooting!
Some of the weekend's pictures. More later.
Congratulations to all! I'm especially glad to see Scott and Sam return and achieve their Rifleman patches.
Huzzah! ^:)^
Amazing Shoot! Great turnout and an even better outcome!
Thanks to all the shooters and instructors that braved the dangerous temperatures to make the event!
Huzzah!
THIS WEEKEND SIX AMERICAN RIFLEMEN WERE FORGED ON THE ANVIL OF THE AQT
A splendid rewarding weekend and one not to be forgotten. Can you say: -36 degrees
It was a sincere pleasure to have worked with such a fine group of patriotic people who were willing to brave extreme weather conditions demonstrating
their unrelenting willingness to cross that elusive threshold of 210 on the AQT.
Their persistence was admirable. Moreover so many willing to step up and become part of this program.
Kudos to Countree for being such a facilitator and helper and as an IIT we expect you to advance red hat in short order, you are a good man. Thank you for your promotions advice especially the information on the amazing and enormous financial possibilities available for the RWVA. We hope to have further discussion on this soon.
Dave and Tim your hospitality and logistic support to feed the troops and keep the facility running during such horrible weather and for such great support on the firing line.
A high salute to America's newest three sets of riflemen: Barbie and Tom (a fine husband and wife team). You both were so focused during these two days ( you were really in the bubble) and it was so thrilling to have you both become riflemen at the same time. You not only scored riflemen together, but also stepped up to become valued instructors taking the orange hat. Scot & Sam ( father and son tag team who both scored riflemen together) son Sam did it with a bolt gun, and they have said they will give serious consideration to taking an orange hat and becoming instructors; We would love to have them join us.
Last but not least Josh and Pat (military comrades) who likewise displayed they are men who know very well what they are about. After Josh scored expert he continued to shoot expert every single time afterward, ( 3 times more). Thank you Josh for accepting the role as instructor, Orange hat looks good on you for now my friend.
Pat we are excited over your expressing your willingness to take up the role of instructor and take an orange hat also .
We look forward to seeing you Pat at the next shoot and the opportunity to present you that orange hat. Your dogged persistence was impressive , we are so happy for you having scored expert. Thank you both gentlemen for willingness to promote this fine program to the 'Minute Man Air Guard'. We will endeavor to supply you necessary promo materials.
I am sure Minuteman Captain Isaac Davis bumper stickers and associated rifleman decals will look good in your battalion parking lot.
Mark Davis your presence on Sunday was so welcomed. So glad you made the trip up from Three Forks and braved the elements. Thank you for what you do and for what you provided this weekend. Such a pleasure to work with you and thank you for looking out for our safety concerns and warnings about these mountain highways and thank you for
the two giant steel KD plates, these sir are fantastic! We so look forward to getting together with you again . We are so looking forward to working with you in the near future.
It was such a fun weekend it made us forget the cold.
Castle Mountain
Congratulations all around to the new students, Riflemen and IITs/AC!
That is a nice range and I am sure it was nice being half underground there with those temps!
I hope someone remembered the donuts from that great family place around the corner... O0
HH
Hawkhaven, that underground bunker shooting range facility certainly insulated us from the weather
but when I went up the stairs to go out to my truck the whole area looked like Antarctica with
howling winds, blowing snow and air so cold and sharp it took your breath away. But donuts??
No one mentioned donuts........ :'( However, Paul brought us delicious pizza on Sunday and Tim cooked us up
a great serving of hot chilli and a south western version of corn bread , and hot coffee. The hospitality
was second to none. Great people that this range...... here is a tribute to the MISSOURI RIVER SHOOTERS ASSOCIATION
who hosted this event.
Thanks for putting that donut idea in my head you diet saboteur. ;)
CM