Shooters, cadre, and other interested parties -- allow me to tell the tale of this weekend's Patriot's Day shoot in Castro Valley!
The weather called for highs in the upper sixties and occasional cloud cover -- less easy to predict are flocks of wild turkey occupying Chabot Gun Club's bay #4 . . . perhaps they'd heard the rumors that Benjamin Franklin preferred them as symbols of our republic?
The day kicked off as they often do at Chabot this time of year: a full line of eager shooters. They also proved to be safe shooters, which payed off as they brought rifles to the line following a safety briefing (but seriously . . . keep the muzzle trim with the line). As the ammo drought persists in the Bay Area, we found ourselves split fairly evenly between center- and rimfire shooters -- including Ben's tube-fed Marlin 60.
Ammo drought being what it is, we've taken to a low round count on the first day, and spent a good portion of time in dry-fire and individual coaching Saturday morning. Just as stringing disappeared and groups shrunk, the Shoot Boss called for lunch (he knew something special was coming at 1 . . .).
While Tim regaled the shooters with the prelude to the Revolution and the events on Lexington Green, some patriot elves (Paul and Laurie) had transformed the target line -- the empty backers had transformed into full-sized redcoats! Shoot Boss Ken set the mood by asking -- had the shooters asked for permission to be here? Or were they exercising their rights to stand armed this day? Here they stood side by side -- some with family, some with friends -- with their neighbors, facing the Regulars across the green.
The patriots at Chabot remembered well the men who gave their lives in defense of freedom 239 years prior. The Regulars were vanquished (an overzealous Shoot Boss may have played Ammi White with one who miraculously escaped unscathed).
The afternoon saw instruction in seated/kneeling and standing/offhand positions, as well as the introduction of the Time Monkey and transitions. Shooters took a short break from the cool, sunny, windy day to hear about Isaac Davis, who had not a man afraid to go, before returning to the line.
As the wind kicked up and the sun began to set, the morning's slow pace paid off and a full AQT was shot in the course of around 30 minutes to end the day's instruction -- but not the end of the day! As Pat recounted the events of Merriam's Corner and the work of William Heath, frantic scoring ensued behind the scenes . . . and gave us our first rifleman of the weekend, Steve! But Steve would not be the last rifleman made this weekend, not by a long shot . . .
When last we left our heroes, they had remembered the patriots who fell on another April 19th, shot their first AQT, and discovered one rifleman amongst them. As the cool wind blew, they headed back to their cars to rest for another day on the range . . .
Sunday started cool and sunny . . . a gorgeous day for making riflemen. We were joined by Jeff, perennial shooter, repeat rifleman, and brand-new orange hat. Welcome, Jeff!
We started with the first redcoat target of the weekend -- well, Saturday's instruction must have stuck, because we had a whole lot of redcoats with three holes in 'em . . . and seven new members of Morgan's riflemen, including one who cleared his target. After checking our zeros and reviewing our steady hold factors, the instructors outsourced some of their mischief to the shooters for the "Ball and Dummy+" partner drill, which adds NPOA shifts on-command to the regular Ball and Dummy drill.
Time for one AQT before lunch (and Dangerous Old Men), and it was worth it! David had walked on and requalified with the weekend's high score -- a 222! This just seemed to whet the appetite of the other shooters, as we managed to get in a total of seven AQTs that day! What did someone say about "slow becomes smooth, smooth is fast?" ;D
I'd be remiss if I forgot to credit Tim with an excellent recounting of the story of Timothy Murphy with some basic KD during the afternoon break -- cool, sunny, and windy is a perfect recipe for dehydration, and a little history with your water is always welcome. The last few AQTs were shot, and targets kept coming in for scoring, many of which were returned promptly . . . and some of which were squirreled away by a meddlesome Shoot Boss. ::)
They were returned at the end of the day, however -- along with three more Rifleman patches. Congratulations to Eric S. (212), Mike P. (212), and Eddy C. (217), who all demonstrated excellent marksmanship this weekend!
We ended with a few words in what photographers call the magic hour . . . let me tell you, it's not just the light that made it magical. This weekend saw some good weather, some excellent shooting, and an all-around fantastic group of patriots. Thank you to everyone who came out (instructor, AppleCore, and shooter alike) to make this a spectacular weekend.
Should you wish to contact any of the cadre from this weekend, please send a forum message to the handle below:
Ken - haleson
Tim - Nero
Pat - American Amazon
Chris - Freeman
Albert - HanSolo
Paul - SonJ
Laurie - mamasgotaruger
Michael - 22Reasons
The 'zombie triangle' targets suitable for use on the Chabot Gun Club public lines are in this thread:
http://appleseedinfo.org/smf/index.php?topic=23542.0
We'll try get our photos posted in the next couple of days. Packing frantically right now.
Thank you guys for running a great Appleseed this weekend! This was my second one and I hope to come to many more of these, especially when my kids are ready to shoot.
I can't commit to being a regular volunteer, but I'll do my best to push everyone I know to take the course. I already brought one newbie with me this time around. :)
Big thanks to Nero and Pat for running this program. Best wishes moving to a free state, and hope you visit from time to time to see how the seed you planted here grows. I can see how much you care for this program and what it stands for, and I'm thankful for everything you've done for it. It's always tough to leave something like this, but rest assured that it's in good hands with Haleson.
Change always brings opportunity. As the program is transferred to the next generation, they will get their chance to shine and make their imprint on it.
Hope to see y'all soon!
-Steve
Sorry to take so long on this, but we've been hammered the last couple of weeks. But... at long last, pix and video!
There's no way to embed video on this board, but here's:
A Youtube vid of the Memorial volley (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDg8dTtjykw)
We started out with puffball mushrooms along the firing line (note the shotgun wadding for scale)
(https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-M0WhzZpi4qk/U2cM7f6hgJI/AAAAAAAAF58/qz_B2KTwRkU/s640/100_2826.JPG)
And a turkey flock downrange
(https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-idlqqGpqcG8/U2cM5ZVWm1I/AAAAAAAAF5k/OBgmfef26V0/s640/100_2823.JPG)
But soon got into the day's instruction. Here Paul demo's with the 'Massachusetts legal broomstick"
(https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-6KE7RuP7crs/U2cM6OVYoLI/AAAAAAAAF5s/Zsbhj74ma3A/s640/100_2824.JPG)
Now that's a spiffy 'tuber'
(https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-yNYqah-quSc/U2cM-vxeLnI/AAAAAAAAF6k/8QYYL08jQCM/s640/100_2831.JPG)
Lunchtime history
(https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-Lv--vBh9zw8/U2cM9YCxY3I/AAAAAAAAF6U/TaHzeVwt2RU/s640/100_2829.JPG)
mamasgotaruger came up with some cookies appropriate to the occasion
(https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-y7fquty1wDQ/U2cM_7yTjoI/AAAAAAAAF60/YU5iEXIKetE/s640/100_2834.JPG)
Steve joins the ranks of Riflemen on our first AQT of the weekend!
(https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-UNK31n9_ILM/U2cNAiovJUI/AAAAAAAAF68/cRaaOKrFH60/s640/100_2836.JPG)
And we had Michael step forward to take a blue hat! Huzzah!
(https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-yNs5TXtnlys/U2cNCPyEFxI/AAAAAAAAF7M/28xSYetbC7c/s640/100_2839.JPG)
And multi-time Rifleman Jeff joins the instructor ranks - a man who knows very well what he is about!
(https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-7Zg_kqfuU9Y/U2cNBDr5CZI/AAAAAAAAF7E/ZtuxKfr3ewk/s640/100_2837.JPG)
Day 2 brought a lot of those spiffy April 19th T-shirts to the line
(https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-DafXdojSkbM/U2cNDC_yCAI/AAAAAAAAF7U/gSXfEp8vYmU/s640/100_2840.JPG)
(https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-XHNmAPE42FY/U2cNHgf5a4I/AAAAAAAAF8M/wpsRwK5eSAQ/s640/100_2847.JPG)
Paul got thoroughly 'broken in' running the line
(https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-7a4yNLcxD7E/U2cNIcNmEJI/AAAAAAAAF8U/5PmBSCpl0fk/s640/100_2848.JPG)
David - right end of the line here - requalified and had high score of the weekend.
(https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-NKig4cGLhYc/U2cNEWRooEI/AAAAAAAAF7k/CKqur27ts6g/s640/100_2842.JPG)
And we had new members of the corps of Riflemen: Mike...
(https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-y4_pXAHTJxk/U2cNJz_X40I/AAAAAAAAF8k/I0847OEH7Ns/s640/100_2850.JPG)
Eric...
(https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-HxOzl9fPGd4/U2cNKeQJZ2I/AAAAAAAAF8w/Ih749QsDP9Y/s640/100_2851.JPG)
and Eddy.
(https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-l254tRSboPU/U2cNLIix-zI/AAAAAAAAF80/ZTsa76qrPUI/s640/100_2852.JPG)
Huzzah! ^:)^ Huzzah! ^:)^ Huzzah! ^:)^
The whole album is here (https://picasaweb.google.com/114208333789247233986/CastroValley414).
Best wishes to all at Castro Valley - we look forward to watching further growth from our new perch up in Idaho!