Twenty-nine shooters and 15 instructors on the line for a glorious Patriot's Day event! What a way to celebrate the 239th anniversary of the Battles of Lexington and Concord!
The day started out fair and brisk. After the opening speech, Ramblinwreck set the tone for the day's history with a masterful telling of the first strike of the match. Shooters brought rifles to the line after the safety briefing, shot the first Redcoat and got started on a full day of instruction. We used dond's method of instruction and did a lot of dry-fire practice in the morning. It showed up in the size of the shooter's groups once we started shooting!
When we broke for dinner, Rusty drew the shooters into the second strike and made them feel as if they were actually at the North Bridge and Barrett's Farm. We went back to the line and got back down to business and the shooters showed continual improvement throughout the afternoon.
At around 3:30 we broke again for the third strike as a light rain blew up. SureShot Spartan brought it home! Several of us had "rain drops" dripping from our eyes ;) Then SureShot Spartan called the line for the Memorial Volley at 4:00.
We didn't have any new riflemen, but I think that we would have if we'd had a second day to shoot. The 2nd Redcoat showed a big improvement over the 1st one.
The young shooters received the Luther Blanchard patch and AR-Mike gave each one a pocket Constitution/Declaration of Independence and a small flag.
I closed the day with Patrick Henry's Liberty or Death speech, with kudos to Morpheus for his example and inspiration.
The instructors stayed "after hours" for a little trigger time. We offered to let any of the shooters who wanted, to stay over and shoot with the instructors. Only about 6 shooters had to leave! We had more shooters stay over than we've had registered at some events!
It was a good day with a great bunch of patriots! Looking forward to next year!
An epic day for Project Appleseed in Rising Fawn. We had a full line of eager shooters and a dedicated crew of Patriot instructors to coach them. The flames of Liberty were fanned at this event.
Congratulations to Regulator on a well run event for his second SBit effort. I think we'll see a bunch of these shooters back on the line at a two day event in the near future.
I've uploaded some pictures to PhotoBucket. Follow this link to get you there. (http://appleseedinfo.org/smf/<iframe%20width="480"%20height="360"%20src="http://s1121.photobucket.com/user/Ramblinwreck77/embed/slideshow/Appleseed%20Events/Patriots%20Day%20Rising%20Fawn%202014"></iframe>)
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Granted this was only my 2nd appleseed but the size of the crowd and the energy from the instructors were amazing. The re-telling of the 3 strikes of the match was awesome as well. The best part was Regulator's recreation of Patrick Henry's "give me liberty or give me death" speech.
Now that I have taken on a orange hat, I am looking forward to attending more shoots, help others grasp the skill of marksmanship, and learn the re-telling of these events as well.
Thanks to all that attended! Here are a few pics:
Morning introductions
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Welcome speech
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First Strike
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A full line
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OvermountainMan and WriteOnTarget teaching Sitting and Kneeling
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Getting ready for the Red Coats
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Big Country and Sky Dog teaching Standing
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NPOA
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Observing the Colors
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Tri-Horn Tate
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Cagle Mountain Rifle Company Tango
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Third Strike
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"Give me Liberty or Give me Death!"
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Young Patriots
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Alabama's New OH, gtengineer
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Instructors with their new rockers
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Post event practice
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