What a beautiful weekend we had in Sacramento. For those of us expecting more mild Fall weather, it was warmer than usual. The skies were clear and the sights aligned. :cool2: I have to thank the hats and shooters that came out to make this such a pleasant shoot. On Saturday, we had some questions come up during the instruction and the instructors were right on top of them. The shooters all arrived and maintained positive, teachable attitudes throughout the rigors of the instruction ~~:) and the timelines. Fortunately, only a few shooters had equipment issues that were resolvable quickly.
At lunch on Saturday, we got to hear Melissa's brilliant first strike, Missy's 2nd strike, and Ducky's third strike, which was the final requirement for IIT4. Congrats Ducky! ^:)^
The final AQT on Saturday resulted in Truman's 226 Rifleman score. :~ Truman has come to a few Appleseed events and Saturday was finally his day. What a remarkable first score. He later backed it up with several more Rifleman AQTs.
Saturday night Sacramento was treated to an unusually active electrical storm and some rain making for clear skies on Sunday morning. After a review of the instruction, we had some questions about known distance shooting and some discussion and then off we went into the afternoon AQTs. Hans was getting really close to Rifleman with a 208, and just when he thought he thought he missed out, we presented him with his patch based on a 214. Hans later backed it up with a 226.
We had several new Apple-seeders, which made steady progress from their initial Sat AM redcoat targets. The youth shooters really soaked up the instruction and made great progress. Jesse quickly took to a smooth squeeze and reset, while Pascal used the Hasty sling in the off hand to show great form. Noah and Sienna had a great attitudes and made big improvements.
Thanks for returnees Gil and Duncan for 7th stepping for Appleseed. We look forward to seeing Ann, Jason, Roxy, and Whoops! at a future event. Practice those positions! They get easier with practice.
Thanks again to Sacramento Valley shooting Center and our Appleseed extended family for making this happen.
What a fun weekend! Perfect weather IMO, and a great bunch of shooters! Thanks everyone for coming out and I hope to see you again soon. Great job to our new Riflemen! :---
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I want to send a special shout-out to all the kids who attended this weekend--Pascal and Jesse, Sienna, Noah, and Truman... Appleseed is a challenging event, and you stuck with it!! ^:)^ Our weather was hot on Saturday when we turned that "firehose of knowledge" on, and yet most of you came back for more on Sunday! ~~:)
The other instructors and I were very proud to see how attentive you were, and appreciate how careful you were, working on muzzle control. As you saw, we're pretty strict about safety. It's a big thing--"numero uno," as they say. Hopefully we weren't too tough on you guys. Just know we that we want to make sure you learn how to do things right at the range, so that you can continue to go out there and work on your marksmanship...and get better and better. It's a lot of fun when you see how you can improve--and I know you guys got a sweet taste of that already this weekend!
Truman, we were thrilled to see you become a Rifleman!! It takes perseverance, focus, working through frustrations and discomforts, a conscious putting-together of all the bits and pieces we teach you--and YOU DID IT!!! It's not just about holes in paper--it's about you, and making you into the kind of person more capable of self-governance. What a joy it was, for us to see you grow like that. Just awesome. Thanks so much to your wonderful Grampa Gil for bringing you out there so many times--he is a remarkable man, as you well know, and we enjoyed working with you both. Come back and see us again!
To all the rest of our awesome attendees, I thought you all did extremely well, learning all we presented and working to put things into practice. Hans, congratulations to you, our 2nd Rifleman of the weekend!! You pulled it together quite nicely, and I knew it was a matter of brief time before you'd see your scores pop into that Rifleman range. WOW...226!!! :---
I hope we see you all out there at another Appleseed sometime soon. Please tell your friends about us--we greatly appreciate referrals (thank you, Duncan, for bringing your friends!) and would love the opportunity to share our special program with them.
Happy trails to you!
Ducky