Wow, what a wild, wet, fun weekend.
We were only supposed to get a quarter of an inch or less of rain on Saturday....well...the weather people lied...It rained off and on all night Frida and all day Saturday. Thank heavens for a covered, cement line and a score room with a wood burning stove!!
It was a fun weekend with 7 instructors learning to shoot KD, improving their positions and techniques and I hope learning a bit that will help them when they are working with students on the line.
I saw lots of great shooting this weekend and it's always wonderful to hear a line full of centerfire rifles go off. :)
We got one AQT on Sunday, no rifleman scores, a couple close though.
Saturday night was a fun tri tip potluck and unknown distance lessons.
Sunday started out clear, showered off and on and was a bit breezy. One of those nippy breezes....
After "hiding" the steel targets in teams of two, we gathered up for a ranging and target detection, estimation of distance exercise that is always fun. Some of the targets were almost hid too well. All were located and every one worked on hitting all the steel...6 targets in all.
AQT's started late morning and continued most of the after noon. We got 3 kd rifleman scores!!! Congrats to April (200), Steve (212) and Chris (227)!!!
Appleseeds are well known for putting your equipment to the test, and KD's are certainly no exception to the rule, in fact they might bring out more of the rule.
MattS was very close to scoring Rifleman with a 1917 Enfield, when the extractor broke. He brought out his Garand and finshed the day with it.
Chris did the one thing we've all done and kicked ourselves for hard, an error made in the come ups and the "where the heck am I" He didn't let it get to him and set up a couple squares at 25 and got himself straightened back out. Scored Rifleman.
Steve had some ammo issues, but also kept his head where it should be and scored rifleman.
April just nailed it this weekend. She really worked on the positions and tightened everything up until she barley moved with the recoil of her M1A.
Andy worked his rifle like a pro, it has a 4 round mag, then has to single shot feed it the rest of the ammo...still came very close to Rifleman.
Mike made amazing improvements to his positions and groups, scored in the upper180's.
MattK was working a new rifle and while he didn't repeat last year's rifleman score he still scored in the 190's
All in all a wonderful weekend. To those who couldn't make it, we missed you, maybe next year. :)
PS to Saturday, we did a Morgan's Rifleman challenge. A steel silhouette was placed at approx 200 yards, every one got one shot, hit or miss.
MattS, Andy and Chris made it as Morgan's Rifleman.
Congrats to all.
Thank you all for your work over the year as instructors. We hope you enjoyed and learned a lot from this.
Thank you all for your help in setting up and tearing down and cleaning up.
See ya all next year.
NorCal22Gal & eaglescouter.
Until you've been stuck offroad while Appleseeding you have not really been Appleseeding.
The camping area was just soft enough to gently yield underfoot, the Expedition left tracks but not enough to upset anybody, and then it happened.... 6" straight down into the mud in the last segment of the 3 point turn that was to put me in my parking spot for the night (in the dark). Put it in 4WD and gently accelerated, and then put it in park, it'll be drier in the morning and we are off the road in a safe spot.
Went over to Steve's campsite, yep, he's stuck too.
Went over to Apple's campsite, yep he's stuck too.
All were calm and agreed this was a job for the morning.
First thing in the morning I grabbed the 2 'brass buckets' and filled them with volcanic cinders (used on icy roads for traction), shoveled out the dirt in front of each tire, inserted cinders and drove right out.
Repeat with Steve, repeat with Apple.
All vehicles being unstuck and the ruts filled in by April, we set out the unknown distance steel, hiking through the morning dew on the new seasons grass.
It is always a pleasure to see a participant become the master of their rifle, meaning they run it, adjust it, dominate it, and make it perform. This weekend April16Showers demonstrated that level of mastery over her M1A.
Every student at this event either had centerfire equipment problems at this event or a prior event, but each and every student worked through the issues, kept their mental focus, and carried on.
The event was modified to add quotes from "Suggestions to Military Riflemen" by Lieutenant Townsend Whelen, 1909. Especially those sections describing proper sling tension (75 lbs), and technique for accurately and rapidly using bolt action rifles from position.
And there was B B Q ! ! !
Yes, the legendary pot luck BBQ at Hat Creek by and for the Appleseed Instructor Corps was held on Saturday evening. This time a single instructor volunteered to provide the TriTip for all participants, thank you so much MattS for going beyond the call of duty!
Approaching the end of the day the participants were keen to keep going, just one more, just one more, just one more AQT (till it is too dark to see), but I had to pull the plug on them since I wanted the targets to be relatively dry for storage, and I wanted to get home by early evening since I had vehicle trouble on the way to the range Friday evening (lost both low beams, and a coil on plug which caused the engine to run poorly)
Anyone who has set up a KD event with 4 shooting lines knows it is a fair amount of work to do the setup and takedown. But not in NorCal!!! Our volunteers take down an event in nothing flat as they demonstrate quality efficient teamwork.
Finally I need to say thanks:
To the Hat Creek Rifle and Pistol Club for the use of the amazing facility.
To my wife NorCal22Gal because.... well... (anybody who knows me knows ways to fill this in, so enough said)
To the NorCal Appleseed Instructor Corps, because we cannot fulfill the mission and reach as many students without your help and teamwork.
And to Fred, for shipping me the repair centers many years ago which got me started on this KD quest.
Hat Creek is our favorite range. By far. The covered lines are great, the atmosphere is great, the wood stoves in the buildings, camping among the pines. Great people, great instruction, great practice and more practice. Neat to look back at where we were in our rifle shooting skills just a couple years ago and where we are now.
It was fantastic to witness April shoot her recently built M1A so well! She has worked hard on getting that rifle adjusted for her. And she worked hard on the skills to master that rifle. Awesome!
Once again, I learned valuable equipment lessons. I wasn't having ammo issues. I was having issues with equipment. AS will certainly help you identify where your equipment falls short.
The potluck was fantastic. Thanks everyone!
(Un)Fortunately, this is one of the best kept secrets in AS. Look forward to next year! :-)