We were joined by 17 Americans and one Brit Saturday morning in Sin City. Among our shooters were family, returning riflemen, and enthusiastic new shooters. Most came from Las Vegas or surrounding cities but the most traveled member of our group was Shootboss HnHArmory who came up from Phoenix to help out. He was a huge help and a big thanks goes out to him.
It was calm and relatively cool to what we had been experiencing in the summer but the wind forecast was dire. We were expected to have 25mph winds in the afternoon. The light breeze throughout the morning soon became gusts up to 35mph. More than one pop up was destroyed this weekend. The weather was extremely dry. Chapped lips and red skin were the textures of the day.
There was a great improvement from the morning redcoat to the afternoon. We had doubled the 400yd clearance rate and the cleared target rate. We saw excellent shooting and glimpses of greatness in even the shot groups of new shooters. By the end of the day, Nevada had 4 new riflemen and 1 requalified. JohnDS had requalified as a riflemen and also took an orange hat home with him. On Sunday, we had 11 shooters return. The wind also returned with a vengeance but we persisted. We all huddled under the last standing 10x10 pop up for lunch and stories. After the first AQT of the Sunday grind, we began to lose shooters. Obligations, fatigue, rifles malfunctioning all played a part. At the end of the day, we had 7 shooters left.
Our host range has the distinction of being the oldest gun club in Las Vegas. The leadership at the club has been very welcoming to Project Appleseed and we hope to have many more events at Desert Sportsman in the future.
Huzzah! Congrats on the resurrection, Nevada!
JohnDS, I look forward to great things from you, and your fellow shooters who just scored Rifleman.
HNH Armory & Whangdoodle, thanks for showing what you're made of, again. God willing, I'll see you in Kingman.
Quote from: whangdoodle on October 02, 2018, 01:44:15 AM
We were joined by 17 Americans and one Brit Saturday morning in Sin City.
Sounds like a great event, despite the wind! I do have one question... A what did our British Cousin have to say about the history portion?
-Mike aka BandAid
Whangdoodle, It was worth the trip up to see your Vegas shooters! I learned from you (as I always do at these things), and you learned from me. The students learned from both of us! What more can you ask for? Well, less gusting winds and dust for sure. But, we all persisted!
Well Mike AKA Bandaid, the Brit was a lot of fun. While he lasted. For me, he was actually the first shooter I've had come to the line wearing period dress. Most of us agreed that the redcoat wasn't the consume we'd have chosen for our self.... but that's fine. During opening remarks there was a little scoff from him at the question of "what made the regulars break and run at north bridge?" but we moved on and got the line hot. After a couple of strings our red coated Brit had a bizarre rifle malfunction. The bolt was stuck irrevocably back (if I recall correctly). We offered solutions bug he packed up and went home before we even got to the three strikes over lunch.... ???
I only hope to see him again at another event. :F
All. It was personally very satisfying when during closing remarks on Sunday. I pointed out that what we are doing here at Appleseed does not happen in a vacuum. I urged each of you to share what we talked about this weekend with others. In doing that you become our alarm list, just like we talked about with Paul Revere... As I said this I looked at your faces and saw our mission and message click with each one of you. Thanks!