Proctor Fish & Game Club once again hosted Project Appleseed at their facility in Proctor VT. 17 shooters came out on Saturday; one didn't return on Sunday due to work schedule but two other shooters came out for 18 shooters on the line. (One was a returning 'Seeder and one was a new shooter). Four of the shooters were under 18, ranging from 10 to 16.
Instruction was provided by Dwarven1 as Shoot Boss, Lupis42, who came north representing the Massachusetts Mafia, Luv2BFree, who also acted as a Blue Hat and handled check-in as well, Ripersnifle (on Saturday), returning from a long hiatus (including a stint in the US Army) and GMB74 on Sunday. IITs were JMurrayVT and MattNH, who did a very good job.
Weather was gorgeous; the rain FINALLY stopped in Vermont on Friday afternoon and the weekend was sunny, warm and dry. The mosquitoes appreciated the feast we offered up (but didn't appreciate those of us who sprayed 100% DEET on ourselves, fortunately!). However, those nice new thin Instructor shirts? The red ones? Mosquitoes can bite right through them. Don't ask me how I know. Note to self: spray deet on the shirt, too.
The President and Treasurer of Proctor Fish & Game generously offered their time to man grills for lunch both days - President Al Wilkinson is a returning 'Seeder. Club Secretary was on the line on Sunday also as a returning 'Seeder. (We had four of the 5 members of the E Board of the club there!)
Redcoats showed consistent improvement throughout both days, I'm pleased to note, including a few cleaned ones!
Saturday AM PM
100 Yard 8 10
200 yard 5 7
300 yard 2 3
400 yard 3 2
HS 4 8
Cleared 1 0
Sunday
100 Yard 12 13
200 yard 9 10
300 yard 5 6
400 yard 3 5
HS 7 8
Cleared 1 1 (different shooters cleaned in the AM & PM)
We had one shooter - Cyn - who had last shot 40 years ago; we loaned her an LTR and Luv2BFree worked with her all Saturday. Targets that started out looking like they'd been shot with buckshot were showing definite groups by the end of the day.
Shooter Chuck, there with his daughter Char, was getting scores in the 200 range by the end of the weekend; look for him to get his Rifleman patch soon.
Three shooters, including 2 first-time Appleseeders, shot Rifleman scores. Jonathan first shot a 211 and hit a 219 later in the day. Spencer missed a Distinguished bar by about 4 points by shooting a 236. And shooter Chris hit a 218 at his second shoot and has decided to take an Orange hat.
MattNH ran the line for most of the two days and provided most of the instruction - we let him do the heavy lifting so that he could trade his orange hat for a Red one at the end of the weekend. Congratulations, Matt!!
One young shooter, Luke Jr, who was there with his father and grandfather, started out trying to use a 10/22 - too big and heavy for him. Second day I brought a Crickett for him to try, which worked well but was hurting his fingers single loading all that ammo, so we went back to the 10/22 but with a bipod. But he did stick to it all weekend, as did all four of our young shooters.
Overall, a great weekend. We're going to try and schedule another one for Proctor in early fall. And the club now says we can use centerfire on Saturdays. :)
Pictures to follow soon.