This shoot was used as a replacement for the canceled Patriot's Day on April 19th.
We almost had a sold out shoot with 8 youth under 15 years old with one of them only being 8 years old, scheduled to be on the line. Many of the shooters had never fired the rifles they brought to the line. Everybody learned and got better and by the end of the weekend the young shooters looked like they had been at it for years.
Eliza Jane went from needing help loading and unloading to handling the processes by herself. Dustin and Colton were running a pair of matched Henry Lever Action Rifles and were able to keep them running and keep up, even with the tube fed magazines. John was mastering the bolt lock and magazine release on his Marlin .22, not be out done his sister Jentry was working a Ruger 10/22 like she was born to it. Bode was the only youth shooter to work through the positions and transitions and after figuring out the operation of one rifle and needing to switch up firearms for technical reasons he was able to keep up and gain in confidence and shooting abilities.
I look forward to having all of these shooters back on the line for future Appleseeds and I expect several Rifleman scores in the coming years out of this bunch.
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