Sometimes you just know how a day is going to turn out. They had said we might see some rain across the weekend. SOME RAIN!!!!! I was not all that motivated when I got up to discover a heavy steady rain. The dogs refused to go out. I was even less motivated when it was time to load up for the shoot and it was still raining heavily. I was soaked by the time I had the load in the vehicle. The flash flood warnings for the neighboring counties did nothing at all to improve my mood as we drove to the range. Seeing the rainwater cascade down to the drain at the corner of our designated space creating a lake just added to the anticipation. Dangerous Cook and I debated, surely no one besides us is this crazy to come out in these conditions. BadFishy arrives, yes, there is at least one soul as crazy. Let's set up the range and try not to drown. Let's see, I think I stashed some coroplast down here somewhere….YES! This might work after all. A vehicle arrives is it one of our shooters? It is pretty early… Nope. It is the shoot master for the Cowboy Action shoot on the next range. He predicts they will cancel but he has to be there until they do. Range set up, boots drowned, oh look! Here come some shooters. There are other people as crazy as I am. 6 hearty souls out of our 12 signups arrived and off we go. In my years with the program I have worked in rain. I have never worked in that much rain. We used pop up shelters and kept the rifles dry-ish. Our crew supplied 4 and one of our shooters brought another. The staging tables were under cover, mostly. Our 6 shooters were about the most dedicated bunch I have worked with in many years with Appleseed. They knuckled down and learned under very trying conditions. This is the stuff riflemen are made of! August in Virginia is usually hot and humid. The temperature never broke 75. At my home I recorded 5 inches of rain between Friday night and Sunday morning. Other places in our region recorded 10. Neither Dangerous Cook nor I could remember a time we had spent so much time outdoors, that wet, on land. When we say Appleseed will shoot rain or shine, we mean it!
If it ain't rainin', it ain't trainin'. And rain is definitely God's way of telling you it's time to clean your rifles when you get home.
Sounds like your shooters earned some bragging rights...and maybe learned to respect the humble ziplock baggie LOL! Adversity builds character and teaches.
My hat's off to you, your cadre, and your shooters; not exactly sunshine patriots hmm? And what could be cooler than not being a sunshine patriot in Virginia, home of Patrick Henry?
Not so tardy pictures....only a little late
more pics
and a few more