What a great event. This event has been sold out for months and the enthusiasm showed in the 24 shooters that attended. Our day started early. Attendees started checking in before daylight on a beautiful cool morning in South Florida. Our resident Gray Fox came out and pranced around the range to whish us luck as everybody was checking in.
We started our day in the classroom with safety and history then it was off to the range. All morning we worked on the fundamentals of shooting a pistol. Grip, stance, trigger control were all discussed and practiced with no ammo. That stuff is expensive and we can learn plenty without that pistol making all that noise. :)
Now the fun stuff. We started with our hits count target and then on to the tombstone's to shrink those groups. Groups that started the morning scraping the 3 ring were slowly but surly moving to the 5 ring. Great work by all shooters. Lunch was again in the AC with the second and third strike. Third strike was presented by one of our shooters, Bruce. Bruce has been a rifle instructor for many years. He came to this event to try his hand at pistol. By they way he did very well. :)
We often say that a Rifleman will persist. Wow did these pistol shooters persist. Some blood was spilled from a few fingers, one shooters hand and shoulder were killing her by the end of the day and then there was Janet. Janet had an accident a while back that limited her mobility. She told her Physical therapist that she was an athlete and she WILL overcome this. Tears were shed but she never quit. And just to show what she was about she scored Pistoleer™ by the end of the day.
The end of our shoot showed that everybody learned a lot. A total of 11 shooters scored Pistoleer™ on the PQT. This was only a one day shoot, had we had a second day I am sure we could have increased that number as many were knocking on the door.
Thanks to everybody for attending and we look forward to seeing you again.
Huzzah!!!! Many came and many conquered! I'm so proud of all the shooters! Such an awesome day for Liberty!
I have to admit I was skeptical from the beginning of the whole pistol program in Appleseed. Now, having attended an Appleseed pistol class, I have changed my mind and can see that the program is a good idea and has real value. The points of instruction were clear and presented in a concise and professional manner. The course of fire was challenging and I feel tried to combine self defense and precision shooting. The fast paced course was truly drinking from a fire hose as this was a one day class and there was so much to cover. The south Florida crew has really been working hard and it shows. Well done, y'all! You are truly setting an example for the rest of the country. Thank you so much for helping me knock off the rust and making me into a better pistol shooter.
Thanks to the excellent leadership of our shoot boss everything went like clockwork. It was a great day. I love working with this crew because there is always someone there to cover your back and help with any task. The students worked hard and the Instructors worked harder.
Congratulations to our new Pistoleer™s. :F
First of all, congratulations to the instructors and volunteers at this event for taking on the challenge of managing such a large pistol shoot and compressing it all in to one day! There was a remarkable percentage of shooters leaving with Pistoleer™ Patches at the end of the day owing to the quality of the shooters on the line as well as the excellent instruction. I brought two individuals to the event that had never been to an AS. They took in the instruction as well as the history and gave me nothing but thanks for inviting them to the event. Mission accomplished!
The pistol program is neither truly tactical nor truly precision, but does an excellent job of including elements of both into a coherent class of real-life marksmanship. I would say the same of the rifle program. Wrapping that all up into an event that can be completed safely by beginners while still being enjoyed by very experienced shooters is quite a feat. Well done to everyone who helped develop the program.
I only wish there had been a second day to practice and reinforce what the instructors gave us.
NS