As spring emerges on the Colorado Front Range, we were lucky enough to kick off our first Appleseed of the year at the Boulder Rifle Club! We greatly appreciate the support of the Boulder Rifle Club in hosting our events. Their facility and hospitality is always top notch!
As the weekend begin, the Colorado spring proved as fickle as ever and the wind and cold whipped through the range. That did not let that deter Appleseeders new and returning from practicing their marksmanship skills.
We moved quickly through instruction on day 1 as everyone on the line was shooting well and we began to see groups shrink quickly as everyone practiced their sling use, prone positioning, 6 steps of firing the shot and natural point of aim.
We heard riveting recounts of the events of April 19th, 1775 over lunch and jumped right back into sight adjustments, talking targets and sitting/standing positions and transitions in the afternoon. All the shooters were feeling confident about their new marksmanship skills so were able to squeeze in our first AQT. Curtis cleared the afternoon Redcoat in an impressive showing of his new skills! Despite sustained wind speeds of anywhere from 12-20MPH, everyone on the line persisted and shot safely and accurately on day 1! I commend everyone for their dedication to day 1!
On Sunday, the Boulder crew returned to much calmer, but cooler weather, determined to continue to improve their skills. We started off the day with some review of sling use, steady hold factors and rifleman's cadence. After some squares and time to talk targets, Steffan and Paul decided to adjust their scope position to get that perfect sight alignment. Then the AQT grind began. One AQT before lunch showed marked improvement by everyone on the line and as the dust cleared, a rifleman emerged! Curtis showed he is a man who knows very well what he is about, shooting a 210 to earn his rifleman patch! After two more AQTs, we wrapped up the day with another Redcoat and two more shooters cleared it! Connor and Steffan both cleared the final target of the day in an impressive demonstration of their new marksmanship skills.
We saw big improvement from everyone on the line, with AQT scores steadily improving over two days. A special acknowledgement to Jay and Oliver, our youngest shooters on the line for being safe and shooting the full course of fire. You both demonstrated maturity and skill beyond your age. Another big thank you to all our shooters at this event. Your persistence through equipment issues, your great attitudes, open minds, and hard work did not go unnoticed, and it showed in the amount of improvement everyone made.
Many thanks to our team of instructors: MileHiXJ, taildragger and Zuke for making this event happen, and thanks to our Shoot Boss: Luminous Rabbit for putting this event on. It was a great weekend!
Larry getting setup for a transition to prone stage.
Jay demonstrating textbook sling use and prone position.
Oliver checking his NPOA.