Ladies from the Kingsport, TN, chapter of A Girl & A Gun asked for a Ladyseed at their host range, Cherokee Rod and Gun Club several months ago. Once we were able to get a date on the schedule, the enthusiasm of the group became abundantly clear! We had a Zoom meeting for the chapter, several emails back and forth, and even increased the cap on the event after it sold out in a couple of days. All of that was only the beginning though.
Our instructor crew was met by 18 smiling, bubbly faces on Saturday morning anxious to get started. Some had purchased rifles just for this event and had even ordered targets from the Appleseed store to practice. These ladies were serious O0
After introductions, JustKim started us off with the first strike of the match. Then we were ready to bring rifles to the line and engage our Redcoat target. The ladies did fairly well, but we still had work to do. We learned about the six steps to firing a shot, NPOA, and prone position, interspersed with dry fire exercises to cement the instructional points into place. Once we started shooting squares targets the groups were nothing short of amazing! As I said earlier, some of these ladies had been practicing and the results showed it.
CorgiMom shared the second strike of the match over lunch and the ladies were very engaged in the story. We continued refining skills after lunch and the entire line was putting together great groups. We took a break for IMC and fairly quickly had everyone on target and with excellent groups. The heat had started to take a toll during the day and we had several breaks to discuss the finer points of instruction as well as telling the third strike of the match. By late afternoon everyone was wilting from the heat and we decided to call it a day.
On Sunday mornings the range has quiet hours until noon, so we used the time to tell a couple of DOW stories and to take advantage of the best practice a rifleman can do -- dry fire. We practiced prone position and even dry fired Stages 3 and 4 of the AQT. Then we learned the variations of sitting/kneeling positions and dry fired from those positions also. By the time the range was hot, we were ready to start an AQT. The ladies handled it like pros O0 After another break to learn about the standing position we finished up the AQT and took another break for more DOW stories. Thunderstorms had been threatening all day and we were watching the radar intently while keeping the event moving. On the final stage of the second AQT the first wave of storms hit the range. We were able to wait a few minutes for it to pass then get the range cleaned up during a break in the rain. The timing was perfect though. The skies opened up just after we had finished getting all the gear in our vehicles.
Despite the heat and the rain the ladies worked hard and were engaged throughout the entire weekend. They were so enthusiastic that they have already scheduled a second event at this venue next April! The next event will be open to everyone so the ladies that came this time can bring the men in their lives to experience Appleseed. Way to go ladies!
The instructor crew had nothing but great things to say about working with this group. Special thanks to JustKim and gunjunkie for making the trek all the way from FL to participate. Tar Heel, from NC, brought his two daughters and his mother for a full family experience ^:)^ CorgiMom, Cleveland, and ArmyVet represented the TN crew well, as always, while Maximum Ordinate and Google came from AL.
It was a great weekend and we look forward to many more events at Cherokee Rod and Gun Club in Kingsport! It is an awesome venue with some very enthusiastic folks :)
Group pic:
(https://i.imgur.com/RFujBnq.jpg)
Ready to get on the firing line:
(https://i.imgur.com/zPtci3R.jpg)
JustKim shares the first strike:
(https://i.imgur.com/bnfIXla.jpg)
CorgiMom and JustKim teaching prone:
(https://i.imgur.com/1ixRzmf.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/ygGJ62v.jpg)
Standing position:
(https://i.imgur.com/nsHn8OM.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/1bKa0yq.jpg)
This was a great event! A great group of ladies at a very nice range. All of these ladies showed up with teachable attitudes. They kept us on our toes for sure. They paid attention, they took notes, they asked questions, and they listened and applied. Everyone made progress throughout the weekend resulting in lots of smiling faces despite the TN heat -- It was HOT!! %) -- luckily we had a covered shooting line with fans! Thank you to the range -- and hopefully we will have many future events there.
It was also a pleasure working with this instructor cadre and I hope to do so again in the near future.
Photos: https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjzYu72
Looks like y'all had a fantastic event! It's great to see so many ladies out on the line and what a perfect way to spend part of Independence Day weekend.
What a terrific experience working with this group of enthusiastic ladies! Y'all keep persisting with your positions, the 6 Steps and your NPOA. I know there will soon be patches among you!
Huzzah!
Outstanding!
Knowing this group of instructors, I know that the enthusiasm for Project Appleseed greatly increased.
Here's to many more events with these ladies and their friends and families!
Cokeguy
What a great group, these Girl & a Gun ladies are always fun. They had some great questions and all went home better rifle shooters.
Fantastic action pictures!