A beautiful overcast Saturday greeted our 15 attendees at the Custer Sportsmen's Club in Custer WA, just a short hop to the Canadian border in northwestern WA state. We started the day slightly behind schedule on Saturday but tried our best to make up for the lost time. It was wonderful to not only see returning attendees from other events in the area, but also 5 family pairs joining us, along with several youth. We got right into the standard morning safety briefing, where a little bit of extra time was devoted to rifle use introduction as some of our attendees had never fired a rifle before. With volunteer instructors IBorche, Ctorg, Ultragtr, B, and yours truly, we went through the marksmanship instruction by about 3PM and got into the first AQT of the day. Ultragtr started the weekend as a blue hat, persisted with the assistance of Ctorg to make additional improvements, and turned in a solid 211 Rifleman score, earning himself a well deserved brand new Orange Hat to become our newest IIT! B, wasn't about to be outdone, turned in a solid Rifleman score on his first AQT of the day with an impressive 235! Technically it would have been a perfect 250 however a target re-acquisition error after a magazine change cost him 15 points. Many others were making solid improvements throughout the weekend during the sighter drills, practice AQTs, and hits count targets. One thing that made things a lot more challenging was the blowing silty sand which made some folks' equipment malfunction with FTEs and other problems. Advice was given to the shooters at the end of Saturday to give their equipment a good once over to remove as much of the blown in dust and sand that could continue to cause equipment issues down the road. Sunday turned around and we were joined by 9 folks, got right into the marksmanship review and started our first AQT where Charles and B both turned in a solid Rifleman score again. Very quickly B earned the Distinguished patch on a subsequent AQT O0, and by the 3rd AQT of the day B turned in a 250! :bow: :bow: The very first 250 patch I have handed out, ever! B also accepted an orange hat to become another one of our newest IIT in WA! Huzzah! Huzzah! Huzzah!
Stories of heroism and sacrifice were told throughout the weekend, tales of men and women, boys and girls, were all shared with the attendees. Including a personal tale of the ancestors of one of our instructors who participated in one of the very first naval engagements of the revolutionary war! Those sacrifices may have been made centuries ago, but their actions still reverberate throughout our lives and there are even those living amongst us who have a direct link to those people who made the choice to lay down their lives to preserve Liberty for the future generation.
Brad and Adam; you two were making improvements continuously throughout the weekend as you can see in your scores and targets; practice your 6 steps of firing the shot, especially the follow through part by keeping the trigger held back right after the "bang".
Craig, Simon, and Alex: It was wonderful to see a family with youth join us on the line, practice your steady hold factors for prone with the proper sling tension and dry fire, dry fire, dry fire.
Matt and Bee: Again, thank you for coming as a family and giving us the opportunity to work with you both this weekend. Please consider looking into a longer rail to allow you to move the scope forward more to get better eye relief without having to increase the length of pull on the stock itself. Project Appleseed provides an excellent combination just for the 10/22 which can be found at https://store.rwvaappleseed.com/scopes.html
Francis, David, Dominic, and Grace: Thank you all for coming out to join us Saturday, I apologize about the loaner rifle situation for Sunday and I sincerely hope that we will see you all again at a future event! Please check out future events at https://appleseedinfo.org/schedulemap/
Everyone, I thank you for spending your weekend to join us to learn about fundamental rifle marksmanship as well as your heritage as Americans. Please consider joining us as volunteers or help us spread the word by becoming our 7th step. Remember, a Rifleman persists, keep practicing your steady hold factors, gaining/changing/reacquiring your NPOA, and your 6 steps of firing the shot. I hope to see you all at a future event again!