I guess I'll start by saying what great weather for an event. It was certainly cool in the morning, at least by Texas standards, however warmed up nicely quickly. So turned out to be some of the nicest weather you could ask for at a range.
We were just getting setup Saturday and in walks a guy that looked just like Maximum Ordnate. I did a double take. That can't be him though - he lives way far away from here. But lo and behold - it was!! I learned more than a few things from him this weekend I hadn't heard before. Who says you can't teach an old dog new tricks. Thanks for coming out.
We had a big group of Scouts of all ages out which were there to learn. And learn they did. After the first Redcoat of the day we saw that we'd have our work cut out for us. There was only 2 of the 200 yd shooters, and 1 of the 300 yard shooters out of 29 shooters. And that one good shooter was somebody that already knew what he was all about - and even cleared the first Redcoat of the day. And then we got to work with much determination. Some of the youngsters needed lots of help to include being shown which way the cartridge pointed.
After much work and instruction we finally started to see some results. And some frowns turning to smiles. Yup - it can be frustrating when you can't hit anything. However there were still more than a few frowns. Sunday morning saw me and BillJac take 5 of the Scouts over to another range to try and figure out why they just couldn't seem to hit anything. We were going to shoot their rifles ourselves and zero them to see what the problem was. Indeed we did rezero two of them but three were good to go. More instruction needed.
Long story short - the last Redcoat on Sunday saw much improvement. We went from 2 of the 200 yard shooters to 10 of the 200 yard shooters. And from 1 of the shingles hit to 5 of them hitting the shingle.
We did get one rifleman out of the event with a 236. He's an experienced shooter I'd met at one of the WTF Run n' Guns.
One of the highlights of the weekend is that 'Ray of Sunshine', who was a Blue Hat, decided to step up and take the Orange. And what a coincidence - Max Ord was the one that gave Sunshine her Blue awhiles back.
After the last Redcoat I asked AF5US to give the Benediction. Hey - I know my limitations and when I have somebody that is such a good public speaker around I'm going to use him. And glad I am as he just happened to have a 'Christmas Benediction' prepared. It was great, absolutely great. Dang wish I'd recorded that. The MaxOrd give a second part to the Benediction. I think between the two of them they really had the shooters pumped up about being an American.
Anyhow thanks to all the instructors that showed up to help including Richard, BillJac, Big Tony, Floyd, Jim, MaxOrd, and Sunshine. I couldn't have done it without you.
Sounds like you had a great shoot, congrats! :F