Wow! What a way to come back to a range! We had a fantastic weekend at the Red Hill Range in Martin, Georgia. A huge thanks to the range owner, Chris Phillips, for allowing us to use the whole range all weekend. The Hits Count Target first thing in the morning told us all we needed to know about how easy the weekend was going to be for us instructors. I don't think any of the five shooters had more than a six MOA spread. We had three repeat Appleseeders and two new to Appleseed, although obviously not new to shooting. Tar Heel and I shared telling the Three Strikes along with most of the instruction. Tar Heel has a great way of telling a story and coaching. He's very encouraging and doesn't seem to miss a thing. Mossburg did a terrific job giving the safety brief, coaching, and taking over as line boss in the afternoon. One of the many highlights of the weekend was Zinthous shooting a 223 rifleman score and swapping his blue hat for an orange hat after lunch on Saturday. Anyone who heard Zinthous at our IBC earlier this year knows he'll be a great instructor. He jumped right into instructing for the rest of the weekend.
Now to talk more about those awesome shooters - We had two families join us this weekend. Two sets of fathers and sons and an uncle. It's been my experience that it doesn't take long for everyone to feel like one big Appleseed family. This weekend sure wasn't an exception. They were encouraging toward each other and us instructors, helpful, and kind. Even though they were FANTASTIC shooters, they still had teachable attitudes. Clay and Kevin, the new Appleseeders, soaked up sling use and the different positions like sponges. We flew through our schedule and jumped to timed and magazine change drills. Their scores jumped even higher and, unsurprisingly, all five qualified as riflemen, with Matt shooting a distinguished score. I'm a pretty new shoot boss, but I think it might be a while before I see every shooter score a rifleman score on 1 AQT again. I can't stress enough how much of a pleasure it was to share the weekend with you guys. I hope to see all of you again very soon as instructors or shooters.
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Red Hill Range owner, Chris Phillips, accepts a certificate of appreciation thanking him for 6 years of supporting Project Appleseed.
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Tar Heel and Mossburg show us how to shoot in prone
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Kevin looks great shooting in prone
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Tar Heel coaching
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Tar Heel and Mossburg demonstrate all of the different seated positions
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Matt, Clay, and Kevin standing
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Mossburg's shoes got a little heavier during the day.
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Mossburg line bosses like a boss. She's got a good loud voice.
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I can't let May 4th slip by without a reference to the greatest sci-fi trilogy ever. They were divided pretty evenly between rebel scum and the Dark Side squares targets.
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Zinthous receives his well-earned Rifleman Patch and swaps his blue hat for an orange hat. Congrats!!!!!
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Zinthous looks great in an orange hat!
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Mossburg jumps down to coach
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Standing position
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Dan did great shooting in the standing position
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Aaron receives his last William Diamond Patch since he's just a couple weeks shy of 18. Thanks so much for joining us again, Aaron.
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Zinthous told us a DOM story to start out the history Sunday. Mossburg told us about Hezekiah Wyman. Thanks for the history, guys.
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Dan modeled the seated position for us on Sunday
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Zinthous reviews the safety briefing Sunday morning
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Coaching on the line
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They did a great job practicing transitioning into the seated and prone positions.
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Kevin and Dan pair up for the ball and dummy exercise
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Matt and Clay team up for the ball and dummy drill
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Clay and Matt swap places for the ball and dummy drill
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Dan and Kevin swap roles
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Aaron and Zinthous teamed up for the ball and dummy drill.
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Brothers, Dan and Matt shoot a hasty AQT
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We were able to shoot out to 100 yards and practice compensating for trajectory that we discussed during Sunday's lunch.
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Matt receives his Distinguished and Rifleman Patches - He shot great all weekend, with 3 rifleman quality AQTs. Awesome!
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Aaron receives his Rifleman Patch for one of his two rifleman scores of the weekend.
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Clay receives his Rifleman Patch for one of his 2 rifleman scores. He scored an impressive 230 on his hasty AQT.
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Kevin receives his Rifleman Patch with a 211 - pretty awesome considering the target was flapping in the wind half the time (we could have fixed that!)
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Dan, aka Ballisticjunky, receives a Rifleman Patch for one of his two rifleman scores for the weekend. He contacted his South Carolina state coordinator to join as a volunteer on Monday. Welcome to the Appleseed cadre, Dan!
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Our third AQT for the weekend - all 5 shooters shot a rifleman score!!!!! Wow!
Thanks to all for your help over the weekend. I was hurting a bit and you guys all picked up the slack, especially Mossburg and Zinthous. It was very much appreciated.
Huzzah! :F
Awesome!!! ^:)^ Congratulations to all the Riflemen! Zinthous, I know you have been waiting for this one! Thank you and Ballisticjunky for taking a bigger bucket. Good job everyone! ..:..
Great job everyone.
Great shoot, love all the center fire rifles on the line. Congratulations to all the new riflemen.
@upacreek excellent AAR and event this weekend. You, Mossburg and Zinthous did a fantastic job with a skeleton crew. Also, thank you to Tar Heel for making the trip down for Saturday. I know a lot of effort goes into these events; I'll see how I can help shoulder some of the load in the future.
This will be our last event with Aaron for a while as he leaves us for the Air Force soon. Appleseed has been a great bonding experience for us; thank you very much for that. Some proud dad moments over the years...
Thanks, Matt. We'll love to have you jump in. Thanks for sharing the pictures.
Thank Aaron for me and wish him well :F
I can only echo Upacreek's praise of the quality of shooters and great attitudes all around at the Red Hill Range in GA. There were lots of smiles and laughs despite the serious business at hand. These Appleseed events are a team effort from new shooters to the shoot boss, and everyone pitched in and did a great job with their roles this weekend.
I'm honored to have been a part of it and thrilled with the results in holes on paper and shared heritage. I hope to run into all these folks again soon! Perhaps we'll have some border raiding from some of this crew up to the Tar Heel state...
Great job to everyone!
upacreek I see that sling.
I wore one last year.
Get well soon.