25 M event was held at the Laramie Rifle Range located in Laramie, Wyoming. LRRC (Laramie Rifle Range, Corp.) has been a great Project Appleseed partner for many years, and has great facilities for all types of Appleseed events. This one was special for me as it was time to test for the greenhat.
Saturday – after talking with some local families we were expecting four walk-ons; including three pre-teen youth and one returning Riflewoman who was a parent of one of the shooters. Started at 0800 on a windy Wyoming day, that started clear and sunny, but cool and breezy. We began with intros, general safety & range familiarization, and then began the standard CoF.
4 shooters: I. 11, bolt action w/iron sights,
E. 12, bolt action w/irons
J. 12, 10/22 w/ scope
Amy adult, 10/22 w/scope.
We had to get creative with equipment (in talks with the parents the night before we knew what was going to be needed) and using 100-mile-an-hour tape, 550 cord, and a few gadgets we had all shooters with a rifle and sling ready to go in short order; a Rifleman persists!
On the first redcoat, Amy cleared the target, and the youth shooters had several hits, with one getting three in the 100-yard bell.
For the youth, we decided to use green coats to help them better see the targets and have a bigger piece of paper to see impacts; this turned out to be very helpful as two of the shooters were getting reasonable groups, but were so low and to the side that they would not have shown up on the 8.5x11 paper that the squares targets are printed on. As the day went on, the youth were encouraged by sometimes increasing their hit counts on the actual target, and also found confidence if they could count more hit on the bigger paper with each exercise.
KD was covered and we also engaged a steel gong to have another way to reenforce hits. We secured rifles and headed into the clubhouse around noon for history and to escape the wind that had picked up. In addition to the strikes, a few DOM lessons were given as the youth were very engaged and wanted MORE history than the first two strikes. Rain came in so we did a few drills inside to keep everyone dry.
After the inside lessons we returned to the range, re-taught some of the positions and as soon as we had everything set up it started to rain again. We persisted through and continued with GC, dryfire drills and learned the transitions according to the CoF.
On the first AQT, Amy scored a 190, and the youth were between 48-79.
Amy cleared the afternoon RC and this time two youth were able to get all three rounds in the 100-yard bell.
We closed out the day around 1700.
Sunday - cooler and much windier (WYDOT posted I-80 winds at 45+ mph in morning & 55+ in the afternoon!). Started at 0830 to give the younger set a little more sleep.
4 shooters again: I. 11, bolt action w/iron sights,
E. 12, bolt action w/irons
J. 12, 10/22 w/ scope
Amy adult, 10/22 w/scope.
All were rarin' to go so we got down to it- safety/sling/steady hold factors/dryfire,etc..
Red Coats, then green coats for the kids and squares for Amy.
GCs worked well for the kids, especially those using factory irons.
The green showed up much better for irons.
Took a short break at 1100 then after more dryfire did timed GCs and finally an AQT before we broke for lunch.
Scored the AQTs at lunch, the kids did well, considering the brutal wind. Amy shot a 205! Jacob gave the 3rd Strike; we discussed Samuel Thompson and then did extended dryfire/NPOA with dummy rifle and green laser out of the wind.
At 1430 it was again AQT time, and the kids gamely tried their best as the wind increased. Amy scored an amazing 94 on the bottom row which gave her a 213! Youth had improvements too! Final RCs, then we handed out youth patches, an RM patch to Amy, and a greenhat to Jacob.
Benediction, followed by cleanup and we were gone by 1630.
Despite the unrelenting wind, the shooters were good natured and SAFE.
Berk (and many others) has been a great mentor and advocate for the program.
Congratulations regular guy! Can't wait to see you I u at the circus!
Truly a hardy bunch of folks at this event. RegularGuy, congrats on the new Green Hat. To the shooters at this event, Rifleman is a journey. Persist and you will make it there. I love seeing youth at our event. The only thing better than having youth is when the family is there together. This event checked those boxes. Great work everyone.