It was a glorious weekend for American in Illinois. The Illinois State Rifle Association opened their range to Appleseed this past weekend. These folks are great hosts. They brought out a cooler of water unprompted, because they were concerned we might not be getting enough fluids in the heat.
We started Saturday with 5 shooters. Only one was new to Project Appleseed. Temps got into the mid-90's with high humidity. It was brutal for these northern Illini folks. We got underway for the day with some of our shared American Heritage in the form of our First Strike presented by ChuckA. After the safety brief, rifles came to the line and the Hits Count Target was engaged. We had lots of opportunities to improve. After covering the fundamentals of the prone position and NPOA, shot groups started looking good. We covered IMC for sight adjustments and the hits moved to the center of the squares. IT was awesome to witness. The sitting and standing positions we covered and an AQT posted for the shooters to show their fine marksmanship skills. Paul showed us he knows very well what he is about by posting a 216 on that first AQT. He later confessed after his Patriot's Day shoot this spring, he wanted to join our cadre and spent a lot of time dry-firing and refining his skills. He did take an orange hat too. Welcome aboard pslav. We finished our strikes of the match and concluded the day with another Hits Count Target. Paul cleared that target can was awarded, a highly coveted, George Rogers Clark Quarter from Geek.
Day 2 was a little more pleasant temp wise. It was a solid 10 degrees cooler. After a review of Saturday's instruction led by AGT and a lot of audience participation, we got back to shooting again. We had a couple folks make changes to their equipment and the Hits Count Targets showed we needed to do more sight adjustments. After making the adjustments, we moved on to AQTs. As it was still plenty warm, we put breaks in between stages to let folks hydrate and rest. After the last AQT of the day, we had 2 more new riflemen. Ryan and Mike both broke the mystical 210 mark. It was their second events as well and both chose to join our ranks as well. Both KT and Peper, our remaining shooters, made great improvements with each AQT. This was Peper's first Project Appleseed event. I expect his next one will see him crossing the 210 mark. KT was getting close as well. She persevered through equipment issues and got really close to breaking 200. I see great things from her in the future. She also expressed an interest in joining our ranks as an IIT.
This event went incredibly well in spite of the hot and muggy weather. The instructor team of _Howdy_, AGT, ChuckA, and JHB did a phenomenal job of working 1-on-1 with the shooters and giving them the help they needed to meet their individual goals for the weekend. This team made the task of shoot boss easy. Thank you for all of the help. Both AGT and _Howdy_ worked on IIT progress checks and did a great job of fulfilling those requirements.
The heat took its toll on everyone. Caliente patches were presented to the shooters and it put a smile on their faces. Happy people on a hot weekend. Huzzah!
Below is a link to the pictures we captured on my phone. Feel free to put what you have as well.
https://imgur.com/a/2q42raO
:F A great weekend, and a great group of shooters for sure. Much liberty and sweat was enjoyed this weekend. Thanks to Geek and JHB for border-raiding once again to help grow the IL program, and to _Howdy_ and AGT for your help and commitment. Welcome to our new Orange Hats, and looking forward to seeing everyone on the line in the future.
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Looks like a nice covered line to help a little with the heat.
Did it stay in the shade most of the day?
We had some popups set up in Piqua this weekend but, they blew over toward the end of the day.
Shooters in the hot afternoon sun was not the best.
But, they perservered and got through it.
Glad to see the folks out in Illinois!
We had shade most of the day. Even caught an occasional breeze. Hot is still hot even in the shade. We did all of our POI work in that shade too. Direct sun in that heat would have wilted our shooters quickly. This particular cover is a newer one. It was a very welcome addition to the firing line.
It was a great event!
I believe the only complaint was Geek's - he keeps running out of hats! What a good problem to have.
Awesome to bring some more Illini into the cadre, and very excited to keep working with everyone in the future!
Another awesome shoot. It was great seeing Ryan and KT again! Look forward to seeing more of them this year. Always a good time in the Illini State!