What a great weekend for an Appleseed event! Salem Hunting Club offered up their entire rifle range so that eight proud patriots could come out and either learn or practice their skills.
We opened the weekend with a safety brief and discussed how we would follow the Four Rules of Firearm Safety, followed by the Six Steps to Making a Firearm safe. After that, it was out to the range.
We began with the morning Redcoat, with Jay, Jeff and Nick showing the rest that it could, in fact, be done. Great job.
After that, it was time to get down to learning and practicing the basics, with Steady-hold, Six Steps and NPOA
The group headed back to the line to work from the prone position...
From there, it was time to work on the seated/kneeling position...
What would an Appleseed be if we didn't work on standing, as well?
We had a working lunch and covered a little bit of history
Sunday dawned as another beautiful day, so we got down to drills on Calling the Shot and Carding the Sights...
We spent the rest of the day working on AQTs, with a few breaks and a little more history. Of course, there had to be a team event, to bring a little fun competition into the day.
By the end of our event, it was clear that there were several folks who clearly knew what they were about. Six had cleared the Redcoat at some time during the weekend, five had requalified as Riflemen, one (a first-time attendee) scored a solid 215, and we saw Jeff earn his Distinguished patch, with a 244. What a great group of shooters...
We also learned that this will probably be Jay's last Appleseed at Salem. A strong supporter for many years, and the current club president, Jay let us know that he will be moving to Florida. We were proud to present Jay with a copy of Paul Revere's Ride, which had been donated by Matt.
Thanks, Jay. Don't forget to reach out to the Florida Appleseed group. They are a fine (and very large), dedicated team that will be welcoming to you.
Thanks, ever so much, to the Salem Hunting Club, and to Jay. Folks like you make Appleseed a reality.
Katie if you happen to read this your patch was placed in the mail this morning
There were a few rough patches but a really bright spot for me was a first time student with iron sights earned his Rifleman patch. Saturday morning he seemed a little ho-hum. By Sunday afternoon he was digging it hard. The history, the heritage, the marksmanship, the entire program. I gave him a card and he texted me Tuesday to let me know he'd already signed up for another event.
This was such a fun event - excellent instruction & heartfelt history lessons!
I was so grateful for everyone's patience and assistance when my rifle wasn't working well.
Thanks Nick for letting me borrow your back-up. Thanks Tick Magnet for the patch!
#ShootLikeJeff