Special thanks to the range. United Sportsmens Inc. They have been absolutely great to us and we can't thank them enough for hosting Project Appleseed.
What a glorious weekend for America!
The weather was nice and cool. Lots of student improvements! Lot's of instructors having fun. A couple even shot an instructor Garand a few times.
The numbers...
Small group, allowed us to get personal. 8 students showed up for liberty.
We had 4 first time ever Appleseeders.
4 first time Riflemen!
Congrats
Brian, with 224 a first time Rifleman! and on Sunday 220, 229, 216, 217!
Tom, 213 a first time Rifleman! and on Sunday 216, 211!
Robin, 226 a first time Rifleman! and on Sunday he didn't turn any more in and was already hunting for distinguished. I'm sure he scored 4 more rifleman!
Nathan with a first time Rifleman score of 215!
and last but not least Leon shot one Aqt and requalified 210!
Great job all!
Thank you to all the instructors 3Huzzahs, 303brit, DeltaBill, Danfinger, Okayishrifleguy, Vic_, and SentinelSF couldn't do it without ya'll.
Liberty Yo!
This was my third Appleseed event and my favorite so far! The weather was cool and comfortable, the instructor-to-student ratio was high, and I felt like I made a lot of progress on my marksmanship and have identified things to work on for the next event in less than a month.
First, I want to thank the Shoot Boss, @FixBayonnets, and Red Hat Instructors, @3Huzzahs! and @303brit. I also want to thank the all the Orange Hat Instructors in Training – @Danfinger, @DeltaBill, @Okayishrifleguy, @Vic_, and @SentinelSF! I'm pretty sure three of the instructors in training were students at the time of my first event less than a year ago, and now they are wearing the orange hat. This team seems like it has a good pipeline of fresh talent. Thank you, everyone!
This event had eight students and eight instructors, so from a student point of view, this was awesome. I got a lot of one-on-one instruction, and I really appreciate it. Everyone was very helpful, knowledgeable, and fun to be around.
Now that I've been to a few Appleseeds, I've had the chance to hear most of the history lessons told a few times by different instructors. Everyone has a different way of telling the same stories, and I appreciate the different voices. Some are very facts oriented, some have a bit of humor, some very heartfelt and emotional, some a little dramatic, some formal, some conversational. Public speaking is not easy, and I appreciate that everyone takes a turn doing it. It keeps things fresh.
This was my third Appleseed, and I am definitely improving! It's working! I started off pretty bad a year ago, and now I feel like I'm making progress in a way that I can see a pathway to possibly scoring a rifleman patch someday. I pulled out my old AQT targets from April and October of 2024 and compared them to the AQTs this time, and I've put some of the results below (I can't figure out the table formatting on this platform, so there are some tabs and spaces in there to get things lined up. Hopefully it's not screwy for other users. It looks ok to me. Let me know.). The data and my conclusions might get a bit long to read, but if anyone has the time to go through it and provide any feedback on it, please let me know. I'd like to form a plan for practice before my next event in less than a month.
Average Scores for AQTs and Each Stage:
4/24 10/24 3/25
AQT Ave 77 135 161
Stage 1 Ave 27 29 30
Stage 2 Ave 12 22 29
Stage 3 Ave 15 24 33
Stage 4 Ave 23 30 37
High Scores for AQTs and Each Stage:
4/24 10/24 3/25
AQT High 109 160 188
Stage 1 High 35 37 37
Stage 2 High 18 36 46
Stage 3 High 30 34 46
Stage 4 High 36 40 44
Looking at the data, I can see definite improvement in overall scores and improvement in most stages. The difference between April 2024 and October 2024 is partially due to getting a more suitable rifle and partially due to being familiar with the techniques. But between October 2024 and March 2025, the equipment did not change, and the improvements are all due to better understanding the techniques and practicing. It's very satisfying to see the work pay off!
After October 2024, I decided I had the most room to improve in stages 2 and 3. I had struggled with making the transition from standing and getting into position quickly, and I had trouble with mag changes. I was too slow and usually didn't complete the full course of fire, and I also tended to make mental errors like losing count of holes in paper. In the month before this March event, I spent the most time practicing transitions and mag changes at home and doing dry fire. I did improve in those stages, and I felt more comfortable with them at the event. But I still feel like I have trouble getting into NPOA fast enough and don't always finish each stage. And I still have brain farts with keeping track of round counts. Stages 2 and 3 are where I have the biggest differences between my average and my best scores. Sometimes I just happen to make the transition into position, and I hit the mat in almost perfect NPOA and have plenty of time, and when that happens, I can score really well, comparatively. That tells me that accuracy is not the issue -- it's time. So, I still need to work on those transitions and mag changes to save more time for making the shots. I especially feel like I need to improve my seated position. I don't feel like I've really got seated figured out for my body shape and flexibility, and it's different every time I get into it.
I also did better in stage 4. Some of that is due to dry fire practice, and some of it is just realizing the stage has so much time that I can relax and only fire when I'm certain of the shot. There is enough time to mentally go through the steady hold factors and the six steps to making the shot.
The area with the least improvement over time is stage 1. I was kind of blind to this, and it's not something I realized until I made the charts above. I haven't practiced the standing position much at all so far. In April 2024, standing was my strongest stage, and in October 2024, it was still stronger than stages 2 and 3, so I didn't prioritize it during practice. Now it's a weaker stage, and the fact it hasn't improved much means I can probably benefit from focusing on it before the next event.
The next event is April 26 and 27 – the big 250th Anniversary event! Before then, I hope to find some time to work on these things, and this is how I think I will prioritize them:
- Practice standing position. This is one position I can actually practice live fire at the nearby indoor range, so hopefully I can make a couple of trips to the range for that.
- Practice speeding up transitions and mag changes for stages 2 and 3.
- Work on finding my own personal seated position that I can get into consistently.
- Dry fire in prone at home.
Thanks again, everyone! I'm looking forward to the April event!