It was a great weekend for Americans to gather at the Fenton Lakes Sportsmans Club to hone their marksmanship and hear about their shared heritage in the history of the first day of the American Revolutionary war, that is part and parcel of a Project Appleseed rifle clinic. Twenty shooters were welcomed to the range by the crew of instructors that included Hardcase, Pookie, Pocket Watch, Skald (from Ohio), MI-copperhead and ITB.
Hardcase got the history started off with a fine telling of First Strike and after the Safety briefing. The first Red Coat targets showed some instruction was needed and our crew got busy presenting the Points of Instruction. We had 15 shooters who were previous Appleseed attendees and 5 first time attendees and everyone showed rapid improvement. So much so that at lunch, after Skald presented a rousing Second Strike, Pocket Watch presented the shooters with IMC to help them get their sights adjusted. The afternoon instruction progressed well, and shortly before 2 pm Pookie gave us his telling of Third Strike to finish the history for the day.
Finally the portion of the event most of the attendees had been waiting for, the AQT was presented and shot. Shooters were instructed on how to score their targets and instructors confirmed scores. With the tally complete we had 1 newly minted Rifleman, James C., a young man of 15 years who posted a score of 218. A number of riflemen requalified, among them was Brad with a 239, Robert T. with a 234, Craig S. and Scuba AL each with 225, and Jason L. with a 222.
After the benediction the end of the day Red Coat was shot and significant improvement was noted as 10 shooters had 3 hits on the 400 silhouette , 10 got Morgan's Shingle and 6 cleaned the target compared to 3, 3 and 0 in the AM.
Sunday brought overcast skies and the threat of rain but that didn't dampen the enthusiasm for our 18 returning shooters as Sunday's first Red Coat showed. 11 shooters put 3 hits on the 400 target, 11 got the Shingle, 8 cleaned the Red Coat and 15 shooters in all scored 3 hits on at leat one silhouette. Some time was spent on more drills and confirming zeros before the weekend's second AQT was shot. This provided us with our second new Rifleman for the weekend, Luke C., brother of James, with a 211. Eleven more Riflemen posted requalifing scores on Sunday. Robert T was high score with a 243 for a Distinguished patch, followed by Jerry B. and Zorak with 239's, ScubaAL posted a 236, Brad posted a 233 as did John C. (Older brother of James and Luke), Doug came in with a 228 for his high for Sunday, James C. showed that he was finding his NPOA by posting his high score of 225 for the weekend and Craig S. matched his high of 225 as well. Jon O. Posted his best of 220 on this day and Jeremy C. (father to Luke,James,and John) was able to post a 213 on the final AQT to requalify. While not everyone was able to post a Rifleman score, all of the attendees showed improvement from Saturday morning to Sunday afternoon. The final Red Coat had fewer shooters as several had to leave early for other engagements. All of the remaining attendees hit at least one silhouette with 3 rounds , with 7 hitting the 400, 8 hitting the Shingle and 6 cleaning the target. I want to thank everyone who attended and especially Zorak who stepped up and took an Orange hat to start on the path to instructor
It was a great weekend! Getting the opportunity to know some of you shooters was a privilege! I hope to see many of you shooters again! :F
The firing line and some instruction on Saturday
The cause of Liberty grew stronger with MI Copperhead earning his green hat and Zorak accepting an orange hat beginning his path towards full instructor!
That was an amazing weekend, but before I talk about my experience, I want to try to very gently address something I noticed with some other shooters. I was there with a friend who'd never been to Appleseed before, and watching him struggle with the sling and NPOA reminded me a lot of my own first Appleseed. We also had some very experienced shooters on the line who knew the program well and were chasing their Distinguished patches, or 250s, or whatever their next goal was. It seemed like they knew each other and the coaches well, and there was a lot of joking around going on. It's not my place to tell any other shooter what to do, but I will ask those shooters, if they read this, to put themselves in an inexperienced shooter's place for a moment. If you were struggling to get a good group on the squares target, confused by NPOA and shooting slings and all the steady hold factors, how would you feel if you heard other shooters complain that they were sick of squares and wanted the AQT? If you got to the end of the day absolutely exhausted, proud that you finally broke 150, how would you feel hearing people make fun of another shooter for only getting into the 230s? I am all for busting chops, but I submit that it's best done quietly.
Anyway... I already had my patch from my second rifle clinic in 2023, but my scores that weekend had been too inconsistent for me to feel comfortable signing up for a KD. I had a simple goal for myself this Appleseed- shoot consistent qualifying scores. I went far beyond my own expectations, eventually hitting a 239 on an AQT where a jam preventing me from firing all ten rounds in stage 2. In some previous Appleseeds, I struggled to apply all the lessons the instructors were imparting. On Sunday it was just clicking for me. I tried Pocket Watch's suggestion that we should specifically work through our muscles, one by one, and tell them to relax, and immediately found a place where tension was messing with my NPOA. ITB told us to reduce the magnification of our scopes, and while I had to fight that inner demon that says, "Ignore the instructor, that's not a mistake you're making, you're a good shooter," using less magnification resulted in the best stage 4 I ever shot.
The rain on Sunday also enabled me to really understand the Rifleman's Bubble. I'd drop on to my muddy and rain-soaked pad, feeling water ooze into my shirt with a sense of horrified disgust, and then ten seconds later I'd be slung up and working on finding my NPOA with no awareness whatsoever of rain, mud, dirt, etc.
Thanks to all the instructors and special thanks for the encouragement to take the orange hat. See you all soon (hopefully)!
What a great event - lots of Riflemen, a new Shoot Boss, a new Orange Hat, and lots of smiling faces.
Thanks to the shooters for spending the weekend with us, and thanks to the instructor crew. Special shout out to Pocket Watch and Pookie, for carrying a lot of the load with history, Line Bossing, and teaching POIs.
Some pics...
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It looks like you have awarded something to those shooters who cleared a Redcoat target at your Appleseed. I like to clear Redcoat targets as a way to roughly measure my shooting skills. I'm unable to see exactly what you have awarded them. Could you tell us what it is? A fine bunch of expert riflemen you have there.
I just came back from Charlottesville, Virginia where I earned the very nice" sic semper tyranus" patch. I'm looking for a good reason to travel to Michigan to shoot!
Thanks,
ScottyOh
ps some have called me a patchhoe.
Quote from: scottyoh on September 30, 2025, 10:08:26 PMIt looks like you have awarded something to those shooters who cleared a Redcoat target at your Appleseed. I like to clear Redcoat targets as a way to roughly measure my shooting skills. I'm unable to see exactly what you have awarded them. Could you tell us what it is? A fine bunch of expert riflemen you have there.
I just came back from Charlottesville, Virginia where I earned the very nice" sic semper tyranus" patch. I'm looking for a good reason to travel to Michigan to shoot!
Thanks,
ScottyOh
ps some have called me a patchhoe.
ScottyOh, I award shooters who clear a Red Coat target a US quarter that features a Revolutionary war theme on the reverse side. I stole this idea from Geek who awards something similar at the events he Shoot Bosses. At this event it was Washington crossing the Delaware.I put them in a coin holder to make them easier to award and keep track of. As far as I know I'm the only Michigian Shoot Boss that does this at this time. Clearing a RC is a challenge equal to shooting a qualifying score on an AQT.
In Michigan, many of the instructors say that we get paid in patches, pins and stickers 😃