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!
Weather was great! Rained before and rained after.
A nice group with 4 first time Appleseeders. A lot of learning, a lot of shooting, and a lot of improvements!
Congratulations 5 new riflemen!
Joel, first event and scored a 230 & then 221 Rifleman! And cleared the hits count target!
Ken, 224
Ben, 217 & 212
Eric 222, & 211
Javier 216
Lots of sharpshooter scores.
Special thanks to the instructors, couldn't do it without you guys.
To wrap it up with the best note.
Great job to Samantha who persevered in the cold, demonstrated great safety and proficiency and did it all with a great attitude. I was proud to award her with the first youth patch in a few years.
Not only did she teach me something about my history, but apparently her 7th Great grandfather served in the Lexington Alarm under Capt John Wheeler as a minutemen! Very cool! and Great job dad!
(https://i.imgur.com/SIK6qYz.jpeg)
"Honorable mention for Samantha. So cool seeing this amazing kid out there giving it her all. I cannot convey how much it touched my heart to overhear her dad Adam say "I'm so proud of you honey". Some seriously awesome parenting right there. It suddenly got very dusty out on the range for me at that moment. It TOTALLY made my day.
I have personally witnessed grown men give up in aggravated frustration at the line. Samantha kept pushing. Gives me hope for the future."
-Instructor (I didn't actually get permission to quote him)
(https://i.imgur.com/tZNoNTZ.jpeg)
(https://i.imgur.com/kOW2Kko.jpeg)
(https://i.imgur.com/MhbmKBq.jpeg)
(https://i.imgur.com/hbUELaY.jpeg)
I think this event forged the most Riflemen we've made at Concord so far?
It really was a great group of students and a great finish for our 2025 season. Thanks to them, USI Concord and our amazing crew of instructors. Such a fun weekend.
Best,
Dan
This was a GREAT event for me personally because I finally earned my patch!
This was my 6th 25m event, so it's been a long, long journey for me. At my first event in the spring of 2024, I was a new shooter with zero experience, a wobbly 10/22 takedown, and bad eyesight. My average AQT score at that first event was below 100, with a high just barely over 100. Yikes! But I had so much fun that I upgraded the rifle and came back in fall and added about 50 points to my score at the second event.
With the help of the instructors, I kept incrementally improving my skills and my scores every time I came back, but by my 4th or 5th event, I felt like I had plateaued with a high score of about 185. I felt like my skills were pretty solid, but I had finally hit the point where my eyesight was really holding me back, and I could not see well enough to improve much further.
On Saturday of this last event, my score was 186, right where it had been stuck for awhile. Instructor 3Huzzahs offered to loan me his much better scope for day two, and it made all the difference! My score jumped up from 186 to 222 overnight.
To me, that confirmed my feeling that my skills had been good enough for awhile, but my eyesight was preventing me from progressing. With the loaner scope, I went from holding on an indistinct gray shape and trying to be in the black to actually being able to see the V in every stage and holding on that.
I don't want to make too big a deal out of the scope or send the wrong message regarding skills, because skills and training are the most important. I give an enormous amount of credit to my instructors who trained me, and I will take some credit myself for perseverance and practice. I'm not a natural at this, so it took a lot of instruction and work. But I think it's worth acknowledging that equipment counts for something too when you've gone as far as you can with what you have. And also, I think equipment can actually help a shooter develop better skills too. When I was looking through the higher magnification scope I borrowed, I could see wobbles and movement that I couldn't see before. With my own scope, I would have said I was almost perfectly still and didn't need to do more to calm my movement, but at higher magnifications, I could see that wasn't true, and I could work to correct it. That was really interesting to me — I could see the target better and have something more distinct to hold on, which is the main thing you expect from a scope, but I could also see that I needed to do more to calm my breath and release my muscle tension, even though I thought I was already relaxed and still. That's a skill improvement I can carry forward even when I don't have access to that kind of scope.
I want to thank Fixbayonets, 3Huzzahs, Danfinger, 303brit, and Deltabill for a great event, along with all the other instructors and instructors in training who have helped me over the past year and a half. You guys are the best! And I was touched by how genuinely happy you all were when I finally scored Rifleman! That really means something to me. Thank you!
Posted another personal AAR for this event: https://appleseedinfo.org/smf/index.php?topic=70786.0
This one was shorter and easier to write than the last one, which matches my experience at the event. Definitely felt a lot more comfortable this time, and I was very happy to beat the 210 mark on two AQTs even though I'm still not that far above the threshold. I suppose the next step is rimfire KD and being able to shoot 210 consistently - lots of room to improve!
It was great to see so many patches earned this weekend. I think the other event I attended back in September only saw one patch? Especially enjoyable to earn a patch the same event as Fulcrum - we were nearby on the shooting line both events. That Vortex Viper 5-25 was the main thing I was eyeing with my September PSA giveaway credit, and he put that optic to fantastic use.
Quote from: Omnaria on November 19, 2025, 05:09:30 PMPosted another personal AAR for this event: https://appleseedinfo.org/smf/index.php?topic=70786.0
This one was shorter and easier to write than the last one, which matches my experience at the event. Definitely felt a lot more comfortable this time, and I was very happy to beat the 210 mark on two AQTs even though I'm still not that far above the threshold. I suppose the next step is rimfire KD and being able to shoot 210 consistently - lots of room to improve!
It was great to see so many patches earned this weekend. I think the other event I attended back in September only saw one patch? Especially enjoyable to earn a patch the same event as Fulcrum - we were nearby on the shooting line both events. That Vortex Viper 5-25 was the main thing I was eyeing with my September PSA giveaway credit, and he put that optic to fantastic use.
It was great to see you at the event and to patch on the same day! Congratulations!
If I had that credit at PSA, I would definitely be considering that optic. It was amazing.
Quote from: Fulcrum on November 19, 2025, 12:29:32 PMThis was a GREAT event for me personally because I finally earned my patch!
This was my 6th 25m event, so it's been a long, long journey for me.
Huzzah! Great work sir! I know this has been a bit of an odyssey for you, and it's great to see your persistence and methodical improvements over the past 18 months finally pay off. So what's next? Might this be a sign from the marksmanship gods that you need to make a 5-25x optic a permanent feature on your rifle and attend a rimfire KD..?? Now that you can see the targets clearly, you might as well fully embrace the pain and suffering and start wrestling with the effects of wind and come-ups. O0
Quote from: OkayishRifleguy on November 25, 2025, 01:37:27 AMHuzzah! Great work sir! I know this has been a bit of an odyssey for you, and it's great to see your persistence and methodical improvements over the past 18 months finally pay off. So what's next? Might this be a sign from the marksmanship gods that you need to make a 5-25x optic a permanent feature on your rifle and attend a rimfire KD..?? Now that you can see the targets clearly, you might as well fully embrace the pain and suffering and start wrestling with the effects of wind and come-ups. O0
Thank you!
I definitely need to upgrade my optics now that I have seen how much of a difference it makes for me. That particular scope is pretty pricey for me, so I might need to look for something a bit more affordable or figure out how to scrounge up the funds for it.
And, yes! I definitely want to do a Rimfire KD! I actually signed up for one in Sacramento in October which got cancelled due to not having enough people sign up. This is a mission for me. I want to help get enough people to sign up for an RKD in Sac that the event can go forward, or get enough people to commit to signing up to make it worthwhile to host one in Concord. I think that's doable with some lead time.
Congratulations Fulcrum! I know it's been a process for you, glad you've got it figured out.
If you don't mind running a used scope, take a look for Redfield Revenge scopes on eBay or gun broker. Occasionally you can find a 4-12 or 6-18x44. They are off brand Leupold scopes with fantastic glass, and are tough as nails. The 6-18 has an adjustable objective that makes transitions from 50' to infinity, a nice feature for known distance.
Quote from: La Victoire Ailee (Timothy_D) on November 25, 2025, 09:45:14 AMCongratulations Fulcrum! I know it's been a process for you, glad you've got it figured out.
Thank you! It was definitely a process, but a fun one.
Quote from: Fulcrum on November 25, 2025, 09:36:58 AMThank you!
I definitely need to upgrade my optics now that I have seen how much of a difference it makes for me. That particular scope is pretty pricey for me, so I might need to look for something a bit more affordable or figure out how to scrounge up the funds for it.
And, yes! I definitely want to do a Rimfire KD! I actually signed up for one in Sacramento in October which got cancelled due to not having enough people sign up. This is a mission for me. I want to help get enough people to sign up for an RKD in Sac that the event can go forward, or get enough people to commit to signing up to make it worthwhile to host one in Concord. I think that's doable with some lead time.
The optic you've seen me use is an Athlon Argos Gen 2 with 6-24x FFP mil reticle. The price crashed down to ~$200 when the Gen 3 came out, but I don't feel like I am using a "cheap" optic or missing out on anything (Athlon is pretty underpriced / underrated in general, for the time being). 6x is actually a touch too high for the 25m event, but it worked perfectly well for the rimfire KD I did. Good glass, tactile knobs, parallax adjust, and a thin reticle that you can see your target clearly behind. I know you have your unique vision challenges, but if the Vortex Viper worked for you, this one probably will get you pretty close too.
Quote from: OkayishRifleguy on November 26, 2025, 01:07:48 AMThe optic you've seen me use is an Athlon Argos Gen 2 with 6-24x FFP mil reticle. The price crashed down to ~$200 when the Gen 3 came out, but I don't feel like I am using a "cheap" optic or missing out on anything (Athlon is pretty underpriced / underrated in general, for the time being). 6x is actually a touch too high for the 25m event, but it worked perfectly well for the rimfire KD I did. Good glass, tactile knobs, parallax adjust, and a thin reticle that you can see your target clearly behind. I know you have your unique vision challenges, but if the Vortex Viper worked for you, this one probably will get you pretty close too.
Thanks for the recommendation.