Another excellent 25M rifle clinic was held at the Nappanee Conservation Club near Nappanee IN on April 11 & 12. Nine patriots showed up on this crisp and frosty April morning ready for the challenge of drinking from the firehose of appleseed instruction. After the opening welcome and safety briefing the participants shot their first Red coat target and instruction was begun. After initial instruction and a couple of squares were shot we got returning shooter Ernie on a loaner rifle revealing that the stock sights were causing part of his issues. Our returning shooters were showing tight groups right from the start and by the time of the IMC instruction even our newest shooters were getting their groups down to 6 to 8 MOA . After an excellent lunch prepared by Tinman's wife our instructor crew presented mag changes, NPOA shifts and the transition to prone. After some practice the third stage was shot and the seated and standing POI's were presented and their respective stages of the AQT shot as well as the 4th stage. Adam showed his solid rifleman skills by requalifying with a 221. Three other shooters were close to qualifying with scores just over 200. The day's final Red Coat Target was shot showing improvement from the opening of the day. The benediction was pronounced and Saturday was wrapped up with the promise of more good things to come.
Sunday dawned a good 15 degrees warmer and the instructor crew set about refining our shooters skills with a review of the POIs and some drills to that end.
Adam showed that he is a "man who knows very much what he is about" by posting scores of 215, 226 & 226 for Sunday's AQTs he was joined by Scot (M1Bull) requalifying with a 210 with his iron sighted Kingston 10/22 M1 look-a-like, and Laura (Pewpewkitty) earning her first Rifleman patch with a 214 on the next to last AQT of the day. Ernie and Stacey both hovered around that 200 mark so I am confident that their next Appleseed will be their break through event. Mike, Derek, and Sydney all showed great improvement over the course of the weekend with Sydney nailing the Morgan's Shingle with a center of target hit on Sunday's final Red Coat. Josh, Tinman's son, get the Perseverance and IAO award for the weekend as he had surgery on his left hand just days before the event and was relegated to shooting off a bag from prone all weekend while using a bolt gun (although it was a really nice bolt gun) . He posted scores ranging from 221 to 246, and I was disappointed that I couldn't present him with a rifleman patch. I did encourage him to return in the fall and put all he has learned toward earning that patch then. I broke our remaining shooters into two teams of three for a Parker's Revenge Fun Shoot and team Parker ( Scot, Ernie, Laura) just eeked out a win over team Wyman (Adam, Stacey, Sydney) 27 points to 23. The winners got to choose their favorite flag from our Revolutionary War flags as their prize, and the second place team got to choose their favorite Project Appleseed sticker.
The day's final Red coat target had 5 of our 7 remaining shooters hit the Morgan's Shingle.
Stacey and Sydney both expressed desire in volunteering for Applecore and I sent them off with the paperwork and a Blue Hat each.
I really enjoyed being the Shoot Boss at this event in part because of the great people we had attending but also because of the great crew I had working to make this event a success. Thank you in spades Tinman, devilkitty, Fidget and PICASSO, you all make it a joy to be a Shoot Boss !
Lets get some pictures posted !
I had a figment of a thought that I had once signed up on the PA forums and sure enough, I found my credentials! Thanks again for the tune-up at the start of the shooting season! Laura had a great time again, and she is looking forward to coming back in the fall. We d, however, feel compelled to share pictures of the bald eagle we saw amongst the trees on the side of CR13 on the way home. Seemed an appropriate close to the festivities! (and yes, that is a racoon in the 2nd photo... they didn't seem to hassle each other in the least)
-Scot
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Oops... I meant to credit Laura/PewPewKitty for the photography above.
Pleased that I was able to requalify Rifleman with the Kingston Garand that suffered a serious failure last time I shot an Appleseed NCC September 2-3, 2023 (https://appleseedinfo.org/smf/index.php?msg=413161) (suffered a broken bolt). Thanks again to all the excellent coaching! @PewPewKitty and I will make use of this on the line at Camp Perry and across the course at Camp Atterbury and elsewhere this summer shooting high power as we do our part to 'make wood rifles great again' (MWRGA... catchy?). The AS program dovetails remarkably well with NRA/CMP high power program. There are a few regulars that shoot our friendly competitions at SJCRC in Elkhart that I've suggested would really benefit from this program, but schedules didn't work out this time. Schedules permitting, @PewPewKitty and I will be back in the fall.
In the meantime, we'll keep spreading the gospel and all are welcome to join us at St. Joe County Restoration Club (http://stjoecountyrestorationclub.com) in Elkhart for all of our monthly fun matches!
A great time indeed! Learned a lot and also achieved my two goals: cleared a redcoat target and earned my Rifleman badge. Amazing how applying the skills correctly can make such an improvement in my targets ;D
Saturday Pictures!
Sunday pictures
Even more Sunday pictures