We had a great turnout of citizens looking to reconnect to their heritage of marksmanship this first weekend of June at the South Kent Sportsmans Club in Dorr MI. There were 8 first time Appleseed attendees in our near sellout crowd of 14. After the Safety briefing and Line command briefing we set about to find out were our shooters were at with the Hits Count Red Coat. Scotch, Deadshot, and Aspen ( all returning Appleseeders) served notice that they had brought their "A" game by clearing their targets and earning a Bicentenial Quarter from MI-copperhead.
Our instruction team of Pookie, Fidget and Zorak then set about presenting the Appleseed Points of Instruction. The day seemed to be flying by but many of our new shooters groups were showing significant shrinkage toward the magic 4 MOA group. IMC was presented and a couple of rounds of sight adjustments were made before we broke for lunch and Pookie's presentation of first strike. IIT Fusion joined our teem shortly before this and his presence was most welcome as it allowed the rest of the team opportunities to get out of the sun and restroom breaks.
Our instructor team worked through the final PoI's and we got an AQT in with just enough time let to get Saturday's Red Coat shot. First time attendee Nevada showed she was getting hold of the instruction as she cleared the red coat as did returning Rifleman Njörd, earning a bicentennial quarter.
Results of the AQT would have to wait till Sunday morning adding to the suspense but I believe our shooters were as drained as the Instructors and the Shoot Boss from the heat of the day.
With the new day's arrival we reviewed the safety briefing and then Zorak gave his first time presentation of Second Strike and did an outstanding job.
Sunday's first Red coat gave us another rifleman in Colt who cleared his target for the first time for a bicentennial quarter. We also had 7 students hit the Morgan's Shingle
Copperhead then did the presentation of Rifleman patches to Saturday's skilled five. Riflemen re-qualifing Saturday were Colt with 216, Deadshot with 221, Scotch with 233 (using a bolt action) and Njörd with a 244 to earn a coveted Distinguished Rifleman patch. Our first new Rifleman of the weekend, or more correctly Riflewoman, was Aspen breaking through with a 222 score !
Our team then went to work with a quick review of the PoI's and a check of point of aim to point of impact along with IMC review.The second AQT was shot and Njörd backed up Saturday's score with a 241 and Scotch, switching to a semi-auto, posting a 229.
Aspen showed the qualities of the true Appleseed spirit, by foregoing this AQT to help coach her sister Nevada and getting her score to a 192. Way to go, Aspen, you have the makings of a Instructor in Training.
The third AQT gave some of our participants their high scores for the day with Misty posting a 199 and Matt D. a 194. Deadshot got close to distinguished with a 237 followed by Scotch with a 230 and Njörd with a 229.
Essiah showed she had been working on the fundamentals by going from a previous high of 171 to a 212 to become our newest Riflewoman of the weekend !
After taking lunch in the Club house and listening to the KD presentation we worked on carding the sights and squares of death before completing AQT number Four.
Scores showed quite a bit of slippage, probably from the heat and exertion, although Aspen backed up her rifleman score with a 216. Misty showed she was gaining ground by posting a 192 and first time appleseeder Grant, at age 11, kept making steady improvement to 126.
The Shoot Boss decided to have a Parker's Revenge fun shoot, breaking the shooters into 3 teams of 4 each. Each team had an advanced Rifleman shooting from standing, a new Rifleman shooting from seated, and two team members shooting from prone. It was great watching them plan their strategy and work together. Team Parker came out victorious over Team Wyman and Team Whittimore by getting the most hits on officers, and winning valuable Project appleseed stickers. Regardless of who won it was great to see the team work and comradaree.
The day's final AQT proved that everyone was pretty well spent so the final Red coat was posted and shot. Seven shooters hit the 400, 8 hit the Shingle and 4 cleared it.
The Shoot Boss pronounced the Benediction with the story of Amie Cutter and "one more thing" and the day was complete.
To Addison, Grant, Matt D., Richard , Misty, Carrie, Nevada, and Scott, you all showed great improvement over the weekend, keep working on those fundamentals and you will soon get there.
It was a great pleasure to get to meet each one of our attendees, I hope I will have the honor of your presence at another Appleseed.
Huge shout out to my team of Fidget, Pookie, Zorak, Fusion, jennwilber73 and Kevin ! This could not have been done this without you.
and last but not least, many thanks to South Kent Sportsman Club for great facilities and hosting Project Appleseed marksmanship clinics.