What a great weekend to spend in Guntersville, AL! The Blue and Gray Rifle and Pistol Club is awesome! I've never seen backers hung by eye hooks before. I think I'm in love (yeah, my standards are that high). I'm told this was our 18th year at this range - THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT. We had an all-star cast of volunteers. MtnOakBZ had us registered in no time. We had TWO historians for volunteers (plus a bunch more). The history was GREAT! Two Master Instructors helped keep us on track. Three more shoot bosses/returning shoot bosses. One Instructor In Training that is one of my favorite coaches. And apparently one line boss that I think secretly wanted to borrow my megaphone ;D , but made due with his booming voice. Note to self - don't ask AH1Tom if he wants a megaphone.
Best of all, of course, were the shooters. 9 returning Appleseeders plus 2 with fresh blood. We even had a returning IIT coming back to shoot after well over a decade - I'm not sure what his forum name is, but I propose we change it to 400 Garand after he nailed the smallest silhouette on our first Hits Count all 3 times. Stephen shot that garand all weekend. He brought his own historian, Daniel, with him too - a 16 year old with a love of history. Daniel's dad, Tyler, was shooting great all weekend, just a couple of shots shy of a rifleman score. There were a few other shooters in that same boat - Clifford and Kyle weren't able to return on Sunday. I'm sure they'd be sporting a rifleman patch each based on Saturday's AQT - so close. Brad and David were our riflemen of the weekend. Brad scored in the 200's with every AQT, scoring a rifleman score 3 times. He was nice enough to get exactly 210 and get baptized with some North Bridge water. David tied him with a high score of 219 (which followed a 214). Nice shooting, gentlemen! All the others had consistently great, small groups. They just didn't wind up on the same AQT. With a bit more dry fire practice, they'll be churning out the rifleman scores at their next shoot.
Pictures can say a lot more -
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What a great group of patriots coming out together. We're only missing MtnOakBz in this picture.
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Kyle, aka Law, accepts an orange hat Saturday morning. Thank you for stepping up and volunteering with us. We all look forward to working with you at a shoot soon.
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AnthonyB welcomes kmkahuna to Alabama. We're overjoyed to have another volunteer move out our way! It's a great place to be.
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AH1Tom had already received his 100 Event pin, but Maximum Ordinate was able to give him one publicly. Thanks so much for all you do for Appleseed.
I'm sorry I don't have a picture of kmhahuna getting his 25 event pin. There were an awful lot of experienced volunteers at this shoot.
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AH1Tom gives the First Strike Saturday morning. Kmkahuna and AnthonyB shared the other 2. Temps and humidity gave us reason to take plenty of breaks on Sunday, so we heard quite a few Dangerous Old Men and Women stories.
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We had a great ratio of instructors to shooters. Google and tennessee hangfire both give Daniel some tips.
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Maximum Ordinate explains Talking Targets
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What a cool looking rifle. We had 3 loud mouths on the line. 2 ARs and the garand. It was awesome!!!
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AH1Tom works with Stephen.
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This butterfly was intently listening to us all weekend. I have half a dozen pictures of him landing on all of us and our rifles. It could have been we were dripping in sweat all weekend, but I'd like to believe that even our insects believe in liberty.
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Prone
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Tyler cleared his Hits Count target Saturday afternoon
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Kyle cleared his Hits Count target on Saturday afternoon as well.
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David accepts the first rifleman patch of the weekend Saturday afternoon with a 214!
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Daniel receives a William Diamond patch. Thanks for coming out to shoot and share history with us. I've already bought the Revolutionary War book you recommended.
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I left most of the pictures of the butterfly out, but he seems to have something to add during our instructor after action report Saturday night.
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Sunday review - Stephen and Kmkahuna review the sitting/kneeling position
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Daniel and AnthonyB review sling use
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Flavor Flav, Appleseed edition - Kmkahuna risks neck injury hanging the loudest and heaviest stopwatch around his neck.
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Brad requested this picture and wanted me to add, "Thanks, Rusty." Maximum Ordinate worked with him on his standing position Saturday afternoon. The results were immediate and Brad attributes his high scores to the mentoring.
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What a great way to spend time with your family. Tyler and Daniel practice standing together.
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Parkers Revenge winners - the Grayhairs Seabees Congratulations!
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Brad gets baptized with the North Bridge water for his 210 score - nice shooting!
Keep up that perfect practice. We have several more shoots in Alabama (https://appleseedinfo.org/schedule/?qstate=AL&state=Alabama)this year, including a pistolseed November 7-8 in Jasper. I hope to see you there.
Great shooting with you all and thanks again for the instruction and tips.
What was the title of the Revolutionary War book?
By happenstance, I'm a few miles of the coast headed to Boston now. We arrive tomorrow for a closer look at the location of the strikes.
Thank you for coming out. The book is Paul Revere's Ride by David Hackett Fischer
Awesome report, love the pics. Looks like Alabama knows how to grow some shooters!
Quote from: AH1Tom on September 04, 2026, 10:03:54 AMThank you for coming out. The book is Paul Revere's Ride by David Hackett Fischer
Thanks, but that's not the one I was looking for. One of the students mentioned another book and UpACreek got the title. That's the one I'm looking for.
I believe it's Great Battles for Boys The American Revolution by Joe Giorello. It's one of nine books of a children's series.
What an awesome shoot. An instructor reunion and eager students is hard to beat!