I am proud and happy we broke in the Tim Murphy Memorial DAR this weekend. I do not have the Reg numbers and DinkyDao is still resting, but we got two new Riflemen (including the Dar owner ;D) out of about 16-17 shooters. I think a couple others are VERY close.
It was very hot and shooters and Instructors persevered. Everyone had a rifleman's heart.
My thanks to Dinky, Mudslide, ArpJoe, Panama and Birdman.
If anyone has concerns about using their private property for a DAR, the shooters and instructors left the range and campsites better than they found it. AS folks are good people. O0
Let's do this again soon :~ I got the land and RWVA is welcome to it.
Cowdog
:)I get to be the first to thank Cowdog for the making this past weekend possible, and for making Rifleman! Where do I start? Picnic table and fire ring at the mowed camping area, great range with a 70 ft high backstop, (I suppose we can thank some ice age glacier for the backstop), great Cowdog history lesson and flintlock demo, and a FLUSH porta-john, yee-haw.
What brutally hot weather for even just sitting in a chair listening to history, much less putting your elbows down on blistering hot black shooting mats. I was awed by every one of the shooters enduring the beating sun and oven hot breeze on that line for two full days.
Thanks to Dinky Dao for again putting up with the crew of Mudslide, Panama, ArpJoe, and myself. She keeps coming back for more, just on the hope of whipping this crew into shape. Hey, anything is possible.
That is All, Carry On!
Hi all. This was my Sons and my first Appleseed event and it was top-notch. Cowdog did a great job setting the site up, the instructors were first class, and Dinky made us feel welcome. I hope there are many more Appleseeds here, and I will talk it up to all of my friends. What a humbling experience for the unknowing shooter. I learned more in 2 days than I have for the last 50 years. It was grueling in the heat, but an experience I will never forget.
Thanks again to all the instructors that volunteered their time, and a special thanks to Cowdog for a flawless presentation of history that will NEVER be taught in the government school system. His presentation was as riveting as any presentation I had at Harpers Ferry.
I gave a good account of the weekend to my source at Sabre Defence who provided the rifles that we used and they were happy that the weapons performed well.
What a really great weekend for our first event. We hope to be at many more!
Doug & Bob
Wow! What an event. Cowdog was a superb host. I have never seen anyone work so hard to make sure everything was perfect for any kind of event. Cowdog, everything was better than perfect and your hospitality was first rate. The history lesson and flintlock demo were awesome.
Even though only two people actually shot a rifleman's score, everyone on the line through the brutal heat of these two days showed what it means to overcome obstacles. On top of the heat, almost everyone experienced equipment issues and other problems that had to be overcome. They also showed a lot of improvement over the two days. I truly believe if the heat hadn't beat everyone down like it did that there would have been at least 4 more rifleman. Many were very close.
I would like to thank mudslide, arpjoe, and most of all birdman for helping show me the ropes. We all worked well together and I would like to work with them again. I really enjoyed the camaraderie we shared. A special thanks to Dinky Dao. She allowed me to do more than I thought she would with this being my first full Appleseed with the orange hat, including performing in the Line Boss role and teaching IMC.
I learned a lot at this event and look forward to learning more.
Pictures, Pictures, Pictures
Pictures are chron order from my camera top to bottom on this page. Click the picture to enlarge. 640x800 sized to upload to web.
18 Shooters for the weekend, 14 pre-reg
2 Riflemen qualified - see last picture
I will post personal comments on the first Tim Murphy Memorial DAR Appleseed Shoot later.
Joe
Great pictures and what a great range!
Hats off to Cowdog, for being the range owner, making Rifleman, and especially for the flush Porta-Jon!
It was a very hot weekend, but every shooter persevered.
Dinky brought a great bunch of instructors from Ohio (arpjoe, Panama, & Birdman) & I hope to see them in the near future.