What a great weekend for Appleseed in WV! Beckley Gun Club allowed us to use their long distance range for our first Beckley Appleseed and what a GREAT range it is too! Many thanks to the BGC for all of their hospitality while on their range.
Saturday dawned a little chilly but with some crazy winds that gave our shooters an added element of difficulty throughout the day on the line. We had 4 shooters start the weekend with us, with only 1 that had been to an Appleseed before.
We started the day anchoring in the target line better in the face of the mighty winds, as the members of the BGC who were on the line said, "Welcome to Beckley!"
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The line in a Preparation Period for the morning Red Coat shoot
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All ready on the firing line. FIRE!
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After some instruction from our Shoot Boss, Len1459 we posted some squares to get everyone lined out
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After a fantastic day of shooting we had 2 brand new Rifleman! Congratulations to Matt and Will on proving that the Rifleman spirit is not dead in this great country!
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Sunday greeted us rather cold but sunny with the promise of some full distance shooting later in the afternoon! The BGC has a 300 yard gong and numerous 500 yard gongs set up for people to ring. The day would not close without hearing that wonderful sound!
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We had another shooter on the line this morning, bringing our total to 5 and later in the afternoon we had a couple of walk-ons that were curious as to what the Appleseed was all about. Siglite was happy to give them some one-on-one information and instruction while we carried on with the Sunday AQT grind on the other end of the line.
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As the day slid to a close we gave out another Rifleman patch! Alex was presented his patch by his dad and mom, both Riflemen and IIT's! This is WV's first all Rifleman Family!
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After everyone had enough of the AQT's we decided to have a contest for the great door prizes. Siglite looks on with the Liberty Training Steyr to help spot as our shooters went for the 300 yard gong with Len1459's beautiful Garand.
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Nothing like the PING letting you know the Garand is empty!
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We even had a couple of people step up to the Liberty Training Steyr.
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All in all a fantastic weekend and a wonderful Appleseed! 3 new Riflemen and fun to be had by all!
Thanks again to the Beckley Gun Club for the use of their great range and many thanks to the shooters that came with a teachable attitude and were willing to be shown the Appleseed way!
Congrats, Alex! This is Kyjam, from your first AS last year in June. And so cool to see mom and pop instructing! Hope to see you guys on the trail again.
Quote from: brdholman on April 19, 2010, 10:29:26 AM
Congrats, Alex! This is Kyjam, from your first AS last year in June. And so cool to see mom and pop instructing! Hope to see you guys on the trail again.
He's quite proud, and we're proud of him. I think he stayed up half of last night sewing his patch on a hat. I give a great deal of credit to you folks that were there at our first Appleseed last year. You guys really made a great impression on bbkf, my boy, and myself.
I want to throw out a few observations about this shoot as well.
First, I want to thank the fine folks at Beckley Gun Club for allowing us the use of this wonderful range. I also want to throw out thanks to The Machine, Vanrichten, Chrome, wvmmfalcon, and spanner for their help working on the 500 yard pits at the range. This clearly generated a great deal of good will for Appleseed with BGC. We have solid executive buy-in in the strength and quality of the Appleseed program from the fine folks at BGC. We have been told that we are welcome to host more events there, including an RBC if we so choose. And I can't think of a better location for an RBC. This range is simply wonderful. With a little work (basically doing some walking, cutting some brush, and setting up a target) we could actually shoot 1000yds at this facility.
But it's the gongs make it great. All of our shooters, at some point during the day Sunday, rang 20" steel at 300yds. They fired and received instant, highly gratifying feedback proving that the 25 yard marksmanship concepts clearly translate to distance shooting. Everyone that rang that gong with their own centerfire or Len1459's M1, grinned from ear to ear after hearing that beautiful "TING!" sound ring back to them seconds after the shot. The look on Matt's face after he rang a 20" gong five hundred yards away with his centerfire was absolutely priceless.
All of our shooters will be riding high on their accomplishments from this weekend. I saw it in their faces. Their incredulous looks as they slung up behind a centerfire changed to beaming happiness when they heard that steel ring. It was a "wow, this stuff
really does work" moment. This is gratifying to the shooter, and gratifying to the instructors and IITs, as we see the seeds of liberty spread. Liberty does not
have to be distributed via the blood of tyrants and patriots. It can be spread with a report, a ring of copper on steel, and a grin from ear to ear.
Finally, I really want to thank Len1459. He is an excellent instructor, with a wonderfully positive and laid-back attitude that somehow just keeps an AS shoot moving right along and scores climbing higher and higher, AQT by AQT. He made a long drive for us, and worked tirelessly all weekend keeping our shoot running smoothly. The West Virginia instructor corps is certainly thankful.
Guys, I want to thank you for putting on such a terrific event. It was my first AS, and I will be back for more. I was amazed at what I did not know and quickly realized that this was a different kind of "shooting course". It was a very powerful weekend for me; from the humbling I took on the firing line, meeting some of the finest folks I have met in a long time, making some good friends it seemed that the shooting was just icing on the cake.
I thought the instructors, Len1459, Siglite and vanrichten all did an excellent job. Just brilliant. You all know your stuff, made everyone comfortable and really delivered the curriculum in an entertaining, concise and thoughful manner. Special thanks go out to Len1459 for showing extreme patience with the FNG and allowing us to shoot his fine Garand. A second round of thanks you's go out to Alex for helping me load mags during the 4 minute AQTs we were doing, I only had 3 mags with me and needed some assistance. He is a great kid. And to his father, siglite for allowing us all to take a shot at 500 with his pee shooter. I call it that cause when it goes off it makes you pee from concussion and laughter. Big thank you for a once in a lifetime experience.
Lastly, a big thank you to the Beckley Gun Club. A wonderful experience at a wonderful place. Just an awesome range and facilities. Thank you to their leadership. I cant wait to get back to NJ to show off my new skills. I will be at another shoot soon... I want that Expert Rifleman badge.
We were glad you were there axeman. One of the most rewarding aspects of instructing in AS is watching group sizes shrink, and rounds going into targets. In a nutshell, improvement. And the difference in your shooting from Saturday morning through Sunday afternoon was a case-study in reward for the instructor corps.
Keep at it, and you'll certainly earn the coveted patch. We hope to see you again at a WV Appleseed.
You guys had five shooters on two days and made three of them Rifleman. That's a 60% Expert rate! Glad to see the shoot went off with good results. Here's to selling out the next one!
BTW, these purple patches are just too cool!
Later,
Chrome...
Quote
BTW, these purple patches are just too cool!
They are. And they're in honor of a fallen member of the instructor corps.
And congratulations, Chrome. We knew it'd be your next AS.
Quote from: siglite on April 19, 2010, 02:48:17 PM
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BTW, these purple patches are just too cool!
They are. And they're in honor of a fallen member of the instructor corps.
And congratulations, Chrome. We knew it'd be your next AS.
Thanks, I knew I could do it, it was just a matter of getting it done. Now, we'll work on getting wifey (Carrier on the forums) on getting her's, and I'll work on getting a Red Hat. And these purple patches really are great, a great idea with a great significance behind them. Hopefully it will cause people to ask "why purple" and the memory of her will carry on.
Later,
Chrome...
Hey guys, it's me Wil.
Chrome, congrats on the purple patch! I'm still trying to decide where to sew mine.
I'm thinkin' a new shooting jacket is in my future.
I just wanted to give a big thanks to everyone at not only this AS weekend, but to the previous AS I've attended at Stinson with some of you guys and Machine and Spanner.
And an even bigger THANK YOU to LEN1451 for driving all the way up here from NC. That shows, not only his dedication to the project, but also his selflessness in wanting to continue the American shooting tradition. He's a great instructor, and would love to meet up again sometime.
My take home message from the weekend didn't hit me until late last night when I was dry-firing.
I went into the weekend thinking that I needed a 'scope to score higher than 210.
And although the results were immediate on Saturday when i earned the coveted patch, the results the next day were more startling when I was able to score even higher AQT's with my 10/22 and techsights....
(cont)
........ and it dawned on me why I was able to finally shoot the AQT with open sights when I couldn't do it at my previous AS.
As LEN1459 pointed out early on Saturday, when you finally understand your NPOA, shooting becomes easy.
Even though I've shot rifle competiton in the past, with similar techniques taught at appleseed, those skills become easily lost. And having to relearn NPOA was the key for me. It was my Neo 'there is no spoon' moment.
Hope to see y'all again soon.
(remember there's a pistol match at BGC on sunday at 1pm).
:)
Yes, many thanks to Len1459 coming up to be our Shoot Boss. It was a true pleasure and I hope you can come back up to a future Appleseed! Axeman_g, your shooting improved by leaps and bounds over the course of the weekend and I have no doubts you will knock out that coveted 210 soon! Agony, the NPOA really does matter AND work! I also think you had a monkey on your back and once you knocked out that patch you were good to go and were able to truly concentrate on shooting and not nearly as much as on the score ;)
Thanks again to Len, all of the shooters and to the Beckley Gun Club for a truly fantastic weekend!
It only took me six AS's to do it but I threw it all together on my third AQT of the day, scored 224 and received my patch. I think len1457 did an excellent job of motivating people and thanks for visiting from NC. Three people out of five is an amazing turn-out ;D The little door prize game was a blast! I don't remember who all participated because I was in my chair with my eyes closed just listening to the PONG about 1.5 seconds after the shot. len1457 walks up to me with an M-clip and says do you want to shoot. I instantly pop up and say "who would turn down shootin' a garand!" I'm waiting in line counting the hits and misses of the person in front of me. Five hits/ Three misses+ three qualifying hits. I believe the person before him did too. Anyways, once I sat down I threw the sling on, tightened it up, proned out, loaded my 8 rounds and fired. This is what you would've heard were you there ; BOOM...PONG...BOOM...PONG...BOOM...PONG...BOOM...PONG...BOOM...PONG...BOOM...PONG...BOOM...PONG...BOOMcling...THUD...... !@#). I had seven hits/ one miss+ two qualifying. I still won a cool little deck of cards! Thanks for everyone's support!
WOW! Where do I begin? Nothing is more satisfying to an instructor than all the shooters showing up with a teachable attitude and willingness to give 110%...which is exactly what we had at this AS. The shooters shooting the AS way witnessed their groups continually shrink and their scores increase. It was a great pleasure working with all the shooters at Beckley. In fact, it did not even seem like work because the shooters were dedicated and committed to learning the six steps to firing a shot.
IITs..siglite and vanrichten...you rock. With IITs such as you being SB is a walk in the park. I want to commend you both on the effort amd energy you brought to this AS. I believe your positive attitude and great people skills helped to make this one of the most awesome AS events I have worked.
I would personally like to thank the Beckley Gun Club for opening their great range for the use of an AS event. This range was one of the nicest and most well kept ranges I have ever been to. But what else could I expect from Almost Heaven West Virginia.
Just a quick recap of the event at Beckley... On Saturday we were able to hand out two well deserved Rifleman patches inspite of the 20-30 mph winds the shooters had to content with all day. On Sunday we had a shooter show up that was unable to make it on Saturday due to a prior commitment. With this young man's persistence even after experiencing equipment problems on his first couple of AQTs he was able to receive his Rifleman's patch. This is the same young man that during our fun shoot with a borrowed Garand was able to ring the 300 yard gong seven shots in a row...only missing the last shot. I believe the reason he missed the last shot was because the smile on his face had caused him to loose his NPOA. What a great job. (I am proud of you!) This young man also stepped forward and joined the IIT trail. The reason I keep referring to him as a young man is because he is only 13 years old. Welcome aboard NC17.
Agony...the Beckley area was blessed and rewarded as you stepped forward to receive your orange hat this weekend. Your personality and skills will benefit all that you come in contact wtih at future AS events. Way to go!
I personally would like to thank all the shooters, all the IITs, all the new IITs, and the Beckley Gun Club for a memorable AS. If you all need help at any time I would feel honored to pitch in any way I can because there are men amongst you that know "very much what they are about."
Len1459
NC17, I couldn't have said it any better myself. Glad I was there to hear the melody of BOOM...PONG...BOOM...PONG...BOOM...PONG...BOOM...PONG...BOOM...PONG...BOOM...PONG...BOOM.
Len1459
Hey Len1459, so glad you shared your thoughts! It was a true joy working with you and I have to say that it as an honor working my first shoot as an IIT with you. Thank you so much for your insights and encouragement, as well as the chance to shoot that beautiful Garand!!!
thanks for the nice words, Len1459.
(don't forget to PM me re: Instructor access) ;)
Oh, forgot to mention...I didn't get enough shooting in this weekend (LET'S SHOOT!), so I took a half day off today and hit the range after lunch. Fired 150 rounds at the gongs through my old DCM 20" NM match AR. And did seven 4-minute AQT's with the filthy little 10/22. Low score=221, High score =239. My next goal is get my score over 240.
Once again thank to everyone that made it a great first AS. I would like to ask for a little assistance. I was really impressed by the Tech-Sights on everyones 10/22... went to their www. site and it is down. Can anyone recomend another seller of this product. I really think a finer sight on my 597 would help me greatly on the 300/400 yard targets.
Agony.. I will see you Sunday. I am up for the Pistol Match.
I think I told you that their site was techsights.com but it is actually http://www.tech-sights.com/ (http://www.tech-sights.com/) with the dash. I just went there to make sure it was up. They do help quite a bit over standard factory sights. Just be aware that they are a bit higher than standard factory sights, so some sort of a check riser is needed to get the good cheek weld.
yep... that is the site I am going to but I am getting a IE Can Not Display error... I will try from laptop this evening. Thanks.
QuoteAs the day slid to a close we gave out another Rifleman patch! Alex was presented his patch by his dad and mom, both Riflemen and IIT's! This is WV's first all Rifleman Family!
NC-17,
Now it is clear why the stars refused to align and fate denied you that patch last month at Stinson; BBKF was meant to be there! Congrats NC-17!! ^:)^
See you on the trail!
I finally got around to reading this in it's entirety...great report! What we've been lacking in WV turnout numbers, we've made up for in quality of students and instructors. All of you who made this shoot possible are representative of that, along with the fabulous BGC facility and members who helped out.
As I mentioned at the BGC Officer's meeting in March; some local boots on the ground and a concerted effort toward promoting shoots at this location, will eventually start filling the firing line. This facility has so much potential, I'm really looking forward to a long term relationship with BGC. O0
Congratulations to all who earned their Rifleman patch, and a big thanks to those who joined the instructor ranks! Len 1459 exemplifies a vital aspect of AS...putting the "Mission" before self...thanks so much for making the trip and being a wonderful role model. ;)