Any other Alaskan's wanting to have an Appleseed in state? I just attended one in Vegas that coincided with a trip (at the most amazing range I've ever seen, but that's another story).
I'll look into what it would take to use either Birchwood or Rabbit Creek. I suspect Birchwood would be the most likely to be able to dedicate a range, and the training range at Rabbit Creek might prove to be either small or overbooked.
My goal is to be able to have one in summer 2011.
Thoughts, opinions?
Come on people, speak up!
I'd like to see some interest here - better yet, people with a desire to help make this happen.
WOW,
I will have to keep this thread away of Old Glory. She went to AK as a child, as her Grandmother lived there.
I would suggest you get a hold of Fred. I do not know what the cost of a flight for instructors from the north west would be.
Problem is. How many shoots would it take for mainland instructors to do, before there would be a self sustaining AK cadre.
On second thought , Finally a need for a RBC. Guy, you out there? I can see it now, The Guy and OldGlory taking on the wilderness.
I am thinking a minimum of 12 students. 24 would be better. We could do this.
Can you get this level of interest in a state, where even the former Governor thinks she knows how to shoot???.
The idea of being at an RBC regardless of my role in AK sounds extraordinary! I really need to get up there at some point tromp around the area. The idea of shooting and camping just sounds too good to be true.
My bags are packed. An WI/IL contingent is formed up and prepared to head to AK.
When do we leave ;D
There are a lot of us who would like to instruct in AK. Get it set up, and it will surely be staffed.
FF
Yep, just get it set up somewhere and we will come.
My Aunt lives in Alaska, in the Palmer-Wasilla area. She has some land, including a private airstrip, and she is definitely gun-friendly and would totally support our mission. Heck, she would probably make an appearance with her AR if we get something going up that way. She comes down to the lower 50 fairly often and passes through OK or TX on occasion, so next time I see her, I will talk to her about having an Appleseed on her land. It's something I would like to talk to her about face to face... I don't see her too terribly often, so it would be weird to just call her up out of the blue and ask her something like that.
In any case, I am pretty sure she would put up any of us instructors who came up that way, if we got a shoot scheduled anywhere close by. Her place is about an hour north of Anchorage. I haven't been up to AK in several years... I would love to work an Appleseed into my next trip up there!
One of these days I'm gonna drive the Al-Can highway with my Dad. Maybe we can hit a Canadian appleseed on the way up, and an Alaskan one when we get there!
I'm down with that... Get us a date, and I will be there.
Hensch, pick me up on the way by!
Or EEL, maybe we should rent a van? ++)
Greg
And that's the problem - there is an overabundance of interest from instructors, but little local interest. Looks like I've a little work ahead of me. I suspect that the military / LEO crowd would be the majority of the first shoot, and as airfare tends to run about $600 it would be rather costly to the organization.
At this point the action plan appears to be:
Determine initial local interest
Determine range availability and costs
Determine optimal timing (many of us have things like hunting, fishing, and fish camp already planned)
Increase local interest
(Personal action plan is to fix a few issues (technical and form) to pull my score up at least 7% - I've a vested interest in getting this off the ground)
Was a pleasure to meet you at the Inaugural event at the Clark County Shooting Park.
As you can see you have alot of support in your endeavor to get Alaska rolling.
Drop me a Private Email using the forum with your address, and I will get you copies of the national Trifold and other literature to get you started.
Once you have identified your local Guard Groups etc, we can engage the help of those who have successfully worked with them before to assist.
We have some experience with this as documented by the Fort Stewart shoot.
http://appleseedinfo.org/smf/index.php?topic=10060.0 (http://appleseedinfo.org/smf/index.php?topic=10060.0)
There is alot we can do to help before buying plane tickets.
Thanks for your enthusiasm and interest.
Xeyed.
Wow, less than 24 hours later and you've got the ball rolling already!!
You were a pleasure to work with and I hope to see you on the trail again.
Good luck with your endeavors, and like Xeyed said, let us Nevada folks know if you need anything else to help you out
~Ash
Still looking into things here. The Anchorage range has shut down for the month - reopens January. Will check into the Birchwood range as well.
Lots of local interest - and I've only spoken to friends and coworkers so far. What is the usual rate of 'I'm interested' to actually showing up? I need a way to judge how many people to expect.
What would be the instructor interest in holding a winterseed event during Fur Rondy (http://www.furrondy.net/)? You could even be here for the start of the Iditarod (http://www.iditarod.com/learn/). Of course it might be -20F or colder - not likely, but I've seen it a few times. This winter's been mild so far.
The other option would be to focus on the beginning of summer. May have more interest as it would be warmer - definitely would draw out more of the saner gender.
Thoughts? Opinions? Personally, while I'd love to see Alaska have it's first event in the winter just to emphasize our sheer cussedness, summer should have a far better turnout. Something about avoiding frostbite. The exception would be if I could get the Palmer range on board. In that case it would be a bit of a cheat (winterseed in a warm environment) and disallow centerfire (Palmer is indoor and likes to avoid disintegrating their backstop).
As stated before, i am interested and will acclimate.
While I may question your sanity, having long ago determined that my own was a lost cause, it's good to know that at least one person might be on board. I may just have to get a few friends out to the Palmer range to see what they might think - it's limited in that it is designed for pistol, but it would be much more pleasant than Birchwood (typical outdoor range - not knocking it - I've been thinking about joining there, even though Rabbit Creek is a quick drive away - something about longer hours and allowing rapid fire or full auto), but we are talking about February in Alaska).
Rafn,,,,I am a former Alaskan "72...'84.....My family still live there....I'm also the second closest shoot boss to AK..The only guy that lives closer is only 80 or so miles closer and he has his sights set on Hawaii..(He is more sane than both of us)....
My experience (down here in WA) is somewhere between 25% and 30% of interested parties actually show up.
Up there in Feb....Cabin fever might drive that up to 50% or so....
Feb. is cuttin' it close time wise, because gettin' the word out takes time. Fred would want time to get it in ShotGunNews and we would need time to get it on some forums and such. Feb. is doable but close, for a good turnout.
Indoors or outdoors doesn't matter much, folks from there know the ropes, mostly. The instructor corp from here will get good cold weather experience if they don't have it already. (The semi auto guys will know why I'm bolt action fan)
All that we really need for a range is a berm and maybe a warm place for some of the instruction. 100 or 400 yards would be ideal but again we would adapt to conditions. Rapid fire is a must. Some ranges bend a little when we explain that it is controlled, accurate rapid fire.
Keep us posted on your efforts and feel free to PM me with any questions.
I hope that this works..
W44
ETA: One of the IITs and I have been saving our Alaskan Air miles for just such an event...
Concerning turnout...since the instructors would be coming from far and wide, I do not see a problem with imposing an extra condition on preregistration sign up. Say we need a dozen (20?) preregistered students (paid preregistered?) two months in advance or we cancel the shoot. Just a suggestion.
FF
We at least need to do one event in the middle of the summer. The possibilities brought on by the fact that the sun never goes down are just too awesome to ignore. Land of the midnight Appleseed! :---
Quote from: henschman on December 09, 2010, 10:51:45 AM
We at least need to do one event in the middle of the summer. The possibilities brought on by the fact that the sun never goes down are just too awesome to ignore. Land of the midnight Appleseed! :---
First 100 AQT 2-Day Appleseed???
2-day, 24-7 RBC!!! ~~:)
Let's please not let our enthusiasm cloud our judgment and scare folks off.
We never (or rarely) use all of the available light during the summer shoots down here, why would we up there?
But it does raise a point..To effectively use the light in the winter time, we may need to adjust the POI.
Perhaps a couple strikes before dawn and more history at dusk.
W44
Wheeler. Good suggestion.
Quote from: Wheeler44 on December 09, 2010, 03:31:20 PM
Let's please not let our enthusiasm cloud our judgment and scare folks off.
We never (or rarely) use all of the available light during the summer shoots down here, why would we up there?
But it does raise a point..To effectively use the light in the winter time, we may need to adjust the POI.
Perhaps a couple strikes before dawn and more history at dusk.
W44
At the 'summer solstice', isn't that like an hour apart (dawn and dusk)?
Quote from: JustJeff on December 09, 2010, 08:51:16 PM
Quote from: Wheeler44 on December 09, 2010, 03:31:20 PM
Let's please not let our enthusiasm cloud our judgment and scare folks off.
We never (or rarely) use all of the available light during the summer shoots down here, why would we up there?
But it does raise a point..To effectively use the light in the winter time, we may need to adjust the POI.
Perhaps a couple strikes before dawn and more history at dusk.
W44
At the 'summer solstice', isn't that like an hour apart (dawn and dusk)?
That depends on latitude ......But I was discussing using time effectively during the short winter days..
Summer would be the saner choice - and have far better attendance. (Would give me a chance to pull my score up by 14 points and attend another lower 48 'seed before hand - the winterseed patch looks great and I'd like to avoid the 'wet' one)
Quote from: Rafn on December 09, 2010, 10:48:05 PM
Summer would be the saner choice - and have far better attendance. (Would give me a chance to pull my score up by 14 points and attend another lower 48 'seed before hand - the winterseed patch looks great and I'd like to avoid the 'wet' one)
We've got one in Hinckley, MN coming up in less than thirty-six hours!
There's still time, I'm quite certain it'll meet WinterSeed standards. O0
(chuckles) A bit short notice for me, but I'm keeping my eye on Oregon - anything within a couple hours of Jenning's Lodge will get me down there right quick.
Come January I'll start courting the ranges - Rabbit creek shut down for December, and the better half has been having more family drama then anyone should deal with. I hope she'll decide that a local 'seed is more interesting than shopping (I tried to get her to go to the Vegas one I attended . . . shopping won). She's a decent shot, but is far happier if she has a scattergun and grouse or ptarmigan downrange.
Once I've dealt with a few work related issues (I's January - enough said), courting the ranges will begin. Started looking up some individuals who will be interested. The shoot may be heavily military, law enforcement and / or female, and thus a drain on the coffers, but will probably end with more than a few riflemen. The key is to get the ball rolling. If they guys can shoot half as well as the gals we'll probably put the rest of the states to shame.
Waaaaaaaaay to go AK. Sounds like a challenge has been given to the lower 48.
That's it! I'll be watching the sign-up sheet for this one! I know, I know. I'm only an IIT2, but I'm pacing myself for a Red hat by summer! ^:)^