What a great shoot! we overcame a few obstacles and still got it done...
For those of you who do not know... We in California ALSO have four seasons:
Earthquake, Flood, Fire, and Mudslide.... :'(
First, we found out on the way to the range on Sat. AM that the road had been closed due to a mud/rock slide. OK... Detour... around the lake.... I am glad it was a small lake! Got there, and set up OK. Threats of rain, but so far, so good... I think we lost a few attendees due to the road closure, and pending imminent rain. Still we had 30 show up Sat AM. Good advancement of abilities, but no riflemen on Saturday. Oh yeah, we had to be cleared off the range at 3:30PM to allow the shotgun shooters access. That was the deal... :wb:
Sunday showed 23 show back up and we got right to it. VAST improvement throughout the day, and we ended the day with 7 new riflemen! Congrats to Glen, Tom B., Chad (ChadC), Jeremy, Steve, Joe and Mark(xcellr8r).
Also Congratulations to 4Posterity for making SHOOT BOSS!!! ^:)^ He has worked hard and is an asset to Appleseed. Besides, Sunday was his 29th Wedding anniversary, and he was SBIT at an Appleseed... Now that is dedication, and I am sure he is making amends to his wife as we speak!
As soon as Mark posts up the details of the shoot, I will post some pictures taken.
I met a lot of true Americans at this shoot... I was glad to meet every single one of them.
THANK YOU for making it such a great experience. Bella and I learned a lot and we both gained a lot of knowledge and skills. All the instructors were fantastic.
Chad
Thanks for a wonderful day (I was only there saturday)! I'm busy recruiting, 3 or 4 friends & family members are ready to sign up! I can't wait for my next appleseed.
Thanks to all of the instructors!!! Cameron, Mark, Jackie, Tom, Justin, Norm and Steve...and The Man whose name I forget, from Saturday...you're all great teachers and great Americans!
What a great program! The history and heritage is fascinating, valuable and heart-warming. I'm so proud to be an American! And the NPOA shooting style is a wonderful tool. The history/heritage plus the shooting style make a great combo!
Can't wait to take my daughter and her husband; we're going to an Appleseed in Grand Island, Nebraska in July (they live in Omaha, and I'll be out there visiting). Then I'll be recruiting my son, and my step-daughter and her husband...his brother...and many more in Nebraska, Iowa and Illinois.
I'm also recruiting as many as I can for future San Diego area Appleseeds. I have 4 'definite maybe's, and will work on recruiting many more!
Thanks again; I'm looking forward to more Appleseed events, and getting involved in the program at a higher level.
Mark...a new Rifleman
Congratulations to our new Riflemen O0 Welcome aboard ;)
4 posterity big ^5 on achieving SHOOT BOSS . Thank You for your service Sir ;).
Respectfully ,
JA
Congrats on the green hat Mark!!!! Chad Congrats!!! First Appleseed and you get your patch!!! Maybe a orange hat after your next shoot? Xcellr8r, thank you for the kind words. All the shooters did a fantastic job on Saturday, listened well and moved quickly. Great turn out. Hope to see you all again on the trail.
Chad & Mark, Thank You for the kind words it means a lot to me. Chad at the end of a long day on Sunday it was a great feeling to have Bella come over and thank me personally. I hope to see you all on the trail. Congratulations to Mark and Cam a special thanks for all of your help along the way to becoming an IIT, thanks to the rest of the instructors as well. As the number of Riflemen shows it was a great group of students!!!
Norm
I had an awesome time. Thank you to all the volunteers, you guys and GAL were great. :) I reached my goal of rifleman on my last aqt. Thanks for the support to reach my goal. My grandfather and I were a little sore and tired the next day, but well worth it. Again thank you. joe
Wheeeeeeee!,
Just got home from the range, trap & five stand, then short range NRA pistol quals. Got to be at a meeting at 6:30, so time for a few pictures...........................steve
Pictures;
This was a great Appleseed. I could sense some frustration Saturday afternoon from the shooters, that they were not progressing as fast in their marksmanship as they wanted. But, oh, it was great to see the numerous epiphanys on Sunday re. NPOA. And then the statements from the shooters that....."With NPOA, this is easy/easier"....... does all the instructor's hearts good.
Met and interacted with lots of good folks, and we even got to see a hen turkey strut right through the range.
More pictures;
more pics;
all our Riflemen,
and the group of '210' scorers, reacting to the 'Bridge Water'
more pics; our seven Riflemen
Our missing rifleman that I overlooked
Quote from: Camljr on March 29, 2011, 02:15:11 AM
For those of you who do not know... We in California ALSO have four seasons:
Earthquake, Flood, Fire, and Mudslide.... :'(
Also Congratulations to 4Posterity for making SHOOT BOSS!!! ^:)^ He has worked hard and is an asset to Appleseed. Besides, Sunday was his 29th Wedding anniversary, and he was SBIT at an Appleseed... Now that is dedication, and I am sure he is making amends to his wife as we speak!
Yes, a memorable So Cal weekend indeed. Probably as close to a Winterseed as we are likely to get here at the bottom of the left-coast. And yes, amends are in progress to Portia who has managed to tolerate my antics for 29+ years.
I have to throw out a very special and very sincere thanks to our group of dedicated students who, in spite of nature's best attempts at derailing our event, showed up in mass, then ignored all the potential distractions and showed the true spirit of Appleseed throughout the weekend. It is not often in So Cal that you have to look at a group of bundled-up students, jackets and pants wet and muddy, scarves wrapped tightly (who even owns a scarf in San Diego?) shivering in the wind as you give instruction. What a group. Absolutely the best group of students that a Shoot Boss in Training could ever hope for.
Saturday started out looking a little grim with the weather and road-closures, but we had 30 students find their way to the range I knew we were going to have a good weekend. Saturday morning's Redcoat showed that we had some shooters as well as some work to do:
10 with 3 at the 100m Redcoat,
4 with 3 at the 200m Redcoat,
4 with 3 at the 300m Redcoat,
0 with 3 at the 400m Redcoat,
and 4 headshots
We went right into the course of instruction and saw good improvement throughout the day. Saturday afternoon's Redcoat confirmed that:
14 with 3 at the 100m Redcoat,
8 with 3 at the 200m Redcoat,
3 with 3 at the 300m Redcoat,
0 with 3 at the 400m Redcoat,
and 5 with the headshot.
We had a good sized group show up on Sunday with one shooter who was back for a Sunday of applying what he had learned at a previous Appleseed event. Saturday morning's Redcoat was promising:
7 with 3 at the 100m Redcoat,
3 with 3 at the 200m Redcoat,
1 with 3 at the 300m Redcoat,
4 with 3 at the 400m Redcoat,
and 3 with the headshot.
After a review of Saturday's instruction we launched right into the AQT Grind. Within a round or two we started seeing the scores climb across the entire line. We resolved a couple of equipment issues, sighted in some new scopes, and reinforced NPOA and the six-steps and got our first Rifleman qualifications of the day.
Lunch was a welcome break and a chance to hide from the wind. We told stories of some dangerous old men, and 22CalGal got some eyes welling up with her rendition of the "Wedding that Never Was", as well as the stories of some of Liberties Daughters. Lock3's telling of the heroics of Hezekiah Wyman was punctuated by Camljr's firing of a Long Pattern Brown Bess while dressed in garb of a 1775 hunter.
The afternoon was amazing. Camljr spent the entire afternoon scoring targets, and it seemed that almost every round we had another Rifleman join the ranks of California's best. Mid-afternoon Mark shot an excellent AQT with a score of 215, then generously turned his equally excellent (and proven) rifle over to a fellow shooter whose equipment had failed him with the sights falling off. Voila', another rifleman added to the Cali list.
The last Redcoat Sunday tells a good part of the story of the weekend:
7 with 3 on the 100m Redcoat,
6 with 3 on the 200m Redcoat,
3 with 3 on the 300m Redcoat,
5 with 3 on the 400m Redcoat,
and 9, yep, Nine with the headshot,
Plus 2 who cleared the entire Redcoat
Some of the high points of the weekend for the instructors included having multiple generations of the Jacobs clan out at the shoot. With Daniel at one end of the spectrum, and Grant at the other, we had our own Luther Blanchard plus a Dangerous Old Man, all from the same family. Ricardo and Raquel overcame some new-equipment blues and progressed nicely. Raquel promised to come back, and to bring some friends along as well. We couldn't tell if our school-teacher couple had a better time with the marksmanship or the heritage, and they too promised to return, hopefully with some of their fellow teachers. Bill was another of our Dangerous Old Men, and although he refused to keep score, sure looked like he was having a good time. And then there was Bella and her dad. Riflemen persist. Chad qualified as one of our Riflemen, but I don't think he was nearly as proud of his shooting as he was watching his Bella clean the last Redcoat of the day. Bella had a rough stretch Saturday afternoon, but refused to quit and showed perhaps the most improvement in the group. The Varmit hunters making the big noise down at the end of the line in the swamp rounded out the group, and also promised to be back for another Appleseed.
Our instructors were 22calgal, Justin, Passinthru, Leonidas, Lock3, Stormn, Camljr and 4Posterity. Congratulations to Stormn Norman on his first Appleseed as an IIT. A great group of instructors added to an excellent group of student adds up to an outstanding weekend of Heritage and Marksmanship.
And lastly, my special thanks to Camljr who has mentored, and at times driven me, along the path to becoming a Shoot Boss.
Some more pics....
Shooting Cam's flintlock;
Jackie
Tom
Zach
Instruction;
Inches, Minutes, Clicks by Tom
Saturday afternoon recap
on the line
What a great weekend this was. The early Saturday morning started out with the country road to the range washed out. While I called to get alternative directions, I ran into early birds Bella and her dad Chad. By time I met up with 4posterity, we had a caravan of five vehicles heading up to the range. The overcast weather held off giving us any grief and it was getting better and better as each hour passed. A little light rain on Saturday night and then partly sunny on Sunday.
Let me just give some accolades to 'seeder Chuck. Chuck brought his sons Matt and Grant and his dad Dan. Chuck shuffled his time between working with Matt and Grant, getting scopes set and dialed in, troubleshooting malfunctions and coaching. Between all of this divided attention, Chuck found the time and energy to tool his skills, make the marks and earn himself a rifleman score on Sunday afternoon.
Working with everyone this weekend really helped me see the big picture of what appleseed is all about. Also, we as instructors could not have accomplished the intellectual ground and perfecting mechanics without this group of attentive, focused group of 'seeders.
See y'all soon.
L0ck3