Last weekend provided beautiful weather for an Appleseed in Vale, Oregon. The sky was clear, the sun was hot, and the breeze in the afternoon was soothing and most welcome.
Six Americans came out to learn more about their heritage and rifle marksmanship. Four signed up for Saturday only, so we had two who continued on through Sunday afternoon.
Carson and Mason were our two adolescent boys who applied themselves to getting some rifle marksmanship skills. Thank you for being so well behaved. You both improved a lot. Because of your performance on our team activities in the afternoon, peppermints will tremble in fear whenever you enter the room.
Adam and Russ, I hope you come back and bring some friends and family with you. You both improved a great deal. Russ, you were knocking on the door to earn a rifleman's patch.
Audie, I am so glad you showed up and signed up for both days. You improved a great deal and it was nice to spend Sunday fine-tuning your skills. I'm glad we figured out your front sight was working loose and we fixed it so you could get a few more good targets in the afternoon. You finished strong, but more practice will get you closer to earning your rifleman's patch.
Rod, it was a pleasure meeting you and your family. Thank you for your fine hospitality and for helping work with the other shooters. You did a fine job telling the story of David Lamson. Also it was a pleasure having breakfast with you and Audie on Sunday morning. I won't forget the stunt the waitress pulled on you when you were giving her a hard time in jest. :)
I hope everyone comes back to another Appleseed event and brings a friend or two with you. Word of mouth promotions is the most effective promotions.
Thank you, Snake River Sportsmen's Club, for letting us use your fine facility. You have an excellent range.
ShadowMan
Since I was busy instructing and making sure everyone was safe, I didn't get an opportunity to take photos. I did get one picture of our dedicated group working on their sitting position.
(https://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/247776_452333994810259_1236542190_n.jpg)
Since the Vale range can accommodate almost 30 shooters out to 1,000 yards and KD ranges seem to be in short supply I'm thinking next year there should be a KD sometime between April 27th and July 7th in Vale OR. If there is any interest I'll see what we can do, if there isn't any interest... well that's just crazy! Let me know.
Quote from: Pa Rah on October 03, 2012, 04:35:52 PM
Since the Vale range can accommodate almost 30 shooters out to 1,000 yards and KD ranges seem to be in short supply I'm thinking next year there should be a KD sometime between April 27th and July 7th in Vale OR. If there is any interest I'll see what we can do, if there isn't any interest... well that's just crazy! Let me know.
Pa Rah,
Also your 1000 yard range has the capability to fire at targets at 100, 200, 300, and 400 yards, correct?
Maybe we can have a 4-state KD-fest in eastern Oregon? I'd be interested in that sort of thing.
ShadowMan
Correct! Let's see all those 1,000 inch shooters get a couple of days practice at 100, 200, 300, 400 and dare I say 500 yards. Oh, and what about moving targets? Shadowman I will be working on a date to hold the KD Appleseed and I will let you know as soon as possible. (Nov. Board meeting).
Quote from: Pa Rah on October 09, 2012, 04:08:54 PM
Correct! Let's see all those 1,000 inch shooters get a couple of days practice at 100, 200, 300, 400 and dare I say 500 yards. Oh, and what about moving targets? Shadowman I will be working on a date to hold the KD Appleseed and I will let you know as soon as possible. (Nov. Board meeting).
I'm in, Pa Rah. How many do you think we can get on the high power line? I'll start telling the other instructors and my Rifleman friends to keep an eye out for this event once you get it approved and we get it on the calendar. KD is something I would like to do more of.
ShadowMan
PS: There is some wild-eyed shoot boss from Montana working the upcoming Nampa shoot. We can talk up a KD shoot in Vale at that event. It would be nice to have the event date set and registration ready to go, but it's not necessary.
Quote from: Pa Rah on October 09, 2012, 04:08:54 PM
Correct! Let's see all those 1,000 inch shooters get a couple of days practice at 100, 200, 300, 400 and dare I say 500 yards. Oh, and what about moving targets? Shadowman I will be working on a date to hold the KD Appleseed and I will let you know as soon as possible. (Nov. Board meeting).
Pa Rah,
Make certain you bring Prescott into this since he's the Oregon SC.
ShadowMan,
Kaiser is not back in Montana yet.
Shadowman: I spoke to the High Power director and between the two of us we came up with 30 shooters for a two or how about a three day event. Since there isn't a lot of experience in the Appleseed world of more than 82' I was thinking it might be helpful if the first day dealt with reading the wind and understanding sight corrections at a little slower pace than the usual AQT pace. It might also be helpful that those who have some type of a spotting scope bring to be able to see the mirage at least for the first day. It might be too much for newbies to 300 and 400 yrds to deal with but just a thought. We might even think in terms of a slow fire pace the first day (one shot mark the target shoot again mark the target and so on) a lot can be learned without burning up a lot of ammo. We might even put up some wind flags for the first day just to do a little coaching. I'm hoping to get a firm date from the rest of the board next Wednesday night.
TruTenacity: Apparently I'm not allow to send PM's on this forum so... I'll get a weekend for the event and make sure the paperwork gets turned in and you guys figure out who needs to be involved and who is going to do what. One thing I might suggest is that enough staff shows up (so they can be rotated) so that everyone can get a little trigger time.
Mark: As always looking forward to it. Just tell everyone to bring big bullets (.50 BMG or bigger) then they don't need to know how to shoot in the wind, oh wait I forgot about the 8mm rule, I guess everyone will need to learn the lessons Vale OR has to offer.
Quote from: Pa Rah on October 14, 2012, 07:51:24 PM
TruTenacity: Apparently I'm not allow to send PM's on this forum so... I'll get a weekend for the event and make sure the paperwork gets turned in and you guys figure out who needs to be involved and who is going to do what. One thing I might suggest is that enough staff shows up (so they can be rotated) so that everyone can get a little trigger time.
Good plan. I bet SM will loop Prescott into this sooner than later.
Seems pre-approval is necessary when there's a need for help from non-local instructors ... but I'm certain Prescott knows that.
Looping. Also looking into getting Pa Rah PM capability fixed...
Vale is one of absolute favorite ranges to go to. I would down for a KD weekend in Vale in a heartbeat. I'd certainly lean more toward a late winter/spring shoot, as it gets so darn hot out there. Maybe I can pick up the chair I left at the range back in...09? something like that...
Quote from: RL on October 15, 2012, 03:23:58 PM
Vale is one of absolute favorite ranges to go to. I would down for a KD weekend in Vale in a heartbeat. I'd certainly lean more toward a late winter/spring shoot, as it gets so darn hot out there. Maybe I can pick up the chair I left at the range back in...09? something like that...
That chair made a pretty good target stand at 300. Unfortunantly, some guy from Montana brought a whole bucket full of .45 auto ammo.
It was so much ammo that after getting bored shooting at 82', then 50 yards, we figured out how to hold to get hits in the neighborhood of targets at 200 and 300 meters.
We weren't very good at three hundred, but did manage to shoot the legs off the chair.
Please accept my gracious aplogies.
(This post only contains slight exaggerations and story embellishments)