What a wonderful weekend!!!! The September Appleseed Event held at the SaraSpa Rod and Gun Club was held on a pretty nice fall weekend in the Southern Adirondack Region of New York State. The SaraSpa Club does an awesome job of both promoting and hosting these events. Without their kindness there would be no Appleseed. We thank them greatly and urge everyone to support them in every way possible.
The weekend started out on the cool side but the heat from the students rifle barrels soon had the temperatures soaring! There was a good mix of experienced students and inexperienced students that were attending their first Appleseed Event. There were younger and older RIFLEMEN, all standing shoulder to shoulder; on the deck of the Saratoga rifle range gathered to remember the historic Battle of Saratoga that was the turning point of the American Revolutionary War.
There was a good mix of family groups that can together for this weekend. We had fathers and sons, fathers and daughters, brothers and sisters, husbands and wives; grandparents and grandchildren, friends and neighbors, all come together as one. They may well have begun the weekend as strangers but they ended the weekend joined together by a shared bond that shall last forever.
From even before the opening Redcoat the students were assaulted with a barrage of nonstop information and instruction that may have seemed overwhelming at times. All the way thru a blur of Redcoats, Squares, AQT's, KD's, ASAP's, Prep, Load, Up, Down, Top Right, Bottom Left, 3rd from the left and the 8th one down, 2 2 3 3, Stage What?, and on and on.
A Young Patriot came with his father for one day on Saturday and then guess what, he brought his father back on Sunday morning. We a student that had never fired on a KD range that made her Grandfather proud when she overcame equipment problems to nail her 100 yard and 200 yard targets with a .22 rimfire!!! Another wonderful lady spent all day on Sunday running a centerfire rifle thru a series of targets from 25m out to 200 yards!!! Another fantastic woman drilled RIFLEMAN level AQT's all day on Sunday with a high of 247!!!! Yes, 247 out of a possible 250!!!!
Yes, we had lots of equipment problems! We had ammo jams, dirty chambers, dry bolts, blistered thumbs, lots of bloody elbows and yes, some very sore muscles. The Medical Officer reminded everyone to drink throut the weekend. We had no serious mishaps. BUT, we did have one student that had to have his foam ear plugs removed from his ears with an Instructors using a LEATHERMAN TOOL!!! Good thing that it worked because the cleaning rod from one ear to the other was next!!!
YOU ALL DID A FANTASTIC JOB!!!!!
Below you shall find the pictures of the journey thru the Saratoga Appleseed Event:
Saturday Pictures
To Smurph and all that helped in Saratoga,
Thanks so much for helping to make my first Appleseed so much fun.
I thoroughly enjoyed it, learned a ton about range protocol, shooting technique, adjustments, and more.
The histoy was especially interesting as I had spent about 12 years living and working around Arlington, Lexington, Concord (KON-kid as the locals say)and Charlestown. I lived in Arlington and had no idea about the massacre that took place as the regulars retreated back to Charlestown.
I realize you're not new to this but I thought it was worth mentioning that the event was really well managed. I attend a lot of meetings and conferences in my line of work.I know its a lot of work and many things can go wrong. So well done.
It was also great meeting the instructors and fellow shooters.
I had some equipment issues but now have the training I need to come back and get that Rifleman patch :)
-Joe Kelly
Delmar, NY
Sunday Pictures!!
More Sunday Pictures!!
And More Sunday Pictures!!!
SUNDAY AWARDS!!!
THE RIFLEMEN OF SARATOGA :~ :~ :~ :~ :~
Grumpy1 lead the way with a Saturday score of 230. ..:.. ..:.. ..:.. ..:.. ..:..
Casie added to her HUGE collection of RIFLEMAN Patches with a Sunday series that ran from a low of 217 to a high of 226. ..:.. ..:.. ..:.. ..:.. ..:..
Vidal stood to the line and fired his FIRST TIME RIFLEMAN SCORE OF 235 Congratulations to new RIFLEMAN Vidal :~ :~ :~ :~ :~
Georgia attended her first Appleseed Event on a MUDDY April weekend in 2013. This weekend she returned to Saratoga and fired off an impressive string of AQT's scoring 233, 229, 226. 234, 224 and 247!!!! YES, YES, YES a 247 out of a possible 250!!! Congratulations to new RIFLEMAN Georgia :--- :--- :--- :--- :---
OUTSTANDING ^:)^ ^:)^ ^:)^ ^:)^ ^:)^
BEST WISHES FROM THE STAFF & STUDENTS!!!!
WE ALL MISSED YOU!!!!!
What a wonderful weekend!! You could not have asked for better weather. Although it was a bit cold on Saturday...
And what a great group of instructors. :bow: ("Doughnuts" sends out a thank you for the extra doughnuts brought on Sunday.) This was a family event, not only counting my sisters and my dad, but the instructors are a part of our family as well, our Appleseed family. ^:)^
Sorry, Dude we never did that big group hug you wanted.
Thank you Greg for letting me use your rifle, and thank you Smurf for the ammo. :--- I loved shooting KD, it was a great experience. I only wish they had a golf cart to ride back and forth on for the 100 and 200 yards. I was getting tired of walking back and forth. ;D
Maisey
P.S. See you all at the WinterSeed.
This was a great weekend for an Appleseed event, the weather even cooperated. There were a great group of students, some continuing their journey, and some beginning theirs. It was a pleasure to help them along. As always, it was a pleasure to work with the group of instructors that we are blessed to have. Thank you Maisey for crossing over to the "Boomer side", Saterday was a little too quiet for my liking. You fixed that for me nicely :)
(http://i862.photobucket.com/albums/ab183/dudekrtr/DSC00528_zpsc0058561.jpg) (http://s862.photobucket.com/user/dudekrtr/media/DSC00528_zpsc0058561.jpg.html)
zeroing at 100 yards
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Gregch44 and History Buff fine tuning KD
HistoryBuff, Keith1, nortatoga, Gregch44, Spock951, Dude, Grumpy1, nyrasgt, sureshot,
An Appleseed is run by volunteers that donate of their time and energies so that these events are possible. Each of the instructors at the Saratoga Event has spent hundreds of hours on the Appleseed firing lines.
Instructors not only teach history and marksmanship but they also handle check in, accounting, logistics, line setup and design, promotions and displays, parking, cleaning, fixing and what ever else comes along! And they do an outstanding job! They are the finest Instructors that I have ever had the pleasure of working along side.
Their only pay and only reward is when EACH student surpasses their personal goals.
WELL DONE!!!
After his morning Known Distance lesson, Red Hat Instructor Dude did a super job on Sunday running some of the students through his Known Distance program out to a range limit of 200 yards. The students using a mixture of .22 rimfires or centerfires engaged a variety of targets throughout the course of the day.
His COF included FDAQT targets @ 200 yards, FDAQT targets @ 100 yards, Reduced KD targets @ 100 yards and 25 meter AQT targets posted @ 100 yards simulating 400, 800, 1200 and 1600 yards!!! The students commented that the final Redcoat target posted @ 25 meters looked HUGE after that experience!!!!
DUDE, YOU DID A GOOD JOB!!!! :--- :--- :--- :--- :---
At this Appleseed Event, HistoryBuff brought The Battles of Saratoga to life for both the Students and the Instructors!!!
HUSTORYBUFF WELL DONE!!!! ^:)^ ^:)^ ^:)^ ^:)^ ^:)^
wow sounds great!! Great job by all!