This weekend was a great example of why, we as Appleseed instructors, do what we do. We had 10 shooters on Saturday, with eight first timers. Several of our shooters had never touched a rifle. At least to me, there is nothing more satisfying than having new shooters progress from "getting on paper", to "decent groups", to sub 4 MOA groups. Our shooters this weekend were particularly attentive, and their enthusiasm with each improvement was contagious. Getting to work with these people made the job worth every penny we didn't get paid!
Sunday afternoon things really started to fall into place - three shooters shot rifleman scores, with two being new Appleseeders. With the last Redcoat everyone shot the 200 yard target or better.
We had a small but strong instructor group. Moylan and I split shoot boss duties, Kardiak Kid backed us and kept things moving smoothly, with Hornblower and Santander as IITs. Santander did the second strike, along with jumping in for much of the instruction.
Two new Appleseeders scoring, sign of excellent instruction. O0 O0
This was a fantastic weekend. With so many newbie shooters on the line, our latest cof instruction lent itself well with dry practice. A lot questions were asked at every turn, but once everyone was in the groove, the scores began to climb. Lots questions about the history, a very attentive and engaging group . KK
Yes, great group of shooters! Like Polonius said, we had several who were brand new to shooting, but by the end of Saturday, you'd never have known it. I was awfully sorry to miss their continued progress on Sunday. Very glad to hear of our three new riflemen, and especially pleased to hear that Thomas took the orange hat! He'll be a great addition to the program.
Also, I'd like to mention Santander's excellent work. As Bill noted, Santander handled a lot of the instruction, including a really fine job with IMC. He also told an excellent second strike. My son Hornblower is holding out on telling the strikes, but he'll get there. He did a fine job with RSOing and modeling, and did some good one-on-one instruction, on top of shooting a lot of the strings of fire! Busy day. Polonius's son Laertes was there as a shooter for the day, but he also pitched in and did some modeling as well as demonstrating rifleman's cadence. Also set the tone by clearing the AM redcoat. Go Will!
As always a great time at Ramseur. Thanks again to all.