Fellow Michiganders, on May 21 we'll be trying out a fun Appleseed-based shoot at the Lapeer County Sportsmans Club in Lapeer, Mi. We'll be on the rifle range with 1/4-scale D targets at 25, 50, 75 and 100 yd. That way, they'll look like your typical stage 1-4 targets. The course of fire will naturally be familiar to Appleseeders at this point ;) Not being an official event of course there will be no patches, but there will be 7th stepping and maybe some history also. Range fees per run are $5 for club members, $10 for non-members.
Of course, the cool part is that since we're on the rifle range, any safe rifle is OK to use (usually Lapeer is limited to .22LR due to using the pistol bays) so your favorite M1, M1A, AR15, SKS, Ljungman or whatever else is OK! 22LR will still work fine of course. This will be a good chance to keep your Appleseed skills fresh or to introduce a fellow shooter to Appleseed who may be on the fence about coming out for a full weekend. Tell all your friends!
Did we ever send the documents we used at Watervliet when we tried the same thing? The idea was the same...encourage people to try out this kind of shooting and 7th step to AS. Unfortunately, the only shooters that showed up were former Appleseeders. Sigh...
I'm very interested to hear how this turns out. I've been wondering how to intro people to the AS concept of shooting and instruction (and show that they do, indeed have some "rust") to drive people to sign up. This may be just the ticket...
I just ponied up my "pistol AR" money to join the club up here, so I could conceivably run an event like this "for" the club...
Rick
mini aar http://appleseedinfo.org/smf/index.php?topic=48677.0
2 years ago a couple of Virginia instructors helped out at a private event. There were several shooting options for the attendees. What I came up with knowing that at most I would have about a half hour with any rotation through our section was what I called "A Taste of Appleseed". With quick instruction on safe operation of the rifle, we had them shoot a Redcoat and a Rifleman's Challenge Target. A couple of the Navy Seals that were hosting the event found it more challenging than they had expected. Several attendees signed up for Appleseeds later on as a result.
What was your promotions trick? I think we would get some registrations but so far have not succeeded in getting any participants who aren't already Appleseeders.
We proved it was more challenging than they had thought. Some of the SEALs liked it as a way to get their families some rifle experience, too. The down side was that the shooters went to Maryland for their shoots as the geography of Virginia made those closer to the area of this event. Anyone who shot with us left with a trifold and their targets, I doubt that that hurt either.
I think I'd get the same result if anyone came who hadn't already been to an Appleseed. Honestly, it was just myself and Critterkeeper who shot. The same two people who set it up. :(
How did you get those SEALs to come to the promotional event? That's our hurdle currently.