Wow, I think this was the warmest weekend I have ever experienced on Coupeville. My parents have lived on Whidbey Island for 20 years and I usually need to wear a sweatshirt in the summer. I was actually so warm that I was sweating.
We had 11 participants brave these warm condition to learn rifle marksmanship and learn some history of our country. The students were attentive during the marksmanship lessons, but some struggled throughout the weekend to reduce their shot group sizes.
We had one new rifleman this week, congratulation Chris! Huzzah. Chris shot his rifleman on his first AQT at his first full Appleseed event. This is a great accomplishment that many do not achieve.
We had a couple other participants get progressively higher AQT score through mid day on Sunday, and then faded in the afternoon heat. This is a common occurrence at Appleseed events, so do not feel disheartened.
As we discussed over the weekend, dry fire practice on the comfort of your living carpet is one of the best ways to improve your marksmanship. Professional shooters will dry fire practice 5000 times for each live round they shoot. By adding a laser pointer to your rifle ($20 on Amazon) you can reinforce the 6 Steps to Firing the Shot (trigger and breath control), the Steady Hold Factors (minimize the wiggle in your position) and NPOA (practice shifts at home). This is the best training aid you can get for the money.
Thanks for coming out this weekend, and I look forward to seeing you all at another Appleseed event.
It was indeed a hot weekend and still we had a lot of shooters, including those back home for a brief period from their family's international assignments, brave the heat to Coupeville.
We had a lot of scores which were improving Sunday, do not be discouraged if you did not get your patch, a Rifleman persists. Dry practice in the comfort of your home (keep the ammo far away), using the 6 steps, practice your NPOA, and using cadence, will go a long ways to get yourself adjusted and dialed into how to make accurate shots as rifleman. A rifleman persists!
Benny, I was glad you toughed it out throughout the weekend fighting with a slightly malfunctioning rifle and the FTEs, your scores were improving as the day wore on and I'm sure with some additional dry practice you'll be at or past 210 in no time.
Congratulations Chris on your rifleman's patch, and a repeat score to prove it, on your first event!
Seems like I have been freezing in the chill at home since coming back on Sunday, I am already preparing for my next Appleseed on Saturday. So you all should be... it is a great event and bring your family and friends next time. ^:)^ Glad to meet you and watch your progress, some very persistent shooters which I imagine will be setting new highs after much dry practice to build the muscle memory. And getting into and out of position is something all of us need practice. Remember cotton web GI sling, long sleeve cotton shirts, and functioning rifle and ammunition feeding devices are basics after bio-software adjustment (shooters!). Hope to see everyone again at ranges in the future, first shooting safely and well, then helping others and then picking up the message and Liberty, passing the tradition on to our posterity.