I can't say enough good about our group of patriots that came out to Myakka last weekend. This was a private shoot for a scout troop. We had a total of 11 people come out to learn History, Heritage and Marksmanship. Half of our group were under the age of 18. The weather was great on Saturday and the fire hose of instruction opened up. Although no new rifleman were born that day several scores were approaching the 150 mark.
Many have said it, and this weekend proved it. If you don't like the weather in Florida wait 5 min. It will change. After we left the range Saturday night the rain came in and the temperatures dropped. We went from a beautiful 77 degrees on Saturday to a high of 65 on Sunday and that was about sunrise. The temperature fell from there and the wind picked up. Up to 30 mile per hour gusts tossed mats and rifles but our patriots proved that "A Rifleman will Persist" They pushed through the morning recap of instruction like pros. Then on to the real fun.
After much more history at lunch we broke our lines into 3 parts. We worked on fulfilling rifle merit badge requirements on one end, AQTs in the middle, and high power KD shooting on the other end. I have a feeling a few parents will be looking for an M1 Garand for the next birthday present…Hint Hint :)
I want to give another shout out to Kayla and Bethany. Many scouts obtain their rifle merit badge using a bench, some sandbags and lots of help. With the exception of that one last square they did everything with a rack grade rifle and a GI sling. We don't need no stinking bench! You have to love their tenacity.
And David. David is not originally from around here. If we all look back, most of our families are at some point in history from somewhere else. David worked hard to become an American Citizen about 5 years ago. I probably won't get the quote right but in speaking with our of the instructors he said something that really summed up our entire weekend. He wanted to come out and shoot with us this weekend so he could exercise his right to do so. Thank you David and may your rights to do so remain intact for the next 200 years and beyond. You my friend, "get it"!
Hopefully everybody had a great time. Remember your dry fire practice and we hope to see you back on the line again. I have Rifleman patches for all of you, once you shoot that score.
Apologies for the lateness of my response the week kinda got away form me.
I had a great time with the scouts, counselors and parents at our shoot at the Manatee Gun and Archery Club.
It was truly a blessing to me and I hope we were well worth all the time and effort you put in this weekend.
We have a video report up on the Friends of Florida Appleseeds facebook site. https://www.facebook.com/FloridaAppleseeds/videos/620575278363728/
I put some pictures up here and I'll have more pictures up at Friends Fbook site this afternoon.
Henry
O0
Good to know not all scouts have lost their way.
And as for David, you are oh so right. The most motivating instructors are those who come from other countries. Whether from overseas or near, a benevolent dictatorship is a dictatorship and a man without arms is a slave. I'm certain the first-generation ancestors of the Parkland crybabies would be ashamed.