We had a great fall week for the final Project Appleseed of the year at the Lewis Clark Wildlife Club. The range was a little chilly in the morning, as should be expected, but warmed up nicely in the sun in the afternoon.
We had three participants at this event with two of the students being the children of Rifleman. I greatly appreciate parents who introduce their children to shooting sports, as it is great to pass on the heritage of marksmanship to our posterity. Huzzah!
The kids did great in their adoption of the marksmanship skills. Both showed an increase in their skill level throughout the weekend, but they have some homework to do prior to returning another AS event. As we discussed at the event, laser bore sighters or laser lights make for cheap and effective training aids. One of the uses of the lasers is to help perfect trigger control. While performing dry fire practice at home (with a verified safe rifle) the laser dot can be observed during the squeezing of the shot. The amount of movement of the barrel will be shown by the movement of the laser dot, and this can help smooth out the trigger squeeze and demonstrate the importance of follow through.
Michael, our third participant demonstrated great marksmanship skills on the Saturday morning Red Coat. He could already shoot 4 MOA groups, but was challenged with the AS techniques. Michael also learned about NPOA and was able to master that technique through the weekend. He struggled a bit with the time frame of stages of 2 & 3 and getting all of his rounds on paper. I kept stressing that is was more important to shoot good groups and to let his shooting speed come with continued practice. On the last AQT of Sunday, Michael was able to post a Rifleman score of 217, while only getting off 7 shots on stage 2.
Congratulation to Michael on shooting his Rifleman score, and I hope to see everyone at another AS event next year. I just requested dates for 2020, and will get them posted on the AS website as soon as they are approved.
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