Wow what a weekend 16 shooters. Saturday brought us winds gusting to 30+ mph and we woke up Sunday to snow on the ground. That was a first for an October Appleseed.
Friday, I called one of our instructors on ideas as to keep target bases and backers in place knowing the wind was coming. He fashioned some simple stakes that worked out great.
We had a good mix of shooters about 1/2 had attended an Appleseed before. There were a lot of familiar faces. Very attentive group Saturday we watched as shot groups improved. Our local 4H shooting sports team was represented by a couple of shooters and their moms. Boys were getting nervous as their mom's groups kept improving. That was fun to watch as there were 2 of us who coach the team working the shoot. I am sure that the fire to earn a patch was lit in our first-time participants too.
Sunday was a bit of a challenge with 1/2" of very wet snow on the ground. Most of our shooters showed up with some sort of tarp and that helped stay dry in the morning. In the afternoon skies cleared and we had "normal" Iowa October weather 50's and comfortable.
We were well staffed, and it showed. We handed out 5 new Rifleman patches, 1 Distinguished Rifleman. 4 of our shooters who had already scored Rifleman also requalified by shooting a Rifleman's score. It was a weekend with weather challenges, but we still had a few laughs and lots of smiles. We had 2 Rifleman scores of 210 and the water was drizzled. As we were packing up Sunday shooters let us know how much they enjoyed the weekend and were asking about schedule for 2021.
Sunday morning. Typical Iowa weather. But it was still fun
Well, here are some pictures! I had a great weekend--thank you to all the shooters for coming out, and thank you to my fellow instructors! GREAT job to all those who earned patches! And thank you to my sisters for taking orange hats--I am so proud of you both, and I am looking forward to many shoots instructing together!
Pictures from Saturday
Pictures from Sunday