We successfully completed the first event of 2021 at the beautiful Jefferson County Sportsmen Association range in Port Townsend! A beautiful drive to and from the range.
We were joined by 6 volunteers, plus 13 students. All came ready and attentive to learn some of the best fundamental rifle marksmanship instruction in the country. Although the weather on Saturday made things a little challenging, everyone persevered through it and most came back Sunday to do it again!
At the end of the weekend, two attendees showed everyone that they knew very well what they were about, by cranking out very respectable Rifleman scores! Congratulations to Tal who scored Rifleman 3 times this weekend with scores of 223, 215, and 225. Also congratulations to Calum who started with a 187 which quickly turned into a 210, and then quickly beating that score significantly TWICE.
Congratulations to Jack, Robert, Al, Felix, Betty, Steven, Connor, Aaron, Kaela, and Jack for your Marksman and Sharpshooter scores! Some of you were just knocking on the door to a 210+ score. Keep practicing and persist, you will see your scores dramatically improve. Each one of you remembered what your targets looked like first thing Saturday morning, and what they looked like at the end of the day Sunday. You should be proud, I know I am, of what you have achieved and how much you have improved. You should be especially proud of the fact that while you had almost limitless options on spending your weekend doing something somewhere more comfortable and warm, you chose to spend it with us and your fellow Americans, learning the fundamental art of rifle marksmanship, and learning a whole lot more about your heritage as an American! This is the type of commitment that gets us out on the lines weekend after weekend throughout the country, knowing that there are folks like you who are eager to learn and improve.
I know all of you also learned about the limitations of some of your equipment, for some of you I was told the round count last weekend was more rounds than you've ever shot up to that point in your life. Keep in mind it is not about the number of rounds that you shoot, it is about making each round count, learn from each round. Every hole on that piece of paper has a story to tell you about what you did right, and what you can improve on. Making each round count is how you continuously improve and I know with the skills you've picked up over the weekend, each of you at a later date on the range will look at your targets during your next range trip and know exactly what happened. While to others its going to look like black magic how you can look at holes in paper and know exactly what happened, to you it will be clear as day.
Thank you all again for taking time out of your day to join us at the range. Remember to 7th step and tell your friends and family about us, help introduce the art of rifle marksmanship to more Americans, exercise your God given rights!
Sounds like it was a very worthwhile and productive weekend. Congratulations to the new and re-qualified Riflemen! And thanks to all the Appleseeders who made it happen.
I would love to see some feedback from the participants, particularly the new shooters for whom this was their first Appleseed. If you're reading this, please let us know what you think. We are always looking for ways to improve.
I had a great time at the event, it was definitely 'drinking from the firehose' but things started clicking into place by the end of day 2. I'm looking forward to my next event!