Project Appleseed

And for the official After Action Report you will have to see the Shoot Boss, Janer rocked on keeping me on target on time and off current political noise. I was honored to tell the 1st Strike of the Match, causing a shooter to ask if I had a degree in History. Well, I do, but not in American History (European and Asian). On day two I showed my traveling library and Paul Revere's Ride. And other books I found interesting and useful in learning about the Revolution (American Spring). Careful watching of the shooters in two AQTs, I notice firing while breathing and poor follow through on many. Still on day two most people were on course to grouping on target, working on smooth six steps in making the shot. I wish the elbow of the support arm were really under the rifle, I wish the shooting eyes were closer to the rear sight, and the optics farther forward since we aren't shooting from a bench. Everyone responded well to suggestions, but lots of study, dry practice and owning the six steps will produce the quality shooter most of you will become. I loved telling Hezikiah Wyman and the old Gray Mare for my Dangerous Old Man story. I hope you enjoyed the Appleseed Event, will return another day to refresh and qualify and you will bring a friend or two. To learn very much what America is about.

More Pictures

I don’t think anyone could have asked for a better weekend. Although the weather was hot and muggy, we had a sold-out shoot, Passed out and Orange Hat (Congratulations Drew!  ) and made 4 new riflemen with several more knocking on the door.

Saturday morning showed that this group was anxious to prove their mettle with a half dozen shooters showing up at the range by 7:30 am.

The Saturday morning Redcoat showed we had plenty of work to do and we got right to work with the steady hold factors for prone, Six Steps, NPOA, and IMC. After lunch we continued with the steady hold factors from sitting and standing. All shooters came with that all important “Teachable Attitude” and the Saturday PM Redcoat showed vast improvement with Terry clearing the target. HUZZAH!

Sunday started by the shooters showing us that  the “Rifle Fairy” had visited them during the night to sprinkle gunpowder in their ear to help them process the instruction and retain the skills they honed from Saturday by showing improvement on the Sunday AM Redcoat.

After a few NPOA drills, we started on the AQT grind and very soon people began to show us that they knew very well what they were about with Nick, Mark, Chris and Keith getting their patch. We also had several people knocking on the door with high 190’s and 200’s scores. We ended the day with 2 shooters clearing the Sunday PM Redcoat – Congratulations to Melissa and Roger.

A few special shout outs:
To Melissa – who by far was our most improved shooter of the weekend, who started out struggling a bit but finished strong by posting back to back 208 scores on the last 2 AQT’s and rebounded by clearing the Sunday PM Redcoat!

To Buddy – Thanks for the Saturday night range maintenance – keeping the weeds down that obscured stage 4 of your practice AQT. You know you could have posted your target a little higher!

To Cactus Jack and his wife – many thanks for the Saturday night foil dinner. It was delicious.

Finally, thanks to the Central Ohio Coon Hunters Club for being such gracious hosts putting on a fabulous Appleseed shoot. I can’t wait to come back. Did someone say “Winterseed”? 

Also a big thank-you to Shoot Boss Corvette and all my fellow instructors: Sir Bob, Lozen, Chewy, Chevyshooter and Cactus Jack for a fun and safe shoot. Looking forward to working with everyone again.

We had another great event in Redmond. We had a firing line full of teachable attitudes and it showed over the course of the two days. As always it was exciting to see the shot groups consistently tighten up as we progressed through the weekend. We had all the normal stock shape, sighting system and ammunition hiccups, but every shooter persisted. Sunday afternoon we had a redcoat target that was one shot away from being cleared (barely under the 400) with a 10/22 still using the stock rear leaf sight! It was clear that there was a lot of talent on the line this weekend. Now its time to internalize everything you drank from the fire hose

While we only had two shooters attain a score over 210, I have no doubt that we will be giving many of the attendees from this weekend a patch in the near future.

A few things for those shooters still on their journey to 210:
-Dry practice. Dry practice. Dry practice. Hydrate. Dry practice.
-Practice all those 'comfortable' positions at home. Get your body used to them.
-Use a click pen to practice squeeeeeeeeeeeezing the trigger, and releasing only to the reset point

Remember that 7th step of firing a shot; help us spread the message of Project Appleseed.

Since almost everyone on the line was "no pictures" I was only able to get one picture of James with his qualifying AQT - https://photos.app.goo.gl/SSy7g9uPoP6iPosr7

I also want to throw out a big thank you to Steve for making the 3000 mile journey from Florida to help us out on the instructor side of things. It was great working with you and getting an insite into some of the differences of instructuon between the northwest and Florida. Thanks for stepping up and going the extra (3000) miles.

BrightSparc,
Thanks to you and your crew for this past Saturday .  .  . I learned a LOT and was also humbled by the experience.  I have lots of things to practice, and will likely attend another event, this time being much better prepared for the elusive Rifleman badge. 

You or one of the instructors mentioned a new budget-friendly sling from Magpul . . . this?
https://www.amazon.com/Magpul-Rifleman-Point-Standard-Rifle/dp/B07DNXHK6N/ref=sr_1_5?crid=3YT1XGFVAYY6&keywords=magpul+sling&qid=1563236583&s=gateway&sprefix=magpul+sling%2Caps%2C154&sr=8-5

Again, thanks for the experience.  I'll do my best to sing the praises of the program for future shooters. 

 - Brad