Project Appleseed

Happy Birthday Wreck!!!     

Happy birthday!! 

      

Happy birthday Wreck!!

 

I want to commend our two Hot Brass Recipients of the weekend for their unwavering attention to safety and keeping the muzzle in a safe direction.  Cesar got brass behind his glasses on Saturday and attached itself just under his left eye.  He had quite the welt to show us on Sunday.  His muzzle remained towards the berm the entire time.  On Sunday, JHB was gifted some hot brass on her collarbone.  Just like Cesar the day before, she kept the muzzle in a safe direction at all times while dealing with a welt-generating gift.  Both will likely have reminders of this for a long time.  During the safety brief, we remind people that the first safety rule says 'ALWAYS'.  Both of these shooters exemplified what that looks like.

I want to thank the members and board at Deer Creek Conservation Club for allowing us to use their beautiful facility for the weekend.  They host us 4 times a year for events.  We are talking about adding a fifth event for next year at this location.  10 years of a great relationship.

We started our weekend with 13 Patriots ready to learn about our shared American Heritage and Marksmanship.  The group had a good mix of newer and experienced shooters.  Some were first-time attendees; others have been around the program for decades.  After setting the tone for the weekend with the First Strike of the match, we covered our safety plan for the weekend.  We were blessed to have both a doctor and EMT in attendance. <neither had to use their skill in that capacity.>  Following the safety brief, we brought rifles to the line and engaged the first Hits Count target of the weekend.  9 cleared 100 and 4 hit the shingle.  No one cleared the first one, so there is room for improvement.  As we slowly built up the skills and coached them through the Steady Hold Factors, Natural Point of Aim, and Six Steps of Firing the Shot, we introduced the AQT target.  By the end of the day, we completed the first AQT and three of our return participants were able to requalify as Rifleman.   Jeremy, Nick, and Dave scored 213, 217, and 221, respectively.  Nick and Dave had not been to an Appleseed event in over a decade.  We closed the shooting portion with another Hits Count Target and saw improvement.  After losing 2 shooters to a family obligation, only 11 were left and 10 cleared the 100 silhouette. 5 hit the shingle.  3 cleared the target.  Congratulations to Cesar, Dave, and Nick.  This was the first time to clear one at my event for Nick and Dave.  They were awarded George Rogers Clark quarters.

On Saturday, 11 came back for another dose of American Heritage and Marksmanship instruction.  After reviewing yesterday's instruction and a safety brief, we brought rifles to the line.  Our first target, after adding a couple of instructors to fill spots on the line, saw 11 of 13 clear 100, 6 hit the shingle, and 2 cleared it.  At the end of our Ball and Dummy drill <one of the best things we at 2-day events>, Dave showed the best witness target against where his hits were.  He won a fabulous prize of unspeakable value.  We broke for lunch and learned about shooting at distance.  There were lots of questions about rimfire, as we have one of those events at this range in October.  After lunch, we shot a couple more AQTs to refine our skills.  By the end of the day, 3 new Riflemen revealed themselves.  David and Ben, both return shooters, and Jonathan, a first-time Appleseeder, scored.  Jonathan confessed he is fairly new to shooting, with only about 6 months of experience.  This group turned in scores of 215 to 227.  Echo Charlie was able to requalify as well on Sunday.  Our last Hits Count Target had all 10 shooters clear the 100 silhouette. 5 of the 10 hit the shingle.  3 cleared it.  A new person, Ralph, earned the last of my quarters for the weekend.  We did blend in a Parker's Revenge between AQTs.  The team of Dave, Ben, and Nick won some fabulous prizes of unspeakable value.

I want to thank my cadre that kept things running smoothly. Echo Charlie, TheGunslingingGamer, Traveling man,  JHB, and Frimplepants, made my part easy.  I appreciate your time and commitment to our program.


Follow the link for pictures: https://imgur.com/a/U5LnqbU

What a great weekend!

My sincere thanks to Rivanna Rifle and Pistol Club for hosting this IBC.  RRPC is a long time friend to Appleseed and hugely supportive of our mission.  Many many thanks to RRPC!

Also a big thank you to OddsREven and Fireman1974 for organizing all the food.  Wow did we eat well!  Thank you to everyone who brought dishes to share.  No one went hungry! 

Mostly, though, thank you to everyone who attended.  Thank you for your attention, for your questions and for your patience. 

Note the bottle of blueing.... 



Also, HAIL CENTURION!  It was The Wolfhound's great pleasure, on behalf of Cleveland, to award Catch-10-22 his Centurion pin.

Good work, Rex, instructors and shooters!  I'm proud of what Iowa gets done for the cause of our shared heritage and Liberty!

I like reading these reports from all around the country, getting to see places I'll never get to go, often learning of new places I didn't know existed. For a few milliseconds at first look I thought this clinic was held in Brothel WA. and thought it very interesting a place would be named Brothel. And I learned we can shoot Appleseed with a flintlock too.

Just a few short weeks after we celebrated the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, 11 fine Washingtonians joined us at WCW Shooting Sports in Bothell, WA for a weekend of history, heritage, and marksmanship.

Frequently in WA, I write about how our shooters brave the elements to be outside with us all weekend.  In this case, our shooters enjoyed the weather on one of our best weekends of the summer - and they chose to spend it with us! 

We had a good mix of new and returning shooters at this event, and our Hits Count scores showed that our returning shooters had kept up their skills while our new shooters came ready to learn.  Our instructor corps got to work turning potential into well-placed shots, and these shooters took our instruction to heart: we were talking about IMC after only 3 sighter squares!!!

Our new shooters improved a ton over the weekend.  By Sunday afternoon, most of our shooters were successfully scoring 3 well-placed shots on the 300 yd silhouette of the Hits Count target, and I suspect several of them will be going home with Rifleman patches at their next event.

We had 4 returning Rifleman requalify!  Michael (211), Alex (210), Matthew (211), and Dan (240) all showed that they have maintained their level of skill.  Dan cleared every single Hits Count target this weekend - a testament to his mastery of the 6 Steps of Firing the Shot, the Steady Hold Factors, and NPOA!

We had a bit of special interactive history at this event.  Doc Sporseen is well known among Appleseeders for his detailed and animated account of the oldest and most dangerous combatant on April 19th: Samuel Whittemore.  Unbeknownst to Doc, we arranged for him to fire a black powder long gun and his brace of black powder pistols at a Redcoat target.  We then discovered there was another Redcoat within bayonet range!  Doc dispatched our target quickly (with the demo rifle), and discovered that the Redcoat was in possession of a cavalry saber.  Of course, he no longer had need of the saber, and now Doc has a story to tell of how he encountered the saber's previous owner only once, but the owner died suddenly and left the saber to Doc.  Happy 50th event, Doc!

Thanks all for a fantastic event!  A special thank you to all the instructors who came out for this event:  kRosHairs, Doc Sporseen, PNWCarrier, Iborche, and USSRanger!

And now: Pictures!

CaptainRebop welcomes shooters to the range:


Doc Sporseen covers the arcane art of IMC:


Michael shows his mastery of the Steady Hold Factors for Prone (this is actually a video):


Matthew deep in the Rifleman's Bubble:


Samantha prepares to engage the Hits Count target:


Doc firing a "musket" (technically a rifle):


Doc firing one of his black powder pistols:


Our "Redcoat" in bayonet range!


Doc engages the Redcoat!

What a great weekend full of learning at the Everett Sportsmen's Club! 17 shooters joined us, including three families encompassing mulitple generations, most of whom were attending their first event and wondering what this Project Appleseed thing was all about. Saturday was warm and sunny, the blue skies a welcome relief from the week of wildfire smoke that went away just in time. Shooters took to absorbing as much of the firehose of information as they possibly could, learning about how a steady and relaxed position will allow them to find a Natural Point of Aim, which makes them not just accurate shooters, but consistently accurate shooters. Captain Rebop, PNW Carrier, and Bandaid all gave excellent renditions of The Three Strikes, and hot off the 250th anniversary of the vote for Independence on July 2nd 1776, the Shoot Boss encouraged all to take advantage of the final week of the Freedom Plane National Tour a very a very short way away in Seattle to go see some of the documents we talked about in person. Instructors did a great job interacting with shooters and making learning fun. By Sunday afternoon the sun had warmed us up quite a bit, and there had been a good amount of improvement in shooter abilities, though there was still more to be done on Sunday to help the large amount of information sink in a bit more. On Saturday afternoon's AQT, Jeremy, at his very first event qualified with a Rifleman score of 211! Picture of persistence, Bill, re-qualified with a 214!

All shooters returned on Sunday to more bright sunny skies (and so did the cooler full of ice and capri-suns). After some sleep, and maybe a bit of stretching, the morning's Hits Count/Redcoat target showed great improvement from Saturday morning's! The morning review went a little long, but to the shooter's benefits as they were full of good questions we were happy to answer for them! During the morning's sighter squares, a few more shooters discovered they did indeed need sight alignment adjustments, which quickly fixed many of the group size issues we'd been seeing. After another hot dog lunch by grill master Will and a talk about KD shooting, we started the afternoon's AQTs. Tristan qualified for his first Rifleman patch with a 217, and Scott requaled after a few years break with a 216 (later taking the event high score of 229). Dan re qualified with a 215, and Darren, at his first event on the final AQT made it happen with a 211! Thinking we had time for a historical demo and an AQT, we brought out some flintlock longrifles and an M1 Garand for the shooters to observe and get a chance to shoot. Though the wildfire smoke had just left, we made the sky darker for a few moments with volleys of black powder fire to everyone's excitement. The hands-on experience took a bit longer than I'd planned on, but smiles were all around and I even had exactly enough CMP forms for everyone who wanted an M1 Garand for themselves afterwards! We'd love to see someone back with their own M1 at a future event.

Shooters, Volunteers, and Will at ESC, thank you for making this event so enjoyable and safe. We look forward to seeing you again soon.