Project Appleseed

I'm slated to go to my first Appleseed with the goal to become an instructor.

In a e-mail converstion with Anthony Imperato on another subject I asked him if they'd contacted Appleseed since they support the NSSF youth program in many ways.

His answer really surprised me, here it is:
We have contacted Appleseed at the national level on several occasions with no reply. We thought we could make our guns available to their facilities at wholesale pricing plus provide safety literature, patches, etc.

Sincerely,
Anthony Imperato
President

Henry Repeating Arms, Co.
59 East 1st Street
Bayonne, NJ 07002

No reply from Appleseed? This was a startling statement considering how hard you're working to promote shooting and the 2nd Amendment. Henry has what I'd think is probably the single most child friendly gun on the market and their youth lever to go with it. May not be semi-autos, but that's ok. I learned on a bolt action only being allowed to use it like a single shot. Taught a lot about safety that way.

Chance to get the youth versions wholesale is great, especially in this economy, much less a big boy wholesale.

Were there strings attached he may not have mentioned?

If not, I hope you can contact them and work something out.

Welcome!  Good to meet you and hope to meet you on the line before long.

Yes, there has been talk of this at national and while I have seen some of it, I cannot state clearly where the process is at this point and if it has gotten lost for some reason.  I know that this is quite the honor and very much an appreciated offer that Henry is giving us and one that we would not pass up on with any friend of firearm owner and patriots - especially a company that has done so much to further firearm ownership and all of the associated heritage and knowledge.

If you would, give me a moment to check in with national and find out where this is stuck and see if we can get this right back on track. 

Thank you for bringing this here, and let's get this taken care of right and quick.

Techres

Quote from: quietman on July 08, 2010, 11:15:53 AM
I'm slated to go to my first Appleseed with the goal to become an instructor.

In a e-mail converstion with Anthony Imperato on another subject I asked him if they'd contacted Appleseed since they support the NSSF youth program in many ways.

His answer really surprised me, here it is:
We have contacted Appleseed at the national level on several occasions with no reply. We thought we could make our guns available to their facilities at wholesale pricing plus provide safety literature, patches, etc.

Sincerely,
Anthony Imperato
President

Henry Repeating Arms, Co.
59 East 1st Street
Bayonne, NJ 07002

No reply from Appleseed? This was a startling statement considering how hard you're working to promote shooting and the 2nd Amendment. Henry has what I'd think is probably the single most child friendly gun on the market and their youth lever to go with it. May not be semi-autos, but that's ok. I learned on a bolt action only being allowed to use it like a single shot. Taught a lot about safety that way.

Chance to get the youth versions wholesale is great, especially in this economy, much less a big boy wholesale.

Were there strings attached he may not have mentioned?

If not, I hope you can contact them and work something out.

Please see http://appleseedinfo.org/smf/index.php?topic=14151.0 for the latest thread re: Henry and Appleseed.

The response from the general AS community seems mixed.  Personally I believe that any collaboration between ourselves and a national firearms manufacturer would be fantastic press for us.

Henry primarily markets lever-action tube-fed rifles.  It seems evident from some of the responses to the above topic that many instructors would rather not have to 'deal with' lever-action tube-fed rifles on the Appleseed firing line.  An odd position to take, IMO, as we advertise 'bring what you own and shoot what you bring'.  Regardless, clearly this rifle platform presents a much more challenging Appleseed experience for both shooters and instructors.

Henry's bolt-action rifle is a single-shot model that is simply not suitable for Appleseed's COF.

Their only semi-auto rifle is the AR7 'Survival Rifle'.  There are many instructors who have used these and say they simply aren't suited for the type of shooting we teach at Appleseed.  My initial impression is that these may work well as the 'designated sniper' rifle w/ bipod attached, but mounting a sling will be quite difficult and the factory sights seem even less useful for consistent precision shooting than 10/22 OEM sights.  I have not yet had an opportunity to run one through an entire weekend of Appleseed-style shooting to see how well it holds up to the task.

I believe we still need to pursue an affiliation with Henry, even if it is limited to having them package our literature with every rifle they sell.  However, I'm not sure of the best way to accomplish this.
MJA

Hello Group; Henry Rifle Co. may be interested in making a spec rifle exactly the way we---- appleseed would like this would be s target/sporter with good sights and sling swivels and a drop free mag a good usable trigger. Not realy to much to ask... OH one more thing it must WORK right out of the box. Pappy

Cease Fire! Cease Fire! Cease Fire!

Guys, Henry is offering to help Appleseed and we can use the help.  They are NOT asking for an endorsement, nor for product design assistance.  They are offering to help us.

Please, let us be the kind, appreciative and respectful Appleseeders that I know we all mean to be.  

Let's let national respond here and until they do, let's not say or do anything that might be perceived as either disrespectful or looking a gift horse in the mouth.

Thanks,
Techres

Folks,
  1)  Pres of Henry answers EVERY email sent to company; hard to believe no response from our side...
  2)  Henry has, for years, offered NRA and state-level, e.g. hunter safety, instructors discounted rates on their rifles.  I can vouch for their flexibility, having purchased several of their rifles not listed in their offer, and hearing from Mr. Imperato that he would make an exception allowing the purchase of Golden Boys and AR7s...has always been as good as his word.  He has also included Henry safety hand-outs, banners, and cases of current Henry catalogs for distribution (great, along with CMP catalogs, at gun shows!).
  3)  Henry has also made practice of creating special rifles that focus on either Boy Scouts/Explorers, New York State Rifle and Pistol Assn (Henry does other state associations as well), or Counties in New York State.
  4)  Still working on getting Ruger to recognize/include AS RHs in their program; last item to submit will be copies of RH credentials, then will request full review of all Appleseed documentation by Ruger and decision on our inclusion...would be worth appx 1/3 off Ruger's msrp on anything they make.  then, stage two of the campaign will involve convincing them to do the Ruger Factory LTR...
  Persist x 3...
Excelsior,
madMark

Quote from: nyrasgt on July 09, 2010, 12:15:46 AM
Folks,
  1)  Pres of Henry answers EVERY email sent to company; hard to believe no response from our side...
  2)  Henry has, for years, offered NRA and state-level, e.g. hunter safety, instructors discounted rates on their rifles.  I can vouch for their flexibility, having purchased several of their rifles not listed in their offer, and hearing from Mr. Imperato that he would make an exception allowing the purchase of Golden Boys and AR7s...has always been as good as his word.  He has also included Henry safety hand-outs, banners, and cases of current Henry catalogs for distribution (great, along with CMP catalogs, at gun shows!).
  3)  Henry has also made practice of creating special rifles that focus on either Boy Scouts/Explorers, New York State Rifle and Pistol Assn (Henry does other state associations as well), or Counties in New York State.
  4)  Still working on getting Ruger to recognize/include AS RHs in their program; last item to submit will be copies of RH credentials, then will request full review of all Appleseed documentation by Ruger and decision on our inclusion...would be worth appx 1/3 off Ruger's msrp on anything they make.  then, stage two of the campaign will involve convincing them to do the Ruger Factory LTR...
  Persist x 3...
Excelsior,
madMark

Thanks for your comments.  This weekend is a meeting of some national workers. This issue will be brought up and discussed.  We should be able to get this worked out soon.

Thanks again,
Techres

I find the reluctance to support tube-fed rifles a bit odd.  In my first Appleseed, the instructors brought some soda straws (large-diameter ones from McDonald's) with a small cork in one end.  Makes a great 10-round speed loader, just pull out the tube insert, invert the 'magazine' over the end of the tube, replace the tube insert.  The shooters did their load at the end of the prep period, took less than a minute.

My next Appleseed, the instructors didn't bring any corked straws, and the tube-fed shooter took quite a while to load.

You can also buy speed loaders for the tube rifles.  Mine holds 8 loads of 15-rounds each, with all rounds visible through the case.  Perfect for my Henry .22

Quote from: nyrasgt on July 09, 2010, 12:15:46 AM
Folks,
  1)  Pres of Henry answers EVERY email sent to company; hard to believe no response from our side...
  2)  Henry has, for years, offered NRA and state-level, e.g. hunter safety, instructors discounted rates on their rifles.  I can vouch for their flexibility, having purchased several of their rifles not listed in their offer, and hearing from Mr. Imperato that he would make an exception allowing the purchase of Golden Boys and AR7s...has always been as good as his word.  He has also included Henry safety hand-outs, banners, and cases of current Henry catalogs for distribution (great, along with CMP catalogs, at gun shows!).

Well... not all of them.

QuoteThank you for your interest. We can make the guns included in the Instructor's program available to you,however,the Survival rifle is not offered. Please see my attachment for the list/pricing.
Best Regards,
Thomas Kotz
Customer Service Supervisor
Export Manager
Henry Repeating Arms Company

Ok, here's the deal, I am now the lead on this issue.   IF you have questions regarding it, PLEASE PM ME.

Appleseed appreciates any kind offer or contact from Henry Arms or any other member of the shooting community.  Appleseed supports all kinds of firearms including those that Henry Arms sells.  At the same time, we have never taken it upon ourselves to endorse any firearm officially.  The LTR is a concept, a generalization that we endorse and that can be applied to many rifles on the market, please do not confuse that with a singular endorsement of any one rifle out there.

Also, please keep in mind that this thread is a public one, searchable by Google, open to scrutiny by anyone, and perfectly quotable by all - to our detriment or benefit.  I would please again ask for discretion and patience.  Anyone that has this issue as a great and burning concern, please PM me directly for further discussion.

Now, I am going to lock this thread and keep it closed until I have more to report back with.  Again, anyone who has input or offers for assistance, please contact me via PM and I will be happy to talk more about it.

Thanks all,
Techres

That's not true.  I e-mailed him myself and thanked them for their generous offer.  You can find the offer I posted on the instructors board.

Quote from: RifleWoman on July 23, 2010, 10:06:08 PM
That's not true.  I e-mailed him myself and thanked them for their generous offer.  You can find the offer I posted on the instructors board.

Ah, the left and the right hand miscommunication!  RW, I am looking now and PM'ing you. 

If this is already taken care of, then I am very happy.

Techres