Project Appleseed

We had 14 pre-reg for the event and 10 shooters total came out. We were blessed with a fantastic facility. The El Paso Community College gave us the range free of charge and provided us a classroom along with anything else we needed like eyes and ears, paper and pens etc. All the shooters showed improvement, we persevered through equipment malfunctions and challenges and by the end of the weekend our groups were nice and tight.

Many thanks to the shooters for coming out and sharing their weekend with us, to my fellow El Paso instructors- THANKS for 7th stepping.

We had one girl who had never shot before and by Sunday she was scoring a 98 on her AQT! We had several other shooters knocking at the door, remember a rifleman persists.     



Shootboss- "doubleLL"
Instructors- "Starfox"
Orange hats- "Grizzled One"
                   "MJhallen"
                   " Jerry Hall"
                   " RainmanJS"

I believe this shoot was a rousing success for our far flung Texas Appleseed outpost in El Paso.

Many first time shooters, and some dealing less than ideal equipment at times, but I was pleased to see everyone persisted and overcame the challenges.  We had a few shooters knocking on the door of scoring Rifleman. 

RainmanJS kicked us off with an excellent first strike, and we moved into the range to kick off our instruction.  There were some logistical challenges with shooting indoors which put us a little behind schedule, but we adapted and by the afternoon were shooting the CAQTs through and got in one AQT to give everyone a taste. 

Sunday, we spent time working on different areas with the shooters and got time to get down and do some personal one on one instruction to help shooters with their specific needs.  After some dangerous old men stories at lunch, we initiated the AQT Grind, and while no Riflemen were produced, EVERYONE showed improvement and persistence!! 

We also awarded a oval patch to perhaps the finest example of persistence, young Tori, who shot all day, both days, and will probably be one of the youngest first time shooters to score Rifleman someday soon!   

The facility there at El Paso Community College is really wonderful, and a big THANKS to Johnny, our host, for being so accommodating and helpful with whatever we needed!   

Thanks to our local IITs (Grizzled One, MJhallen, and JerryHall) for not only working the event, but doing some serious promotional work leading up to the event!  You guys are the best!    Also thanks to my fellow Davilla 3-10 Bootcamp graudate, RainmanJS for making the trip and running the line on Sunday which freed myself up to get down with some of the shooters!    Proving good shooting runs in families, RainmanJS's brother was also there at his first Appleseed and was firing on all cylinders by the end of the weekend, well on his way to being able to make Rifleman.  And maybe one day, helping to host the first Appleseed in the 50th State.

Hey, a guy can dream!   

Pictures to come later...

ElPaso on the trail 
JA

Good to go. El Paso is up and slowly moving.

I had a great time at the shoot,  and I am glad there were so many IITs there, it really helped with the idiosyncrasies of an indoor range.  Sadly, I missed saying goodbye to all of the shooters while I was testing.  So I would like to say thank you to all of the shooters that attended for allowing me to work with them.  I am involved in this project because of you, and it is one of the most comforting things for me at the end of an Appleseed to see so many americans "who know very much what they are about."

I would also like to say how proud I am of my younger brother for taking three days out of his vacation and dedicating that time to learning marksmanship and heritage.  I truly believe that he is "not afraid to go," and hope that we can get Appleseed to Hawaii so he can finish what he started and get that patch.

As for the rest of the El Paso crew, keep up the good work, and keep making me drive 14 hours to work at your events.  I look forward to it.

RainmanJS

P.S.  Even though it was an indoor range, the weather this weekend in El Paso was fantastic.

Pictures from the weekend. 

Nice pictures.

Great job DoubleLL and crew.  You know, ASing indoors doesn't get you to a pink hat any faster  .   Great job.

Feedback I received from some of the attendees was encouraging. Does it appear that there are any more likely attendees for the next shoot?

Hey out there,

About 6 months or so ago, there was talk of trying to get Ft. Bliss' OT & PT Dept.s on board using Appleseed as a part of Physical Therapy.  Is the idea DOA? or waiting to be revived?  There were some major personnel changes going on during the discussion (mentioned in fairness).  Anyone out there still interested?

Tom

Desertrat- many changes at Ft Bliss as well. Won't be able to get WestTx to schedule shoots until Range 9 is open at FBRG. WestTx is working the ranges diligently and hasn't deserted you all. He just works better in the background.
Physical Therapy and Occupational Therapy- difficult to say the least. Command has to approve since these would be command sponsored and command interest items. Again, WestTx has them in hand and is meeting with all the new regime.

Sounds like fun- in a do it yourself. withoout anesthia kins of way.  

I didn't think anyone 'bailed' on the project, it had just been a while.  Sounds like the changes were vroader than initially thought.

Tom