Project Appleseed

We had a great group of students this week end.  Thank you all for comming out and enduring the 105 degree weather.

All of you showed tremendous improvement throughout the weekend.  

Thank you to the instructors.  You ran the shoot smoothly and took everything in stride.  I would not ask for a better group of people to work with.

There were four shooter that came up from Oklahoma and we had one shooter come from north western KS who had only read about Appleseed the day before in SGN.

As the heat sapped the strength from our minds and bodies we took time to tell the story.  Thanks 4bfox, your history gets better every time you tell it.
We took a dinner break around 5:00.  Some took showers and ate, others went to the swimming pool, then they ate.  We gather up outside the mess hall and had ice cream and told more history.

I have to share the quote of the weekend.  We had one person with such humility he was not afraid to ask any question.  

Here goes..  He asks "What is a Rat Grade Rifle?"  

I'm thinking wow is my Kansas accent so thick?

Jollybfd was promoted to IIT1

And a huge congratulations to 4bfox who has now been promoted to Instructor.  Congratulation Ben!  Once again thank you for all you do in promoting Apppleseed.  And thank you for all your hard work in becomming an Instructor.

Please post pics if you have them.  And share your story here, there and everywhere.

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Hmmm..I think I have a couple of those rifles....they blew up on me at the RBC! Especially that dang commie rifle...

Anyway....yes, I am very proud of that hat, my wife MADE me take if off last night before going to bed.
And I've been getting the strangest looks here at school this morning, people keep asking me what "RWVA" stands for. (Just kidding)

I'll agree with ][, we had a great group of shooters this weekend, they made TREMENDOUS improvement over where they started. Stick with it guys....you'll get there!

I'll post pics when I get home....

4b

I agree with the comment that was made; "Gee! these guys have great attitudes" it was truly an Instructors dream. Except for the mechanical failures!! If I am not mistaken, there was only one rifle left, that had been started with! There were a lot of "loaners" on the line! Keep in mind that you shooters did as well as you did, WITH SOMEONES ELSE"S RIFLE! It ain't the equipment that makes Riflemen!!
Just one personal note; I seem to be missing my shooting mat, which is weird cuz I "THINK" I remember rolling it up! If anyone comes up with an extra, let me know, although it is just as likely it's still sitting out on the range!! I'll blame it on the downpour we packed up in!!
Pop!
You shoulda been here, from 105 on Friday Evening to a low of 63!! Gotta love Great Plains Weather! Boy Howdy!
And Ben's a Red Hat!!! Yippee!!!

Man, that was a group of guys that wanted to learn!  I want to thank John, Justice, Mike, Keith, and Jeramy for breaking me in easy on my first Appleseed as an IIT.  Your improvement was phenomenal especially considering the equipment problems!  If all the shooters showed up that excited to learn and carry the torch on, Appleseed would rival the alert list of Paul Revere!

I think paul might have the extra mat,  we thought it belonged to Brad.  We had to leave in a hurry due to the downpour, so we kind of rushed packing up.   I ended up leaving with Paul's stop watch too.

It was a good weekend and I think we will see those guys again at another event.  Lots of improvement from where they started.   There's a good chance they will spread the word to others as well.

Its too bad the rain chased us off early.  I really wanted to get some more practice in on Sunday after the students left.  I am very rusty and need to get my skill level back up.  Maybe we can schedule a range day on some weekend where we don't have an appleseed scheduled.

Since none of the other guys are on the forum, I just wanted to say thanks to all the instructors that showed up, even though at one point we had more instructors than students!

None of us really knew what to expect. But we all agreed on the way back that it was well worth the effort, and I think we'll all be back to another Appleseed before too long (though we do have some equipment issues to sort out first). I'm already planning on attending the one in Afton, OK in September. I think once I spend some time limbering up and get a few practice sessions in I'll do much better.

I know we all wished we could have stuck around for another hour or two, but we were trying to get back to Tulsa so one of our guys could get to a dinner/work meeting.

I'm also a musician, a saxophone player to be exact, and thinking about the weekend I liken it to my first lesson with my first real saxophone teacher almost 15 years ago now. It wasn't her job to make me a better player, it was her job to give me the tools to do it for myself. (Although she did tell me couple years later that in my first lesson with her I was so bad that she just thought "what have I gotten myself into?". But she did help me correct lots of bad habits, and posture and hand position problems, as well as lots of counting and technical issues regarding playing the saxophone. And I ended up being selected to play in the Oklahoma All State Band my senior year of high school--less than a year after starting lessons with her).

So it is with the Appleseed experience. We now have all the tools to correct our own problems and become better shooters.

After I got back, my wife asked why I was so sore, and I got down and showed her the proper prone position and said that I had trouble getting my trigger leg up high enough. She just said, "oh you mean like this?" And proceeded to get down into what look like a pretty good proper prone position!  And she just says, "well I sleep like that, haven't you noticed?" (She's also a former dancer, so she's inherently more limber than I anyway or maybe it's just because she's one of those freakish left handed people ). Anyway I told he had to got to Afton with me (gives me an excuse to buy another rifle  ). She said she'll think about it.

Anyway, thanks for the great experience and all the effort. I'm sure we'll see some if not all of you guys again.

Grendel: Glad you all came to the shoot. You all show a lot of promise, I think one more time and you'll be there. In the meantime, DRY FIRE, DRY FIRE, DRY FIRE! That's what got my score up in the end. I'd stretch out in the living room with my UNLOADED rifle, no ammo in the room, triple checked. Then dry fire for about 15 minutes 4-5 times a week. And yes, my wife thinks I'm nuts when I do this, but what else is new? Concentrate on the 6 steps to firing the shot. Again and again. All 3 positions. Now go do it!

And here are the pics I have...not many, I was being "evaluated":

Great post Grendel!  Welcome to Appleseed.

Tell your wife she can come to the All Women's Appleseed (aka Ladyseed) we will be hosting in Humansville, MO on Labor Day weekend.  All female instructors, all female shooters.  The ladies are going to have a heck of a good time!
Just a thought if that would make her more comfortable...

Greg