Project Appleseed

What can I say?  This shoot was an adventure, to say the least.  To begin with, I arrived at the range on Friday afternoon with the club pistol executive to start setting things up.  Prior to this, hornet41, who has never been to an Appleseed, PM'd me and asked if I needed help.  Sure, the more, the merrier.  Anyway, at the July shoot, we set up at the end of the 600 yd range and started prepping for that.  Talk about a dust storm!  The dirt was like talcum powder and since this is a new range with the grass hardly grown in, there was a LOT of it.  We moved some picnic benches, moved a porta pottie, brought some canopies and when dond arrived, set up firing lines.  As we were finishing up, some clouds started rolling in and the club pistol officer said if it started raining to get out of there FAST!  Yeah, yeah, yeah, how bad could it be?

When I arrived Saturday morning, I found out.  It rained some (not THAT much) overnight and dond was stuck in the mud along with others and there was no way we were going to get to the end of the 600 yd range.  The mud was like pea soup.  Gunner09 and I slid down the hill in my Vibe and weren't going anywhere either.  Wesm had a 4x4 and now I want one REAL bad.

What to do now?  Well, dond asked if we could use the pistol bays and restrict it to .22lr.  The club agreed so we had everyone else who showed up for this park up on the hill to keep them from getting stuck, too.  Fortunately, we didn't have any females present because the porta potties were a mile walk through shoe sucking mud.  Since we were restricted to .22, we also had a few people who were adamant about shooting AR's decide not to stay, even though we had adequate loaners and did our best to convince them that it wouldn't be time wasted.  By the time we were done getting it all together, the first shots went downrange at 1042.

We actually made good time after that and got an AQT in and awarded Mike a Rifleman's patch.  Lots of good shooting and improvement by all.  Also, the ground dried off enough that we were all able to drive out.  Hornet41 and wesm were standing by with 4x4's and tow straps just in case.

When Sunday rolled around, we were joined by determined451 and perfect weather.  We also had a female (my daughter) show up so after a little while, we were able to get a porta pottie positioned closeby.   Two more Rifleman patches were awarded, one to Terry, an adaptive shooter, and one to Mike with the British accent.  If Mike takes a hat, I'll pay to see him give history!

Three patches, a few more knocking on the door and the next shoot in Novermber.  My thanks to all who helped out and to all who attended! 

I forgot my camera on Saturday, so these are from Sunday. 

I tried to take a couple of pictures with my cell phone camera, but they aren't worth uploading.  Hopefully Rifleman #2 (forum name yet to be introduced) can email some of the pictures from Saturday, as he was the only one with a decent camera.  Needless to say, by my count there were at least 3 "stuck" vehicles in the mud parking lot Saturday morning.  We had as many people as possible park up on the hill, closer to the entrance, and walk in so as not to rut up the road/parking lot any more than necessary. 

Due to the fact that we had planned to shoot at the far end of the range, which was impossible to get to, we had to improvise and totally re-set up at a pistol bay.  Many thanks to the shooters for their patience during this inconvenient and unplanned delay.

Starting off again was the worst part of the weekend, however, and everything got better once we the ball rolling.  We forgot about the stuck vehicles, began Appleseeding, and everything went great!  We did our thing, the shooters did their thing, and a Rifleman was produced from the FIRST AQT of the weekend!  WOW!  By then end of the day Saturday, the mud had dried well enough that everyone could get out.  Sunday's access was much improved, and the weather was picture-perfect by Sunday late morning.  As dart67eb said, we had 2 more Riflemen on Sunday, and several more knocking on the door.   I can't wait to see how many of these guys come back in November and earn their patch!

To not scare anyone away from future Appleseeds at this location, the club WILL be putting down limestone on the access roads and parking areas.   

My thanks to everyone who worked at getting us going.. This weekend gave new meaning to Riflemen being able to adapt.  Thanks again to all who braved the elements.. While I missed the fun on Saturday (I have a 4x4),  I thought the weather was perfect on Sunday..I hope all will return for the November 13-14 shoot.  My pictures are pretty much in line with Dart's.. No reason to re post.  Hope to see everyone soon, D-451 MS-SC

Sorry to be so late in posting this, but I've had a terribly busy week. The event has been described very well in the above posts. Thanks guys.

We had set up a target line Friday afternoon with space for 40 shooters. Then the rains came that night and we became stuck near the pistol bay and we're forced to either shoot there, or cancel the event. Fortunately I had enough target line material to set up another line. We were expecting more walk-ons but the weather undoubtedly had something to do with that not happening.

Eleven shooters were present Saturday. They all returned Sunday, as well as an additional one. Three Riflemen received their patches. There were a couple of 205s, and some other high scores. Therefore, it was a highly successful shoot. We are surely expecting these high ones to return next month and carry away their Rifleman patches.

Thanks to everyone for their gracious help, and for their patience in the difficult situation.