Project Appleseed

This is for all of those Appleseeders who can't seem to get over that hump to score rifleman and for those who seem to be stuck and can't improve their scores.

During my first Appleseed in November '07 I couldn't break 120 and I had a decently setup 10/22 and had studied Fred's Guide. During my second Appleseed in March '08, after overcoming rifle problems during Saturday and Sunday I settled in and shot 229 and 226 on the only two AQT's I was able to complete without FTF's, FTE's, and a myriad of trigger housing problems.  And have since repeated these scores.

Here's how I made such a jump.

1.) Learn those six steps in your head until you can sing them. Sights, Picture, Exhale, Frontsite, Target, Squeeze, Follow-Through....sing them almost in Iambic Pentameter with a click pen in your hand serving as your trigger while driving around (advice from TheGuy)

2.) Dry fire, Dry fire, Dry fire, Dry fire, Dry fire, Dry fire, Dry fire.....did I say Dry fire.  Put an appropriate sized dot on the wall and go through the positions singing the six steps in your head.  Do it every other night just like Fred says for 30 minutes before bed.  After a few times at night you will start to fall asleep in Prone.

3.) Relax......you are a firing platform for the rifle, i.e. a gun turret on a tank or warship.  The less work your body has to do the better.  "Let" the sling and your bones do their thing to allow the gun do its: Fire a bullet out of the barrel with as little outside interference as possible.  If a warship has to re-aim its gun it turns the turret not the barrel and breech. 

IMHO, the only mods you really need is a set of Tech Sights and sling.  Some balk at the absolute necessity of Tech-Sights but a proper sight picture allowed me to "find" my mistakes that much quicker, not solve them with technology. 

I only made it to the range one time between appleseeds and only shot the 1" squares for 4 hours(thanks Grin) at 25 meters in prone, sitting and off-hand, so when I saddled up to shoot the AQT at Toccoa the targets looked "HUGE".  It "felt" like throwing rocks in a lake.

Small points of advice.  Don't go with a "fancy" trigger.  My 2nd LTR came with a volq's .5 lb hair trigger.  Yes it is nice, BUT, it is nothing like the trigger on most battle rifles and second, the chance of accidental discharge increases if the trigger is too sensitive as mine did twice at Toccoa getting up into the off-hand position by bumping the trigger with the inside of my knuckle.  I shot rifleman after I swapped out to a stock 10/22 trigger housing.

Lastly, do yourself a favor and either stick with the factory Ruger 10 round mags or if you buy a 10+ round aftermarket mag, make sure you use steel lips.  All my FTE's at Toccoa were due to plastic lip mags.  They work great for the first several hundred rounds then they decrease in reliability fast.    The moment CATT lent me two steel lip mags, not ONE FTE occured. 

Only trying to help..

Just my .02 cents

Quote from: WECSOG on May 01, 2008, 12:37:43 PM

1.) Learn those six steps in your head until you can sing them. Sights, Picture, Exhale, Frontsite, Target, Squeeze, Follow-Through....sing them almost in Iambic Pentameter with a click pen in your hand serving as your trigger while driving around (advice from TheGuy)

After a thousand or so repetitions of this when I would sling up, my mind would rattle through the steps, without thinking, so fast that I had to start using the shortened breath cycle, which really aids in completing stage 2 & 3 of the AQT.  (thanks tracerfire, silence, and talon)

wecsog, an inspirational post.  Not just inspirational but also a lot of good info for all those new folks who don't realize the value of dry firing by the numbers.

Your post reminds me I haven't been doing any of it for awhile now.  The weather has warmed up, the outide job list had increased and I've not spend the time in the yard with M1 I was even back during the winter.  I'll see if I start correcting that this evening.

Thanks.