Project Appleseed

Another great weekend in the most magical canyon known as the Souther California Designated Appleseed Range in Piru, CA. Fourteen brave American's came out for lessons in marksmanship and history. This weekend was also a family affair, tipping a hat to the heritage involved with passing these experiences forward to our future generations.

The Minor clan: Bobby, Colleen, Brandon, Tabitha & Braxton. Great showing! Tabby was right in there showing tremendous improvement. Colleen, once we got her a little more squared away with her equipment was able to make some wonderful gains! Bobby, with the "Nylon 66"... It's a little hard to make use of your prep-time... but stayed focused and determined. But... Braxton... BRAXTON "I get to shoot the center-fire, RIGHT?" What a great thing to hear from a sixteen year old girl first thing on a Saturday morning. From no holes on paper to fist sized groups. Please come back you guys!

The Shlakman family also had a marvelous showing. Beyond the equipment struggles, Jeff was able to put down a score of 204 and is right on track. Wife / Mom Glendys stuck in there too for a 130-something after having shot a rifle very few times previously. Daughter Mia was an absolute pleasure! Even with a bee sting, she was able to stay safe and stick it out to the end. Boyfriend Elija was the very definition of enthusiasm. Banging away all day, sticking to it and adapting-to-overcome - he was shooting some great scores by end-of-weekend. And then there's Liam... "I don't like guns, my shoes are Vegan and my Dad made me come". Somewhere there's a picture on one of our phones of you shooting an Instructor's M1-Garand with a smile a mile wide... Thank you for attending and we hope you got as much out of your weekend and we got from being allowed to walk you through it.

Brother Boris: What a great guy. Volunteered for the Natural Point of Aim demonstration... Instructor Gratefuldog says, "Well... that took away any excuses for the rest of the weekend..." REPLY: "I don't have any excuses". Great guy. Great showing. I have a feeling we'll be seeing a lot more of this guy.

Tauras and Linas. You'd swear these guys are brothers. Not quite there yet, but 200+ for sure. Hey, if it was easy... You probably wouldn't care. Let's get this done already and get some Orange Hats on the both of you. Practice is the key.

A weekend wouldn't be complete without a brand new RIFLEMAN! Jason H. Seemingly skeptical, Jason drank as much from the firehose as possible and put it to good use! 211! One minute of angle wide on one of those shots and we'd be dunking you in the icy waters of the North Bridge! Congratulations, man! Way to go!

To all of our participants this weekend. Thank you for showing. Thank you for shooting. Perseverance is the key (read: dry practice at home!). Determination. You shared with us the heart of what makes our unique experience so wonderful. Our founding fathers (AND MOTHERS!) would be proud!

To Gratefuldog, Ventura-Steve, TwoBeagles, Alexander, Stepka & Brother KoolAid: Thank you for allowing me to spend another fine weekend with some of the finest people I know. Humbled.

Rock & Roll,
Favor Center,
Your preparation period begins now...
- GoneJohnny

Well, Hell... I don't know about all y'all, but I had a pretty damned good time.  Details will come later, but I got a solid reminder why I invest the time I do into this program...
Much thanks to all those, instructor-types as well as shooters, that made this happen!

It was fun (and games of golf). Came expecting some shooting instructions. Got that and so much more. I feel like I belong and that means a lot coming from a sneaky Russian. Now I know what to work on - bye bye bench rest, bye bye bipod; that and my reading list suddenly had to be reworked. September 20th here I come 

WOW-what a fantastic weekend in PIRU!!!  This weekend embodied the heart of Appleseed-families, men, women, and kids coming together to share an experience. I was so impressed by the perseverance everyone showed all weekend! Having everyone return ready to go again on Sunday morning (by 8:30am) just goes to show how dedicated all of you we're to drinking from the fire hose. I know that all of you learned a lot and made great improvement over the weekend. Thank you all for coming with teachable attitudes. It was wonderful working with each and everyone of you. I look forward to seeing you again on the Appleseed trail!
Thank you to my fellow instructors for assisting in making this weekend another Appleseed success story!!!    

Quote from: look4awhile on August 18, 2014, 05:33:13 PM
It was fun (and games of golf). Came expecting some shooting instructions. Got that and so much more. I feel like I belong and that means a lot coming from a sneaky Russian. Now I know what to work on - bye bye bench rest, bye bye bipod; that and my reading list suddenly had to be reworked. September 20th here I come 

Get after it! I can't wait to see you with a rifleman patch! Then, shoot a qualifying AQT with your AK74U 

I hope you all had as rewarding of a week as I had!  Especially you Liam,  thanks for coming out, though initially reluctant, I'm glad you opened your mind to the possibility of an interesting, engaging and hopefully enjoyable weekend.

And another special note...It was so inspiring seeing two young ladies driving full size center-fire rifles on the line for the entire weekend and driving them like a PRO! 

It was my pleasure to meet all of you and I hope to see you all on a line again somewhere!

Now for some pictures: 

...

Awesome pictures. Now I got something to show my family. Thank you Steve.