Project Appleseed

There are so many wonderful things to say about the Lexington Park Ladyseed that it is hard to know where to begin!

Saturday morning 15 women came out to learn about liberty and rifle marksmanship. We had a great day getting rifles fit to shooters, sighting in, and learning fundamentals - including steady hold factors, natural point of aim, and six steps to firing a shot.

It was a long day of shooting, but the ladies of Lexington Park held up well! Erika and Jennifer both bore up well under some continued frustration of equipment issues. Sarah showed tremendous gains in marksmanship and in confidence over the course of the day. I very much hope that we'll see her at more events! It was great to see three mother daughter pairs, including Jacquie and her daughter Tatiana. Tatiana was quiet as she took it all in, and it was fun to see her interacting with her mom as she faced some of the challenges of the day.

Early Sunday morning a new shooter, Cassidy, joined our group. She quickly came up to speed with the help of TheTopher and some one-on-one instruction.

On our first redcoat, we had a bit of an adventure when one of our target frames (holding targets for 3 shooters) snapped. Adrianna - I really don't think it was your centerfire, I think it was the wind!!!! Mizz D, Adrianna, and Penny all adjusted well. I admired the way Adrianna and Penny pushed through their frustrations from this and from switching rifles and still had a good day at the event. Mizz D was the picture of "adapt, improvise, overcome" as she adjusted through the target frame and kept calm.

I was amazed to see how responsive Carrie Lee and Jacquie were to the coaching they got when navybowhunter carded their sights. I really felt like these shooters were getting a lot out of this drill as they each did a lot of "booty scootching" to get their sights exactly on target. I'd love to see all students be so responsive to this!

A moment of real satisfaction for me as an instructor was when Dagmara told me Sunday afternoon that she was much more comfortable in prone. Saturday morning she had expressed anxiety about whether she would even be able to get into prone, so having worked with her enough to find out that she wasn't uncomfortable and had learned to move her body to adjust her sights (so she didn't have to put herself in an uncomfortable position) was a really satisfying moment!

By the end of the day Sunday we had shot a weekend total of 2 AQTs and 4 redcoats. We had 3 cleaned redcoats - Melinda, Gayle, and Ana. I was so happy to see these ladies proudly holding their targets, and I hope we'll be able to get some pictures posted.

Erin and Carol both showed solid shooting skills throughout the weekend and I expect with some dry fire and one or two more AQTs Lexington Park will have two more riflemen in these ladies.

But as for Melinda.... She gets the special recognition of being Maryland's 200th rifleman. She earned a purple patch with a 219 on her AQT Sunday afternoon.

I greatly enjoyed working with all the students and I hope to see each lady out again!

A fantastic shoot- and huzzah for Melinda, MD's 200th Rifleman!

But my favorite story from the weekend happened Saturday evening, after the first day of the shoot. The instructors gathered for our usual after shoot dinner at a local steakhouse. Our waitress asked about our matching shirts. Without missing a beat, NavyBowHunter performed a perfect seventh step- and she came out to join us on the line on Sunday. A new take on picking up the waitress! 

"High Capacity" Cassidy was impressed enough with the program that after the shoot, she asked to take a blue hat- huzzah!

That was very cool, to see the waitress from the restaurant Cassidy on the firing line the next morning, and shooting very well!

I only wish it was so easy with some others.  Although, I did get a GySgt from work to sign up for Marriottsville in Dec today.  That is a start at work.  As we all know, Marines, and service members ALL know how to shoot.

LOL

Well....., I took Brickhouse's 1 million pamphlets, and have dropped some off at a local gun shop, have an appointment with another Friday, and believe it or not I have a ton on my desk at work.  Should not be an issue, till the lawyer passes by!

Great shoot, and great people!

R/
Chris