Project Appleseed

Thurmont Conservation & Sportsman's Club hosted our inaugural event at the club this past weekend with 5 shooters joining us for a weekend of pistol marksmanship instruction and history!

While August in Maryland can be pretty rough, temperatures were reasonable in the mid-80s and while the sun was pretty intense, we had enough canopies to cover the firing line and equipment lines to keep shooters (and instructors) fresh.

Saturday kicked off with the Red Coat target and although it was clear that we had some work to do, we did have 3 shooters qualify at some distance. We started with instruction and drills to build core skills - stance, grip, 6 steps to firing a shot, and trigger control. As groups improved significantly, we started adding smooth reloads, controlled pairs, target transitions, one-handed shooting, and rapid fire.

We broke up the instruction, demos, and shooting with a rousing First Strike by BBQ_Bandit at lunch and his Second Strike at an afternoon break. Students had lots of follow-up questions about specific aspects of the events and it was great to see them so engaged!

With significant progress shown by all students, we put up our first PQTs of the weekend. Scott K scored a 198 to lead the group but we could see that folks were pretty worn out from all the practice. So up went our final Red Coat of the day. While no one cleaned the target, we did have two hits on the pesky button.

Sunday started with quick instructional recaps and a fresh Red Coat target. While we did have 6 shooters qualify at some distance, including 3 with all 4 shots in the smallest 100-yard target, that button proved elusive, keeping the Maryland Immortal 400 patches in the box. After a series of warm-up drills, we did our first 2 PQTs of the day, broken up by kniwolf's excellent presentation on the Onion of Self Defense and Holster Demo/Considerations that generated a ton of discussion and questions. Folks were showing significant improvement over Saturday's scores - even if they were not putting together all 5 stages, we would see a near perfect Stage 1, a fantastic weak-hand stage, or some cloverleaf 5s on some of the Stage 5 targets. Scott came oh so close with a 208 - but then won the Maryland style big-dot, little-dot challenge with a perfect 20-20 hits.

We did have two instructors requalify - husband and wife duo Kniwolf and ProgressNotPerfection kept peace in the family by scoring identical 214s.

BBQ_Bandit completed the Strikes of the Match at lunch time but the weather started getting a bit ominous, with reported heavy storms approaching on radar. We got in one more PQT, packed up or staked down anything that could cut loose, and had students and some instructors move to the clubhouse for the Sam & Sam history led by yours truly. We also continued our discussion of holster and carry considerations, as students had a lot of follow-up questions as the rain slowed down.

The sun came back out and we were able to get in 2 more PQTs before the final Red Coat of the day. I think folks were tired because the only two to clean the target were instructors Kniwolf and Catch-10-22 (me) but at least we didn't embarrass ourselves.

I couldn't appreciate more the attention and dedication showed by the students - while no one earned the Pistoleer™ patch, everyone progressed throughout the weekend. And several folks - were within striking distance with scores in the 180s to 200s. I highly encourage you to practice what you learned with live and dry fire (which we talked about quite a bit during the rain break). Working under the pressure of the clock is something that some practice can also overcome. Everyone showed they had what it took!

I also really appreciated the strong instructor presence and participation that made this a safe and successful. Kniwolf was our club sponsor and helped get us several events at the club this year - with the club president dropping by, I think we made a good impression - as well as sharing much of the core instruction and modules. BBQ_Bandit made this history memorable and it has been wonderful to see his progress in that regard. ProgressNotPerfection put on some amazing live fire demos and scored targets at a fast clip to keep up with the storms in addition to line duties on Sunday. We couldn't have done it without the full team - you have my thanks.

Pictures are available in an online album here: https://photos.app.goo.gl/uFRiVxZAewAc6Xzt8

Hope to see you on the line at a future event!