Project Appleseed

Seventeen Appleseeders representing five states gathered in Sale Creek, Tennessee for this Known Distance Camp.  My personal thanks to Charles of Wiley Farms for his hospitality and generosity!  The students at this KDC came together from Tennessee, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, and Indiana!

I got to see the facility for the first time on Saturday morning.  What a great classroom and range!  We began our weekend of two days of professional development for the instructors to master planning, preparing, and leading a Known Distance event which focuses on the 3 Challenges of a Rifleman. 

Saturday was mostly classroom time and small groups.  We practiced Inches-Milliradians-Clicks, Target Detection, and Range Estimation in small groups.  Everyone put in a lot of effort and got comfortable teaching the lessons.

Sunday morning, we started the day on the range.  We practiced orderly movement of a firing line and how to turn Ball & Dummy up to 11!  Then, before it got too awfully hot, we retired to the clubhouse for more classroom time and small group exercises.  After getting back into the air conditioning, our focus for the day was the Third Challenge of a Rifleman - trajectory and environment.

Of course, we're Project Appleseed so history is front and center.  On Saturday, we broke down the story of the War of Regulation & Battle of Alamance.  Sunday morning, we talked about where our ideas of Liberty come from (spoiler: Locke and Hobbes) and how the ideas of those philosophers still influence us today.  Sunday at lunch, we talked about the Patriot victory at Kings Mountain.  These stories and ideas are foundational for Americans today..

Some special thanks:  Charles - thank you again for your hard work getting ready for us and your hospitality!  Cleveland and Google - you both rock.  I get better every time I work with you both.  GunJunkie & JustKim - thank you for bringing your wisdom and experience from so many events - that really added to our weekend.  Huzzah!  And I would be remiss if I didn't give a shout-out to UpACreek who helped feed us all four days!  You are awesome - thank you for taking care of us.

I've got some pictures below. 

In Liberty,
MO


KD Camp group picture!


Saturday!






















Sunday breakfast!

I learned a lot and had a great time with my Appleseed family.  I leave refreshed and recharged every time we get together.  Milliradians is no longer scary and my confidence in presenting KD topics has increased.

MO, Google, and Cleveland - thanks for all the time and effort you guys put into everything and the feedback to help us be better. I learned an awful lot about the ins and outs of working KD shoots.  The curve balls to challenge us were fun. The fellowship was awesome and it was great to hear from people from all over and how they do things.  I'm looking forward to helping when we get a GA KD range going again. 

A huge thanks to Charles and Suzan for putting us up and putting up with us - Layla and Lotus are great hosts too!  Thanks to a bunch of Appleseeders for the help with my flat and getting me home.

I would like to thank MO, Google, and Cleveland for the great instruction!  I really learned a lot and will put it into use in future events.  I feel more confident in presenting KD now. 

Thanks Wiley for letting me crash at your place.

Thanks Carol for feeding us.  Everything was yummy!

All y'all are awesome!!!!!

 

This KDC was incredibly beneficial. Thanks to all the leadership for travelling and mentoring us over the weekend, to Wiley for opening his home to us, and upacreek for keeping us fed and watered.

The highlight for me was the ball & dummy exercise Sunday morning. Rusty had us act as the student off-handed (lefty's do it right handed and vice versa). The result was I was forced to experience what it may be like for a new rifle shooter. Getting NPOA was difficult (impossible at first) and the position just felt weird. Most of us are very adept getting into position and finding NPOA quickly and may have forgotten what it is like to be a new shooter. This exercise will give you perspective and remind us of what we do best - coaching on line.

I opined to my local cadre that there were 25% of the movers and shakers in the organization there. It was a privilege and honor to be personally instructed by the MIs, learn from SIs and dSBs, spread collegiality with SBs and Instructors, and learn and grow relationships from/with all. It is also an honor when people who don't yet know you open their homes and feed you anyway.

The biggest thing I took from the weekend I think is not the material, but the way to teach the material. There is a balance between scaring people with math, and not using any at all for fear of scaring them, and if you lead in with "we know, just by looking at this, that it's this size compared to this other one here" you can plant the concept before any numbers are said at all.

That, and that Appleseed is trying to be consistent across the country in the clinics, and all that was taught will help the consistency happen no matter who is teaching.

I need more of these in my future.

Wow! What an amazing weekend! Thank you to MO, Google, and Cleveland for the massive knowledge drop and all the work you obviously did to make this happen.

BIG thank you to Wiley for hosting us.

Thank you to Upacreek for keeping us fed. With a hat tip to Big John for his grill skills.

And thank you to everyone else for the friendship and sharing of info. Some of the best conversations occurred after hours. I'm still decompressing and taking it all in. Thank you all!

What a great weekend of learning and fellowship with like minded individuals! It was great to see acquaintances and meet new folks as well.

Thanks to Maximum Ordinate, Google, and Cleveland for sharing their knowledge, Wiley for hosting and accommodations, and Upacreek for taking care of the food.

Well done and Huzzah!

This was indeed a great weekend. The content gave everyone in attendance a clear and simplified method to present the needed information for an effective, center fire or rim fire KD. The small working groups offered an opportunity for each of us to hone our skills and witness other skilled instructors with their presentations.
Maximum Ordinate, Google and Cleveland, thank you all for taking the time to share your expertise, I know I always leave a better instructor and the program is better in large part from your efforts.
Wiley, thanks so much for hosting the weekend, it was great meeting you and your pups and thanks Upacreek for keeping us fed.
Hope to see you all again soon.