Project Appleseed

Two days spent in Rochester MN at Southern Minnesota Sportsman's Club getting to meet and re-meet some awesome patriots.  Weather was beautiful - mid-eighties on Saturday followed by a brisk day in the mid-50s to 60s.  Wonderful teachable attitudes from the participants.

Saturday we had ten participants on the line, a father and two sons, a grandfather and his "favorite" grandson (actually she's his Grand-Daughter-in-law), some returning Appleseeders from about a decade ago, and some brand-new Appleseeders.  It was an awesome group.  As a group we worked through the fundamentals of marksmanship and listened intently as the instructors recounted the events of April 19, 1775.  By the end of the day we were able to complete many sight-in squares, a greencoat, and two AQTs.  Lauren backed up her rifleman score from last year with a 218 and clearing both hits counts of the day.

Speaking of hits count, the group went from being 10% effective at 400 yds, 20% at 300y/200y/&100ys on Saturday morning to showing very marked improvements by Sunday morning and afternoon. Sunday AM the group consisted of  33% effective out to 400 yds,  33% effective out to 300 yards, and 23% effective at 200y and 11% effective at 100 yds.  Huge improvements which were also shown in the number of new and requalified rifleman.

Joining Lauren in earning their rifleman patches for the weekend were:
  Mike S - 214 - new rifleman
  Steve - 212 - new riflemen, first event
  Blake - 226 - new riflemen, first event
  Greg B - 214 - requal
  Greg T - 215 - requal
  Diane - 224 - requal - also cleared one of the hits count targets
  Lauren's best was a 227 which was the high score of the weekend.

Elwood didn't want to embarrass us younger folks, so he didn't count his scores - he was just out to have fun and show us that like Samuel Whittemore, we should be wary of our elders with rifles 

Gordon ended the weekend with a best score north of mid 150s.

Michael had fun watching Owen and Samson improve while he also was putting accurate rounds on target with a borrowed rifle.  Owen had to work hard with his iron sights to out shoot his younger brother Samson.  I believe all were having fun and learning.

Well done to all the participants who gave Project Appleseed their weekend.  Thank you for spending it with us.  I know I speak for the instructors in stating it was a pleasure to work with you all weekend.

To Southern Minnesota Sportsman's Club - thank you for the use of the range and clubhouse.  You are an awesome supporter of our organization and the Project Appleseed mission.

To the greatly appreciated instructors - thank you for make the event fun, awesome, safe, and all the other adjectives that are too numerous to list.  Thank you.

Finally to Lauren and Elwood - thank you for stepping up and taking a hat.  More about that down in our Minnesota Forum.

Although tired and wore out - it was an awesome weekend.  I hope to see each of you on the Appleseed trail again.

Pictures of the event will be posted later this week. 


ProudPapa14

Great work everyone! 

Plenty of room on the line at River Falls, WI October 5-6 https://appleseedinfo.org/location/?locationid=128&eventid=9967 before the snow flies.