Project Appleseed

Great weather, better shooters, and the best instructors!!! It was a great weekend at the Flagler Gun and Archery Club in Bunnell, FL. 

The foggy Saturday morning started early with check in for 11 pre-registered shooters.  With all the administrative details (Club releases, range fees, Appleseed releases, Tee Shirts, Chamber flags, name tags, etc) completed the shooters were welcomed promptly at 8:30 a.m. and told the background of the events of April 19, 1775 followed by the First Strike of the Match from 9mm4545. 
After covering the Safety Rules and Safe Rifle the rifles were brought to the firing line at 9:20 a.m.  After covering Line Commands and Ammunition malfunctions, the Hits Count target was explained and then shot.  Room for improvement was apparent. 
We jumped right into the fire hose of instruction interspersed with some dry fire exercises during which adjustment of rifles took place.  Moving into shooting squares, we shot 3 squares before the lunch break during which HeavyDuty77 gave the Second Strike and several Dangerous Old Men & Women were remembered.
After lunch we covered Talking Targets & IMC.  Once the groups were small enough and close enough to the point of aim we covered Rifleman's Cadence and magazine changes.  JC/DC (John) presented the Third Strike during a break and we moved into Transition to Prone.  After a couple of dry practice sessions with the transition we shot a couple of 1 shot in 15 seconds drills on the Green Coat target.  We then posted AQT's and shot the Third Stage.  After teaching the Seated and Kneeling positions and allowing some dry practice we shot the Second Stage of the AQT. 
Standing was taught and the First Stage of the AQT was shot, followed quickly by the Fourth Stage.  The shooters were taught to score the AQT and targets were turned in for tabulation.  While no new Riflemen were revealed on Saturday, returning shooter Jonathan "Fro" shot a very respectable 203 with his bolt action rifle.
The afternoon Hits Count target showed great improvement.  Patches were presented to the youth and following the Benediction the shooters were sent home to recover and prepare for Sunday.

Sunday morning – 7 shooters returned and we were joined by Instructor BC.  Some more history, review of Saturday's instruction and then on to Red coats and squares.  Zero's were quickly confirmed and Rifleman's Bubble and Rifleman's Dance were taught. 
The shooters then worked on the Ball & Dummy Drill with very good results before moving on to AQTs.  The first AQT on Sunday revealed a new Rifleman – Jonathan

Lunch was a working session with more Dangerous Old Men & Women and the Known Distance Presentation and discussion of the CMP.

After lunch it was back to work with a couple of more AQTs and some remedial drills for shifting NPOA and magazine changes.  9mm4545 took 2 shooters over to the 100 yard rifle range to learn that what works at 25M works at distance, even with a 22 cal.  The rest of the shooters results started to show diminishing returns there was no interest in shooting another AQT. 
We shot the Hits Count target, presented Jonathan his well-earned Rifleman patch, shared some parting thoughts about perseverance, liberty, dry practice and 7th stepping.  Borrowed equipment was returned, rifles were cased and removed from the line to vehicles and the range was left in better condition than we found it.
All of the instructors look forward to seeing you again at an Appleseed in the near future.

Pictures to follow.

 Video with audio in my Dropbox (free). No need to get app

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/r8staqmd7s2byweca9yo6/Appleseed-Bunnell-Feb-8-2024.MOV?rlkey=t8vf7p0x4rjwryhhf4a79sxjl&st=pfy65ozw&dl=0