Project Appleseed

We had a truly wonderful weekend at the Tusco Rifle Club just south of New Philadelphia, Ohio.
Saturday morning started with a full line of twelve eager shooters who were ready for two days of field marksmanship and history. The Tusco facility is amazing, with multiple ranges and a very nice clubhouse.  Our thanks go out to Sarah, the club secretary for providing lunch for everyone.

The three challenges of target detection, range estimation, and making the shot, were discussed at length over the weekend, along with some practical exercises for each. Much of Saturday was spent by shooters learning their equipment. Bullet drop was calculated and recorded by each shooter at each of the four distances, and rifles zeroed accordingly.

The Known Distance range at Tusco goes out to six hundred yards; its a bit narrow and flat, which brings the challenge of how to shoot the different ranges of 100, 200, 300 and 400 yards required on each Appleseed Qualification Test. Do we use a moving firing line or a moving target line? With lots of rain the days ahead of the shoot, the range had many puddles of standing water and was rather muddy. We decided the best option was to have all four target lines built but drop all but the current one in use. 
This worked amazingly well. The lines were a cable suspension system that clips onto the posts using electric fence connectors, corrugated plastic backers are hung on the cables, once tension is removed the wire is un-clipped from the top and dropped in about 1 minute. Setup of the new line goes almost as quickly.

Fortunately, the range has a hard gravel drive all the way out, so once the line was clear, instructors would jump into a truck and make the line changes while shooters prepped magazines. We were able to shoot four scoring AQT's over the weekend in this fashion.  Shooters remained well rested and there was no safety concerns associated with moving rifles with a changing firing line. It was a bit more work for instructors but it kinda had the feel of being on the pit crew at the Indy 500! 

The shooters were all very well prepared for the shoot and displayed their skill with impressive results. Congratulations to Noah A. qualifying with a 43 out of 50 hits, Scott M. with a 43, Shawn F. with a 46, Luke A. with a 43, John C. with a 47, Tim F. with a 43 and Cam C. with a 40. Several shooters repeated qualifying scores but the highest was Noah A., who shot a Distinguished score of 48 hits. We had five shooters earn the Morgan's Shingle patch for the cold bore shot at 250 yards. Congratulations Scott, Josh, Luke, Shawn, and Cam.

A huge thanks to the instructor crew: Doc Willi, Griffin, Hail Storm, Ohio Piper, and Sheepdog180, most of whom drove about 4 hours each way to be there. Your dedication and knowledge is inspirational!

Photos

Thanks for the great event Shep and the other instructors! This was my (Noah A) favorite Appleseed event to date.  Looking forward to a Rimfire KD or Appleseed Pistol Clinic next!

Sounds like an awesome weekend!
I'll have to get further details on the line setup

Your idea for the target line(s) was brilliant.  A bit more work to set up and tear down, but the actual operation was great.  It kept the shooters out of the mud and fresh between relays.

This was the best prepared group of shooters I've seen at an Appleseed.  All came prepared, all competent and nobody was "that guy" to slow things down.

This was my first time working with most of these instructors and it was a treat.  Great bunch of people.

Interacting with the shooters, I got good feedback about the level of instruction and two commented this was the first time range estimation made sense to them.

Awesome weekend! Fabulous group of instructors! The shoot boss's idea to run the line made for the best KD yet. Very little down time between yard lines. All presente great heritage pieces, but Hail Storm's story in period dress was the best I've seen!

Awesome weekend! Fabulous group of instructors! The shoot boss's idea to run the line made for the best KD yet. Very little down time between yard lines. All presente great heritage pieces, but Hail Storm's story in period dress was the best I've seen!

I would love to see any pictures you may have at those target lines!  Also a picture of the female in period-correct dress, if available.

KDs are tons of fun!  It looks like 50% scored Rifleman -- that's AWESOME!  Congrats to all!

This was a great class with students that were ready and had a great attitude.
JustKim, This pics is the only one I took of the lines. Shep's idea. T-posts with electric fence holders holding an upper and lower cable. The target backers are clipped top and bottom to the cables, and we laid down the top cable and backers of the target lines that were not being used. For each stage, we would go down range and lay down one line and raise the next. It worked very well.

Doc Willi

Hail Storm giving a presentation of Hezekiah Wyman from his wife Sarah's point of view.