Project Appleseed

Fair weather, eager participants, and a great range and instructor crew, made for an outstanding weekend of marksmanship instruction and American Revolution story telling at the Project Appleseed Rifle Clinic held at South Kent Sportsmans Club in Dorr Michigan.

Fifteen shooters(a sellout) showed up in the cool daylight of Saturday, more than half of them new to Appleseed. After welcome and introduction, Geek got the history rolling with the "First Strike" and the events of the early morning of April 19th 1775. Once the Safety briefing was complete, shooters brought their rifles to the line, the AM Red Coat was instructed and shot, and our team got to the business of providing instruction on the Appleseed fundamentals of rifle marksmanship.
Groups onto the first and subsequent  squares targets continued to shrink, so just before lunch a center square was shot for sighting.
JHB presented Second Strike during lunch and icychicken finished up with IMC for shooters to be able to adjust their sight systems correctly. Once poa and poi were adjusted Rifleman Cadence and mag changes were addressed.
Fidget presented Third Strike, and then we moved on to Transition to prone practice and the the Third stage of the AQT was shot. After seated and standing POIs were presented the second and first stages were shot and then the forth stage was also completed. From that AQT 5 Riflemen emerged. One first time attendee and 4 requalified.
Kristopher was our first timer, earning the coveted Rifleman patch with a 215!
Requalifiers were, Jim with a 211, Rod(The Iceman) with a 223, Matt(Scotch) with a 226, and Alistair(Njord) with a 232 ! Congratulations Riflemen!
Sufficient time was still left so an Australian style AQT was conducted and another shooter requalified. Logan(Deadshot) overcame equipment issues from the first AQT and persisted with a 212 in the second AQT. The Iceman and Njord also posted requal scores of 213 & 229. Congratulations Riflemen!
Saturday's shooting was wrapped up with the PM Red Coat target showing now three fifths of our attendees had an effective range of 300 yards, where before instruction began it was only one fifth. Also 9 shooters hit the Morgan's Shingle, compared to only 5 in the AM. Scotch and his son Njord both cleared the target in the AM and PM earning one of Geek's coveted George Rodgers Clark commerative quarters.
Geek closed out the day with the Benediction and call to action before sending everyone home for the evening.

Sunday dawned a bit frosty but sunny, promising warmer temps.
With all the shooters returning, MI-copperhead found himself in the position of Shoot Boss for the day as he worked to complete his Sbit2. After the Sunday welcome back, copperhead rolled into the DOM story of David Lamson & Old Mother Bathrick. The instructor team of Geek, JHB,Fidget and icychicken then ran through a quick review of all the POIs and the Safety briefing before rifles came to the line and the AM Red Coat was shot revealing only a small fall off of effective range and adding The Iceman to those who cleared the target. After posting and shooting a squares target to confirm that sights and rifles were in order, instructors added "riflemans bubble", riflemans dance", and "ball and dummy" to the shooters tool box, before we rolled into Sunday's first AQT with Scotch, The Iceman and Njord requaling with scores of 211, 216,& 223, respectfully. Aspen and James both showed they were closing in on 210 with a 192 and a 199.
We broke for a working lunch with Fidget doing DOM Samuel Whitimore and copperhead and Geek presenting Known Distance.
AQT number 2 was done Australian style and Colt broke through the barrier and scored a 213 for his first Rifleman patch! Way to go Colt!
Deadshot, Scotch, The Iceman, and Njord posted requal scores of 212, 215, 218 & 237(!).
Lachlan came agonizingly close with a 207. Keep up the good work!
While the AQTs from round 2 were being scored we held a fun shoot to build teamwork and strategy. Three teams were formed and the team of Njord/The Iceman/Aspen/Colt/James won with a high score of 18. Congratulations to all who participated!
After Fidget told the story of Lydia Mulligan, it was time for the day's third AQT and another new Rifleman with James knocking down the door with a 229!
HUZZA! Nice work James, congratulations!
The Iceman, Scotch, Jim all posted requal scores of 211, 221, & 222.
Great job Riflemen!
Njord was felled in his quest for Distinguished by equipment issues but I know he will be back because a rifleman persists!
The fourth and final AQT of the day did not produce any new rifleman.
The Iceman, Colt, Jim, and Scotch all posted requal scores of 214, 216, 219, and 223. Congratulations to finishing strong, guys!
Lachlan was again very close with a 203 as was Aspen with a 194. Keep practicing those fundamentals and you will both get there next time!
We closed out the shooting portion of the day with our final Red Coat which showed improvement over Saturday's AM but some slippage from today's AM, most likely due to shooters being worn down.
Copperhead closed out the event with the  Benediction that included the DOM story of Ammie Cutter and "one more thing.
Everyone who attended showed marked improvement from where you started on Saturday, and I hope I will see you again soon at one of our rifle clinics.
A big hug to Jennifer for stepping up and taking a Blue Hat ! Welcome to the Appleseed Cadre.
Thanks also to The Iceman for making the decision to reactivate to IIT. We can definitely use your assistance.
Three cheers for our outstanding team of instructors and volunteers. Geek,JHB, icychicken, Fidget and Kevin! HUZZA HUZZA HUZZA! You all made my Sbit2 a lot easier.
A big thank you to the South Kent Sportsmans Club for a great facility to host our events at.

Thank you all for a wonderful weekend of instruction and learning. I know my family had a great time. Im very proud of all of my group for shooting so well. I will be making a few rifle upgrades and I can garentee distinguished next event. Thank you all for helping me on my marksman journey for the past 7ish years. It means a lot. You guys have helped me improve my shooting from 150s or lower the first time to shooting rifleman every AQT. The distinguished patch will be mine, watch out Scotch and Deadshot, im coming for that challenge coin. Thanks again to all the instructors, you all are appreciated dearly.

Njörd

Saturday's Pictures !!!!!

Sunday's pictures!!!!

More Sunday pictures!

More Sunday pictures. !