Project Appleseed

Hear Ye, Hear Ye, Hear Ye!

A famous line in a movie script once stated rhetorically that "Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you might get". This was the case of the 25 meter rifle event held at Concord, California's United Sportsman's Inc range off of Evora Road on July 18-19, 2026.

None of the participants admitted to having a sound and deep understanding of what events had to take place after the July 4, 1776 celebration of the Declaration of Independence. Indeed, they came not expecting to take away a deep-rooted appreciation of the efforts and sacrifices made by militia and minuteman companies conducting operations on April 19, 1775 on the roads, bridges, and hills stretching from Boston to Concord, MA and back. Indeed, the participants at USI range woke up and did not realize what they were in store for regarding learning more about their link to this historical heritage.

Instruction on safety is a fundamental part of the curriculum. Indeed the section on Ammunition Difficulties came in handy when one participant's rifle went "poof" instead of "bang" producing a cloud of smoke. Immediately raising their hand, an Instructor identified a squib round issue. The rifle was made safe and the squib cleared from the barrel. Clearly having Total Participant Involvement (TPI) pays off during the early course of instruction teaching. You never know when these issues may occur at an event!

On Sunday, all of the blocks of instruction in the curriculum paid off. Indeed of the 7 participants who remained, 4 earned the distinction of becoming first time Rifleman. While it takes on average 3 Appleseeds for a participant to shoot 210 or better for their Rifleman patch, these 4 patriots worked hard with great results. John earned the distinction of being doused with the waters of the Concord River with a solid 210/250. Well done sir! You never know for certain what hard work will do at an event!

A special thanks to the instructor and support staff crew. Dan, Jason, Bill, Eric, Pinky, and Tim all worked diligently and were outstanding contributors to a fantastic weekend.

A very heartfelt shout out and big THANK YOU to Eric who is volunteering his social media skills and services to spread the word (7th Stepping!) with his efforts increasing Team Northern California's presence in running Project Appleseed Events. His efforts are already bearing results with more shooters stating that they heard of us through Reddit and Facebook, just two of the on-line media he has worked on. Stay tuned for his upcoming YouTube videos for NorCal!!! THANKS ERIC!!!!

Huzzah, Huzzah, HUZZAH!!!!

This was a very fun event, as usual, and I really enjoyed spending most of my time taking pictures and video. Unfortunately, there were a good number of shooters who did not want pictures taken, and they mingled pretty evenly through the rest of the shooters, so it made it difficult to take some of the larger group shots I'd like to have without inadvertently getting one of them in a shot. I'm still sifting through pictures to make sure none of the no-picture shooters are included in anything I post here or anywhere else. I also shot a lot of video, which I'm still sorting and editing. I'll come back with some of that later. For now, here are some shots of our great Concord Crew instructors!

Here is the crew for Day 1: 3Huzzahs!, DeltaBill, DanFinger, and OkayishRifleGuy




Below we have 3Huzzahs! offering "over the shoulder" advice to shooters on the line.






OkayishRifleGuy instructing on the line:




Several instructors demonstrating positions:







DanFinger and DeltaBill demonstrate carding sights:



DanFinger and DeltaBill instruct on sight alignment:



DanFinger instructs on IMC. Dan has one of the best, not-in-the-weeds, not-eye-glazing, keep-to-the-point deliveries of IMC that I've seen. Much appreciated, Dan! Let's get those rifles sighted in and get to shooting!



OkayishRifleGuy teaches history



A few shooters on the line in the morning sun that makes the targets really pop!



I like this low angle shot of this shooter in prone. I'm making a note to get more like this in the future.



Here are our new riflemen! Unfortunately one had to leave early and isn't in the picture.



Hopefully I can get some of the video cleaned up and post it later.

Looks great guys!!!  Can't wait to see more pictures and video!!