Project Appleseed

One of my good friends in the Appleseed program, Slim, has often remarked how much he enjoys these Stinson shoots. Now I know why. A Dedicated Appleseed Range hosted by The Machine on his land in the "wild and wonderful" hills of West Virginia. A twenty-five meter range nestled against a steep hill on an old farm, with a cabin and a bonfire ring right there. Small group of folks, friendly and relaxed, like family as Spanner says, and unified in vision and purpose.

I think this qualifies as a "winter Appleseed". Saturday morning brought clear skies and hard frost, which remained for most of the day until late afternoon when the clouds came in and the temperature went up, in preparation for the day of cold rain which followed on Sunday. But everyone was well-prepared and morale remained steady and high. We especially benefitted from The Machine's foresight and generosity in providing a large, long tarp with which to cover the firing line on Sunday, so equipment and people managed to stay, well, "not too wet". Moreover, each of us staying on-site managed to find a few square feet in the cabin, and the woodstove kept the place snug and warm all weekend.

OK so much for the weather and the facilties. The main thing is the program and the people, of course. This was not a typical Appleseed weekend; in many ways it was a staff training weekend. There were nine of us in total, only three of whom are not (currently?) on the RWVA instructional staff. For each of these three, this was their first Appleseed event, but each arrived with a prior, solid, and accurate understanding of what the program is about. Joe had read of us in Shotgun news and done some other reading as well. Steve has a son who is an IIT, that is West, who was also present. And Rich is one of The Machine's neighors, eager to help wake up and save America. So, as I wrote above, we were all rather unified in vision and purpose from the start.

As I say, in some ways this was like an RWVA staff-training weekend. Spanner was the one red-hat present. Screenames BrickHouse and WVMMFalcon had just come off of IBC's and were looking to get confirmed as IITs 2 or 3. West is a National Guardsman who is a new IIT and who, spectacularly, has taken on the task of State Coordinator for Delaware. He's eager to advance, you can imagine! A couple of us IIT's still needed time on the firing line to pursue the patch, and I myself arrived hoping to submit a PC4. So even though we only had three "shooters", for most of the weekend we had four or five rifles on the line, and the whole thing worked out beautifully. Spanner was able to run the shoot very flexibly and use the time to maximum advantage for each of us at our respective levels, staff and shooters alike.

Statistically, the weekend was a smashing success, as fully one-third of the first-time Appleseeders scored Rifleman! Joe had brought along a new rifle, a beautiful and accurate .22 bolt gun whose make I model I now forget. Even with "crossfiring on himself" between stages three and four, he scored -- what, Joe? -- a 218 or something like that. Congratulations, Joe!

All three of these fellows fully intend to reappear on the Appleseed trail. I'm confident that Rich and Steve will persist until they get the patch. Rich had a newly mounted scope on his 10/22 which turned out to need some serious adjustment for use in the prone position. Some of the you know the story all too well: a scope on that short little rifle sometimes means "cheek weld" becomes "eyeball to scope-lens weld" --- unworkable. But he took it fully in stride, and, as I said, I know he'll be back. Steve? Now Steve, when he does get the patch, that could present a problem. Steve, you're not going to quite making burgers & dogs for all, once you're a rifleman, are you? Please ignore Fred and his wise-cracks about cooks. On this matter, he's just plain wrong. Anyhow, it sounds like your Delaware State Coordinator needs to build a staff and fast, so persist, brother! And I'll look forward to seeing you on the 'Trail.

Gosh this really was a great weekend. Appleseed continues to attract and inspire the most wonderful people, unified by a love of our nation's heritage and an urgent desire to save it.

And I'm sure I speak for all of us, and indeed for the whole program, when I thank The Machine once again for his incredible generousity in making this DAR on this beautiful peice of land available for the purpose of saving America.

West Virginia, your Appleseed program is on the move! Thanks for letting me visit.
-FM

FuzzyMath mustering after a night on the frozen ground


FuzzyMath thawed out enough by mid-morning to address the line


all down in it for the ball and dummy [hmmmmm...... does cammo make my ass look fat?]


Joe with his first-ever AQT.  
With him are WVMMFalcon, FM, The Machine, and West


Joe and Steve lay down some determined fire


Spanner makes a point


Spanner holds office hours