Sacramento, CA 12 & 13 December, at least the lightning waited.

[BaldDragn]

The morning started out with light rain, not bad.

We moved the firing line forward 7' from our usual location to take advantage of the high ground there, and pushed the target line up on the foot of the berm. Good thing because as the day went on the rain continued to pick up and our usual firing line was covered in 4" of mud.

Jet Set came prepared with trash bags that he handed out the some of the shooters that had come without proper rain gear. He saved many from much suffering  

The pace of instruction suffered from the adverse conditions, at times the rain and wind made it difficult for the students to hear, each target needed at least twice the usual number of staples to keep it in place and every bullet impact created huge ragged holes in the rain soaked targets.

It was hard not to draw comparisons to the Piru 03-09 IBC, a little less wind maybe, but a lot more rain!

I'll be giving plenty of thought about how we are going to score AQTs if they can't be pulled off the backers without falling apart in our hands.

The shooters were great. They stuck it out even though the wind made it extremely difficult to shoot from any position other than prone and the rain made prone a very wet place to be.

As we wrapped up for the evening and the last shooters were leaving the range we were treated to a nice lightning storm, perfect timing!

Looking forward to tomorrow, another Appleseed Sunday and another challenge.

Here is a pic from today.

[midgard]

As miserable as I was I kept myself inspired thinking about the men of the Continental Army fighting starvation and freezing to death at Valley Forge. Despite the weather I had a great time and really enjoyed the friendliness of everyone that showed up. I can't wait to see the pictures of everyone in the mud once they are uploaded.

- james

[Jet Set]

Here's some of the photos.  The coffee deserves its own photo since it was so appreciated!

[Jet Set]

Part 2 of the photos

[BaldDragn]

What a weekend!

Out of the 24 registered we had 8 brave souls that showed up Saturday morning and we finished the day with 7
On Sunday 5 hearty souls came back out for more.

Redcoats
Saturday  am   pm   Sunday am   pm
0             5     3                0      0
100          1     2                3      2
200          1     1                1      1
300          0     0                0      1
400          1     0                1      1
Square      1     1                2      1
Clear         0     1                0      0

No one topped 210 this weekend but we had several knocking on the door.

John and Grant pulled down the high scores on the AQT with a 201 and 191 respectively.

Double D instructed and worked on perfecting IMC all weekend to earn his red hat. I was honored to be the lucky SB to hand it to him.

My thanks to the shooters and all my instructors this weekend for sticking it out when it would have been so easy to stay home in a warm house rather than be out in the cold wind and rain for 18 hours.

We will see you all next time.

[BaldDragn]

And some more pics

[BaldDragn]

even more pics

[Jules]

I had a full report that got sucked into space. My literary genius cannot be replicated, so lucky for all, I shall be brief. It rained. It rained a lot. There was mud. There was lots and lots of mud. We had coffee. Lots and lots of coffee. No one made a prat fall into the goo. I found a most disgusting microwave between range 10 & 11, and ferried hot coffee to all who asked. Oh, FYI the nearest Starbucks from Sac Valley is roughly 17 miles away. The shooters were awesome, the instructors were awesome, and when Juliette flopped herself down on the ground, she became MY hero too! (many men's mouths dropped open on that one, it was a beautiful thanggggggggggg) We did not bar b que. No we did not. Don't judge us. We went out for pizza. It was hot, the place was warm, and we were relatively dry. Our shooters had Riflemen's hearts although no one shot the score. It was the first time I had to tell a shooter to come get me if they thought they had shot a 210 or better, as I would have to take a picture of it. The targets quickly became toilet papyrus.......... We had fun despite the rain. Dexter made a most attractive kilt from a garbage bag to keep himself dry. Some one was singing "Raindrops keep falling on my Head"....and there was some mention of Noah..................... this shoot will be in my mind and heart for a long time. I am gonna quickly post before it gets sucked away again, and post some pics following. I don't wanna push my luck. love Jules

[ryantsg]

It was a memorable event. Thank you to all of the shooters for coming out and persevering through the horrible weather. For those of you knocking on the door to rifleman you should have no problem making it when the wind and rain have died down for the next event.

RyanTSG

[BaldDragn]

It was a memorable event. Thank you to all of the shooters for coming out and persevering through the horrible weather. For those of you knocking on the door to rifleman you should have no problem making it when the wind and rain have died down for the next event.

RyanTSG

That will be

Jan 09-10 in Corona, CA
Jan 16-17 in Fresno, CA
Jan 23-24 in Sacramento, CA
Jan 23-24 in Lemoore, CA
Jan 30-31 in Dulzura, CA

The weather HAS to be better at any of those events!

Oh and V reminded me that I forgot

Jan 16-17 in Piru

but then I was only listing shoots that I thought would probably have better weather   ;P

[LayloPro]

Heh! This sounds like even more fun than I was having this last weekend.....out in the snow of Illinois......

Well, actually comfortably ensconced in Pappy's house, with several red/green/orange hats gathered around Fred, figuring out their 2010 strategy.......

I was just there for the food......

I do have to offer my congratulations to DD, who has persisted in his endeavor to attain his red hat, while consistently offering support & help to RH......you two make an awesome team, and as usual, we expect -GREAT THINGS- from folks like you guys.....

Interesting shoot.....I'm thinking hanging Oreos in a certain pattern, and timing the destruction might be kind of a erstatz version of the AQT that could survive a biut longer in rain than an AQT....and they -do- have those Oreo bite size for the 400 yd scaled target......
Towels, garbage bags, slickers.....it's all good.....

You all did great, and congrats to the AMERICANS who came & hung out with you for the weekend!!

LLP

[BaldDragn]

Yes, snow would have turn the shoot into a fiasco, only because most low land Californians haven't had the experience of shooting in it.

Well oiled rifles would have been gummed up, and anybody wearing a single cotton layer next to skin would be in for a ruff time, but for those that have the gear and know how to dress for it the snow would have been a much better place to shoot than the 35 degree driving rain that turned targets into a toilet paper like mush, where a 223 often left a quarter sized impact zone, and 30 cals could cause sections of target to disappear completely, and AQTs that had been placed with a dozen staples to keep them from being ripped away by the wind, had to be left in place to be scored  before any (usually failed) effort was made to recover them.

The things that really saved our bacon was that we were using coroplast backers. If cardboard had been used the wind would have ripped them away before noon on Saturday. Plus had instructors that where prepared for the worst, and we had shooters with the heart to bear the considerable discomfort and persevere!

Not one "Sunshine Patriot" could be found on the range that weekend, that in itself made it all worth the effort.

[Double D]

Definitely no sunshine patriots at this Appleseed. 

Saturday started off waking up to the sound of rain at 5 am and turning over to go back to sleep thinking no one would show up in this kind of weather.  At 7:45 am, I was wrong.  RH and I got to the range and I was surprised to see shooters already waiting for us.  We set up shop, put up target backers and targets, and began our day.  The day got slightly better with the sun peeking out for a few minutes, but never really driving the rain away.  Not everyone on the line had rain gear.  We Improvised, Adapted, and Overcame.  Hot coffee was a definite welcome and I was giddy at the chance of being in the rain, shooting and instructing.  I'm a masochist at heart and the weather and conditions were great!

RH is a very well accomplished instructor and delivered the information flawlessly.  She even dropped in the mud to demonstrate, to the amazement of most of the shooters and instructors.  She is definitely asset to Appleseed and the kind of instructor I aspire to become.  BD let us IITs run the line and gave guidance when needed.  He even put pressure on the new guys and some of us were able to polish up on our skills.  I wouldn't have done any of this without Jules and the 34 mile round trip she made for hot coffee.  Funny how the little things make the biggest difference.  And speaking of assets, thanks BD and Jules for all of the guidance and mentoring. 

I was skeptical at the amount of people who would come back on Sunday given the weather forecast was the same.  Not too many people would come out in this kind of weather, but we had shooters of a different caliber (excuse the pun).  They came back despite the cold, the mud, the rain and being constantly wet.  It always amazes me the quality of people that come to an Appleseed and I wouldn't have it any other way  .  There are definitely men among us who know what they are about.

To me, this was even more of a memorable experience because I received my red hat and it was earned in the company of citizens who persevered, over came obstacles, and persisted, not to mention the reading of the bill of rights.  Who could ask for a better time to receive your new hat    The mojo in this hat is strong!

[sleepy Joe]

Hey Double D congrats on the Red Hat

[Chris_H]

Congratulations on your new hat DoubleD! 

It gives me hope to see people showing up to Appleseed shoots in such harsh weather conditions as this last weekend saw.

But man, hot coffee at an Appleseed? Can you use any more instructors! 

Chris

[BaldDragn]

Congratulations on your new hat DoubleD! 

It gives me hope to see people showing up to Appleseed shoots in such harsh weather conditions as this last weekend saw.

But man, hot coffee at an Appleseed? Can you use any more instructors! 

Chris

Well, we reserve the space under the dining room table for Double D but if DesertDog isn't here the couch is usually available.

[Camljr]

Dex,
Congrats on the red hat. it is well deserved. You have what it takes to do this job and I admire your perserverance!

Remember, You can do the Shoot Boss thing, especially since you have RH to walk you through your first one.

I look forward to instructing under you at a shoot you will Shoot Boss at soon...

Oh yeah, did you find any 30-40 krag brass for me yet?  Let me know... Thanks, and congrats!