Sacramento CA Jan 23-24 2010

[BaldDragn]

Our first Appleseed of the year here in Sacramento.

16 Shooters on Saturday but the morning weather took its toll. The wind and rain was enough to chill even me through my new red instructors sweater, as a result we lost 5 shooters at the end of lunch. Most everybody stayed for the Three Strikes so that was a plus. Shortly after lunch the sun came out and the wind died down and it was down right pleasant for the rest of the day.

Dave C. agreed to use my 10-22 in place of his tube fed 22 and once we dialed in 3 MOA left he was dead on with 2 and 3 MOA groups all morning. While James E and Nukechaser were trying to guess if the first Rifleman would come from their own side of the line I put my bet on 00 and Dave came through with flying colors, scoring a 228 on Saturday's AQT.

The next day found us hoping the forcasters were wrong when they said we would have heavy rain and wind from 09:00 on, and they were wrong in a good way. Mist was as bad as it got. On Sunday 5 hearty souls from the day before showed up and our good friend JC dropped in. We reviewed lessons from the day before and set off on the AQT grind. Karsten had the misfortune inherent in hotel of alarm clocks and showed up fashionably late. Our good friend and 4 time Appleseeder Ron S. topped 210 quickly followed shortly by Eric B. a friend of James E's family, for a total of 3 Riflemen

One of the high points of the weekend was an exercise we tossed in at the last moment. With seven shooters on the line we picked an abandoned redcoat from the morning and had everybody load 20 rounds, 5 for each silhouette. We used this as a team exercise and a Riflemans Cadence exercise. Everybody got a little extra time to prep and all shooters shot in cadence on command, for a total of 35 rounds in each of the redcoats silhouette. The results were fantastic, with most of the shots well inside the redcoats, and the shooters speed on stage 2 and 3 picked up noticeably on the AQTs afterwards.

We are short of pictures on this shoot but some will be posted soon.

[James E]

I really enjoyed this group of shooters.  They seemed to "get" the point of sharing our heritage right away.  I hope to see you all again soon.

Some photos:

Dave get his patch.  A rifleman persists:




Ron makes rifleman after four shoots:




Team volley shoot, in rifleman's cadence, on the redcoat:




Volley fired redcoat up close:

[Jules]

The first Appleseed of the year, and I had the flu. Pfft. James instructed on how biscuits are to be properly made, and I, as a Cook that weekend, succeeded. I slept the entire time. What a shame. But I'll be up and raring to go in February! Many thanks to the folks who showed up, and for Nuke Chaser, James E and BaldDragn for schlepping the new Air Pots we got for the hot coffee. Very handy. Thank you gentlemen. You know very well what you are about.

Warmly,
Jules the healthier

[Wineman]

It was a great day and as usual the weather prognosticators had it totally wrong. My daughter had a blast on Saturday but could not rouse the patriotism for Sunday when the weather was much better. Rod, Pat and James were on target the entire weekend. My first Appleseed was last January with my younger daughter and it was almost a summer day. Best then was 160. Practice, dry firing, study (Rifleman's Guide) and more practice and I felt I was ready for another crack. It helped to have a package of Fred's AQT's and a place to use them. Rod's 10/22 was pretty trick with an adjustable stock, bull barrel, big scope, anti-slip tape etc. As Rod said, I only dialed in 3 MOA left windage and went to work (I don't even know what the scope was set on). It shows how that if the Rifleman skill is there, any rack grade rifle is a deadly tool.

I was happy to help out Eric with an extra M1 sling (actually one of the nylon ones from the Navy for the M14) to replace his M1907 leather sling and his groups immediately improved and was Rifleman after a couple more AQT's. I think he was unfamiliar with the use of a leather sling but I am sure with some coaching he would be happy with it. 

I have to stand corrected with James; he quoted a price for CMP HXP ammo and I said it was much higher. When I got back I checked, and my last shipment (when they still had it) was about $0.40 a round not the $0.60 I had claimed I paid. I did pay that amount but it was for some GP-11 Swiss surplus from another source. I guess the cold had finally gotten to me.

Thanks again to all the volunteers and the rest of the organization!

Dave C

Aka Wineman