Kaysville UT April 23/24 2010 AAR

[V]

No the dates are right, this was a Friday/Saturday shoot. Utah will be trying another Fri/Sat shoot in September. I'll leave it to the locals to determine the effectiveness of this in boosting attendance. My limited observations is that depending on the school situation we may lose family attendence on Friday school days what we gain from avoiding Sunday's church obligations.

We had 15 pre-regs and they all turned up both days.

The range is well equipped and the range safety officers were supportive. Thank you Wasatch Shooters Association! And what a beautiful area, you gotta love this country.

The first day started with rain and was a little on the cool side but we squashed in under the covered range, which only became a little too cosy later in the day when the schools finished and we gained a few more shooters. These young men and their Mom were repeat Appleseeders and slipped in on the end of the lines with little disturbance.

Saturday was a beautiful, warm, sunny day so we spread out in the adjacent bay and had the full contingent of registered shooters all day.

As to boosting attendance my hat is off to Rifleman2000 and the Hansen family in general. Dave, LeeAnn, Bradley and Austin, as well as graciously hosting this shootboss at their home, brought a lot of neighbors and friends to the event.  Low tech, high productivity word of mouth seems to work. Dave as well as loaning lots of rifles worked on his IIT skills under his new Orange Hat. Bradley, on leave and already spreading the Appleseed word in his unit without an Orange hat, had previously shot Rifleman and was attending this shoot with his family on the day he was due to fly back in the evening. Thank you to the  whole family for such sacrifice. Austin has also previouly shot rifleman and I hope to see a colored hat there some time 

Marcus, Shelly and Ryan, the neighbors on their first Appleseed showed the true grit and determination of American Rifleman. Shelly, despite not being able to find a rifle small enough to fit amongst Dave's voluminous collection, applied herself to all of the points of instruction and made great progress from not hitting paper to groups in a good showing for someone with no previous rifle shooting experience. Marcus similarly, made great progress and the two of them were the last to leave on the last day as we continued to shoot AQT's after the last redcoat untill the light failed, with our range Officers, Paul and Tom, joining in. They will be back with more of their children at the next shoot. Well done folks.

Cornell, shooting his tube fed rifle, with his two young sons, Pexton and McKade, using 10/22's were a great team to have on the line. Again they all showed quiet grit and determination as they shot through both long days and improved. What can I say about McKade. At 13 years old this young man quietly and patiently applied himself, without fussing from instructors or father, to flawlessly apply every point of instruction and quietly grind away at improving his score. Every one of the instructors remarked to me on his perfect form. Every one of us stopped by to try and help with instruction to get him to that Rifleman patch but there were no obvious faults to correct - Steady Hold Factors in every position, perfect, six steps, one of the first to regularly show that NPOA shift on every stage. We were frustrated with not being able to boost his scores but McKade was unperturbed and just kept rolling. Sir, it was a pleasure to have you on our line and I was honoured to present your Rifleman patch to my personal youngest Rifleman with a score of 218 on the Saturday AQT grind. Your family must be very proud of you. Congratulations. Cornell, don't feel bad, I'm sure he'll  give you some pointers at the next shoot. Pexton found things a little harder and adapted to our designated marksman position and was equally as attentive as his brother to the safety issues and was never a problem.

James, a friend of Dave's, was our boomer on the line with his newly acquired AR, out to learn all he could. His groups improved and if he hadn't unfortunately been called away during the AQT grind was on my shortlist of potential Riflemen. I'm sure we'll see him and his family back at future shoots.

Tyler was also on my short list, but despite switching rifles to a boomer and back, didn't quite get there. But practice and application will get him over that hump.

Our final shooter and first Rifleman of the AQT grind was Bruce with a 210. When explained that this required a liberal application of dihydrogen oxide, he promptly shot a follow up 220 and was duly presented with a dry patch. Congratulations.

Finally, I want to thank our instructors, Rifleman2000 (Dave), One-of-Three (Andy) and Two-of-Three (Trent) who gave great instruction and demo's over the weekend and will be rewarded with a step up the Instructor In Training ladder. Our other Boots on the Ground (BOTG) lccmonkey (Mike) dropped by but couldn't shoot or help out because of work. The one and two of three is in reference to the army concept of forming a team of three. These instructors in Utah are trying to establish a team so that they will be able to run shoots in Utah self-sufficiently without having to fly in instructors from out of state. This is how all states start. Its only by volunteers such as these stepping up to help the program that Appleseed lives up to its namesake, Johnny Appleseed, and spreads, state by state, county by county, range by range, until this country is once again covered with men and women who truly know what they are about. Together, we will be doing our best over the coming months to establish with these volunteers and others who step forth at the upcoming shoots, a Utah instructor team which will take Utah to the next step.

It was an honor and a privilege to come to Utah and share the Heritage of the American Rifleman with people who allow me the honor to call them "fellow Americans."

Thanks
Phil

[One-of-Three]

I was certainly impressed with McKade.   Nary a word from the boy... just kept plugging along and all of the sudden we were scoring a Rifleman target.  Well done!!!    

The only drawback to the entire weekend was the fact that I didn't get to pop down into the prone position and send a few down range myself.    Oh well,   I'll make time for the later.

Ran my voice ragged preforming SB duties.  V had to spell me after a handful of AQT rounds.  Looking at PCIII looks like I'm most of the way there already.

Bruce soaked in the pointers as well and took advantage.   You could almost see the lightbulb light up once it sunk in.  Need to get him in the rifleman team of three...      

We'll get Tyler going.  He'll have his Rifleman score before he knows it.   Just need to get him a set of tech-sights and a good sling and shazaam!!!

[crak]

Yeah, that Hansen family is COOL!   

Good job guys.  And whoever three of three is, find him and tell him to start pulling his own weight!