Peterborough, NH, Aug. 26-27 -- Thursday & Friday Live Free or Die Shoot

[Firewall99]

SUMMARY:

We had a great shoot!  Not only was the weather great, the shooters had great attitudes, and the instructors were top notch.  A couple of shooters, who had been to Appleseeds before, even mentioned that this was the best run shoot they had been to.  I don't know about that, but it did go well.  Everybody was quite happy at the end, with that Appleseed gleam in their eyes.  Very rewarding.

This was a Thursday/Friday shoot.  Not only did we have enough instructors, we had enough shooters, too.  

Shoot Boss:  Firewall99
Instructors:  Andy in NH, Redchrome
Instructors-in-Training:  charliew, Nehemiah414
Promotions:  charliew to IIT3; Nehemiah414 to IIT1
Riflemen Made:  Jack
Riflemen Made Ratio:  ~7%

Day 1 Weather:  Almost ideal--80's, Sunny,  w/light wind
Day 2 Weather:  Absolutely ideal!  70's, Sunny, w/light wind!

Number of Actual Shooters - Day 1:  15
Number of Actual Shooters - Day 2:  13
Number Pre-registered - Day 1:  12
Number Pre-registered - Day 2:  11
Number of Rifle Newbies:  2
LTR's Used:  4


What makes a great shoot is positive mental attitude all around.  The shooters had it, and the instructors had it.

The one thing that was different was that I finally did what I've been meaning to do for several shoots now.  We have this phenomenon that instructors don't like to admit to, but I've decided to "out" to the world.  I have been calling it the "invisible shooter."  This is the shooter that looks OK--sometimes they even look like they know what they are doing!-- but in reality they are actually failing miserably and getting more frustrated by the minute.  They do this in complete secrecy, as if to admit that having trouble would be a cardinal sin, until finally they give up in abject surrender and march off to their car in a huff.  Not good.

Well, I've had enough of that.  So I put it to the shooters during the introduction on day 1, that if they are having trouble, any kind of trouble at all, it is their duty to bring it to an instructor's attention.  I made it clear that at this shoot, the squeaky wheel gets the grease.  Everyone seemed OK with that, so I thought nothing of it.  Then about two hours later, up went a hand.  Sure enough, it was a seasoned shooter, but she was having trouble getting in and out of the prone position.  So we said, "You get to shoot from sitting if you want instead."  Easy!  She gave us a big smile and said, "Thank God!"  This shooter then hung in there for both days and did not quit.  She was a real trooper.  She also shot a 194.

No one else quit, either.

So from now on that's going to be my "Greasy Wheel" schtick.

We did the "One Day Appleseed" on Thursday.  All the way through the third strike and 3 SS/AQT's.  No sweat.  We even had a one-day shooter who was thrilled to get the whole story on day one--that is, until she heard that there was more to come the next day!  (So I gave her a quick preview of "Dangerous Old Folks.")

Andy in NH showed us the "Buddy" drill.  This may be a new drill for a some of us.  It worked like a charm for two shooters who were having big groups.  Here's how it goes:  The shooters pair off.  The shooter gets into prone position, and the coach lies down just as with the Ball & Dummy drill.  After the "Fire!" command, the shooter, with trigger finger OFF the trigger, performs the six steps up to Step 5 and then says, "OK" as the exhale is finishing.  The coach then carefully squeezes the trigger using his thumb and forefinger.  

What this does for the shooter, if the coach does a good job squeezing the trigger just right, is completely isolate any trigger issues.  For the coach it gives an opportunity to practice squeezing the trigger without having to multi-task the other steps.  Win-win for both partners.

My experience as the coach for this drill was extremely positive. My shooter was one of those with huge, wandering groups.  When we looked at the target  after the drill, it was more than a little surprising to both of us.  There were 9-10 holes ALL IN THE BLACK.

Now we knew without a doubt that the shooter had a trigger problem.  Another shooter had the same epiphany.  You gotta love it.

[Andrew Chesney]

First Redcoat.



Carson takes aim.



Polly gets comfortable (stable) with a red dot.



Ben working on the six steps.



Andrew shoots one of his rifles.





The buddy drill.



Sean and Ty giving their rifles a workout.



Red Chrome keeps an eye on a shooter.



First strike.



Andrew preps with one of his other rifles.



A clean redcoat target makes for a happy (anonymous) shooter.



Rifleman Jack (without his cannon)

[Firewall99]

Great pics!