Piqua, OH, August 18 & 19, 2018

[Shep]

The August Appleseed at the Piqua Fish and Game turned into an instructor's weekend. We've had really good attendance at most of our shoots over the last few years, and our last shoot in June was sold out, but for some reason our only shooter to sign up was already an orange hat. However, with nine instructors and IIT's planning to spend the weekend, we decided to turn it into an informal Instructor's Boot camp.

Each of the IIT's was given the opportunity to present various points of instruction throughout the weekend, but without the pressure of "paying customers" being present. The red hats gave immediate feedback and suggestions following the presentations, which was found to be very helpful. We did have a couple of instructor's family members as shooters, as well as all of the instructors getting some trigger time, so a lot of rounds still went down range. We had several instructors reconfirmed their Rifleman status over the two days, Rattlehead with a 229, Hambone shot several rifleman's scores 232, 231, 229, 219 232, Doc Willi 214 and 210, and even the Shoot Boss reconfirmed with a 214.

The strikes and history presentations were given by the orange hats, again allowing them to gain experience in a low-key environment; suggestions were offered on effective story telling.

We were very happy to have Chad back from his Air Force duties in Saudi Arabia, and also very glad he will be with us for the next few years. Originally he was going to be assigned to the East Coast but thankfully his orders changed. It was nice having his son Christian, and daughter Caitlyn joining us on the line.

All in all, it was a very successful and fun weekend. At the instructor's meeting before departing Sunday afternoon, it was concluded that we should do this again next year!