Redmond, WA AAR - September 9-10th, 2023

[CaptainRebop]

It was a warm weekend in Redmond, and 11 patriots turned out to learn about rifle marksmanship and hear the history of April 19th, 1775.  All but one of our shooters were new to Appleseed, so most of them were not expecting a bonus history lesson with their rifle instruction.  I know that all of our shooters will proudly carry forward the American tradition of rifle marksmanship, and I'd like to believe that we reached the hearts and minds of all our shooters and inspired them to preserve the Liberty they have been entrusted with.

Everyone showed incredible improvement over the weekend.  We had 2 youth shooters join us who had only ever handled rifles once before - by the end of the weekend they were posting scores in the 150's!  Even more impressive is that 7 out of our 11 shooters hit Captain Daniel Morgan's shingle at the close on Sunday, and 3 shooters cleared the final Hits Count!  There are quite a few riflemen in the making in this group (as long as they remember to dry fire ).

2 of our shooters posted Rifleman scores!  Russ was the first to prove it could be done with a cold 210 that earned him a baptism in the waters of the North Bridge as well as his patch.  Ryan followed, and despite having 4 extra shots in his target from a helpful neighbor (costing him points from several of his best shots) he still posted a score of 211! 

Perhaps the highlight of this weekend was bringing out 5 M1 Garands and letting each shooter fire off a few rounds out of those venerable battle rifles.  There's nothing like .30-06 to put a smile on your face   This was such a popular activity that yours truly ran out of CMP forms and still owes a few shooters his signature.  Please don't forget to contact me if you wanted one of these forms to start the process of getting your own piece of American history.

Shooters, thank you for joining us this weekend.  Please remember that getting that Rifleman patch requires practice and persistence.  Remember that preserving our Liberties takes just as much practice and persistence. 

A special thank you to Interlake Sporting Association for hosting another successful event.  We are all grateful to get to enjoy your wooded shooting sanctuary and work together to help our fellow Americans improve themselves.

To BirdDog, Doc Sporseen, Iborche, Supernintendo Chalmers, and ultragtr:  Thank you for making this shoot run so smoothly and for all the 1-on-1 instruction time you gave to our shooters.  It is always a privilege to work with you fine gentlemen.

Pictures follow - major thanks to ultragtr and Iborche for making sure we had plenty of great pictures to share!

BirdDog with a rousing First Strike:


BirdDog again with Steps 4-6 of Firing the Shot:


Doc Sporseen with an excellent Third Strike:


A line of shooters working on shrinking their groups:


Some great IAO from shooters who needed a little more shade on their rear peep sights:


Shooters practice the cross-legged position:


Iborche with a flintlock rifle demo:


Doc Sporseen explains the history and manual of arms of the M1 Garand:


A shooter fires the M1 Garand:


Russ is baptized in the cold waters of the North Bridge:


Russ with his Rifleman Patch and Target:

[Doc Sporseen]

All of the shooters showed incredible improvement throughout the weekend.  Your enthusiasm helps keep your instructors motivated!

Joseph and Gerry - you guys were awesome!  Any time you guys can convince your dad to come back down, please do!

Sam and Russ - thanks for understanding!

And, Patton's name was George S., not John.  Not sure how I messed that one up!

I look forward to seeing everyone back!

[BirdDog]

What a fun group of patriots!  Hope to see you all again at future events!