Waco, TX AAR November 18-19 2023

[mrakestraw]

We had a great 25m event at the Central Texas Rifle and Pistol Club in Waco! Many trail life troops attended with about 40 boys ranging in ages from 10 to 17 on the line at the same time! Without the great help from multiple instructors, ranging from Orange to Silver Hats, this event would not have been as successful as it could have been. Gugisman really helped out and the tips from him and the Green Hats ensured the event ran as smooth as possible. We saw three Orange Hats push up the ladder to that coveted Red Hat (one is getting really close to Red hat) and a great and inspiring time was had by all.

With great instruction and practice we saw scores increase across the board from only a few shooters qualifying on the initial hits count target to a majority of shooters performing well on the afternoon hits count target on Sunday.

I want to thank all of our shooters and instructors for a safe and fun shoot. Managing such a line is impressive and speaks to the resolution of the instructors and the interest in the young shooters.
We used the newer course of fire which focuses more on dry practice than normal but were unable to get to AQTs the first day which happens with such a large line. Locke and AF5US taught a great first and second strike. I presented the third strike at the campground fire with help from the young shooters who made a great fire to keep away the cold.

During the second day we started on time and already saw scores improve on the hits count targets. This can only be due to excellent instruction from Locke who taught most of the first day and will eventually earn his red hat. AF5US covered an excellent review of the first day and then we started off where we left off from the first day instruction.

We finally got to AQTs and saw some shooters get very close to earning rifleman. Thankfully our instructors were able to get some of these shooters past the 210 mark! In particular, this was one shooter's fifth time at attending an Appleseed and by allowing the more experienced instructors to work one-on-one with him we were able to coach him to earn his tan rifleman patch!

Two more shooters earned rifleman almost pushing the percentage of rifleman to 10%. That's excellent shooting and I hope all younger shooters earn rifleman and pursue performance shooting at all levels.

For all shooters seeking excellence, having consistent purposeful practice with brutally honest feedback will allow you to meet and exceed your shooting goals. Come back and earn rifleman or distinguished if you haven't already! I hope to see all of our young shooters next year perform even better than they did this year.