AAR: Dunbarton, NH, May 11-12 Pistol Event

SteelThunder · May 14, 2024, 11:07:36 AM

What's better than beautiful, early spring weekend, in the lush surroundings of southern New Hampshire, with a sold-out Appleseed pistol event, cordial and enthusiastic students and instructors from 4 states?

Well...nothing actually!

What a great weekend and I'm proud to be part of the first pistol event in New England!! Pioneer Sportsman's Club in Dunbarton was once again a gracious host and provided a beautiful facility for our event.

Saturday was spent breaking down the fundamentals of marksmanship to start with safety, the steady hold factors of grip and stance and the physical and mental aspects of taking the shot told through the lens of 6 Steps to Firing a Shot and Natural Point of Aim. After a good bit of dry-fire, we got to build on those fundamentals and worked through pistol skills, learning recoil control, trigger control, target transitions, mag changes, controlled pairs, one-handed shooting and the fundamentals of precision shots. Malfunction remediation was demoed and practiced leading to 2 PQTs on Saturday. Andy showed us his mastery of the concepts scoring Pistoleer™™ along with a couple of instructors.

Sunday was a day to focus on the finer points of what we learned on Sunday. Significant one-on-one time working through and dry firing to refine our learning. The ball-and-dummy drill was a big hit, so enlightening we ran it twice to reinforce the shooter and buddy-coach learnings. PQTs were aplenty on Sunday, with Shane earning his Pistoleer™™ patch, along with 3 more instructors. Oh...let's not forget the great history on Saturday with the 3 Strikes, our Sam and Sam discussion and group discussion on pistol and holster choice. The wealth of knowledge...from instructor and student alike...really made all of these memorable and enriching.

I love Appleseed not only for the marksmanship and heritage components, but also because of the people I meet. It gives me hope for the country that we have such people amongst us...making our forefathers proud!

Once again, thanks for your time and good humor to make a memorable weekend. Look forward to the next event in beautiful New Hampshire!