After Action Report Muenster, TX Trail Life Event April 26 & 27

[ScottInTX]

You never quite know what weather the month of April will bring you in north Texas, and this weekend was no exception.  This was the second event at Goin Firearms and Shooting in as many weekends, and thankfully the rain held off (unlike on April 19th).  It was a bit soupy but not too hot.

I've been fortunate enough to participate in a number of events with the Trail Life community, they have been successful events, and this one would prove to be no different.  The Trailmen arrived early, they had all of their paperwork squared away, and brought all of the kit they required.  Due to this we were able situate everyone on the line and start the event a little bit ahead of schedule.

We had two instructors make long drives in to help out, Apprentice Carpenter made the long drive for the second week in a row (Thank you again for that!), and hailing from the great state of Utah, ToLiveDeliberately while making his way cross country, was kind enough to make a pit stop in Muenster and lend a hand for our full line of students.

After the safety briefing, ToLiveDeliberately captured the attention of the class with his history preamble, setting the stage for yours truly to tell the story of the First Strike of the match.  After hearing about the history of our fledgling nation, the students were ready for the first bit of firing for the day.  The initial hits count target had a large portion of the class putting 3 shots into the 100, about half that number able to put 3 into the 200, and 2 students were able to hit the shingle. 

The points of instruction began with ToLiveDeliberately teaching the class about eye dominance, followed up by Apprentice Carpenter teaching sling usage and the steady hold factors for the prone position.  The students then practiced getting into the loop sling and proper prone position.  MRakestraw taught the class about the 6 steps to making a shot, and AF5US taught and demonstrated NPOA using the laser on a demo rifle driving the point home to the students.

The class then moved on to shooting squares targets, by and large the class was shooting nice groups right from the get go.  One of the students reported some issues with his optic, and it was realized he had loose rings, so he swapped out to a loaner.  Once the equipment issues were sorted out, and the instructors coached on position and technique, more squares were fired, demonstrating the students were implementing the lessons.

The working lunch commenced with a rousing version of the Second Strike by AF5US.  Afterwards everyone had taken a break to put up their lunches and make use of the facilities, the marksmanship practice continued.  Another square was shot, and then Apprentice Carpenter taught the class about Inches, Minutes, and Clicks.  The students made their sight adjustments, and a confirmation groups were fired.  MRakestraw spoke about Rifleman's cadence, and explained how carding the sights worked.  The exercise was run, and the class learned that what MRakestraw said was true, that your eyes will sometimes deceive you, that you weren't as on that NPOA as you might have believed.

AF5US explained and demonstrated how to efficiently change magazines.  As a side note, I'd like to give a shout out to Tim Oren for his demo rifle triggers and magazine well, which makes teaching this point of instruction much simpler, looks for his shop on Ebay or message him on the forum to get a set for yourself.  The students then participated in a magazine change drill, and honed that important skill.

The exciting conclusion to the April 19th history was delivered by MRakestraw.  The students were then instructed about the first of the transition phases by AF5US, the students then practiced it.  Then came the first of the courses fired for points, Stage 3 of the AQT. Apprentice Carpenter then taught the seated postions and how to transition from standing to seated.  Some practice ensued, followed by Stage 2 of the AQT.  I instructed the final position, standing/offhand, to the class.  Some practice ensued, followed by Stage 1 of the AQT.  The students then fired the final section of the AQT, and scores were tallied.  Vincent, who had returned from the April 19th event, had fired a solid Rifleman score and earned himself the one of the colorful Rifleman patches.

The second hits count target of the day was shot, and the improvement over the morning was noted. Almost the entire class cleared the 100 yard, almost all of those students cleared the 200 yard, many cleared the 300 yard, 4 students had 2 hits on 400 yard.  5 students hit Morgan's shingle, more than doubling the total from the morning.  The students then heard the history of the Battle of Saratoga and the significance that marksmanship played in America's war for independence.  Day 1 came to a close on a high note.

Day 2 commenced with reviews of safety and the points of instruction, and the class was enthusiastic about returning to the firing line.  The hits count target demonstrated that the previous day's target was no fluke with 7 hits to the shingle, and with 2 students clearing the target!  Students learned about the Rifleman's Bubble and the Rifleman's dance, then paired off to run the Ball & Dummy drill.  The first AQT of the day followed, with improvements to scores by all the students.  The shoot boss asked the class if they would like to practice some positions, and seated was the exercise that won the vote, two seated practices were fired, followed by standing practice.

Lunchtime was already upon the class, and as per standard, it was a working lunch, the students ate and learned about the 3 challenges of a Rifleman.  One of the things I really enjoy about the Trailmen is that they aren't afraid to ask questions, and the instructors were happy to answer them.  The General Heath history was told by AF5US, and the students were presented with the commemorative patch.  Lunch concluded, and the final practice on the green coat ensued.  The AQTs were posted, and breaking from the previous ones, the student's weren't permitted to check their targets.  When the targets were retrieved, Texas had two new Riflemen (hats off to Cordel and Morgan), once again the instructors noted improved scores across the board.

To give the students a little change of pace the Parker's Revenge target was posted, with the class split into 2 teams.  Each team formed a strategy, and the shooting commenced.  When the dust settled Team Morgan had successfully landed hits on all of the targets and won the challenge.

The final AQT of the day was posted and the students (and an instructor with his Garand) went through it.  Morgan fired a second Rifleman score and several students were close to the 210 score.  The final hits count of the event was posted, and even at the end of a long weekend the participants shot well.  Two students cleared the target (including the youngest Trailman on the line).  The history of William Diamond was told and the youth patch was presented to the students. After the benediction was delivered, the class was dismissed.

Many thanks to the Instructor crew, and to the Troop leaders, and Trailmen.  All of your efforts made this a great weekend for everyone involved.  I would like recognize one Trailman in particular: Garrett.  Sunday morning, he asked me to let him know if anyone had failed to make their rifles safe.  Anyone who did so was assessed push ups in front of the class as a reminder, and there were no second offenders.  Thanks to him for the effort he put into learning on the line and simultaneously helping the instructor crew keeping things moving along.

I look forward to the next event with the Trail Life sons and fathers.

TL;DR A great weekend with great students

[AF5US]

It was a great event, Scott.  Thank you for organizing everything!

The push-ups on Sunday were great.  Maybe we have to start making that a "special challenge" for any future participants that are game (I don't think we can make it mandatory    ).

I want to say though - I really liked ToLiveDeliberatelys approach as well.  Saturday there was one young gentleman that was struggling to remember to consistently engage the safety after a string of fire.  ToLiveDeliberately  made this fine young man a "co-RSO" and had the young man checking rifles with him after the course of fire.  Not as a punishment, mind you - as a "you can do this and you can do it well enough to check other rifles" type mentality.  I thought that was fantastic.  ToLiveDeliberately connects with some of the younger shooters in a way that not everyone necessarily can - myself included (but I took some mental notes). 

[TheSingingShooter]

Hello my friends! This is Vincent. I'm sorry I wasn't able to attend day two on Sunday but I deemed going to work might be the right thing to do that day.

I am still excited to start my instructor journey however I won't be able to attend may or junes events. I have requested and was granted july however and plan on attending that course for sure!

Thank you all again and let me know if there's anything I need to take care of

[AF5US]

Hey man, glad to see that you got signed up to the forum!

No worries about Sunday, work demands our attention from time to time.

ScottInTX will be working with you to get you set up as an official instructor in training on the forum.  Once that's set up you'll be able to sign up to help work that July event.  The shoot boss for that event will likely reach out to you as it will be your first event.  Since that's a couple of months out we haven't decided who amongst us is planning to officially run that yet, but if you ever have any questions then:

AF5US, Steck, ScottInTX and MRakestraw are all standard regulars at that range & can help answer questions. 

Hello my friends! This is Vincent. I'm sorry I wasn't able to attend day two on Sunday but I deemed going to work might be the right thing to do that day.

I am still excited to start my instructor journey however I won't be able to attend may or junes events. I have requested and was granted july however and plan on attending that course for sure!

Thank you all again and let me know if there's anything I need to take care of