PELHAM, NH, SEPT. 5-6, 2009, AAR

[Firewall99]

SUMMARY:  Great weather, great shooters, fantastic instructor corps, 13% Rifleman rate even with newbies--all-in-all another great shoot for the books.  Frankly, one of the best shoots I've experienced.

Shoot Boss: Firewall99
Instructors: Crak (SI), Brother Mark, Ninsho, DoesItComeInBlack
IIT's: Smithy, Andy in NH, Dangerous Old Woman, TwoTen, MattNES
Promotions: Andy in NH to IIT3, Dangerous Old Woman to IIT2, MattNES & TwoTen to IIT1
Riflemen Made: 4
New Orange Hats: Todd & Garrett

Day 1 Weather:  Sunny, hot and dry
Day 2 Weather:  Beautiful--warm and dry with a refreshing breeze

Number of Actual Shooters - Day 1: 23
Number of Actual Shooters - Day 2: 21
Number Pre-registered: 25
Number Pre-Reg Free: 10
Number of Free No-shows: 3
Number of Rifle Newbies: 3-4
LTR's Used: 13-15
Total Round Count: 1177!


After a late start with some late arrivals and several newbies, we finally caught up with the schedule by the end of the day Saturday, producing two Riflemen, Ramon and Jason.  Great work, you guys.

Smithy did a great job all weekend converting 10/22's to LTR's, fixing several rifles, and cleaning rifles in the late afternoons.  A lot of shooters took advantage of having a gunsmith at the shoot and solved 2+ Appleseeds-worth of equipment problems in their first shoot.  Several shooters were able to continue shooting after their rifles broke.  Before we had Smithy, they would have left early.  I consider Smithy a proven concept.  If your region doesn't have one yet, ask your State Coodinator to find one and/or to contact me for help in doing so.

Saturday also saw the introduction of a new way of doing the Safe Rifle Briefing.  We conducted the briefing for the whole group just as usual but in a safe area with a safe rifle in hand to demonstrate.  After the usual briefing, we invited shooters to self select to stay on and actually handle an LTR, starting in safe mode.  They learn how to load an empty magazine, rack the bolt, remove the safety, dry fire, remove the magazine, lock the bolt back, put the safety on, insert a chamber flag, and ground the rifle.  A surprising number of shooters stayed on for this segment.  Mark did a great job coping with the new procedure.  We'll continue to test the procedure, but this looks like another keeper.

On Sunday we started on time regardless of the late arrivals.  Sunday was a dream come true.  We had a near perfect shoot.  We ran Ball & Dummy with emphasis on calling the shots.  We identified massive trigger issues on the line and ran the trigger drill.  We saw cadence issues and ran the cadence drill.  What a joy it was to hear those volleys with every breath on command.  Crak was superb diagnosing the line as a whole.  We made two more Riflemen, both of whom shot a Rifleman score twice and stepped up to an Orange Hat.  Congratulations, Todd and Garrett!  You guys worked hard and we're proud to have you aboard.

Thanks to an heroic effort by Andy in NH, Brother Mark, Ninsho, and Kate, we got all five of the history sagas out to the shooters.  The shooters really seemed to enjoy the history-- a lot. 

Garrett was an interesting case.  He had near perfect steady hold factors, breathing, and NPOA down pat, but wasn't producing hits.  I assigned two instructors to unravel the mystery, and they did!  At one point we had four instructors analyzing his target, and they figured it out.  Once we corrected his sight picture, his score shot up.  Then he shot Rifleman twice!

Another interesting case was Mary Ann McCool.  I will let her husband tell the story:

"I just wanted to say thank you to all the guys (John, Bruce, Mark...) that ran the range this weekend.  My wife was afraid of guns from the beginning and had no idea how to shoot.  At the beginning of the day she could not hit the paper (not joking), but John and the other guys from the Appleseed project had her landing a few at 400yds by the end of the day.... We are looking forward to participating in an Appleseed project in the future.  Thank you so much for this opportunity,  The McCool Family."

Getting feedback like this is priceless.  Our instructors work hard to do an excellent job, and it's rewarding to hear stories like this.  In fact, we heard a several kudos from other shooters, too.

Thank you, shooters!  You were a great group to teach.

One last thing.  The Pelham Fish & Game Club and Mike Nastek did a fantastic job.  Pelham now holds the record for the best New England club-provided lunch anywhere, roast pork tenderloin, fresh vegetables, and apple crisp for dessert!  Wow.  Thank you, Pelham!  And thank you, Mike for loaning us those great target stands.

[edmorseiii]

Thank you all for everything, Kaisha and I had a great time, and can't wait to go to another one.

Ed

[CetmeManNH]

1177 rounds fired??? Is that a new record?
Good job.

[crak]

Close, Dwarven1 shot 12xx in Harvard the week before.  Plus Firewall counted the star target shots, which we usually leave as a +

But I beat both of them in Nebraska with 1381. (no star target)