AAR: Guilford, CT. - October 22-23, 2011

[CortJestir]

What a great Appleseed this was.

The New Haven Sportsman's Club hosted their second Appleseed this past weekend in beautiful northern Guilford, CT.

We had 12 students on the line, 1 less than capacity on this range. And all of them first-time Appleseeders!

By the end of Day 2, we had one Rifleman, Mike C., who scored a 215. Congrats, Mike! Honorable mentions to Ray D. with a high of 209 (triple checked) and Chris Y. with a high of 206. Congrats to you both as well and to all our students who made vast improvements over the weekend as shown in their Red Coats and group sizes. A job well done!

Our very own Jay Haich re-qualified in a fierce manner with a 248, a new personal best and clearly an achievement in and of itself. Well done, James! But not only that, he told a great Three Strikes. Most memorable quote of the weekend: "I enjoyed the history more than the shooting." And this, coming from Chris, who shot the 206. That's what it's all about!

It was so fulfilling to see families and couples on the line. It was just one of those shoots that left you all warm and fuzzy on the inside. Thanks to all our students for deciding to spend this beautiful New England Autumn weekend outside with other fellow Americans learning our tradition of marksmanship and shared heritage.

My heartfelt thanks also to our CT Crew: TOMINCT, The Log, Jay Haich, and Who_Me? I will never take it for granted how nice it is to have a crew that's always one step ahead of the Shoot Boss and can anticipate what's needed while also maintaining a safe line and coaching students.

Lastly, thanks also to my home range, the New Haven Sportsman's Club, their membership and to Scott and Wolfgang for allowing us to occupy 1 of 2 outdoor ranges this past weekend - a most gracious gesture seeing as how the other range was closed.

Pics to follow... Post 'em if you got 'em.

CJ

[The Log]

Time for some pictures...


The latest in shooting fashion? His and hers shooting jackets!


Nearly Rifleman Chris with his rifle that takes commands from the mothership...


...and rolling it old school with a Mauser.


CortJestir rolling it really old school with his Brown Bess.


Like he needs help from a shooting jacket! Jay Haich in pursuit of a perfect AQT - sorry, 248 will have to do for now.


I felt like kDan taking this shot - without the ticks.


Future Orange Hat Michelle pitching in on the line.


Our youth shooters getting their patches from Who_Me? The two on the right are Samantha and her brother, Colt. That's right - "Sam" and "Colt"!!!


Group shots? What is this - Calverton?

[CortJestir]

Bump for some more photos!

Rifleman Mike C.


Firing Line


Firing Line


Morning Day 1 - Just wait until we fix those positions!


Jay Haich getting his History on


Attentive Students

[Jay Haich]

All in all a very enjoyable weekend. I had a number of firsts this weekend:
* First time I worked a line that consisted solely of First Time Appleseeders!
* First time I presented the 3 Strikes.
* First time I wore a shooting jacket.

As Cortjestir stated earlier - this weekend left you feeling warm and fuzzy. It was great to see the families and couples enjoying a weekend together.
Thanks to all who gave me feedback on my presentation of the History, need to pare the First Strike down some.....
BIG Thanks to Mike C for loaning me his Creedmore Sports Shooting Jacket. I had never used a jacket before and it was great to see the effect it has on my shooting. I got to shoot 2 Stage by Stage AQTs and 1 Rapid Fire AQT with the jacket. On the ride home I decided that my AS shooting will be done without a shooting jacket in future. But I hope to acquire  a Shooting Jacket for Centerfire Competition (such as CMP shoots) - Santa, I have been a good boy !

One of the perks of teaching at an AS is that I get to see a lot of different equipment and can assess how well it would suit my needs, without having to buy it first. For example: I have seen a number of groundmats that looked great on-line but when I see them in use on the Line I realize that they are not quite what I was looking for.

Now lets see if I can get those links from Photobucket set up properly:

Would you have stood your ground with a bunch of these bayonets rushing towards you?


Cortjestir brings history to life with his Brown Bess musket.


On a lighter note:
Is this what it looked like when the Regulars were wondering where the next bullet would come from?

[valkrie]

Chris Y here. Thanks to all the instructors, IITs, and of course the shoot boss for a fantastic weekend. I have to agree with CortJestir that the whole affair left you feeling warm and fuzzy; in particular, seeing families out enjoying the weekend together.

I felt I'd share some thoughts,

The good:

-Excellent, personalized coaching. I've taken other rifle classes before (all on the "defensive" side of the house), and the individual attention to each shooter at this Appleseed really stuck in my mind. The instructors seemed genuinely interested in seeing each student improve, and that was quite the motivator. Thanks to them I definitely walked off the line a much better shooter than when I stepped onto it, and frankly you can't always say that.

-Final afternoon of AQTs really helped reinforce the things we had learned during the previous day and half. I think if we had just covered more things rapidly it would have been valuable, but having a half day to put into practice what we had learned previously really helped things stick.

-By the end of the second day I really got a sense of what it felt like to "get it right." It's a valuable thing to really feel when you've got the NPOA just right, and will make my practice time a lot more useful since I know what to look for now. I also enjoyed the various drills we were taught. In particular, the "round the world" drill was fantastic. I intend to run it often when I can.

-the history was awesome, and I really regret that our schools don't teach more of it. I've already got a copy of Paul Revere's Ride on my kindle and its next up on the reading list!

The bad:

-Speaking with some of the shooters, there was some confusion as to the round count needed. Looking back over the links we were sent, some said 400 and some said 1000, going forward it would probably make sense to sync the various "equipment lists" up.

-Frankly, I wish there had been some more history. I would gladly have skipped a few AQTs or stayed later on the afternoon of the second day to listen to more stories (though I may be in the minority on that).

-Locations in Fairfield county! I wish ya'll had shoots closer to where I am. that being said a little bit of driving won't keep me from going to more shoots (just got to find the time off of work).

-CortJester, next time bring some black powder and ball ammo, that musket is just begging to shake hands with a red coat target.

thanks again to everyone for making the weekend great, I look forward to my next shoot!

[CortJestir]

Chris,

Glad you had a great time and many thanks for the invaluable feedback.

We're working hard on getting into Fairfield County, or at least ranges close to Fairfield County. As you know, rifle ranges are few and far between in that neck of the woods! If you know of any near you that may be interested in Appleseed, please let me or Dan (The Log) know.

Hope you can come out to the Hartford event. Bring some friends!!

CJ