Holmen, WI AAR Oct. 6-7, 2012

[vmt193]

What a beautiful weekend! Hosted by the Holmen Rod and Gun Club, the weekend began with temps in the low to mid 30s early Saturday, climbing to near 50 by Sunday afternoon.



Yup, those little white blobs on the picture are snowflakes! Just has a quick flurry early Saturday.



Layering was the uniform of the day! Here's CIVLAKFLT modeling the latest in Apple Core fashion. 

The 13 bundled shooters made their way to the line right away Saturday and proceeded to showcase the marksmanship skills of the average American on the first redcoat target of the weekend. OMG!  We had no where to go but up.

And "up' we went. The first full AQT of the weekend produced no Riflemen, but boy did we have a bunch of very promising scores. I don't have my notes with me at the moment, but there were many in the 170-180 range and IIRC, Jerry had a 192, Michele a 200, and Kevin a 202. After all the shooters took a second whack at, and completely terrorized the redcoats, a couple shooters tried a last ditch RFAQT and got close again (Kevin-209) but no patches earned.

Sunday morning began with just 4 slightly stiff and sore shooters stepping to the line, but we were able to really get in some good one-on-one and get the rifles really tuned in. I think Nancy and Katie might even understand "Inches, Minutes, and Clicks" well enough to teach their friends. 

Later in the morning Jerry and Jon showed up with their crews and after a few sighters, jumped right into the AQT grind. By mid afternoon, we were still getting a "LOT" of very high scores just short of the "magic" 210. Katie with a 203! Patrick (13) finally broke the seal and became the first Rifleman of the weekend.  Not to be outdone, and despite help from "the kid",  Jerry charged right in with a 218, 227, & 212.



A pair of Riflemen - Jerry & Patrick



Jerry also took that big 7th Step and accepted his Orange Hat to become Western Wisconsin's latest IIT.

With a little practice along with some cleaning and fine-tuning of their rifles, most of these shooters will have no problem next time.

Mike/vmt193

[CIVLAKFLT]

Saturday's crew at Holmen Rod and Gun Club




Lots of young faces at the shoot. Very encouraging.


Patrick, in the middle, soaks up the mysteries of MOA.


The mystery deepens.


Kosciusko aka Mr. K, explains MOA to the group.


Cully tells one of the stories of the strike of the match.


Mr. K. goes over the happenings between Boston and Lexington.


The Shoot Boss cards a shooter.


The Shoot Boss answers Nancy's question, as Patrick loads "two and eight."


Michele takes instruction as she makes her rifle safe. She almost made Rifleman on her first AQT.


Zeke loads and readies for the "fire" command.


Katie enjoys the challenge of putting ordnance on target.


A cold, miserable day comes to an end with the third strike of the match.


Cully accepts his new red hat! Congrats to Cully!!

[Cully]

Congratulations to the new riflemen and Orange Hat.  It was fun working with you on Saturday.

[vmt193]

Here are the Redcoat qualification percentages.

         Saturday AM       Saturday PM       Sunday AM       Sunday PM
100yd      23%         75%         100%      86%
200yd      8%         50%         75%         43%
300yd      8%         17%         0%         57%
400yd      0%         8%         0%         0%
Morgan Sq.   0%         50%         25%         57%

Katie and Michele had to bug out early otherwise the Sunday PM numbers would look much better! Very nice improvement. 

[Dan2]

It was really fun working with Kevin and Mike at Holmen.  Two excellent Red hats that really helped me along to my ITT1.  I look forward to working more shots and learning more. 

Anyone who has a chance for an orange hat should take it.  You won't find better people to work with any where. 

A special thanks to Colycat and Old Glory for their offering me the orange hat in the first place. 

[Trisha]

This looks a great Appleseed! Congrats to the new Riflemen!!

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