Oct 21-22 Bone Creek Gun Club - Pittsburg, KS AAR

[Lomshek]

We had a great weekend of marksmanship and history in southeast Kansas Oct 21-22.  19 shooters braved the brutal fall temps with highs of nearly 70 degrees!  We did get some wind approaching 30 mph around noon on Saturday and the campers got drenched Saturday night but the shoot itself went really well!

At the end of the weekend I had a very full van to drive home but it was shy quite a few Rifleman badges as I had handed out a nice stack of them both days.


This was our first attempt at running a double firing line but it ended up being a success and was enjoyed by shooters and instructors alike.  The split firing line gave shooters time to prep and rest as well as watch what was being taught from behind the line.  It also gave shooters a chance to work in teams for many drills.

A big crowd of exhausted shooters late Sunday!


Here's the firing line Sunday with Red Hat KSFlatlander showing how it's done.


Perseverance pays off!  Mick earned his badge on the last AQT Sunday evening!!!


Here's the Sunday after lunch crop of new Riflemen with the instructors mixed in.
From L-R KSFlatlander (Kevin), Jeff, Bill, kansashwy1 (Rob), ksdiver (Randy), Jerry, RaggedHole (Jordan), Ethan (my 16 year old son!!!) and lastly yours truly.


Can't believe I didn't get a solo photo of my Rifleman son with his proud dad!  To say he was happy was an understatement.  I had told him a year ago that after he earned his badge we'd build him an AR-15.  We spent about an hour tonight on Brownells putting together a shopping list.

Here he is trying out my AR with the uber-low mount scope.


He used it for part of Saturday but couldn't get comfortable in the aggressive head down posture the scope demanded (I like it!).

He scored Rifleman (234) with kansashwy1's tricked out 10/22 after we did some cleaning and lubing of the action because of some initial balking. He followed it up with a 219 rapid fire AQT in less than 4 minutes and another in the 220's.


Both kansashwy1 and I have a couple 10/22's that spend more time being loaned out at Appleseeds than anything else and both are about 2000 rounds past their cleaning date.  All of them have gone at least 3 or 4 Appleseeds.

Here's a Sunday morning Rifleman (Ryan) right out of the gate!


Sunday afternoon Orange Hat tyler.502@gmail.com (Jonathan) broke out his new precision rig to see if he could master an AQT with it but, alas, it was not to be.  That beast is kind of heavy and needs a few fitment kinks worked out before it can be shot from field positions!


The .308 was incredibly quiet with the SilencerCo can!

Oliver gave it everything he had and made incredible improvement after borrowing kansashwy1's featherweight 10/22 with carbon barrel. 
His dad, Bill, made rifleman on day 2 and I expect great things from this young man as he masters the martial art of putting lead on target!


My son Ethan sighting in using our iron sighted 10/22!


Here's our Saturday badge earners (we shot just two AQT's Saturday afternoon).
Rick (re-qual'ed but with a bolt gun), Drew (re-qual'ed), Michelle (Drew's mom on day 1 of her first Appleseed), Morris (Drew's dad and a re-qual).  This is a family trio you don't want to mess with!


On the far left side of that last photo is RaggedHole (Jordan) an IIT1 who drove up from Texas to shoot and help run the line.  He proved he can shoot and is comfortable coaching the shooters.  His promotion to IIT2 will go through shortly.  I expect he'll do just fine as he progresses through the ranks.  It was a pleasure shooting, teaching and eating Saturday night with him!

Sunday kansashwy1 & I did a demo of a speed AQT.  As a way of helping shooters break through their self imposed limits and show them that you don't have to take 20 seconds fussing the shot to make a hit we do a number of drills where we push them to get 5 hits in 10 seconds and eventually to complete an AQT in 4 minutes including a mag change for each stage.

Without warning him what was coming I volunteered kansashwy1 to shoot a competition with me using centerfire rifles to see who could finish first on the AQT.  To make it as challenging as possible we had our mags prepped just as dictated for a normal AQT 10, 2, 8,2, 8, 10 so we transition with empty rifles (of course) and have to do all the normal mandated reloads.

Rob used his ACR with ACOG and a hasty sling and I used a Daniel Defense M4V7LW (lightweight barrel) with a Burris MTAC 1-4X with a heavily modified Vickers Tactical sling that acts as a Ching Sling.

Let's see if I can embed a video of the shoot off.
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/tEfmaoL8hhQ?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Here's the link in case it won't embed.
https://youtu.be/tEfmaoL8hhQ

We both ended up blowing it with me shooting a 209 and Rob a little behind but got the idea across that you don't have to go grandma slow (no offense to the grandmas out there!) to get a good score on the AQT.  After this demo we had a few shooters get over 210 doing the 4 minute AQT.

Overall it was a great weekend of fellowship in celebrating our freedom and heritage! 

Out of 19 shooters we had 3 re-qual'ed Riflemen. 

Out of the 16 new Appleseeders we gained 7 new Riflemen to the ranks for a 44% Rifleman rate!  Not bad at all!

[Dangerous Oldman]

Many thanks to all the Instructors, and especially the Shoot Boss, Roger and Instructor kansashwy1. Roger was Shoot Boss at my first Appleseed (last summer) and helped me see that neither of the rifles (2) I brought were set up for Positional shooting!  I had a much improved setup for my second Appleseed and managed to Qualify Rifleman on Sunday afternoon.  My qualifying AQT was shot "Australian" style and the change-up helped keep me from over-thinking the COF!

One of my biggest challenges was staying on my target! With every two targets set close to each other, I kept wanting to shoot on my "partner's" target.  Many thanks to Rick (my partner) and Roger in straightening me out!  Also many thanks to Jonathan for bringing different colors of tape to put around targets in order to keep us shooting at the right one.  In future, in order to minimize the cross-shooting, perhaps we could paint the cardboard target backers different colors?  How about red, white and blue?  Perhaps those of us who are hyperfocusing on our shooting would be more likely to notice an unexpected color change? 

The Bone Creek range is a great setup for Appleseed, but is somewhat inconveniently located in the southeastern corner of the state.  Perhaps as more Shoot Bosses get trained we could look to having one (or more) closer to Wichita, KS?  The bigger city would allow for a larger population to draw from and put it closer to the middle of the state?

Dangerous Oldman (Jerry)

[Lomshek]

Thanks Jerry!

My qualifying AQT was shot "Australian" style and the change-up helped keep me from over-thinking the COF!

Definitely part of the reason to vary how we attack the AQT.  Keep it fresh and have little changes help!  Jordan was the one who reminded me to do it Australian style.

One of my biggest challenges was staying on my target! With every two targets set close to each other, I kept wanting to shoot on my "partner's" target.  Many thanks to Rick (my partner) and Roger in straightening me out!  Also many thanks to Jonathan for bringing different colors of tape to put around targets in order to keep us shooting at the right one.  In future, in order to minimize the cross-shooting, perhaps we could paint the cardboard target backers different colors?  How about red, white and blue?  Perhaps those of us who are hyperfocusing on our shooting would be more likely to notice an unexpected color change? 

Definitely a good idea!  In my defense we did have numbers on every target!  LOL

Perhaps as more Shoot Bosses get trained we could look to having one (or more) closer to Wichita, KS?  The bigger city would allow for a larger population to draw from and put it closer to the middle of the state?

Absolutely agree!  I'm limited in my ability to travel as every Appleseed I do requires me to close my business for a day on its busiest day of the week (Saturday).  As we get more shooters to join the instructor corps and build it up it'll happen.  It's a long road to shoot boss but we'll get there!