Canton GA Apr 21-Apr 22, 2018 AAR

[Roswell]

Saturday, April 21st brought over 25 eager Patriots to the Sheriff's range in Canton, Georgia. After the initial housekeeping and safety briefing, the students hit the range. 76Patriot acted as line boss and after getting the line in order, he got us going in relays and we hit the ground running. The initial Redcoat target showed us we had a lot of work to do. The firehose of instruction was opened as we began with Sling Use and the Prone position. We worked on squares targets and other points of instruction until we broke for a long lunch. At lunch we covered Talking Targets and Inches, Minutes and Clicks before taking a break. Then we continued our lunch and listened to the 1st and 2nd Strikes of the Match.

After lunch, we used IMC to bring our small groups onto target. Then we broke out the Greencoats, loosened our belts and tried all 4 Seated positions. Then it was time for a short afternoon break and the 3rd Strike of the Match.

Invigorated, we returned to the line to learn about the standing position and shoot an AQT. After that, all the shooters lined up Standing and we shot the Liberty Volley, which was very well received. Finally, we finished the day with the Luther Blanchard patch being awarded to 4 young patriots, a requalification by 2Mikes and a Benediction relating the story of Timothy Murphy and how one man (or woman) can make a difference.

Sunday was forecast to be a nasty, rainy day. However, almost every person showed back up! We began with a brief into about 1776 and Thomas Paine from myself and then an excellent presentation on General John Peter Gabriel Muhlenberg from CokeGuy. After Akela61 walked us through the safety we hit the range with an AQT to start the day while everyone was still fresh. Then it was back to the classroom for a review of the previous day's material before a bathroom break.

After the break, it was back to squares as we did an NPOA/Mag change exercise. About then, the promised rain began to roll in as we broke for lunch. During lunch we did a review of talking targets and Inches, Minutes and Clicks. Then we heard some brief Dangerous Old Men and Gallant Women stories (Hezekiah Wyman, David Lamson, Mother Batherick and Nancy Hart). Followed by a special treat - Morpheus came by with his son Cypher and related to us a brief history of Patrick Henry followed by his famous, "Give me Liberty, or give me death" speech.

After lunch, we hit the range again for some more AQTs. By then it was pouring buckets, but the shooters persevered! We kept going until early afternoon when I finally called it due to the weather wearing both us down and the targets.

We hit the classroom for one last time to learn about shooting at full distance and the Rifleman's quarter mile. After an excellent discussion, it was awards time. We had 1 new young Patriot (that was unable to come the previous day) receive his Luther Blanchard patch. Lastly, we acknowledged 2 requalifications (2Mikes and Shane) and despite the weather we had 3 new Riflemen! Congratulations and well done Brad, Valerie and John O.! Brad even got a baptism in the waters from beneath the North Bridge (and was an excellent sport about it). We said our goodbyes and then cleaned up to leave the range better than when we got there.

Remember shooters, Perfect practice makes perfect! Dry-fire, dry-fire, dry-fire. Each of you has what it takes to make Rifleman and I hope to see each of you again on the trail (bring a friend 😉).