Carroll, Ohio July 18&19, 2020

[Corvette]

Shooters;

We just completed another great event at Central Ohio Coon Hunters club near Carroll, Ohio. 

Twenty eight motivated shooters showed up ready to work on their Marksmanship skills. The weather was generally good all weekend but it was hot and humid both days.  Luckily, there was a pretty steady breeze from the north on Sunday which made things more bearable. 

Once all the shooters arrived, we completed the normal welcome and moved to the safety briefing. Rifles were brought to the line. To help with our social distancing, the shooters were divided into two groups so that we could spread folks out while shooting.

The Saturday morning Red Coats was shot and the results showed we had a pretty great group of shooters.
We had 16 of 27 put all three rounds in at 100, 8 at 200, 5 at 300, 3 at 400 and 7 joined Daniel Morgan.  And we had two cleared redcoats. Huzzah!!!

We moved on to instructions on the steady hold factors for the prone position, followed by the six steps and NPOA.  Related drills were shot along the way and we broke for lunch and the First Strike presented by Corvette. 

Back on the line, we moved on to shooting sighting groups and an IMC presentation.  Final sights adjustments were made and confirmation groups were shot.

Next steady hold instructions in seated were presented which was followed by related drills and an outstanding Second Strike was presented by WildBillCody at the afternoon break.

Steady hold factors in standing were presented next with related drills and the shooting ended with the Saturday afternoon Red Coat which showed more improvement.  We had 19 of 24 shooters at 100, 10 at 200, 5 at 300, 6 at 400, 8 joined Daniel Morgan and we had 3 more cleared Red Coats.  Huzzah, we got some shooters. 

The Third Strike from Cadence followed along with a call to action by Corvette to honor our heritage and to encourage all to get active in their local communities.  This ended the day and we broke down the equipment line.

Sunday dawned hot and humid but there was at least a steady breeze blowing from the North.  After taking attendance, completing a safety review, and a POI review, rifles were brought to the line and we completed a non-firing trigger drill (local club rule does not allow any firing till 10AM on Sundays).  10AM finally arrived and the morning Red Coat was shot. Results continued to improve.  We had 2 more cleared Red Coats Sunday morning making a total of 7 so far.  WOW!!!

Given the time lost to shooting in flights on Saturday and the delayed Sunday shooting start time, we skipped the practice AQT and dove right into the real ones.  We got one completed before lunch.  We did the KD lecture before breaking for lunch (the club president was having such a good time watching us on the line that he forgot to start the hot dogs that the club was providing and we needed to give his some time to fire them up).

After lunch, we were back on the line for three more AQT's.  Good scores were shot and Riflemen and Riflewomen were made.
 
Riflemen/Riflewomen: 
The star of the weekend was Jon.  This was his first Appleseed and he accomplished the rare feat of shooting the score on his first AQT.  He followed this with qualifying scores on the other three AQTs and delivered the high score of the weekend, 240, to earn his distinguished rocker.  His scores were 227, 222, 235 and 240!!!!!!

Roger-213 (Requal).  Roger first shot the score at our last event at COCH and we were tickled that he brought two of his daughters with him to our event. 

Michelle(aka-Melissa )-218 (Requal).  Part of the Black_Bird family clan, she again showed that she is a shooter who knows what she is about.  And, she out shot her brother which will make for fun family banter till the next event they both attend.

And to my great personal enjoyment, Kendra-218 (New).  Kendra is a special friend of one of our instructors, Pat, as well as a friends with Cactus Jack and his wife (who also was shooting with us).  There was much banter all weekend between all of them and it was really great to be there when she shot her score. She made it clear that Pat was going to have to move over his Rifleman AQT in the "man cave" to make room for hers. 
 
A special shout out to my friend Deb for clearing the Sunday morning Red Coat.  Deb is a long time seeder, a great proponent of the program and has become a dear friend.  It has been great fun to watch Deb go from first timer, to Riflewoman, to cleared Red Coat to hopefully an Orange Hat in the near future.  Great job Deb. 

It was also great to have so many great family groups on the line.  Roger with his daughters, three generations of shooters between Joshua, Ron and Cameron, father/son with Joe and Roman,  family team of Kevin, Alisha and Ian and brother/sister in Michelle and Robert.   Appleseed is a great place to make lifetime family memories and I am sure that many were made this weekend. 

Hot and humid weather breeds late afternoon thunder storms.  Thanks to Cadence's attention to the weather radar, we had warning of its march toward us.  Given the approaching storms, we did not shoot the final Red Coat of the day.  We had to break down the line and we had an extensive instructor camp to break down as well before it arrived.  The line was broken down, flags were put away and things on the line were packed with great help from the shooters and instructors. 

We then moved up to the instructor camp up on the hill (which Cactus Jack had named Camp Libertyseed) to breakdown tents, tables, cook stoves, gather up trash and within minutes of the last of the packing, the rain started.   There is nothing worse than coming home after a long weekend's shoot with a van full of wet tents, mats, shooting and camping gear.  The unpacking process is tough enough as it is Sunday night without the challenge of dealing with soggy stuff. 

Our thanks to Central Ohio Coon Hunters and its president Emil  for hosting our event and my thanks to a great group of instructors for helping with this shoot.  Cadence, Pat, Meadow, Cactus Jack, Black_Bird, ChevyShooter, and WildBillCody.  It was a true pleasure to work with each and every one of you.  We look forward to our next event at COCH.
           
Corvette

[Corvette]

 

[WildBillCody]

This was an interesting and educational weekend. Thanks to Corvette, Cadence, Pat, Meadow, Cactus Jack, Black_Bird, and ChevyShooter. I had not met or worked with any of them prior to this weekend and they lived up to their reputations! 

I really appreciated the signage that let me know I found the right place.



The view from the camp was great.



Friday night was line set up time,



then back to camp for Cactus Jack's excellent pot roast.



Saturday morning went well, and Cadence helped explain the first Redcoat.



If you look closely, you can see how unbearably happy he is about it! 



Cadence gave the IMC explanation.



Saturday also provided a couple of cleared Redcoats.



Then it was back to camp for ChevyShooter's fantastic foil dinners (sorry the picture is so terrible, it tasted great).



Sunday morning Corvette gave us a recap,



and then we got started shooting I did not take anymore pictures!

Thank you to everyone for a great experience and excellent weekend.

Cody

[Corvette]

Great to work with Cody at Carroll, we had great fun at Camp Libertyseed Hill.  Looking forward to working together again soon. 

Corvette

[MommaTron5000]

What a great weekend, Corvette!
The weather was incredibly hot, but spirits were up, folks were having fun, and everyone appeared to improve throughout the weekend.
Thank you and your team for another safe and memorable event!
Here are some pictures Tom and I took from the weekend.
See ya soon,
Deb
MT5K

[Cadence]

Despite the heat and humidity, our intrepid line of shooters showed the tenacity and fortitude to push forward and show us they knew very well what they were about.

Congratulations to all who earned patches and cleared Redcoats. A special shout-out to our shooter of the weekend, Jon, who at his first event not only earned Rifleman scores on ALL of the AQT's, But saved the best for last by getting the coveted Distinguished bar on the last AQT of the day!! WOW!

Thanks to the Central Ohio Coon Hunters Association for allowing us to use their fine facility for our events. Also to all the fellow instructors, Cactus Jack, Chevyshooter, Blackbird, Meadow, WildBillCody, Pat and our shoot boss Corvette.

PS - Wild Bill - you just had my "bad" side in the picture.

[Cadence]

More pictures

[WildBillCody]

...

PS - Wild Bill - you just had my "bad" side in the picture.

No doubt, no doubt!