Mansfield, MA Feb 19-20 2022 Winterseed AAR

[mwolf]

The Instructors and I walked into this weekend thinking that we would have a crowd of Appleseed veterans chasing a winterseed patch to pad their shooting jackets. Instead, we were greeted with almost all first time Appleseeders with varying levels of experience. With the weather being suitably cold and a squall of snow hitting us Saturday afternoon, I was happy to award to those who scored Rifleman, the coveted Winterseed patch!

With Sunday being a bit warmer but getting cold fast once the sun was obscured in the afternoon, we completed our classroom instruction to close out the day once we had had enough of the rapidly lowering temperature.

I am pleased to announce we were able to award two brand new Riflemen, Banks and Connor. It was Connor's first time shooting a rifle that weekend, and Banks happened to score distinguished with irons as well later in the day! Because we had so many instructors available to students, we were able to get plenty of range time for instructors and Patrick requalified.

We appreciate Mansfield being one of the most AS-hungry clubs in Massachusetts! We will be back there again for the April 19 weekend shoot. And good job out there to all the students! All those who did not score improved greatly and worked out a lot of kinks, and we were all safe and had fun!

[Round Trip]

The Massachusetts grew of instructors are an enthusiastic and knowledgeable in History, Rights, Safety, Marksmanship and Project Appleseed mission.  Especially talking about our history in the form of the strikes and broader events of the time.  I'm also impressed yet not surprised in the  engagement of the participants in fleshing out knowledge surrounding early events in the founding of our Country.   In Marksmanship this crew of shooters, who would show up on a Winter's day worked hard and produced significant results and several Winterseed patchs.
     For a Winterseed,  it was cold enough and the light snow felt good.  Given enough instructors,  I appreciated a chance to shoot a few AQTs, re-qualifying  and cleaning a Red Coat.  Really got to thank Mansfield Fish & Game.  It is a physically good range and well run with earnest friendly members top to bottom.