AAR: Shelby, IN Patriot's Weekend April 23-24, 2022

[SteelThunder]

Man...I love teaching at Shelby.  The facility is comfortable, our range contacts are fantastic and the people that come are always in the same tier with the finest Americans in the country.  Patriot's Weekend 2022 didn't disappoint as our sold out shoot (unfortunately 2 couldn't make it and 1 ended up being sick) was full of learning, patriotism and the vagaries of weather in the early Midwest spring.

Saturday was sunny, windy (e.g., 35 MPH gusts) and hot (well...hot for us Northerners in April...we're still acclimated to 10 degrees below zero at this time of year).  We filled the line and got right to business on the fundamentals of good marksmanship.  Lots of students showed significant improvement and Bryan showed that cops in fact CAN shoot by requalifying first with a 214, then a 220 then a 230.  Notable improvements were made by most, with at least 4 or 5 first timers knocking on the door in the 170-180 range.  Tina got REALLY REALLY close this time with a 206 (try as we might, we couldn't find the additional 4 points). 

Of real note were our under-18 set, with safe gun handling and Hunter and Tali absolutely slaying the marksmanship challenge.  Tali -- who fired 5 rounds from a rifle from a rest only a few days ago -- ended the day with a 182...WOW, get that girl on a smallbore team!  We had good participation in the 3 strikes of the match, and I say little embers of that deep-buried fire of Liberty starting to well up in many.

Sunday, though...

Early morning thunderstorms forced us inside where we covered safety and our positional review.  We got a break in the weather and we pounded through multiple drills and started in with 2 AQTs before lunch.  Right before lunch, we had Team Bravo show superb teamwork in decisively winning the dueling tree challenge.  Congrats!!  After lunch we dodged the rain again by running the famous laser rifle drill indoors to really embed the value of NPOA.  We got another hour and a half of shooting during a break in the storms until lightning drove us inside.  Multiple DOMs and a reading of the Patriot's Weekend Memorial Volley names choked up the shoot boss and stayed with the students as we moved outside for the Memorial Volley.  We got 1 more AQT in, the volley, then the storms fired up for real-sies this time...and we ended around 3:20 pm.

Thanks to my great crew (Captain American, Pepper Spray, little buddy, MI-Copperhead, Sir Kay, Dave Rose, Lancelot, Merlin33) and our LBOTG, Ray and Beth.  Congrats to the Cap for his SBIT2 completion and to little buddy for his SBIT1 completion.  Thanks also to the Cap for surrounding us with his pwn, unique disinfecting scent.

I know there's more pictures out there!!


See you in September!

[SteelThunder]

whoops...

[Sir Kay]

The weekend we a great time for me working with the students, talking to my instructor friends and making new friends all while try to keep from getting blown away by the wind, rained on or struck by lightning. This range is a great place to be, even in the challenging weather. A special thanks to our hosts Ray and Beth for all the work they put in to the weekend activities!

[Dagny]

Thank you for the kind words and appreciation.  Ray and I love having you all in Shelby and are so glad to know you love it too!

Hosting each Appleseed Weekend is always a true pleasure.  Getting to know all of the dedicated instruction crew and watching them share their expertise is exciting.  Watching the students, especially the young ones, gain historical knowledge is always encouraging for America's future. 

I know that the Shelby dates have been selling out twice a year because our attendees spread the word about the awesome Appleseed Crew members that come from as far as Michigan, Ohio, and across Indiana!  THANK YOU all very much for your time and talents, you are greatly appreciated.

I do have an mp4 file of the Patriot's Day Volley to share.  I'm not sure this forum accepts video so if you don't see it here, suggestions on how to share would be appreciated. 

Attached is a pic of the fantastic laser NPOA drill.  That drill will surely increase the number of riflemen!  I've already ordered a laser pointer to start helping my grandson and me prepare for the September clinic. 



 

[Dagny]

I figured out a workaround to post the video via Youtube.  They may discover the video includes guns and delete it so while it's available you may watch here:  https://youtu.be/Yx_BpkNjt2U

[PewPewMcGrew]

Had a great time even thought I didn't make it back for day 2.  Thanks to all who made this possible.  Learned a lot and will attend again!

[MI-copperhead]

What a great event ! A great mix of participants, an outstanding crew of instructors and Applecore, and excellent range & clubhouse preparations by our range hosts Beth and Ray made for a memorable two days. While we only requalified one Rifleman we had many other participants make great progress towards that goal. I felt bad for Shawn, because when it looked like he might break through his rifle became balky and then the weather turned against us. I have little doubt that he will post a Rifleman score at his next event. Everyone did a great job of drinking from the firehose of Project Appleseed instruction and working on the 3 legs of the stool of marksmanship.
A special thanks to Beth and Ray for an great meal for our instructor dinner.
Also a heartfelt thank you to Captain America and his wife Ellen for inviting me to stay overnight at their place as it made a huge difference in my ability to instruct on Sunday.
I look forward to returning to Shelby in September.