AAR San Angelo, TX March 4 & 5, 2023

[GenX Minuteman]

     Every time I get near the town of San Angelo, TX I must listen to the song of the same name by Marty Robins.  Dang it, I just love this town!!!!  And, I love going to the San Angelo Gun Club and having an amazing Appleseed weekend with some truly amazing people!  The sun was out in all her glory for the full weekend and brought a bit of challenge with the wind on the second day, but it was certainly nothing which put a damper on the excitement and energy for this fine event.

    Before the morning started, we were fortunate enough to pay tribute to our forefathers by standing at attention for The National Anthem, played on a fife by our very own Kawgirl (Caryn).  She always impresses with her musical talent!  After the first morning's procedural matters were tended to, we proceeded to see how our students would do on the baseline Redcoat target.  Sadly, only about 1/3 of our students were anything better than 200 yrd effective shooters and only one was able to become one of Captain Morgan's Rifleman.  No worries however because it was our goal to improve upon this in the short amount of time available.

    Don'tFix 1776 (Marshall), Apprentice Carpenter (Colin) and A-Lister (Ron) began the instructional part of the weekend and proceeded to impart a huge amount of knowledge to our students.  We had the students participate in a few dry-run NPOA exercises to help make them more acquainted with the concept before introducing live ammunition into the equation.  Afterwards, we participated in a dry-fire exercise which solidified the "6-Steps of Firing the Shot" for the students while also providing a refresher on NPOA.  Once the dry-fire exercise was completed, it was time to place rounds on paper with our first shots of the day (other than the Red Coat target of course).  This led us right up to the noon hour so we proceeded to take a simple break and listen to a bit of Revolutionary War History expertly presented by A-Lister.

    After the break we moved forward with getting a few more practice squares under our belts before trying to make any changes to the student's sighting systems.  After the fifth practice square, most students had groups which could be seen to be small enough and repeatable enough to consider adjusting the sighting systems.  Apprentice Carpenter (Colin) was able to quickly and precisely describe the concept of "Inches, Minutes and Clicks" by which the adjustment process should be followed.  After approximately three or four practice squares, everyone was now "On-Target"!

    The sun was now getting high in the sky and kicking out a bit of West Texas heat for sure, so it was fortunate we were able to address teaching the Seated/Kneeling position with brevity and clarity.  The students were not terribly happy leaving the comfort of the prone position but were kind enough to humor our efforts introducing a new level of difficulty into their shooting requirements.  After a few practice targets, the students became more comfortable with the new position.

    Apprentice Carpenter (Colin) then further challenged our students by teaching them the Standing Position.  Even though everyone was tired and hot, the students rose to the challenge and agreed to give their hand at testing their skills at off-hand shooting.  Again, a few practice targets were necessary for familiarization, but nothing too difficult to overcome, yet!

    At this point, the day had sped by and we were looking at wrapping things up shortly, but I wanted to give the students some motivation before shooting the day's ending Red Coat target.  I quickly told them how the Militia, a group of farmers and blacksmiths, were able to turn the tables on the Greatest Military force in the World at the North Bridge in Concord, Massachusetts.  This hopefully had something to do with a bump in performance from the morning's performance.  We now had a similar number being field effective at 200 yrds, but one showing effectiveness out to 300 yrds.  This time around, 5 students were able to become one of Captain Morgan's Rifleman company.  Not bad considering everyone was worn out and a bit dehydrated.  We decided to call it a day afterwards, understandably.

    An afternoon of relaxation, hydration and sleep helped our students show their new earned talent as budding Riflemen.  We saw now more than 30% of our students showing proficiency at the 300 yrd. Level and 2 students showing ability out to 400 yrd.  The cool thing was, we had 5 students hit Morgan's Shingle as well, and two of those students also cleared the 400 yrd target so this means they Cleaned a Red-Coat target.  Way to go Vikki and Mike!!!!!  Heck of a way to start the day!!!!!

    We did a quick bit of review and then proceeded to get the rifles sigthed-in.  Luckily there were only a few changes needed before moving on to addressing the first AQT of the weekend.  We posted up our first AQT, despite the now blustering winds and showed the students how to address Stage 1 of the AQT.  Next comes Stage 2, and then Stage 3.  The reality was starting to set in as to how complex good shooting is as well as what it takes to shoot quickly and accurately.  I even heard one student comment about how "Shooting in video games is so much easier", hahahahaha - no kidding!!!!

    After Stage 4 of the first AQT we worked a bit on improving everyone's transition preparedness and ability to find a quick NPOA.  We did these exercises for a few cycles to make sure everyone felt more prepared for the day's remaining AQTs.  By this point in the day it was somehow already noon!  Don'tFix 1776 (Marshall) stepped up to the podium and provided a rousing conclusion to our tales of Rebellion by giving an excellent telling of Third Strike of the Match.  Way to go Marshall! 

    With our students now familiar with the process, we jumped them right back into another AQT.  Things were progressing nicely until we had an interesting stoppage on one student's rifle - a broken trigger hammer!!!  Luckily, Don, the boy's Scout Master, had a replacement trigger set in his extensive bag of parts.  Like they say in Boy Scouts - "Always Be Prepared"!!!  We got the rifle back up and running to finish out the AQT.

    Scores continued to increase slightly until around 2:30 in the afternoon.  At this point fatigue started to set in for some of our shooters.  Others, fueled on caffeine and sugar kept swinging for the fences at a feverous rate.  Thanks to our range liaison, Ted, our first Rifleman score of the weekend came from Dillon with a score of 214.  Way to go Dillon!!!!  Not an easy thing to accomplish for someone with only one weekend's worth of exposure to such a formidable task!!!  I was seriously impressed with the dedication this Boy Scout showed to achieving a goal.  This also speaks highly of Ted's willingness and ability to help our shooters out.  Thank you greatly Ted!!!!!!

    Right around the same time Dillon was finishing his Rifleman qualifying AQT, his loyal Scout Master Don Christensen also finished up an impressive Stage 4 performance.  His accuracy, patience and persistence culminated in a score of 228 earning him a well-deserved spot on the Rifleman list!!!!  Way to go Don!

     We had a great time with everyone!  It was an amazing event, one which I will not forget for a very long time.  Especially when I heard probably the most honest and heart felt reply come from a 10 year old Boy Scout when I asked - "What would you do if you were asked to pick up a drum as your item of defense and face off against the greatest military force in the world."  Without hesitation, a very serious looking J.J. answered "I would do whatever necessary to defend my family and my country!"  WOW, just WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I was absolutely floored!  This is what we love to see!!!  Thank you J.J. for your honesty!

    The final Red Coat of the weekend showed similar results as the Sunday morning Red Coat, with one big exception, 8 students were now able to count themselves as on of Captain Morgan's Rifleman!!!!  Certainly great to see!  This is a true testament to the wonderful instructional ability of our cadre.  Marshall, Colin, Ron, Jim, Caryn and Ted made this event a huge success and I thank them greatly for it!

    I hope all of our students enjoyed the event as much we all did and will come back out to the lovely cow town of San Angelo in October for our next event.

Chad Stovell - GenX Minuteman

[GenX Minuteman]

Broken Tippmann M4-22 Hammer!!!!!!


Way to go Dillon!!!  A solid Rifleman Score of 214!!!






Way to go Mr. Christensen!!!  A great Rifleman Score of 228!!!

[Sir Not Appearing In This Film]

Nice!

Lookit all that shade!

[A-lister]

Great shoot and it was so encouraging working with the Boy Scouts. Their excitement about Appleseed is why we do what we do. Thanks Chad for putting on a great shoot.

[Steck]

What a great group of shooters who persevered through the heat and the wind!
Would love to see some comments from the Scouts' leaders!

[AF5US]

Okay, I've got to ask - any idea what broke the hammer?

[GenX Minuteman]

Hey Jason,

The reason why the hammer broke is because Tippmann now uses MIM parts for their FCG.  There isn't anything wrong inherently with MIM parts, it is simply the design needs to be refined to account for this.  Earlier MIM parts were apparently too thin and designed with a sharp change in geometry on the hammer neck creating a bad stress riser.  It looks like Tippmann is aware of the issue and has already redesigned the part to be thicker and a slightly improved profile. 

Chad Stovell - GenX Minuteman

[AF5US]

I appreciate the explanation!

Hey Jason,

The reason why the hammer broke is because Tippmann now uses MIM parts for their FCG.  There isn't anything wrong inherently with MIM parts, it is simply the design needs to be refined to account for this.  Earlier MIM parts were apparently too thin and designed with a sharp change in geometry on the hammer neck creating a bad stress riser.  It looks like Tippmann is aware of the issue and has already redesigned the part to be thicker and a slightly improved profile. 

Chad Stovell - GenX Minuteman

[KawGirl]

lots o' picts
somebody send me an email address to the scout troop and i'll email them to you.
good job Dillan!!!

[KawGirl]

single shots

[KawGirl]

i'm not done. here's some more

[GenX Minuteman]

Hey KawGirl,

I sent you a PM with the Scout Master's email address so you could email the photos to him if you would like.  Thank you again for all of your amazing help during this event.

Chad Stovell - GenX Minuteman

[KawGirl]

Hey Chad, what size are your pics that you posted here?
Ty

[GenX Minuteman]

Hey Caryn,

I use Imgur.com to post the pictures up.  I follow the instructions Mrs. Smith posted in the AAR sticky thread at this link:

https://appleseedinfo.org/smf/index.php?topic=61535.0

I import the photos in at 1024x768 (17" Monitor setting) and the post the images links to the AAR.

I hope this helps!

Chad Stovell - GenX Minuteman

[KawGirl]

Hey Chad,
It appears your picts disappeared from this post ...?
broken links ...?
Hugs.

[GenX Minuteman]

Hey Chad,
It appears your picts disappeared from this post ...?
broken links ...?
Hugs.

Hey Kawgirl, thanks for the notification on the pictures.  The way I post them is from an Imgur account.  Sadly, sometimes, Imgur is blocked by VPN or by a firewall for some people.  They are still there and linked properly, yet the way you are accessing the internet currently is blocking them.  Thanks for the heads up.

Chad Stovell - GenX Minuteman

[Captain]

It looks like this was a great event. And for what it's worth, I can still see the pictures!