Sallisaw, OK 11/8-9 2009

[crak]

Great weekend.  We had Bill 3 drive down from Indiana and Rickman from Arkansas to help out.  We had something like 22 shooters on Saturday, making this the biggest Sallisaw shoot yet.  This was rough country, and required an amphibious crossing to get to the gate before greeting us with a sea of landmines on the range.  But nothing could stop these guys.  

I read a post about somebody who accidentally sent a whole squad of Texans to Sallisaw instead of his own shoot.  Don't worry, we left you some work to do.  Two are almost there, and just need to shoot a little more.  The others had some improvised slings before they left and had a marksmanship epiphany.  Make sure and finish the job.  

There was a guy Tim with an AK on Saturday who might be the first I've seen getting so much satisfaction out of calling the shot so early on in the learning process.  Most guys just skip that part until they have no other choice, but Tim was having the greatest time recognizing which shots were good and bad.

Bob, I hope you come back with a stock that'll work for your neck.  Broke my heart to see you and Patricia struggling with that thing.  Mike was finishing RFAQTs on Saturday afternoon with a tube fed rifle and no speed loader and not doing a bad job of making good hits.  It can be done.   Too bad that whole crew couldn't make it Back Sunday.  Felt that way about all of them that couldn't come back Sunday.

I wish we had one of those awesome new Young Patriot patches but I guess we missed them by one lousy week.  A much younger James (Codename: Nick)  was really giving those AQTs the business by Sunday afternoon after going through at least three rifles to get one that fit him best.  Nick made a whole lot of great progress.  Guess he'll just have to come back to another one.

Sunday afternoon could've been disastrous, since I lost my ability to convince all those Texas guys that they should keep skipping whatever it was they were supposed to get back home to and shoot more AQTs, and Harry got bored shooting 230s over and over.  Since we were down to only 4 shooters, we let Bill get a headstart going home too.  Just in case the rest of you guys that left can't sleep at night wondering how the Appleseed ended, two of these four left got Rifleman patches.    (And we almost got three!)

The Rifleman Roll:
Harry
Dave 1
James
Dave 2
Gerald
Floyd

Alan almost got Rifleman on the third last AQT.  He'll get it the next time he shows up fresh at the range, cause he definitely looks like one when he's shooting.  Too bad I can't take him to Harvard this week.

[dave5339]

Crak,

Nice AAR. 

I sketched out one to add in to this earlier today.  I'll get it posted when I flesh it out some more.

Learned a whole bunch of things while I was there.  Especially the simple fact that it's been quite awhile and more than a few pounds ago that I tried bending myself into some of those positions.  I really need to work on stretching and limbering up before I have my next go.  Maybe I'll bring along a good Chiropractor next time, more than a few of us could have used one up there.

Personally I was extremely blown away that you had came all the way from Taxachusettes to run this shoot.  Talk about dedication.  Then Bill3 pulled an all-nighter and drove straight in from Indiana.  You guys defined dedication to a cause.  I was more than impressed with that.

I'm going to be doing some work on the Texas crew as my wife and I are the "gun people" in church.  I hope to talk the lot of them into well set up 10-22's, tech sights, slings, spare magazines and all.  A couple have already asked for the link for Tech Sights.  I'm also working into the budget another 10-22 to have as a loaner.

Personally I'll be back to another Appleseed or three.  While I got my badge, I wasn't happy with my score, I know I can do better and with some proper tweaking of my gear and lots of practice I'll be where I want to be.

Here in the DFW area we are kind of stuck between two different Appleseeds.  Davilla TX is to our south, Sallisaw is to our north, both are about equal distance.  Sallisaw was chosen as it was closer for the Army cannon cocker that was with us.  Personally I liked the setup there at the range and the camping options at the local state park.  As an added benefit, Sallisaw doesn't have fireants, Davilla does.  That issue right there is a big deciding factor for me.  Since you don't know about fireants, try shooting good groups while getting stung by a swarm of wasps.

Semper Fi,
aka Dave #1

[crak]

Hah, yeah I don't know anything about fireants.  Luckily I escaped without learning anything about chiggers either.   

[henschman]

crak, I'm glad it went so well.  Once again, I'm sorry we couldn't get enough local instructors to run this shoot.  However, you coming down freed us up to run an OUTSTANDING shoot in Pittsburg, KS, where we made a few new IITs to help out with the instructor situation in these parts.  6 Riflemen out of 22?  Not too shabby!