Eureka CA Feb 20,21 2010

[HollywoodMarine]

Well it looked like it would be a wet Appleseed with the weather report saying that there was a thirty percent chance of rain on saturday and a seventy percent chance on sunday.

But we had seven determined and motivated americans show up on Saturday to learn how to shoot and why they had the right to.

Would you believe that this shoot was the nicest shoots I have ever had the pleasure to shoot or instruct at. With the dedication and willingness of the shooters to learn as well as an incredibly motivated range staff that did every thing they could to help this was a stelar shoot. Of the seven, we had three make riflemen by the end of saturday with every one showing outstanding improvements.

On sunday we had two more shooters show up ready to learn with three more shooters beating at the door, one with a score of 208. With the sun setting on the beautiful coast of Samoa Island we called it good. I have to say again thank you to the shooters and range staff for making this such an outstanding shoot.

Also this would have not been possible for me with out the solid support of Koolaid and Ulan. Thank you all! See you in April.
                                                                                                                    HM
                                                                                         

          PS: Pic's coming soon

[Californian]

Thanks, HollywoodMarine and Koolaid for making the long drive north.  This Eureka Appleseed was over a year and a half in the making, dating all the way back to Vale, Oregon in June of 2008.  As you note, there will be another in April.  I sincerely hope there will be more next year, and I'm always up for southern Oregon shoots as well.  I know you both made some converts, and I have a couple other people I am working on getting to the next one. 

I'm already getting my wife set up better for the next one, so watch out for her.  When she sets her mind to something, she's hard to stop (trust me on that......), and I know she will do better next time.

Californian

[jacques]

Three out of Seven made Rifleman the first day. That is incredible. Way to go you guys. 

[kool aid]

Three out of Seven made Rifleman the first day. That is incredible. Way to go you guys. 

Kind of a steller group of shooters. 

Here's something that is even going to hurt your head worse: Of the three that got the patch, one had NEVER BEEN TO A FIREARMS TRAINING EVENT OF ANY KIND.

I promply assigned him the handle "sick boy", as in "Boy, he's so good it's sick". first AQT: 198, second AQT 231!

How did he do it? On his shooting mat was a rebound copy of fred's guide. He had read it so much it had come out of the first binding he had put on it.

Read the Instuctions? Before the shoot? What a concept! Stay in touch, Sick Boy!


It continues to astonish me how fred keeps getting smarter the longer I am here........ Or could it be..... I am a recovered doofus?

I await his founding of a charm school....... But I digress.

Thanks as already said. The hospitality of the host range was second to none, it was a fabulously motivated group that attended, and the part of the story we left out is that we had about 15 people filter through durning the weekend who just 'came to watch'.
My sincere hope is that they saw something of value and return in April.

To the 'Pioneer' class at the Redwood Club Range: each and everyone of you ennobeled our efforts with your sincere desire to learn the material. It was a pleasure to teach such an attentive and focused. Thanks guys.

YOS
Kool Aid

[artkat2]

It's amazing what happens when determined Americans hook up with some quality instruction!
 Hope they enjoyed the heritage as much as the shooting (with results like posted above, I would venture a guess...)!
   Californian, welcome to the cause, careful it's addicting! 
 Sounds like a great time was had by all!

A

[Dano]

30% chance of rain? The pictures look like a vacation! Beats the 30% chance of rain in Santa Barbara last month. Congratulations to all the new Riflemen in Eureka. It is great to see new Appleseed shoots going on all over the state of California. Way to go Hollywood, Koolaid and Ulan!

Dano

[kool aid]

For the record:

Ulan is the person responsible for my being here.........

Who knew?

[HollywoodMarine]

Dano the day those were taken it was the 70% chance of rain day 

[jacques]

I Belive this is a little further North than Redding. Wouldn't this be the furthest north AS has spread in CA?

[HollywoodMarine]

Yes I belive it is  There is only about 100 miles left to go until we hit OR 

[Skully Dog]

I had a wonderful time. I have been shooting all my life, but I remember thinking within the first 30 minutes that even if I stopped right then and there, the 70 bucks would have been WELL spent. I FINALLY understand how to use my sling for something other than carrying the rifle. I now understand how to loop up properly, and get into a proper prone position....and I could not believe what a stable platform it is.

I now consider myself a "seeder." I have already signed up and paid for my son and I to attend the April event...and I'm building him a Liberty Training Rifle. I also picked up a copy of Paul Revere's Ride. Did I mention how much I enjoyed the lunchtime story telling?

I was surprised that I made rifleman. Talk about being rusty....with the price of ammo I had not shot my LRB M14SA in almost two years. I'm surprised she (her name is Irene) would even talk to me. But now I have a training rifle set up that will let me train without putting me in the poor house. And as for Irene....she and I will be seeing each other on a daily basis as I practice snapping in.

Hats off to Fred...he hit the nail right on the head with this one!. Also, I want to thank Hollywood and Kool-Aid for the great job they did, as well as the folks at the Redwood range.

[Skully Dog]

I also wanted to add that making new like minded friends is priceless.

[Californian]

Skully Dog, the shooting is the bait, the people and the connections are the real purpose.  I dropped you an email yesterday.

[BaldDragn]

Congrats to everybody involved with making Eureka a success, instructors and shooters alike.

This shoot reminds me of my first shoot here in Sacramento.

At the time we had no instructors in the Sacramento area and I wanted to be sure we would have many more Appleseeds here in our state capitol, so I started hitting all the gun stores and with V's help set up a table at the local gun shows to help promote the April 18th-19th shoot. 105 people showed up in Sacramento last April and thanks to the SoCal crew that continued to support us we now have a local crew of Appleseeders, Instructors and IITs on their way to becoming instructors.

This year we will have 12 Appleseeds in Sacramento and the future is looking good.