Naples

[hornblower]

I attended the Appleseed in Myakka City at the Lake Manatee Gun and Archery Club last weekend on the 17Th and 18Th.

I only attended the Saturday session, as I was extremely frustrated with my shooting.

I need some help before I go to my next Appleseed!

Wondering if there are any other RWVA members in or near Naples?

I belong to the Southwest Florida Sportman's Association.

We have 3 ranges in Punta Gorda off of Rt #41.

I am trying to get them to host an Appleseed.

Anyone else in Naples who has attended an Appleseed, or who is also a member of the SWFSA?

Thank you.

Hornblower

[PHenry]

hb,
Two words kind sir - Dry Fire. Please trust me on this. Make sure the chamber is empty. Don all of your usual gear - boots, jacket, mat, etc. Place a tiny little black dot on a wall as far away from shooting position as possible. Did I mention the clear chamber thing?

Practice getting into all three positions at least three times per week, for a total of maybe five minutes each. Focus on your least favorite position. Practice acquiring NPOA, mag changes (empty of course - no rounds within reach), transitions, Rifleman's Cadence, etc. Do it religiously.

After a week or so, go to a range that allows shooting from position and shoot at 1" squares (can be DL'd from forum and printed on 81/2 x 11 paper. Persist. See what happens to yer groups!

Good luck,
PH

[hornblower]

Thank you.

I seem to have heard that a few times before.

I am still looking for someone in the Naples area, with whom to shoot, who has attended an Appleseed.

Collier County residents seem to be anti-gun; but that is a generalization based upon my limited perspective.

To my knowledge, there is one public range in Collier County, and that is at Port of the Islands.

That is why I joined the SWFSA and drive the 50 miles up to the range in Punta Gorda.

[ThaiFighter]

HB,

Thank you for your efforts on behalf of AS.   Shoot a PM over to Itsansks as he is our State Coordinator for AS.  If you can get him an intro to the folks that run the range, he can take it from there and hopefully your next AS will be in your back yard.

and x2 what PH said.  Practice, practice, practice.   Dry firing is crucial, you don't need to go to the range, and it's FREE!  

btw, were you the gent shooting the AR with the conversion kit?

[ThaiFighter]

oh, and while I don't recall specifically any Naples shooters, we do have some shooters from Ft Myers who are the finest sort of people.

I'll ask them to make contact with you.

[hornblower]

No, I was the old guy shooting the AR15 with the ACOG.

I was on the left end of the line, next to the family - Nancy, Alethia(?) and Larry, then me, then Roy, then George.

I did not come back on Sunday.

I had about two spoken lines of help the whole of Saturday.

The ACOG was new and I had tried to zero it the day before, but I don't think I did a good job of it.

I have the beginning of Cataracts and I can't see the front sight clearly.

I have the carry-handle rear sight, and an Aimpoint Red Dot, but there was no time to make changes to see what worked better.

I have ordered a Marlin .22 795SS and a set of Tech-Sights.

[ThaiFighter]

I recall you clearly now,  you shot that AR like a champ, but you were having issues with the ACOG. 

I could understand if the amount of personal attention was a bit frustrating.  Saturdays we are mainly focused on group education and drilling in the fundamentals for all. 

Sundays, we only do a brief recap of our group instruction and spend a lot more time with individual shooters.   We typically shoot 6-9 AQT's as compared to 2 on Sat.  This helps us diagnose where shooters are having issues and we can fine tune individual instruction. 

I hope we'll see you at a future 'seed.  One of the first qualities of a rifleman is perseverance!  I went through four before I got my patch and equipment issues factored into all of them, including the one where I got my patch.   We place imperfect objects with imperfect instruments,  knowing how to deal with that is paramount to our success.

I look forward to seeing you again!

[hornblower]

You can count on it.

I'am going to practice until i can qualify for the Rifleman patch.

I think that the concept of Appleseed is great, and I want to do everything I can to help it grow.

[douglas34474]

HB, sorry you had equipment problems. An Appleseed event is a trial by fire of you and your rifle. It took me 4 tries to make Rifleman, and I've been shooting more years than I care to remember. Some of the problem was equipment, some me.

Like ThaiFighter relates, Sundays get down to the nitty gritty of it all. I've heard the course of instruction on Saturday refereed to many times as "drinking from a fire hose."

Hang in there. It WILL happen. Believe me, when it does, everything you go through to get that Rifleman patch is worth it.

[libertytree]

Hornblower,

I was going to post a similar message but ya beat me to it. I'm up here in Cape Coral and have a range about 20 minutes away from here, much closer than Punta Gorda, it's at Cecil Webb. I do need to do a little recon and talk to the range boss about shooting from the prone position though. I usually go to the range on Mon or Tues as those are my days off. Please feel free to PM and we'll get together.

Libertytree

PS..I was at the Myakka AS as well but on the other end of the line.

[hornblower]

SWFSA is a private club.

Isn't Cecil Webb open to the public.

Where is it?

I thought is was at Tuckers Grade off of #75.

The SWFSA range is about 2 miles south of the Tuckers Grade exit on #75.

I would be happy to have you as my guest at our range sometime.

We have no problem shooting the 3 positions, and we have 3 ranges.

PM anytime with email and contact information.

Dave

[CPT.EWING]

I am also in the Cape.  I was the one shooting the AR with the 22 conversion at the April shoot.  Had lots of mech issues with the conversion.  I normally shoot at tuckers grade.  I am interested in SWFSA.  Can you give some information.  Are they serious about holding an appleseed event.

I plan on attending the May event in Manatee so I can get the rifleman qualification -- I was unable to attend Sunday because of a sudden military issue.

Thanks

CPT JASON EWING

[ItsanSKS]

Looks like we've got a 3-man team, ready to go..  Now what to do with 'em?

PUT 'em to WORK!

If the three of you can't convince that range that they *need* to host an Appleseed, I don't know what will.

I know HB has been in contact with them about this already, but if all three of you were to call and ask about it, it might just put a bug in their ear... 

Please see this thread for some ideas of how/where to get started...

As always, should you have any questions, feel free to post them up on this forum, send me a PM, or get in touch with me directly.

Eric "ItsanSKS" McCabe
Florida State Coordinator
Project Appleseed
Email: RWVA@Live.com
Phone: (813)335-3114