Saratoga, NY April 17-18th

[Imker]

AAR: Saratoga, NY - April 17th- 18th

SB: Imker Alan)
IITs: nyrasgt (Mad Mark); R1sx2 (Stick Mark); and tfelog (Ryan)

Location: Saraspa Club

Rained all night right through till 6 am Saturday morning.  Half the firing line under water.  Enterprising members of Saraspa use front end loader to move sand onto line and build up over pond. Impressive, right there. It is cold and generally miserable all day, except for a short period in the afternoon.
35 shooter registered, 23 show up. Those who do come are real troopers. We work through all instruction, complete the ceremonial Redcoat with bagpipe accompaniment. Nice touch there. Covered two strikes of the match.

Special Kudos to the Saraspa club for its hospitality and to all the hard work to prepare for us. Great target backers. Widened the line to accomodate more shooters. Special thanks to Stick Mark and his lovely daughter for providing first rate vittles for lunch!!!  Wonderful job on teaching aids also!!!

Sunday dawned sunny and a whole lot warmer!  Reviewed instructional material and blasted through into AQTs en masse.  Knocked out the third strike after lunch and dangerous old men during afternoon break. All told, we did aproximately 700 rounds over the two days. Not bad. Only one AD.

We got two riflemen out of the weekend, graduated both Marks to Redhat instructor, gave 3 junior patches to new and youth shooters.

Congradulations to everyone, and job well done.  Please post your comments and photos.

Imker

[BrotherDave]

Just some personal notes:
Alan - First off, great job in handling the adverse conditions this past weekend.  I will not forget your telling of the story of Mrs. Davis and her family, thinking about it has me welling up as I write this.  I think everyone in attendance had a tear in their eye after you finished.  You put into perspective the fact that the colonists who were defending themselves from tyranny were real people who led lives no different than mine and yours.  Thank you.
Mad Mark  -  Congratulations on getting your Red Hat.  Thank you for letting me borrow one of your 10/22's when my trigger broke on my bolt action.  Thanks to your daughter for making lunch for us.  We will have a new saying at the office now,  everything will be finished with a "You better be!!!"
Stick Mark - Congratulations on getting your Red Hat. Thanks for you instruction on the firing positions and story telling.  It was nice seeing the collection of CMP toys you brought on Sunday.
Ryan - Thank you for infinite patience in allowing me to transfer from the 10/22 to the Garand.  It was a blast shooting it for the first time, especially at an Appleseed.

I think the best part of the weekend was my buddy(first time Appleseeder) telling me he had blast and now wants to get his father-in-law to go to the Lake George(?) event next month.  I take a little pride in knowing that all my talking about Appleseed at work for the past year is paying off.

[Another D.O.M.]

Fantastic job!  Alan, thanks for stepping up as SB for this venue far from your home; and a huge thank you and congratulations to mad Mark and !st Sgt. Mark for your advancement and acceptance of the Red Hats!  It's always a pleasure and an honor to work with you fellows!  Ryan, thank you for your considerable efforts in helping to make this a successful weekend for all who attended - I know the extra pair of eyes and ears on the line made a huge difference in safety and quality instruction for your 23 students!

I'll see you in September...

[R1SGx2]

Stay tuned Saratoga, trying to figure out how to add photo's. 
Thanx to all for the good weekend.
Will have more when I get this photo thing down.
I'm on it. Better be....   

[nyrasgt]

Philosophy:  A Rifleman persists; a Rifleman solves problems and keeps going.

Problem:  Very heavy rain Friday night, putting much of the firing line under water.
Solution:  Club officers applied diesel front-end loader.  About 20 yards of dirt filled in
              the lake and re-graded the firing line.  50 feet x 10 feet of plastic sheeting
              provided a place for rugs and shooting mats, and a 20 x 30 tarp hung over
              the overshoot protection provided a dry area for instruction.

             The equipment operator is the unsung hero of the shoot.

Problem:  Lack of internet access at the club preventing the printing of the
             reservation sheet.
Solution:  Make use of the computer in the Security Office of the NYRA's Saratoga
              Race Course.  Thanks, Lieutenant Egan.

This is the theme of the weekend - problems exist to be solved and challenges overcome - and they were.

-Pat's designated sniper Ruger and going from off-paper to 4 moa groups
-Judi's war dance and whoops (multiple dancing and whoops!) upon very nearly cleaning the last Redcoat of the day.  She was even louder than Mark of the Stick's inner beast!
-Michelle/Hannah Davis inching ever closer to that Purple Rifleman patch.
-Sgt. Mayo earning his patch multiple times, always encouraged by our retired First Sergeant times two (r1sgx2 on the forum) Mark:  "I'll speak slower so the Marines can understand..."
-SB Alan/Imker's calm as adjustments to the line were made to accommodate various challenges to shooters and their equipment, not to mention his brother mason's loan of a 22 foot trailer with all the comforts of home.  Would love to take that to an RBC week! Alan's re-take on Isaac Davis' story, told from the point-of-view of his wife Hannah, had to be the high-light of the history presentations, even exceeding the commemorative volleys on Saturday afternoon.  Hearing that she was DENIED a pension for a time by the government for her husband's sacrifice showed every listener how much we all owe these individuals, and how much we need to do, every day, to repay that debt.
-the patience of the shooters when this writer tried to do the six (or more) steps of registering the shooters...very slowly:  show reservation form, sign release, get info packet, get history/raffle card, T-shirt, name tapes for jackets, lane numbers and assignments...will need to be better organized for Lake George in May.
-outstanding, legendary club support; many of the club's board of directors were on the firing line that they'd helped to rebuild.
-Be aware that there are dozens more individual stories that could be told about this shoot.
-Mark R's daughter's incredible food - again, just as it was last September:  same cook, same venue, best cuisine ever at an Appleseed - and to beat  Burlington Flats takes some doing!
   Am looking forward to seeing many returnees at Dunham's Bay Fish and Game Club near Lake George 15-16 May, 2010.
Excelsior,
madMark
nyrasgt

[Spanner]

I'm so psyched to see my old home neighborhood get the Appleseed attention that it is getting these days.   

I'm especially happy to hear about the new spring fashions (Red Hats budding) for nyrasgt (Mad Mark)  and R1sx2 (Stick Mark). 

Congratulations!  You guys rock!

[crak]

Red hats all around!   

Nice work Marks!

[sgtrock]

Mark and Mark,

A Very Big Congrats To You Guys On Your New Head Gear, Instructors Of Riflemen You Are, Great Job!! 

sgtrock

[R1SGx2]

Good company all weekend . Everyone in the rifleman bubble, no one even noticed it was raining. Who was that guy doing all the yelling?
Then we heard, READY ON THE RIGHT / READY ON THE LEFT, and the line was off 
WE MADE IT THRU THE RAIN 

Thank you everyone from me and my daughter Valerie 

What was that smell Sunday morning after the chili Saturday? 


We gonna just stand around... or we gonna do some shootin'

Did I tell you I was happy to be here???

Where's the coyotes now???

Whats the weather got to do with it, lets go...

Nothing like the smell of fresh rain.

Look what we can do. Hey Gunny, how'm I doing?

Getting closer to the 210 on the AQT.

First Red Coats, then AQT, now shooting Stickmen.

Gunny Bob scored multible Riflemen. Made the Corp proud.

Saraspa Director Dave showed up and got Rifleman.

Emerson receiving a RWVA Patch.

Sue also receiving a RWVA patch.

You on it, YOU BETTER BE......

Thank you from the A Team!!!!!!!/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

[Another D.O.M.]

Excellent job 1st Sgt.!

[Josey Wales]

..Alen, Sgt Mark, MAD Mark & Ryan ..Good job Men.. Glad to see you all doing well.. Congratulations on the Red Hats!...JW.........

[dakota30]

Hi All!
Here are some more pictures from the Appleseed shoot we did in Saratoga!    Sorry it has taken me so long to get them up on the site....(not an easy task   )  ......that was my first Appleseed and i want to thank everyone for an incredibly interesting, informative and just plain fun weekend!!!! Step by step by step....and WOW....that's how to take a shot!!!!  It all went together perfect. I could feel and see my own improvement with each AQT. MadMark had mad patience(go on , laugh) teaching our end of newbie shooters....and really, you can't help but try your very hardest with StickMark walking back and forth waving a very large wooden instructing tool (a BIG stick) as he hands out pointers of improvement! We had a great Shoot Boss, Alan, who damn near cheered me to my 1st ever Riflemans patch...so close boss...next time, promise! But by far the most qualified VOICE to call the line was Ryan....Holy Booming Vocal Cords Batman!! You guys were ...and are... awesome!! I could go on and on about the instruction, camaraderie, and great history lessons (the parts they never told us when we were little) but all of you reading this and a part of Appleseed yourselves already know what i mean and don't need any explanation at all!!!..I'll save my launching into stories for my friends that haven't YET joined us.....oh, and of course the great food there....i love good food!!!  Hope you like the pics I've put up!     
Michele(aka Hannah to some)   
p.s. Alan....the honey is excellent...(ask IMKER about his honey)

[R1SGx2]

WOW, Hanna nice  pictures, sure does look like there was fun to be had in the rain and mud.Looks like Imker formed up a nice team.
There's another AS in two weeks May 15/16 in Lake George just north of this one in Saratoga, hear there is openings on the line.

Word has it the range in Saratoga redid the shooting lanes and AS's can now be shot from under cover. And it just so happens they are having another shoot in September on the 18/19, which is the Anniv. of Battle of Saratoga, come and hear who Tim Murphy was . Also a KD of 200 yards . Would need cadre to run two lines in the two areas. The bailing continues.

Hanna, nice pictures , AS could put you on as northeast staff photographer.

Imker, thank you for sharing so much, job well done.

[R1SGx2]

This is nice what the club SARASPA did, they place the shoots right on their web page.
Nice people there.  Last two years are on their web,

http://sarasparodandgun.org/general_info/events/appleseed/appleseed_april_2010_p1.html

Nice job Saratoga, looking forward to the shoot there in September, thanx for the seeding.

[MONKYBIZ]

The kielbasa alone was worth the trip!

Thanks all around to our top notch instructors: we had a lot of good clean fun rolling around in the mud for two days. My shooting skills have been vastly improved; a miracle in itself!

The stories were humbling; to understand for the first time, the sacrifices our forefathers made. When this was taught waaayyy back in grade school; we never fully grasped the impact on real people and families; just cold hard facts to be recalled for our next exam then filed away like a distant legend.

Now I know better!

Thank You,
Dave

[R1SGx2]

Dave, Hope to see you again on the trail, back in Saratoga in September, in Lake George starting in am for weekend. Thanx for your kind words, please share with family and friends, and all are welcome at an Appleseed.