Appleseed Marksmanship Skills Transfer

[Glock23]

I learned firsthand this past weekend that the Rifle Marksmanship skills taught at Appleseed transfer to other firearms. I wanted to share some thoughts, lessons learned...and maybe brag a little.

I spent the weekend at "a Firearms Training Facility somewhere in the midwest" (no guesses, please) taking their 4-day Tactical Shotgun class. The class focused on the basic tactical implementation of the shotgun with topics covered such as patterning a shotgun, reloads, malfunction drills, engaging multiple targets, tactical movement, hostage rescue (with buckshot!), etc. It was a very full curriculum and as such it was difficult for them to cover the finer points of marksmanship. After all, it is a 'scattergun'...
The training at this facility is absolutely top-notch, and I'm in no way disparaging them - it's just that they had to cover a lot of subjects, and marksmanship really wasn't one of them due to time constraints. There really was a lot to cover...and I have the bruise from 600 rounds of 00-Buck and Slugs to prove that it was a busy schedule... 


They briefly covered all Six Steps to firing the shot in some way or another, but only really focused on 3: sight alignment, sight picture, and trigger control, which is enough to get most people on paper. However I found out that my detailed knowledge of the Six Steps taught by Appleseed, coupled with my knowledge of "natural point of aim" (NPOA) and Rifleman's Cadence gave me a distinct edge in the class.
They also covered positional shooting (offhand, kneeling, prone), but not to the same level of detail as Appleseed. Again, I understood the nuances of these positions thanks to Appleseed, which gave me even more of a distinct edge.

The second day we went out the 50-yard line to fire slugs at a man-sized paper target. They painted a 6-inch diamond on the center of the target to use as an aiming point. The diamond was just an aiming point - a good hit was considered anything center-mass of the silhouette. They had us shoot these targets prone and when I settled behind my shotgun (a stock Mossberg 500 with an 18.5" smooth-bore home defense barrel and ghost ring sights), I couldn't help but chuckle to myself:  "50 yards, prone? Really? With a 6-inch diamond to aim at? That's like 12 MOA..."
So I settled into "their" prone, which was slightly different than Appleseed's (they want you to at least try things their way), but once there, I spent a second finding and verifying my NPOA and went through all Six Steps to firing the shot: Line up the ghost ring, center it on the diamond, focus on the front sight physically and mentally....breathe....in, out...pause, Squeeeeeeze the trigger...BANG...trap the trigger to the rear and follow through with step 6a for a pump shotgun: rack the action. Rinse and repeat for 3 shots in cadence.
At 50 yards it was hard to see the target, but I called all my shots dead center. As we proceeded downrange to inspect my heart sank into my shoes - I couldn't see a single shot on paper. My first thought was "Oh man, either I really jerked the trigger, or my sights are seriously jacked up". 
But as I got closer I realized I blew a ragged hole in the center of the black diamond, which was hard to see from a distance. The instructors gathered around my target and were pretty impressed that someone could do that with a short-barreled shotgun and iron sights. Personally, I thought my group could have been smaller... 

On the last day we went out to 100 yards. I knew a shotgun slug had about 5" of drop at 100 yards, maybe even more with my short barrel, so I compensated with some holdover and I was the only one hitting center-mass on a man-sized steel target...with every single shot, both prone and kneeling. Again, finding my NPOA, and the Six Steps were key to consistent "dings" on the steel.

Finally, we went in to 50 yards and did a speed competition. We all stood offhand prepared to shoot a man-sized steel target. An instructor would come up behind us, tell us to get ready, and then time how long it took us to get a single shot off with a shot timer. Average shots down the line were 1 to 3 seconds...when they hit (most didn't). Again, I had the secret Appleseed edge. I found my NPOA, did Steps 1 through 4 and simply waited for the beep to squeeze the trigger. Because I had already found my NPOA, I didn't have to fight to stay on target or really think about sight alignment, sight picture, etc. I trusted my NPOA (trusted, and verified). It went something like this:
BEEE-(BANG)-EEEP.....::ding::.  0.17 seconds. That's 17-hundredths of a second.
More than a few heads turned on the line as the instructor behind me held up the shot timer and announced my time triumphantly. People on the line started chiding me: "Wow, lucky shot!",  "One-in-a-million!",  "Bet you can't do that again."
The instructor behind me smiled and said "Do it again."
Rinse and repeat: BEEE-(BANG)-EEEP.....::ding::.  0.19 seconds.
"No way!!!",  "Impossible!",  "How are you doing that??"
Instructor (clearly smirking because HE knows what I'm doing): "Do it again"
BEEE-(BANG)-EEEP.....::ding::.  0.24 seconds.
At this point I said "Look, I'm getting fatigued holding this shotgun up so I'm only going to get slower. Can I stop now??" 

Unfortunately this really wasn't the time or place to 7th Step, but a few of the more open-minded individuals quietly asked me where I learned to shoot like that. I told them all about Appleseed of which they had never heard, surprisingly. Hopefully they make it to an Appleseed near them.

Am I bragging? A little.   But I'm bragging more about the skills that Appleseed teaches than I am about myself - I'm just another Rifleman and any Rifleman can do what I did. Appleseed gave me the confidence and skills, allowing me to trust my ability and deliver clean hits. The Six Steps to firing the shot, NPOA, Rifleman's Cadence were all solidified and proven in my mind this weekend. What I realized is that even novice shooters can get good hits some of the time, but thanks to the skills taught at Appleseed, a Rifleman can get good hits almost all the time, even with a shotgun.

BTW, I was one of four students that graduated with "top honors" in a class of about 20, after a pretty grueling skills test. For me it was thanks to Appleseed, and Appleseed's excellent Instructors, namely CortJestir, vernic82, TOMINCT, crak, to mention the few who have worked with me personally, and all the other Instructors at the CT Appleseed shoots I've attended - I learned something from each of you.
The other 3 guys who graduated with top honors were just naturally good shots (although one of them had a semi-auto Benelli M4 with an Aimpoint...cheater...hehe)

[U.S.Cavalryman]

 I attended the Carbine class in North Carolina ran by some "Tier 1" guys and found the same thing. "Brilliance in the Basics" is the motto. It was a moving Appleseed with a Running Rifleman's Cadence. With Appleseed you learn what right feels like so when you tranfer to other styles you have a reference.

[fepowered]

The other 3 guys who graduated with top honors were just naturally good shots

As in they can easily find their "natural" point of aim.... ?    I guarantee that they were not born with this skill and they learned it somewhere...  

It is cool that you were able to apply what you learned in AS to other shooting outlets...   I absolutely Love it when I hear stories like yours..    You made a huge impression on those who saw what you can do...

What AS does well is introduce the masses to the skills of marksmanship which have been forgotten by many.   The US Marine Corps is the only branch which still requires recruits to qualify at 500M.  AS uses the same tools including the positions and sling that the Marine Corps has been using all along.   Thankfully there are still alot of Marines out there passing on what they were taught to their children and grandchildren.   AS is continuing a long tradition and is doing an awesome job in getting this out to the masses which is something that the "High Power" crowd has failed to do as their ranks have fallen off  considerably in the last 10 years.  

[dcmdon]

It is precisely for these reasons that I tell all the people who take my NRA Basic Pistol class for their CT Pistol Permit requirement that the next thing they need to do is go sign up for an appleseed. 

The skills taught here are not the basics.  They are the FOUNDATION for any kind of shooting.  I don't know of a single person, including IDPA Masters who weren't thrilled with their appleseed experience. 

[Son of Martha]

.75 cal smoothbore....lead slug....sounds familiar, somehow...

SoM