Montpelier Appleseed September 18th and 19th 2010

[VAshooter]

The weather was perfect and we had a great time at the Cavalier Rifle and Pistol Club near Montpelier Virginia. We had lots of IITs working their way through the different jobs during the Appleseed and we had three SB qualified Red Hats to watch them so things went smoothly.

We would like to welcome Jason and Alan as our newest Virginia Orange Hats. They both shot multiple Rifleman scores and have attended more than one Appleseed. I think Mike took some pictures and maybe we can talk him into posting some of them.

VAshooter

[jmdavis]

Indeed, I do have a few photos of our Riflemen. I had a problem with low light for some of the photos that led to them being unusable. I would like to congratulate all of our Riflemen (and Riflewomen).


The were:

Mike
Alan
Jason G.
Stacie
Chris
Martin
David
Dustin

[carlb]

Montpelier, September 18th and 19th, Our first Appleseed. Here is my report:

Day 0: (9/17/10)
Friday evening traffic in Northen Virginia isn't fun. What am I saying, it's never fun. Anyway, our plan was to camp on site for two nights, but we were unsure of the details to begin with. We drove down Boondock Lane (yes!) to find a closed gate at the Caviler Rifle and Pistol Club after 5.5 hrs of driving (due to wreck on I-95). Plan B - We drove about 30 min to nearby Ashland and stayed in a hotel.

Day 1 (9/18/10)
Woke at 7AM. One bad bagel and coffee and we were on the road at 7:30. We arrived at the club about 8AM. People were claiming camp sites already, so we found a nice one by a pear, next to the lake. A little farther away, but very nice.
Back to the range, we noticed people claiming spots with their shooting mats already, so we grabbed a spot on the right side of the line. We checked in, signed a waiver, and the instructors handed out a RWVA hand towel and chamber flag.

We first went over safety rules, range commands and how to make your gun safe on the firing line. Then we retrieved our rifles and set up.  We were first given a "Red Coat" target.  The small square counts as a head shot at 250 yards. We posted the targets on the Cardboard firing line 25 meters away, then shot 10 rounds however we wanted.  This would be the baseline to measure our progress, as we would shoot a few more of these throughout the event.

Brian gave a demo on the prone position and how to use the loop sling. We then shot the 25 meter Drill targets to zero our rifles. These targets had 5 1x1 inch squares. Five rounds into each square, which provided a good enough group to see where the gun was shooting.  After shooting 2 full targets we had a demo on MOA http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minute_of_Angle, and adjusted our sights.

The Tech Sights on the Marlin 795's were 5/8 MOA adjustment per click. My rifle was borrowed and pretty well sighted in. Cassie was using ours, and it needed some adjustment.  After the rifles were sighted in, we had the first Revolutionary War story, "First Strike". This was the first in a series of history about "the three strikes of the match" that started the Revolutionary war.

After lunch we went over the 6 steps to firing a shot http://appleseedshoot.blogspot.com/2008/03/six-steps-of-firing-shot.html and Natural Point of Aim (NPOA) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_point_of_aim. To help nail down NPOA, we practiced "Carding the Sights".  We teamed up with a buddy. One person down in prone and got what they hoped was NPOA. The other took a business card and put it between the front and rear sights.  The person in prone took two breaths and the card was removed. If you were not exactly on target, you corrected and did it again.  After doing this a few times, we actually fired 3 shots with the sights carded to see how well the rifle went back to the same position, without looking! 

Next was a demo on the sitting position. We were allowed to sit crossed leg, crossed ankle, legs out and bent, or even kneeling if we couldn't do the others. Whatever was most comfortable. I went with the crossed leg, which killed me for the majority of the day. Not Flexible! I finally settled into it after a few hours. Sitting was definitely my worst. I couldn't shoot a good group. My sight alignment was off and rifle canted to the right. I slowly corrected and stretched out, and managed to get some shots in the right spot.

We worked on magazine changes and changing our NPOA between two targets. Next was Ed's demo on standing and use of the hasty sling. He gave some tips on a standing cadence: When letting the air out during your respiratory pause, close off your throat and leave one last puff for the end. When you puff the rest of the air out, your NPOA sould rest still on the bulls eye for about a second to make the shot. Do this for two shots, then rest. You have 2 minutes for 10 shots. We shot the green targets for standing practice.

We worked on transitioning from standing to sitting and standing to prone.  Next was the AQT http://appleseedshoot.blogspot.com/2008/03/aqt-targets.html.

Transition from standing to sitting on stage two was my weakness. I was way slow adjusting and could not get NPOA. Most times cease fire was called, and I had three shots left. Frustrating!!!  We finished up the day with another Red Coat and compared the group's results to the first one we shot. This time I hit the small square! Mike then told the "Second Strike". 

At the end of the day I had my first revelation: NPOA works. I went from 2 or 3 inch groups down to 1. Not using your muscles to support the rifle, and having the rifle come back to rest on the same spot after every shot is key.  For the majority of the day, I was using a blue foam pad as my shooting mat. This turned out to be too slick, and my right elbow kept slipping in prone. I eventually borrowed a good mat, which solved the problem.

Day 2: 9/19/10
My hips were sore in the morning from the sitting position. We made some breakfast and started up again around 9AM. Mike opened up with a review over safety, 6 steps to firing a shot and then told the "Third Strike". We shot a Red Coat first and compared. We then shot three AQTs with no cease fire or time limit, broke for lunch then came back and did timed AQTs.

At the end of the second day, I understood another skill: Trigger Reset. Releasing the trigger just enough the hear the sear engage or 'click' after each shot instead of releasing it all the way.  This, combined with NPOA and the sling tightened up my groups to .5 inch. 
We had to stop shooting at 3pm due to range rules. Brian told some good stories about a few individuals of the Revolutionary war including Sam Whittemore http://www.revolutionarywararchives.org/whittemore.html. He was shot in the face, stabbed 13 times and lived! At the end Mike gave out Rifleman patches to those who scored a 210 or better, and everyone got a t-shirt.

Throughout both days, Cassie had problems with failure to fire, and fail to feed. She would get bad jams, which is very frustrating especially when you're timed. We were using the cheap Remmington HP ammo. One of the instructors let us have some CCI target ammo, which worked good. After a little research when I got home, I found the problem was most likely the feed ramp. Many people polish up the bolt and feed ramp to fix feeding issues.

That's it. We didn't get Rifleman patches, but we learned a lot and definitely improved our skillz.  We will probably do another one next year.
We could have learned this stuff on our own, but having instructors there correcting us and giving shooting tips for 2 days certainly decreased the time we would have spent learning otherwise.  And we like shooting stuff, so win/win.

One final take away is that America used to be a nation of Riflemen. Those Patriots made hard choices to fight for liberty. Become involved, speak up about what you believe and help shape this country for the better. Not exercising our freedoms would make it all for nothing.

[Stimey]

Now, I've been reading AAR posts for a couple of years, and I have to say that carlb's is the best one.  As a fresh set of eyes, you've confirmed that what we are trying to achieve is successful, because the impressions of our program that you have so well written about are exactly what we try to convey as a positive first impression.  Thank you for coming, and you're welcome to come to North Carolina to try your hand at one of our Field Shoots!

Stimey
NC State Coordinator

[Cheeks]

Nice post, Carl, welcome to the forums!