Chesterfield, VA mini-Appleseed AAR, 01/20/08

[Old Dog]

A dusting of snow, temps about at freezing when we started along with a cold north wind to drop the windchill well below freezing.  Good thing the firing line was down in a little dip in the earth there as the sun felt pretty decent once we got down on the line and got down to business.

Four shooters showed up.  Three of the guys were repeat shooters and one was new.  Three .22's (all semi-auto's) and a short barreled M1A (loud, too). After the paperwork was complete we went over some Revolutionary War History.  VAshooter discussed the redcoat targets and how the Colonials would shoot the British Officers in the head to break up an attack.  I then went over the account of the Ft. Griswold, Connecticut massacre where the Colonial Militia managed to stop the initial assaults by removing the assault commanders from the assault and how when the British Soldiers did manage to take the fort they massacred the American Soldiers inside in revenge (a British Officer started the massacre by killing the surrendering American Officer with his own sword).

Working over the redcoats came first, followed by 1" squares.  The 1" squares were followed by a classification AQT with 5 rounds fired per stage.

During the afternoon there were some delays that slowed things down a little.  The same .22 semi-auto that had an out of battery fire at the November mini again had one.  This time I was looking right at it and saw the puff of smoke from the bolt/chamber area as the round went off prior to being chambered.  The whole rim blew off the case and fell out on the carpet when the bolt was pulled back in an attempt to clear the malfunction.  The rifle was unloaded and removed from the line at then end of the stage and the shooter switched over to a borrowed 10/22 (and still had a missfeed or three prompting VAshooter to comment that for some reason .22's didn't like that shooter much) for the rest of the day.  Another shooter switched to a borrowed 10/22 due to problems with lining up behind and above an optical sight on his 10/22 with a factory stock (couldn't get a good cheek weld).  The remaining .22 had the front sling stud pull out during the AQT and was removed from the line while tools were retrieved to remove the rifle from the stock to reattach the sling swivel.  When taking it back on the line it was discovered that the chamber flag had a broken tip on it and it was thought that tip might be in the barrel of the .22 so it was again removed from the line and taken to the shop to have a cleaning rod run through the barrel (the cold probably made the plastic chamber flag brittle as by now it was down around 28 F and the temps. were dropping quickly).  The only rifle on the line that ran all afternoon without issue was the short barreled M1A.  I don't recall issues with one of the borrowed 10/22's but that may be due to the shooter already being somewhat familiar with its function/use.

I didn't see any rifleman scores on the classification AQT.  Due to the previously mentioned rifle issues one person spent some time trying to sight their rifle in during the 1" squares and never really got it straight.  One person's groups moved around and sometimes split up due to both the rifle/sight change and a changing cheekweld and elbow position.  There were some good groups during the afternoon but not consistently good groups that stayed at the point of aim.

I saw improvement (comparing this time to the November mini) in one shooter.  I'm sure one shooter was pretty frustrated by the end of the day due to his rifle issues and then struggling with the borrowed 10/22 while trying to get used to how it functioned.  The new shooter had problems getting "stretched out" into position and will probably be pretty stiff tomorrow.  I believe the M1A shooter would benifit from a change in cheek weld technique and his cheek may tell him the same thing tomorrow (never saw anyone get up so close on an M1A receiver that it contacted their cheek under the eye).  Got to be tough staying in the same spot with that thing "kissin" your cheek every little bit.

All in all I think everyone learned something today.  They had to be dedicated and serious to show up considering the distance some of them drove and the conditions during the shoot (this is the coldest weather we've had in this area so far this year).  Thanks to everyone that came out.

Jump in guys and let us know how you saw the afternoon.

Thanks again for showing up.  Showing up makes you stand out!

[VaWolf]

I was the first timer. When it became clear I was having problems with my short carbine stock and lack of cheek weld with my too high mounted reflex sight I was offered a 10/22 with Techsights and extended mags. I learned more with the borrowed rifle than I could have learned by shooting my riflle through the rest of the course. Thank you for teaching me how to be a better shooter. I will try to be more flexible for the shoot in March.   Tommy

[Grin Reaper]

A 28-degree Appleseed?  Anyone who shows up for that is one hard-core shooter, and my hat is off to you!

I will try to be more flexible for the shoot in March.

One of the most oft-repeated comments after an Appleseed is how hard the field positions are to get used to; once you get there, though, there is a huge difference.
Maybe a Yoga for the Rifleman DVD? 

[Old Dog]

It dropped quick just before we quit (near dark).  As I was putting my stuff in the bag I looked at it again and it was down to 25 F.  Supposed to be 9 F in the city of Richmond tomorrow morning.  Will be close to 0 F in the surrounding country.  BRRR!!'

The next one will be warmer and hopefully not wetter.

[VAshooter]

I got to the range a little early and spent some time talking the owner into opening the range for us to shoot. He had an unfortunate experience a few years ago in which a shooter fell and broke his hip when he slipped on some ice while carrying his gear to the shooting position. Since then  the owner has made it a policy to close the range when the ramps leading down to the firing lines are covered with ice.

I convinced him that it wasn't that bad and he let us shoot. I think we had the only range of six that was open for shooting.

As M1A4me said, we had four shooters and two instructors with one of the shooters being new to Appleseed. It was more difficult to get the slings up high on the arms because everyone was bundled up in more clothing than they were used to for shooting. It was also more difficult for the instructors to see errors in position due to the extra clothing.

One shooter with a disabled rifle switched  to a 10/22 but continued to have problems operating it. The magazine release and the bolt release gave him fits all day. He had lost about half of the first two fingers of his trigger hand and while he was able to reach the trigger with a little wood dragging, he had problems with the other controls on the 10/22. I watched ease that the M1A shooter had operating the controls on a rifle designed for the military and thinking how nice it would be if the manufactureres put man sized controls on 22 rifles instead of the dinky little things that most of them have. When you have a heavy glove on your left hand and a couple of short fingers on your right hand it is impossible to reach the controls on a 10/22.

Our posts seem full of compaints about how tough it was but none of the shooters complained. In fact they persisted and continued to shoot dispite the various problems that came mostly from us southern boys having to shoot in cold whether. Lots of Rifleman spirit in these Virginia shooters.

Our next Mini will be in March as most of the instructors will be at the Ramseur Boot Camp in February. I'm hoping Fred has scheduled some unseasonably warm whether for that week.

VAshooter