Atlanta, Indiana September 25-26, 2010

[Old Glory!]

An e-mail from Mary.......

My husband, 12 year old daughter and I just got done with day 1 of a two day event in Atlanta, Indiana.  I have to say I was very intimidated before we got there. None of us have experience with rifles or shooting and I was afraid that we would constantly be behind, holding things up and basically just not fitting in. I thought the instructors maybe expected us to have a reasonable amount of knowledge before we attended.

Boy was I wrong on all counts! The instructors were absolutely awesome. They were all very friendly and kind and they have the patience of saints!  They really took their time explaining things to us and helping us with areas that we struggled with. They were incredibly encouraging, light hearted and overall just great teachers. Their history lessons were any thing but dry and boring. As my husband said, "You almost want to tell them to just keep going!" everytime they stopped a story for the next portion of the class.

Everyone was very well prepared and knew what they were doing so the class stayed moving well (but there was always time for helping one of the slow folks...usually someone from our group!).  We all left the first day rating all of the instructors with a definite A+.  Absolutely fantastic.

I would strongly encourage families to give this a try. It has been a great experience and although we are bit sore from our first day shooting we are all excited to try out our new skills tomorrow.

I just wanted to drop you this note to let you know how incredible your Atlanta, IN instructor team is and to thank you for providing these opportunities to learn history and marksmanship. Thank you so much!

[yellowhousejake]

A fantastic shoot, just fantastic. A great new range, welcome to Atlanta Conservation Club and thanks for having Appleseed there.

We saw tremendous improvement in all the shooters, the instruction works, and works well. All the shooters were willing to take instruction and tried very hard to follow the six steps. It showed when the Redcoat scores of Saturday morning were replaced with AQT scores in the 160s, 180s, and 200s Sunday. There were Riflemen on the line and patches to be handed out when they return to another Appleseed, provided they practice what they learned 

This shoot had a small group, cozy even, and it showed in how they helped, teased, and worked together. Again, it never ceases to amaze me how under rated and devalued today's youth is. When I see young Americans like Kalea and Sarah at an Appleseed I know the future, our posterity, has a fighting chance. Those young ladies were polite, eager, and wonderful to have on the line. I never tire of the kids.

Again, we had families, and that is why we are there. Thanks to the parents Owen, John, and Mary. Getting the next generation off the couch is what we need.

I will not carry on so much with this AAR as I have in the past, instead let's hear from the shooters and instructors.

I love this job...

YHJ

[Niecie]

Pics from another AWESOME APPLESEED!

"Good Morning Shooters"


A wonderful surprise visit from Bill of Rights


Special thanks to our range host Mark


Rimshot working on his PC3 with YHJ


DHolder & YHJ working the line


DHolder doing what he does best!


Clive -- SO close with a 200.


Owen -- Resting between shots


Our wonderful AuntieBellum doing her Blue Hat duties


Our winning team - shot the star to smithereens!


YHJ VERY happy to give AuntieBellum her well earned Rifleman Patch.


Well deserved youth patches for Kaela and Sarah. It was such a pleasure to have them on the line 


Great family fun! We love to see families come out
Owen & Sarah


Kaela, John, and Mary


What a fantastic group to spend the weekend with! Thank you all!!


See ya all soon!

Niecie

[AuntieBellum]

In response to the goofy picture of me above (I promise I was really just that excited, although it kinda looks staged, huh?  Good thing I never fled to Hollywood to try a career in acting!), here are more pictures of the weekend.  And thank you to all of you for making this a fantastic weekend - I look forward to seeing you all back soon.  What do you say - next week?  Same time, same place?   

DHolder helps our Sunday only shooter catch up:



A family of marksmen getting some one-on-one from yellowhousejake:



Chris sending some rounds toward an AQT:



55 seconds?  PLENTY of time:

[Niecie]

AuntieBellum WAS that excited! And the whole group was very happy for her, too. YellowhouseJake was very glad to be the one to present her the Rifleman patch. 

Niecie

[dragonfly]

CONGRATS AuntieBellum, 



dragonfly   Keeping the Faith

[Scarecrow]

AuntieBellum scores the patch!! Right on!! 

[AuntieBellum]

Thanks, everyone!  It took the patience and expertise of many, many instructors to get me there, so thank you all!

And now time for more dry-fire.     (Did you know that it actually helps?  I know, weird.  It's almost like those red hats know what they're talking about... ).

[DaveD]

Great shooting AuntieBellum!

[Evenstar]

Oh, I didn't see this until now... CONGRATS AUNTIEBELLUM!!!!

[Stubborn Yankee]

Congratulations AuntieBellum!  I couldn't be more happy or proud (not that I am at all biased)!  By the way, thanks for helping me find my way around the forum.

Stubborn Yankee (Dad)