AAR Waco, GA October 2-3, 2010

[franklinfarmer]

A second successful weekend of learning marksmanship and heritage at the West Georgia Youth Range.  The weather was wonderful, especially on Sunday when it never got hot.  I suppose in the spirit of Appleseed I should say that the weather was "not testing" and apologize for that.  In fact, the WGYR seems to be developing a bad reputation for having good weather, but winter is coming.  What can I say to redeem the venue?  The wind took down the target line early on Sunday causing some delay and the blowing red dust caused some malfunctioning rifles throughout the day, but according to my count, we still got in 6 AQTs on Sunday (and two on Saturday).

Two things stand out to me:

(1) We had a shooter step up to become and instructor in training (take an orange hat)---which is sorely needed in GA.
(2) We had steady progress in marksmanship by all shooters and remarkable progress by some.  In particular, I'm observing improved muzzle awareness and skilled rifle handling in general in some of our younger shooters; it is one of our priority to develop such skills.

It was a small group, but we had two riflemen scores and one who had just purchased his 10-22 and never really shot a rifle before.

The numbers for max effective range (redcoats) tell the story pretty well:

Day 1 morning:  400-1, 300-1, 200-2, 100-2, HS-3 (out of 12 shooters)
     afternoon:  400-1, 300-2, 200-2, 100-4, HS-5
Day 2 morning:  400-2, 300-0, 200-1, 100-2, HS-2 (out of 7 shooters, two of whom slept late, ahem.)
     afternoon:  400-3, 300-1, 200-1, 100-1, HS-2

Things also went well down on the KD range under the direction of Appalacious and Col Barrett, but I'll let them comment on that.  I know we had a cricket down there shooting at 100 yards, and I now need to rezero it at 25.  

Your instructors were: Appalacious (SB), franklinfarmer (SBIT), Col Barrett (IIT3), and cswhitfield (promoted to IIT1)

We are once again honored to work with our fellow Americans, and we hope that you will share your impressions and criticisms below---that is one way we learn to make things better.

FF

[cswhitfield]

A great weekend!  Thanks to everyone, shooters and instructors alike for the pleasure and honor of spending time with fellow Americans participating in the American Tradition of rifle marksmanship training.  The history and heritage discussions were great as usual.  I leave learning and retaining a little more each time I hear the story.  This weekend was no exception.  The Philosophy and Dangerous Old Men had shooters sitting on the edge of their seats.   It was a pleasure to watch shooters improve as the day progressed.  Congrats to the two shooters who scored rifleman, one with a borrowed rifle.  As we say, a rifleman can pick up any rack grade rifle and hit what he can see.  For those just starting or who are not quite there yet, keep at it.  Practice what you have learned and persist, you will make it!  Loved watching the shooter work her bolt action Cricket.  She can really work that bolt and definitely knows what she is about.  It was great to see new faces as well as some familiar ones.  I hope you will keep coming and bring others with you.  I also hope you shooters will add your thoughts on the weekend to this post as well. 

A special thank you to FranklinFarmer, Appalacious and ColBarrett for making my foray into instructing a pleasure and for fanning the flame of Liberty.

Craig

[cswhitfield]

A couple of pictures (I hope

[cswhitfield]

a few more pics.